Monster Cookies

Monster cookies are such a fun treat!  These giant, peanut-buttery oatmeal cookies with M&M’s are sure to make anyone smile.  Who doesn’t love a giant cookie chock-full of goodies like peanut butter, chocolate chips, and M&M’s?

This past Christmas, I got a new spring-loaded ice cream scoop from my husband.  After I opened it, he said, “It’s a big cookie scoop, so you can make monster cookies more often!”  It works great, but it makes some HUGE monster cookies!  I’m guessing that’s why he picked that one in particular… 🙂

Begin by beating together the butter and sugar.  After that’s well-mixed, beat in the eggs, vanilla, and baking soda.  Next is the peanut butter.  Once that’s well-blended, the batter is really smooth.  It’s now time for the oats.  You can use either quick cooking or old-fashioned.  I have used both in this recipe, and found that it really doesn’t make that big of a difference.  Just use what you have on hand.

Hand-mix in the M&M’s and chocolate chips so that they don’t get smushed by the mixer.

If you’re making true “monster cookies”, use a large cookie scoop or ice cream scoop to drop the dough onto baking sheets.  Otherwise, you can make “normal size” cookies with this recipe, and they will be great as well.  If you are using an ice cream scoop, you may want to slightly flatten the dough before popping them into the oven.  I can get 9 on one sheet with my new scoop, or about 2 dozen on one sheet with my old, small scoop.

The “monster” scoop:

And here’s some normal size cookies (little monsters!) for those not desiring a cookie the size of their hand.  The smaller cookies are much better portions for little kids, too.

Bake until they are puffy and light golden brown.  Let them cool on the baking sheet until they are firm and almost cooled completely.

Remove them from the cookie sheet and enjoy!

To freeze the dough for monster cookies, drop dough onto the cookie sheet as if you were going to bake them.  Instead, pop the baking sheet into the freezer, and keep there until they are no longer sticky, about 1 hour or so.  Then, you can transfer the cookie dough balls into a resealable plastic bag for long-term storage.  Bake as you normally would, straight from the freezer!