These Healthy Monster Cookies are completely flourless and they’re filled with lots of nutrients and superfoods! Oats, peanut butter, ground flaxseed, hemp hearts, and cinnamon add all sorts of goodness to this recipe & they make up the bulk of this incredible cookie. They’re a completely acceptable anytime snack – even for breakfast! They’re best served slightly under-baked and finished with a generous sprinkle of flaky sea salt!
(This post is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill. Thank you SO much for reading and supporting the brands I love!)
There’s nothing like a pile of warm, salty, chocolatey, peanut buttery, texture-filled monster cookies. Especially when said cookie is filled with things like ground flaxseed, hemp hearts, oats, and dark chocolate, so it’s automatically acceptable to eat for breakfast. Right? The best kind of cookies. This one is my version of a healthy monster cookie – it’s totally flourless and every bit as good as the real deal. This is the kind of cookie I can eat all day, any time of day, no matter what!
These monster cookies are also never a cookie you’d never know was “healthy” unless I told you. They’re every bit as good (maybe even better?!) than a regular cookie that’s filled with flour, and lots more butter and sugar. Since I don’t think you can really have an *exceptional* baked good without butter and sugar, we’re using a little bit of each here. Not a ton, just a little melted butter and brown sugar to make these cookies taste really darn good.
I know you’re with me.
Most of the structure in these cookies comes from Bob’s Red Mill Organic Gluten Free Oats (my favorite oats to use for all things baking, breakfast, and snacks in my kitchen!), natural creamy peanut butter (and lots of it), and eggs.
Bob’s oats and their products in general are such high quality, I always keep a stocked pantry of so many of their flours for all of my baking needs. I’m not personally gluten free, but a number of people in my life are, so I keep this variety on hand for that reason! And in case you didn’t know, all oats are naturally gluten free – these oats are just processed in a facility without wheat so there’s no risk of contamination.
If you’re like, “what the heck is a monster cookie?!” – let me tell you.
Monster cookies are basically a peanut butter oatmeal cookie filled with chocolate chips, candy coated chocolate pieces, and whatever other mix-in’s you love.
In this case, I like to add ground flaxseed, hemp hearts, chopped peanuts, and a little bit of cinnamon in addition to the dark chocolate chips and candy coated chocolate gems for a little superfood boost of healthy fats + fiber!
The flax and hemp seeds add a little bit of nutty texture too – which I love!
If you’re not a peanut butter person (not sure how this is even possible), or if you have an allergy, you can totally use any nut butter and chopped nuts in place of the peanuts. If you wanted to go nut-free, you could do sunflower butter + sunflower seeds instead! Almond butter + almonds, as well as cashew butter + cashews would both be awesome subs. As long as your nut butter is the drippy, natural kind, these cookies will work!
And the other best part of this recipe, is that they almost come together in one bowl – no stand mixer or hand mixer required!
Just a couple of bowls and a rubber spatula or wooden spoon is all you need.
To break down just how easy these monster cookies are to make, here’s how you do it!
- Begin by whisking up your dry ingredients. Oats, hemp hearts, ground flaxseed, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- Whisk together your wet ingredients. Melted butter (make sure it’s cooled slightly so that it doesn’t cook your eggs!), brown sugar, vanilla, creamy peanut butter (the natural, drippy kind!), and eggs.
- Next, fold your dry ingredients into your wet. No need to do it gradually, or with a mixer of any sort. Just stir it up with a rubber spatula!
- Lastly, fold in your mix-ins! The best part, in my humble opinion. I like to use dark chocolate chips, candy coated chocolate pieces, and roasted salted chopped peanuts.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop your dough balls onto a parchment-lined or silpat-lined baking sheet, and sprinkle them with flaky sea salt. Because what cookie is complete without it?!
- Bake them for 12-14 minutes, no more! You want them to be slightly underbaked.
- Finish them with more flaky salt (because why not), and let them cool for a couple minutes before enjoying warm.
These cookies are perfectly chewy, filled with peanut butter flavor, the perfect amount of chocolate, just enough texture from the chopped peanuts and hemp hearts, just enough caramelly sweetness from the brown sugar, AND they’re salty + sweet in the best way.
These monster cookies keep really well in a sealed container for several days. I’ve found that they don’t really dry out because there’s so much moisture from the peanut butter and brown sugar. So, they’re a great thing to make on Sunday and enjoy all week! Or honestly, to whip up any time because they are SO incredibly easy and so incredibly GOOD.
For all of you cookie-freezers out there, these cookie dough balls freeze really well too. The actual baked cookies themselves freeze wonderfully as well, because they’re so hearty!
Basically, they’re all-around perfect.
Especially for chocolate-peanut-butter-lovers like myself.
If you enjoy healthier baking, you will love these recipes too:
Fudgy Almond Flour Brownies with Chai Salted Caramel
Pear Ginger Crisp
Olive Oil Brownies
Healthy Nutella Sea Salt Truffles
Don’t forget to share a photo on Instagram and tag me @spicesinmydna if you make this recipe! Nothing makes me happier than seeing what you create in the kitchen!
Healthy Monster Cookies
These Healthy Monster Cookies are completely flourless and they're filled with lots of nutrients and superfoods! Oats, peanut butter, ground flaxseed, hemp hearts, and cinnamon add all sorts of goodness to this recipe & they make up the bulk of this incredible cookie. They're a completely acceptable anytime snack - even for breakfast! They're best served slightly under-baked and finished with a generous sprinkle of flaky sea salt!
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups Bob's Red Mill Organic Gluten Free Oats
- 1/4 cup hemp hearts
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup creamy natural peanut butter (the drippy kind)
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup candy coated chocolate pieces
- 1/4 cup roasted salted peanuts, chopped
- flaky sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350℉. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the oats, hemp hearts, flaxseed meal, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until combined. Set aside.
In a separate, large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Add the eggs and whisk again until smooth. Add the peanunt butter and whisk until smooth and combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing with a rubber spatula until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips, chocolate candies, and chopped peanuts and mix until incorporated.
Scoop the cookie dough into 1 1/2 tablespoon-sized dough balls, and place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until edges are slightly golden and tops are set. (It's best to slightly underbake these!). Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way. Sprinkle with more flaky sea salt, if desired.
Recipe Notes
*You can sub any drippy, natural nut or seed butter for the peanut butter, and any chopped nuts or seeds for the peanuts.
*Cookies will keep in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
*You can freeze the raw cookie dough balls or baked cookies themselves for up to 3 months. No need to thaw unbaked dough before baking, just watch for any increase in baking time!
Sami
These are so good, I’ve made them twice! The flaky sea salt makes all the difference. I’ve also subbed peanuts for pistachios because it’s what I had.
Spices in My DNA
Yay!! Thank you so much Sami! I totally agree about the flaky salt – I can’t have a cookie without it! And I bet the pistachios were great!