Christmas Monster Cookies

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Celebrate the holidays with a batch of these delicious Christmas monster cookies! They are a peanut butter cookie mixed with oats, chocolate chips, m&m's and topped with festive sprinkles.

Today is day 8 of the '12 days of Christmas Cookies' here on Modern Crumb!

This recipe was first published on 12/15/20.

Christmas monster cookies are all about having fun! My kids love to make monster cookies and we knew we needed a Christmas variation.

Of course we added every single Christmas sprinkle in the pantry. Because you can. Get crazy with these.

If you love peanut butter cookies, these Christmas peanut butter cookie bars would also be a good one to try.

When you pull a batch of these from the oven you can definitely understand why they are called monster cookies. They are huge!

And they are monster looking thanks to all the mix-ins. My thought behind all the festive mix-ins is the more the merrier. Punny?

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Christmas Monster Cookie Recipe Tips
How To Make Monster Cookies
Why Are They Called Monster Cookies?
FAQ
12 Days of Christmas Cookies Recipes
Christmas Monster Cookies

Here are some of my best tips when making these cookies. So that way you have the perfect cookie baking day.

These do not need to be refrigerated. As soon as the cookie dough comes together you can put them right in the oven.

This recipe is for a traditional cookie scoop size.

Monster cookies don't spread as much as a traditional chocolate chip cookie, so if you'd like a flatter cookie you can press them down with your hand a bit prior to baking.

To make them look extra festive and fancy, you can press an m&m and chocolate chip in to the top of each cookie, as shown below.

How To Make Monster Cookies

Cookie dough. Cream together the butter and peanut butter first until it's all one. Then add in the white and brown sugars and cream that together. Mix in the egg and make sure it's fully combined. Now mix in the vanilla extract.

Grab a sepparate bowl and sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in the quick oats to the flour then pour all of this into the sugar mixture. Stir it all together until it's combined.

Mix-ins. You'll need Christmas m&m's (a bag of just the red and green m&m's) and semi sweet chocolate chips. But feel free to swap that out with milk chocolate chips if you like those better.

Preparing to bake. Grab Christmas themed sprinkles and pour them into a small bowl. You can use any ones you want, I like to pour a bit from each of my containers.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (helps the cookies from sticking and to not over spread while baking). Use a standard cookie scoop to scoop out cookie dough then roll it like a ball in your hands.

Dip the top of each cookie dough ball into some of the Christmas sprinkles then set it on the baking sheet, sprinkle side up.

Repeat until you fill up the cookie tray, leaving space between each one so they have room to spread.

Bake. Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. They won't look done when you pull them from the oven, but they will continue to bake and set as they cool.

You don't want to over bake these cookies.

Why Are They Called Monster Cookies?

Monster cookies earned their title because they have so much going on! There are so many ingredients, they just look a hot mess - but in the best way possible.

Here's what's inside these Christmas themed monster cookies that makes them just so special and monster-ific.

creamy peanut butter - a smooth creamy peanut butter works best in this recipe
Instant oats -the quick oats are perfect for a soft and chewy monster cookie
semi sweet chocolate chips - we love semi sweet chocolate chips in here since the m&m's are milk chocolate, but if you'd rather do milk chocolate chips that works too
red and green milk chocolate m&m's - if you can't find the Christmas theme m&m's at the store you can always grab a regular bag and just pick out the red and green ones and save the others for later
lots of random Christmas sprinkles - we took sprinkles from 4 different sprinkle jars to make our sprinkle mix

FAQ

I've rounded up a list of frequently asked monster cookie questions. Some of these answers could help you when you go to bake up a batch of cookies.

My cookies are hard and dry

This could be from adding too much flour, an oven that's too hot, or over baking

Can I use traditional oats?

If you need to use traditional oats, first pulse them up a bit in a food processor.

Can I make these gluten free?

I've had a lot of success using Bobs Red Mill 1:1 baking gluten free flour, if you want to make it gluten free that's the flour I would use.

Can I make monster cookies without peanut butter?

Without the peanut butter they aren't really a monster cookie anymore since it's the main ingredient. However, if it's for allergy reasons, subbing in something like an almond butter or sunbutter may work but I haven't tested the recipe yet with this variation (please let me know if you do and have success).

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Recipes

Christmas Monster Cookies

Yield: 30 cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Celebrate the holidays with a batch of these delicious Christmas monster cookies! They are a peanut butter cookie mixed with oats, chocolate chips, m&m's and topped with festive sprinkles.

Ingredients

½ c butter, softened
½ c white sugar
½ c brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
½ c peanut butter
1 c flour
½ c quick oats
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp kosher salt
½ c semi sweet chocolate chips
½ c red and green m&m’s
1 tbsp Christmas sprinkles

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350
Cream the butter and peanut butter together
Add in the white and brown sugar and cream together until light and fluffy
Mix in the egg, stir until combined
Mix in the vanilla extract
In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and salt
Add the oats to the dry ingredients
Pour the dry ingredients in to the mixing bowl and stir together until just combined
Stir in the chocolate chips and m&m’s
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
Use a cookie scoop to get equal size amounts, roll the cookie dough into balls with your hands and press the tops into the sprinkles (to make them look even nicer, press an m&m or two on the top of each cookie)
Bake for 10 minutes
Remove the cookies from the oven and transfer immediately to a wire cooling rack