Gluten-Free Monster Cookies

A few months ago when my parents came to visit my mom made us a big batch of monster cookies. I couldn't believe how delicious they were... especially because they were flourless! I asked her for the recipe and altered it a bit so that the cookies baked better here in Utah (the altitude is an issue with lots of recipes). For some reason hers came out a tad bit flat and fell apart, not that I minded... I gobbled them up in just a few days! I mean what's not to love about peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips and M&M's?! Some my adjustments included adding quick cooking oats to help "glue" the cookies together, an extra egg yolk to create a thicker/chewier cookie, slightly less butter to prevent them from spreading, and letting the dough chill to allow the oats to absorb some moisture. All of my little tricks worked- they came out looking beautiful and tasting just as good as the ones she made :) I seriously would make these cookies on a daily basis if I could, they're that amazing!!! Happy gluten-free baking!

Gluten-Free Monster Cookies

Ingredients

2¼c. old-fashioned oats*
¼ c. quick cooking oats
½ c. sugar

½ c. brown sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

1/3 c. (¾ of a stick) butter, room temperature

¾ c. creamy peanut butter

1 tsp. baking soda

pinch of salt

¾ tsp. vanilla

½ c. chocolate M&Ms 

½ c. chocolate chips

½ c. peanut butter chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats, set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter, peanut butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add vanilla. With mixing speed on low, add one egg at a time, mixing until incorporated. 

3. In a medium size mixing bowl, combine oats, baking soda and salt. Whisk together. With mixing speed on low, add dry ingredients, mix until combined. Remove bowl from stand and fold in M&Ms, chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Place dough in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour.

4. Remove dough from refrigerator and allow to stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scoop cookies onto the prepared sheets using a standard size scoop, gently pat down to slightly flatten. Place in oven and bake for 10-12 minutes (they will look soft) before removing from oven. Allow to cool on sheets for 3 minutes before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
NOTE: DO NOT SKIP parchment or a mat... seriously, it really is a key part to making these cookies bake perfectly! Also be gentle with the cookies when you are transferring them to the rack to cool, they will probably break apart a little, but just push them back together and let them cool for a good hour or so and they'll be firm and sturdy!

*Please make sure that your oats are gluten-free. Bob's Red Mill Oats are gluten-free, Quaker Oats are not guaranteed to be gluten-free.

Life Made Simple family recipe adapted from The Amish Cook's Baking Book | Makes 24 standard size cookies

Chocolate Peppermint M&M Cookies

One of my favorite flavor combinations around the holidays is mint chocolate. I think it might have something to do with growing up in a family that's obsessed with it! So when I saw that Target had white chocolate peppermint M&Ms I pretty much had to buy a bag. Boy am I glad I did- they're so good! I devoured about half of the bag in just a few days and the rest I tossed into cookies. Yes, these cookies. I decided to combine the M&Ms with Andes peppermint crunch baking chips to really amp up the mint flavor. Did I mention that the dough has peppermint extract in it too? You may think I'm going completely overboard but I promise that the amount of mint is spot on and far from overwhelming. I tossed the cookies onto a baking sheet, popped them into the oven for 10 minutes and they baked perfectly. Nice and crisp around the edges and soft in the centers. The chocolate melded perfectly with the mint and made for one delicious cookie! 

Chocolate Peppermint M&M Cookies
Ingredients
1 c. all-purpose flour
¼ c. Hershey's natural unsweetened cocoa powder
⅔ c. Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
½ c. sugar
¼ c. brown sugar
8 tbsp. (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. vanilla
¼ tsp. peppermint extract
1½ c. White Chocolate Peppermint M&Ms
½ c. Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat mat, set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together butter, sugars, vanilla and peppermint for 2-3 minutes. Add melted chocolate chips, mix until combined. Add egg, then egg yolk, mixing just until combined.
3. In a medium size mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. With mixing speed on low, add dry ingredients. When no flour pockets remain, turn off and remove bowl from stand. Fold in M&Ms and peppermint baking chips. Scoop onto the prepared baking sheet.
4. Place in oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, cookies should be firm around the edges but soft in the center. Remove and allow to cool on pan for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Life Made Simple Original Recipe | Makes approximately18 cookies

The Ultimate Peanut Butter Cookie Cake

For those of you that know me, or frequently follow the recipes posted here on Life Made Simple, you know I'm kind of obsessed with peanut butter! I'll take it any form, but today it's a cookie cake! Being almost 9 months pregnant, I've been trying to scale down the amount of time I spend in the kitchen. Sad, I know, but with some dislocated ribs it's been hard to bend over and prep and wash dishes. So I've been simplifying meals and baking treats that require minimal work. Although cookies aren't the most difficult or time consuming thing to make, I wanted to whip up something that I could just pop in the oven and forget about for a few minutes. I decided to make a peanut butter version of this M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake that I made for Stephen's birthday last year. I mixed in a handful of peanuts, peanut butter M&Ms, peanut butter chips and of course, peanut butter! It baked up perfectly in my Wilton cookie cake pan and I topped it with some peanut butter frosting once it had cooled. It was a fun and easy treat to make that was perfect just for the two of us to snack on, but would be great for birthdays or parties too!

Peanut Butter Cookie Cake

Ingredients

1½ c. all-purpose flour
¾ c. sugar
½ c. brown sugar
1 c. creamy peanut butter
½ c. butter, room temperature
2 eggs
2 tbsp. heavy cream milk
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ c. peanut butter M&M's or peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped

½ c. peanut butter chips
½ c. dry roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting:

1 c. powdered sugar

8 tbsp. (1 stick) butter, room temperature

¼ c. creamy peanut butter

1 tbsp. heavy cream

pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line one giant (11") cookie pan with parchment paper, set aside (I usually just cut out a large circle for the bottom).
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together sugars, butter and peanut butter until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. With mixing speed on low, add vanilla, heavy cream and one egg. Mix until incorporated, then add remaining egg.
3. In a medium size mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. With mixing speed on low, gradually add dry ingredients, mixing until no visible dry ingredients remain. Remove bowl from stand and gently fold in M&M's (or peanut butter cups), peanut butter chips and chopped peanuts.
4. Using a spatula, place the dough into the pan, pressing to create an even layer. Place the pan in oven and bake for 16-20 minutes or until the edges become golden brown in color. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 45 minutes before frosting.

5. Meanwhile, to prepare the frosting, beat all ingredients together for 3 minutes or until mixture becomes light and fluffy. Place into a piping bag with desired tip and pipe onto the cooled cookie, around the edges or in the center if you want to write something on it.

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen, Peanut Butter Cookies | Makes 1 (11") Giant Cookie Cake

M&M Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

The other day I had a HUGE craving for oatmeal cookies! I turned to my mom's oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe and halved it. I decided to adjust a few of the ingredients, using only brown sugar and adding an extra egg yolk to keep the cookies extra moist, chewy and thick. Since I'm a big fan of vanilla I also increased the amount to help flavor the cookies a bit more. Now you don't have to chill the cookie dough, but ever since I made these cookies, I've been obsessed with refrigerating my dough! I just think that it helps create a nice stiff dough which allows the cookies to better hold their shape during the baking process. Being the M&M lover that I am, I loaded mine up with them, and chocolate chips too :) These cookies definitely hit the spot- it's a recipe I'll be using time and time again!

M&M Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

1 c. all-purpose flour

1¼ c. old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick cooking)

1 c. brown sugar

8 tbsp. (1 stick) butter, room temperature

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1½ tsp. vanilla

½ c. chocolate chips

½ c. M&Ms

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat mat, set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together butter, brown sugar and vanilla for 3-4 minutes on medium-high. Add egg, mix, then egg yolk, mixing just until combined.

3. In a medium size mixing bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine. With mixing speed on low, gradually add dry ingredients, mixing until no flour pockets remain. Remove bowl from stand and fold in chocolate chips and M&Ms. Allow the dough to chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour before baking.

4. Scoop chilled dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. Gently pat down each ball. Place in oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown in color. The centers should look slightly underbaked, they will firm up once cooled. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on sheets for 3-4 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Adapted from my Mom's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies | Makes approximately 24 cookies

Monster Cookie Bars

Stephen and I just returned from a nice little vacation in California. While we were there my brother brought us a bag of gluten free monster cookies from a local bakery. I was surprised to find out that both my mom and Stephen had never tried monster cookies. As a peanut butter, oatmeal and M&M lover, I had just assumed that everyone had tasted this delicious combination. I was wrong. I made it my goal to bake up some kind of "monster treat" when we came back home. My first thought was to do my own gluten free cookie version but since I was short on time and didn't have the necessary ingredients, I turned to bars. Let me start off by warning you: these are not your typical monster cookie bars. Mine are ultra moist and topped with a creamy peanut butter spread that really puts them over the top! If you like your bars extra gooey, go ahead and stick to 15 minutes of baking time, they'll be even more soft and chewy! I took these to a picnic dinner and they were a huge hit- I hope you'll think so too!

Monster Cookie Bars
Ingredients

2 c. all-purpose flour
1½ c. quick rolled oats
1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar
⅔ c. peanut butter, creamy or chunky
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
¼ c. chopped peanuts
¼ c. chocolate chips (a mix of regular and mini)
¼ c. M&Ms (a mix of regular and mini)

Peanut butter topping:
⅔ c. Reese's peanut butter
1½ c. confectioner's sugar
⅓ c. milk (more if needed)
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. vanilla

½ c. chocolate chips (a mix of regular and mini)
½ c. M&Ms (a mix of regular and mini)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease (or cover with parchment) a full size cookie sheet with sides.
2. In a medium size mixing bowl, whisk together oats, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together peanut butter, butter and sugars for 1 minute. Turn speed to low and add one egg at a time. Add vanilla and mix until combined.
4. Remove bowl from stand mixer. Fold in dry ingredients, then chopped peanuts, chocolate chips and M&Ms. Pour onto prepared pan and pat down until even. I like to use a my hands to get it all spread out, and then a spatula to make it smooth and even. Place in oven and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the top begins to brown. 

5. While the bars are baking, in a medium size mixing bowl, combine all of the topping ingredients. Using a hand mixer, beat until smooth (it should be a spreadable consistency, but will it will also melt and get shiny on contact). Set aside until needed.

6. Remove bars from oven and place pan on a wire rack. Allow to cool for 8 minutes before spreading the peanut butter topping over the entire sheet. It should become smooth and melty, spread until even. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips and M&Ms over top, allow to cool for 30-40 more minutes before cutting into bars.

Life Made Simple Original Recipe | Makes approximately 30 bars