These monster cookies are made entirely out of oats, with oat flour standing in for wheat flour. They make a great wheat-free treat for Halloween!
It’s seems like it’s been ages since I’ve made just good ol’ cookies. I’ve been on a healthy, low-sugar muffin kick lately, so cookies have gotten the brush-off. Well, I had to make something for my husband to take to work for his birthday this week, so I thought cookies were a good idea. In fact, I thought Monster Cookies were a great idea! It’s close to Halloween, so…….MONSTERS!!!! AHHHH!!!!
Anyways, Monster Cookies have always been one of my favorites: M&M’s, peanut butter, oats, what’s not to love? It’s very adaptable for the holidays, using whatever seasonal bag of M&M’s is out there. It turns out they are also a very adaptable cookie for going wheat-free. They can even be made gluten-free if you use gluten-free oats. It appears that M&M’s are gluten-free, but you might want to check and make sure (you can read more here). While I didn’t have to make these wheat-free for hubby’s co-workers, I couldn’t pass up a chance to experiment!
I ended up combining a couple of different recipes I’ve collected over the years to come up with this one. The key ingredient is oat flour, which I made myself by grinding oats in the food processor until fine. It helps bind everything together and you don’t even need any xanthan or guar gum!
My hubby says his co-workers were eating the cookies by the handful (they didn’t even notice that they were wheat-free). They came together so well, the only thing I was left to ponder was this: Why are there no orange M&M’s in the seasonal fall bag of M&M’s?
All Oats Monster Cookies printer-friendly recipe
makes about 48 cookies
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup oat flour (or finely ground oats)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups oats
1 cup M&M’s
1 cup chocolate chips
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cream the butter and peanut butter together, then blend in the sugars. While beating, add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.
- In a small bowl, stir together the oat flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the butter mixture. Slowly add the 3 1/2 cups oats while beating. Then stir in the M&M’s and chocolate chips by hand.
- Drop by heaping tablespoon-fulls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
