Big Bunch Yummy Monster Cookies

Monster cookies are the everything-bagel of the cookie world: peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, M&M’s, raisins, and nuts all crammed into one chewy disc. The recipe is flourless, which is the secret to that dense, fudgy bite. The structure comes entirely from oats and peanut butter binding around the eggs.

Because there’s no flour, you can’t overdevelop gluten and turn these tough. That’s why the recipe goes light on instructions: just mix the wet, dump in the dry, and drop heaping teaspoons onto the sheet pan. The cookies spread less than wheat-based ones, so shape matters. What goes in the oven is roughly what comes out.

Pull them when the edges look set but the centers still look slightly underdone. They firm up on the sheet as they cool, and a minute too long means dry, crumbly cookies.

Pro Tips

• Use natural peanut butter or commercial style, but stay consistent within the batch. The oil ratios differ and will change how the cookies spread.
• Line your sheets with parchment instead of greasing them. Cleaner release, more even browning on the bottom.
• This is a giant batch. Freeze portioned dough balls on a tray, then transfer to a bag and bake straight from frozen, adding two extra minutes.
• Let cookies rest on the sheet five minutes before moving. They’re fragile while hot and tear easily.

Variations

• Swap butter for the margarine if you want a richer, more caramelized flavor.
• Use white chocolate chips and dried cranberries for a holiday spin.
• Sub almond butter for the peanut butter and add a pinch of sea salt on top before baking.