Food Restrictions: Attempting a Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Rice-Free Diet

Usually, monster cookies contain peanut butter and M&M’s, so they were one of the first recipes I modified when my son was diagnosed with a peanut allergy four years ago.  Using sunbutter or soybutter in place of the chocolate chips, and Hershey Kissables or chocolate chips in place of the M&M’s, we were able to make these cookies peanut-free long ago.

This new diet posed a problem, but once we got the OK for gluten-free oats, they came back on my to-make list, and since they contain no flour, I didn’t have to modify the recipe any more than I already had.

Warning:  this makes a BIG batch.  I can mix the wet ingredients in my stand mixer’s largest bowl, but the addition of the dry ingredients requires a really big bowl, or even a dishpan.  I use a 9-qt bowl, and it just fits, with no room to spare.  Do not under-estimate the size of this recipe!  It’s also not cheap; using Sunbutter, gluten-free oats, and Enjoy Life chocolate chips, it was about $53 for the batch.  On the other hand, that works out to about $.27/cookie, which is cheaper than any bakery cookie.

I use a medium-sized Pampered Chef cookie scoop and it makes about 16 dozen cookies.  I made a batch of these yesterday, and this morning my son’s teacher called to inquire about safe snacks for the school Valentine party.  I was able to volunteer to bring these yummy cookies for three classrooms’ worth of kids, and I’ll still have plenty in the freezer to keep us in cookies for a while.

Monster Cookies

• 1 lb butter, softened (partly melted ok)
• 3 lb Sunbutteror Soybutter (or peanut butter)
• 1 dozen eggs
• 1/4 c. light corn syrup
• 1 T. vanilla
• 2 lb brown sugar
• 3 c white sugar
• 18 c oatmeal(old-fashioned better than quick-cooking)
• 8 t baking soda (cut this in half if using Sunbutter)
• 4 lb chocolate (chocolate chips, candies, whatever your diet allows)

Cream butter and sun/soy/peanut butter, then sugars.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Mix in oatmeal, baking soda, and chocolate.  (I mix by hand, so I’m literally up to my elbows in cookie dough.)

Drop on well-greased pans and bake 12 minutes at 350.  Let cool a few minutes before removing to wire racks.

Freezes well.

Note about baking with Sunbutter:  Because of a natural ingredient of sunflowers, baked goods made with Sunbutter may turn green.  This does not affect their safety or taste, but it’s kind of unnerving to be eating green cookies.  To avoid this, the Sunbutter customer service people advise cutting down the amount of baking soda in a recipe by as much as half.