Monster Cookies — My recipe for classic monster cookies that are chock full of creamy peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, and M&M’s makes both kids and adults reach for just one more cookie! Fast, EASY, soft, perfectly chewy, and they’ll become a family FAVORITE in no time!
The Best Recipe for Monster Cookies
I remember growing up with monster cookies and to this day, I am a sucker for any type of cookie with oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chips!
Oh, the M&M’s, toffee bits, and shredded coconut don’t hurt. They all help to make these easy monster cookies soft, very chewy, and impossible to resist.
These cookies are a family-favorite treat for any type of casual get-together or party or as a just-because type of cookie when you’re craving a fast and easy sweet treat.
This classic recipe for monster cookies is always a favorite for cookie exchanges because it makes a pretty big batch of cookies and they’re not fussy to make.
To make them more festive for the holidays, you can always add red and green M&M’s or sprinkles and you’re set! Keep reading for more ways to customize this very simple cookie recipe.
And for all you monster cookie fans, be sure to check out my 2013 recipe for Triple Cookie Monster Cookie Bars. Faster and easier than making cookies and it’s been a crowd favorite for nearly a decade!
Ingredients in Monster Cookies
To make these family-favorite classic monster chocolate chip cookies, you’ll need the following very common fridge and pantry ingredients including the following:
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Creamy peanut butter
- Unsalted butter
- Vanilla extract
- Large eggs
- Quick 1-minute oats
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- M&M’s
- Mini chocolate chips
- Toffee bits
- Sweetened shredded coconut
For a more complete ingredient list with amounts, scroll down to the recipe card section of the post.
How to Make Monster Cookies
Making chewy monster cookies is a cinch! Follow my very easy and straightforward directions for the best tasting monster cookies:
- In a stand mixer or electric handheld mixer, beat together the sugars, butter, peanut butter, and vanilla until smooth.
- Add the eggs one at a time.
- Slowly add the oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and beat to combine.
- Add the M&M’s, toffee bits, chocolate chips, coconut, and beat to incorporate.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to form cookie dough balls and chill the dough.
- Preheat your oven to 350F, bake the cookies on a Silpat mat or parchment lined baking sheet, allow them to cool a bit, and then dive in!
What Kind of Oats Should I Use?
For these soft and chewy monster cookies, I use Quaker Quick 1-Minute Oats.
I like using quick-cook style oats because it gives them a bit of texture but not as much as if you were to use old-fashioned whole grain oats. Plus the finer texture of quick-cook minute oats helps bind the dough together so you use less flour overall.
If all you have on hand are old-fashioned whole grain oats, pulse them a couple of times in your food processor to break them down into a finer, more powdery texture.
What’s Type of Peanut Butter Is Best?
When I bake, I always use a processed peanut butter like creamy Jif or Skippy.
I don’t recommend using natural peanut butter or any type of peanut butter than can separate in your monster cookies recipe because sometimes it doesn’t survive the baking process well and your cookies may spread too much.
Do I Have to Use Coconut in This Recipe?
We adore the flavor of a bit of shredded coconut but if you don’t, you don’t have to use coconut.
It’s only 1/2 cup in the entire recipe so to make up for it if you’re not going to use it, simply add about 1/3 cup additional 1-minute oats, or add additional M&M’s or toffee bits.
Recipe Variations and Substitutions to Try
Monster chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorite types of cookies to help clean out my pantry and baking cabinet!
Feel free to toss in 1/2 cup of any of the following add-ins if y0u’d like. Just make sure to scale back the amount of M&M’s by 1/2 cup.
- Milk chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, or butterscotch chips
- Mini versions of peanut butter cups or Rolo candies, halved or quartered as desired
- Pretzel rods or mini pretzel twists (the mixer will break them up)
- Potato chips for a salty-sweet treat
- Breakfast cereal such as Special K, Corn Flakes, or Golden Grahams
- Sprinkles such as jimmies or sprinkle sanding sugar over the tops before baking
Seasonal variations to try:
- Halloween: add edible sugar eyes after baking
- Christmas: use red and green M&M’s and/or add red and green sprinkles
- Valentine’s: use red, pink, and white M&M’s and/or add edible sugar hearts
- Easter or Mother’s Day: use pastel colored M&M’s
Should I Chill Monster Cookie Dough?
I almost always advocate for chilling cookie dough before baking cookies because the cookies bake up thicker and are less prone to spreading.
When chilling dough, it is always easiest to first form the balls of cookie dough, and then chill them on a large plate in the fridge.
If you chill the whole bowl of dough and then later try to scoop out and form cookie dough balls, it’s too much chiseling and hacking away at a big blob of rock hard dough so I don’t advocate this method.
One to two hours is all this dough will need. However, you can chill the dough for up to 3 days in the fridge before baking the cookies off.
Freezing Instructions
My monster cookie recipe makes about 4 dozen average-sized cookies with a medium cookie scoop.
You can double the amount of dough per cookie, bake a few minutes longer, and wind up with about 2 dozen very large monster cookies. An actual monster-sized cookie! Think Crumbl or your favorite big bakery cookie.
If you don’t want or need to bake off 24-48 cookies at once, you can:
- Refrigerate unbaked cookie dough balls for up to 3 days before baking them.
- Freeze unbaked cookie dough balls for up to 4 months before baking them.
Tip: Option 2 is a great option if you want to bake a half-dozen cookies at a time just when your cookie cravings strike!
Tips for the Best Monster Cookies
Toffee bits and coconut aren’t super traditional in monster cookie recipes but I love both of them and always have both on hand and include them, but you can omit and replace with 1/2 cup of something else based on my suggestions above.
I like to use mini chocolate chips in the cookies because the smaller size allows the chocolate chips to distribute more evenly I think. However, if you have regular sized chocolate chips, they are fine.
You can use either milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips.
If you want to halve the recipe, it’s always a bit tricky when dealing with an egg amount that’s an odd-number, such as 3 eggs in this recipe.
In this case, I would crack open one egg, lightly beat it with a fork, use half of it in dough plus one other whole egg. I would simply discard the other half of the beaten egg but you can save it for scrambled eggs I suppose.
Don’t crowd your homemade monster cookies on the baking sheet. I bake 8 to 12 at a time, and never more. As they bake, they’ll spread out to about 3 to 4-inches in diameter.
For best results, bake one sheet of cookies at a time on the center oven rack.
Make sure not to overbake your cookies. This goes for all cookies! All ovens, climates, ingredients, and the exact size of the dough balls varies, but I always pull my cookies when they are just showing the first signs of browning.
They will continue to cook a bit on the hot baking sheet even after you pull it from the oven so don’t be afraid to pull them even if the centers look a bit glossy and under-baked to ensure your cookies are perfectly soft, chewy, and stay that way for days.
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Monster Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter*
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups quick 1-minute oats**
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups M&M's
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips, regular-sized chocolate chips may be substituted; milk or dark is fine
- ½ cup Heath Toffee Bits***
- ½ cup shredded coconut***
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or to a large mixing bowl and handheld electric mixer, add the sugars, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and beat on high-speed until smooth and creamy. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- With the mixer running on low, add the eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition.
- Slowly add the quick cook 1-minute oats, flour, salt, and beat on medium-low speed until just combined.Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the M&M's, chocolate chips, toffee bits, shredded coconut, and beat until just combined.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, form approximately 2-tablespoon sized balls, place them on a large platter, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate the dough for 1 to 2 hours. Tips - Dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 4 months before baking. This is great when you just want to bake a half dozen cookies at a time. If baking directly from frozen, you don't need to thaw the dough. Simply add a couple minutes to the baking time.
- Preheat oven to 350F, place the cookie dough balls on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat liner or parchment paper, (don't bake more than 8 to 12 per sheet), and bake for approximately 11 to 13 minutes, or as necessary until the cookies are done in your oven. Tips - Make sure not to overbake. I pull the cookies when the edges are just set even if the centers appear a bit pale and glossy because they firm up as the cool.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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