Gluten Free Monster Cookies Recipe – The Ultimate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie
These Gluten Free Monster Cookies are soft, chewy, and packed with peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, and colorful candies for the ultimate cookie experience. Made with gfJules Gluten Free Flour, they have a classic cookie texture—no grit, no crumble, just sweet perfection. This easy recipe is also dairy free, making it a safe and delicious treat for everyone. Whether you’re baking for the holidays, a school event, or just to satisfy a craving, these peanut butter oatmeal monster cookies will quickly become your new favorite gluten free cookie recipe.
What is a Monster Cookie?
The name “Monster Cookies” may sound odd and somewhat unappetizing, but one bite and you’ll stop asking about the name and just ask for another! Who knows how these cookies really got their name — whether it’s because they are monster-sized or monstrously good with all the yummy mix-ins – but one thing is for sure, these gluten free monster cookies are the perfect cookie for any true cookie lover.
Monster cookies are part oatmeal cookie, part peanut butter cookie, and they have a healthy amount of chocolate chip cookie and M&M cookie thrown in to make them truly irresistible.
This gluten free Monster Cookie recipe is made with gfJules Gluten Free Flour so it’s every bit as yummy as the best monster cookie from any bakery. With gfJules Flour there’s no grit—just the perfect cookie texture, every time.
And when you bake them at home, you can choose your own mix-ins, making them vegan or even peanut-free if you need. How deliciously handy is that?
What Oats are Best for Gluten Free Baking?
It’s important to choose the right “gluten free” oats for gluten free baking. What are the right oats? This is a two part answer: choose the right oats for safety and for the best baking results.
For gluten free safety, always choose certified gluten free oats, and if possible, choose purity protocol oats. These can be more difficult to find, which is why I source them and offer them here on my gfJules site so folks can add them with their gfJules orders.
Read all about the difference between purity protocol oats and regular or “sorted” oats, and why it makes such a huge difference in safety in the article linked here. If simply choosing certified gluten free oats, make sure they are truly certified by a third party certifier, not the oats company claiming that their oats are gluten free. Time and time again, we hear about those companies not able to provide safe oats, despite their claims. Choose wisely!
For the best baking results, choose the type of gluten free oats you prefer. Quick oats are thinner and break down in baking more quickly, yielding a softer cookie without any noticeable texture from the oats. If you’ve ever bitten into a cookie or other recipe containing oats and tasted a hard piece of oat or thought to yourself, “this cookie tastes grainy,” it’s probably because it was made with stiffer, not quick, oats.
Rolled gluten free oats are perfectly acceptable for baking in cookie recipes like these, but if you don’t like distinctive pieces of oat to show or to sometimes stand out when you bite into the cookie, choose quick, or instant gluten free oats. Nutritionally, they are otherwise nearly identical. Do not use steel cut oats in this recipe.
To choose the right chocolate candies for you and your family, check out my Gluten Free Halloween Candy post. M&Ms plain is considered gluten free, but contains milk. There are dairy-free options, as linked in my recipe below, but other brands are also available and noted in my candy post!
Gluten Free Monster Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter or vegan butter alternative melted (like Miyoko’s Creamery Plant Milk Butter)
- ½ cup brown sugar or coconut palm sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter or sunflower or soy butter for peanut-free
- 2 large eggs room temperature or vegan egg substitute
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking molasses optional
- 1 cup certified gluten-free oats*
- ½ (67) cup (grams) gfJules All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour
- ½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup M&Ms candy or Yum Earth Vegan Choco Yums
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Place the butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix until combined (use the paddle attachment if using a stand mixer).
- Add the peanut butter, eggs, vanilla, and molasses. Mix until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.
- Add the oats, flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Stir until well combined.
- Gently stir in the chocolate chips and M&M’s or vegan candies last.
- Using a large cookie scoop, place heaping scoops of the batter onto the baking sheets. You should be able to get about 6 cookies per cookie sheet. Flatten the cookies ever so slightly with the palm of your hand.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes. The centers should appear set and the edges should be gently browned.
- Let the cookies cool on the pans for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
** Please keep in mind that nutrition information provided is per serving, which may vary. While we have taken care to provide you with the most accurate nutritional values possible, please note that this information may differ significantly depending on the exact ingredients and brands that you choose to use to make this recipe. Additionally, where options are given for ingredients, the resulting calculation may include all ingredient options instead of only one per line, skewing the totals significantly.
Enjoy these monstrously good cookies!
Pin to save or share!
