I was really bummed to figure out that oats weren’t agreeing with me. I love oats! But what I’m finding is that quinoa is a great replacement for oats. I love my quinoa porridge in the morning and now I’ve come up with these cookies.
Monster cookies have always been my favorite cookie. The combination of peanut butter, oats, M&Ms and chocolate chips is the best. It turns out quinoa flakes add a wonderful texture, not exactly like oats, but still pretty good. I’ve been doing a lot of experimental baking with quinoa flakes and this is the first recipe good enough to share so far.
I love Ancient Harvest Quinoa Flakes (no, I’m not paid to say that). I’m even “friends” with Ancient Harvest on Facebook. My husband saw this on his feed and asked how I could be friends with a grain. “First of all,” I replied, “quinoa is a seed, not a grain. Second of all, I like quinoa and it likes me, so leave us alone.” Truth is, my husband likes quinoa too. In fact, he didn’t even realize these cookies were made with quinoa instead of oats.
Unfortunately, natural peanut butter does not work in this recipe. I find the consistency of natural peanut butter to be, well, inconsistent. I try to mix up the peanut butter in the jar as best I can, but I always end up with thicker peanut butter on the bottom and thinner at the top. It’s just too inconsistent for baking, which requires more preciseness. So processed peanut butter it is. Oh well, these are cookies, not exactly healthy anyways! These are gluten-free (pretty sure M&M’s are gluten-free), but they are not low-fructose, so eat them in moderation (like I try to and my husband completely fails at).
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Quinoa Monster Cookies
makes about 30 cookies
Ingredients
1 cup Ancient Harvest Quinoa Flakes
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup cane sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk chocolate M&M’s
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the quinoa flakes, baking soda and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar and sugar until smooth, then beat in the egg and vanilla. Slowly add the quinoa flake mixture while mixing. Fold in the M&M’s and chocolate chips.
- Drop by heaping tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until cookies just start to brown around the edges.
- Let cookies cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Never have seen the quinoa flakes, but I am experimentally baking with all kinds of flours, and such, and will try these, too, at some point! Thanks!
Where do I find quinoa flour
You can find quinoa flour and quinoa flakes at natural foods stores or co-ops. You can also make your own quinoa flour by grinding quinoa in a coffee grinder or food processor!
It seems with peanut butter and M &Ms this isn't very FODMAP friendly. Is that right?
No, I don't think I declared these low-FODMAP (not every recipe on my blog is). But I would say it all depends on how big you make the cookies and how many you eat. PB should be ok, as long as you don't go crazy. And if you aren't sure about the M&Ms, just leave them out.
It seems peanut butter it is ok… Not sure about the M&Ms though
No, M&Ms aren't low-FODMAP, especially on the elimination phase of the diet. But if you are like me and have found that a few M&Ms aren't bothersome, then they wouldn't be too bad, so long as you only have one cookie at a time!