The only thing scary about these monster cookies is how good they are.

Monster cookies are a cookie for someone who can’t decide on one kind. Let’s face it: We all have to make too many decisions in life, so why not make something easy? They have peanut butter, M&Ms (mini, in this case), chocolate chips, oats, and lots of sugar. They hearken back to childhood sugar overload, when one cookie was never enough. Actually, I think the same is still true today.

Monster cookies take me way back to childhood. Even though I don’t have a specific memory of eating these or watching my mom make them, I know they happened, the same way I’m confident I ate ice cream every day during the summer, raced around the neighborhood on my bike, or listened to Top 100 on the radio on Saturday mornings. Like these memories, they’ve stayed with me. Today, I decided to make them happen again.

I have my coworker to thank because she requested these after I opened my weekly baking for the office up to requests. When she said monster cookies, it was like a lightbulb went off. “Yes,” I thought. I’d actually wanted to make these for years after seeing other food bloggers post photos of them on Instagram, but for some reason, I never did. I guess everything happens in its own time.

My favorite part about these cookies is how they melt in your mouth. The M&Ms and chocolate chips are a little melted from baking in the oven, and the oats make the cookies very soft. Don’t over bake them because they will firm up on the baking sheets as you let them cool.

I was trying to think of what song to leave you with, and I realized it had to be a 90s song. A fun fact about me as a child in the 90s is that I talked my way into getting a Spice Girls album when I was eight, even though the woman at the store told my parents it was “explicit.” I also had every piece of Spice Girls merchandise ever invented including a sketchpad and pencils.

Monster Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened
100 grams granulated sugar
85 grams dark brown sugar
130 grams creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
120 g all-purpose flour
105 g old fashioned rolled oats
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
90 g semi-sweet chocolate chips
105 g mini M&Ms

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Set aside for later.

Beat the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed until light and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the peanut butter and mix until smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula and beat in the egg and vanilla until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Add the chocolate chips and mini M&Ms and mix until combined.

Use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough into equal sized portions on a baking sheet, spaced a couple inches apart. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until they’re just set and cracking on top. Allow the cookies to cool completely on the sheets. Enjoy!