Air Fryer Monster Cookies (Small Batch!) - Fun Cookie Recipes (2024)

Make a small batch of Air Fryer Cookies in just 20 minutes! These monster cookies are thick, chewy, and buttery. They’re loaded with oats, M&M’s, and white and milk chocolate chips. The perfect snack that you can make in the Air Fryer when you’re craving cookies.

We all love our Air Fryers, don’t we? It’s one of my favorite kitchen gadgets that I wish I can cook everything in! I recently tried baking cookies in the Air Fryer, because I thought why not! And they turned out perfect. The good news is that you can make any cookie recipe in the Air Fryer, but the trick is to adjust the temperature and time. I will teach you how to safely bake cookies in your Air Fryer, and how to convert any cookie recipe from oven to the Air Fryer.

Looking for more easy cookie recipes? Try my Banana Pudding Cookies or Eggnog Cookies next.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

1. Quick. These cookies need just 6 minutes in the Air Fryer to go from raw to fully baked and delicious! Yes, it’s just 6 minutes, you heard me right!
2. Small Batch. I don’t expect anyone to make 4 dozens of cookies in the Air Fryer, so I scaled my recipe down to make just 18 cookies in total. You can fit 5-6 cookies at a time depending on the size of your Air Fryer basket.
3. Easy. This is a very easy cookie recipe with big flavors. No cookie dough chilling is required, and all you need to do is just mix up the cookie dough, scoop into balls an bake!

Key Ingredients

• Butter and Peanut Butter. Use unsalted butter that is softened to room temperature, and creamy commercial peanut butter works best here! Don’t go for the all natural or chunky stuff.
• Egg. Always use large eggs at room temperature for baking.
• Sugars. We’re using a mix of granulated and light brown sugar in this recipe to add sweetness and moisture to our cookies.
• Dry Ingredients. We’re nothing using anything fancy, just all purpose flour and any oats that you have (just not steel cut oats) this recipe is pretty forgiving. The baking powder will help puff up the cookies.
• M&M’s and Chocolate Chips. I used regular chocolate filled M&M’s, you can go for mini M&M’s or something different like caramel filled M&M’s. I went with white and milk chocolate chips. You can also use dark chocolate, cinnamons chips, or butterscotch chips.

How To Bake Cookies in the Air Fryer

1. Preheat the Air Fryer to 320°F/160°C.
2. Cream. In a medium sized bowl, using a hand held mixer, beat the butter with the sugars until creamy (30 seconds). Add peanut butter, egg, and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
3. Dry Ingredients. Add in the flour, baking soda, and oats, and mix on low speed until just combined.
4. Add the Good Stuff. Fold in or slowly mix in the M&Ms and chocolate chips.

5. Scoop. Place a parchment liner in the Air Fryer, and using a medium (2 tablespoons) cookie scoop, scoop cookie balls and place in the Air Fryer. I’m using an XL Cosori basket style Air Fryer and could fit in 5 at a time.
6. Air Fry. Bake for 6 minutes until they’re lightly browned and cooked through.
7. Cool. Allow the cookies to cool for 1 minute in the Air Fryer basket, then transfer to cool on a wire rack.

Top Tips

• Parchment Liners. These are so useful when using the Air Fryer! They make clean up a breeze and great for baking cookies. The trick is not to add them without any food/cookies on them. So only add the parchment liner after you preheat the Air Fryer. If you add them as you preheat the air fryer, they will move in the Air Fryer and burn.
• For better looking cookies, add a few M&Ms to go on top of the cookie dough balls before baking. Do not add chocolate chips, as they seem to burn and change texture with the direct heat of the air fryer.
• Be careful not to overbake the cookies. You really don’t want your cookies to dry out and become tough. So be sure to check the cookies at 5 minutes as all Air Fryers are different.
• Size. I used a medium cookie scoop, and made 18 cookies in total (each about 2 tablespoons). You can make smaller cookies with a small cookie scoop (1 tablespoon size), but don’t forget to adjust the baking time.
• Change it up! Are you making these for a Christmas party? Use Holiday M&M’s. You can also add crushed up pretzels, fold in mini marshmallows, Ande’s baking chips, you name it!
• Nut-free. Sending the cookies to school? Substitute the peanut butter with Sunbutter, it works so well!
• Gluten-free. I often make these monster cookies with all purpose gluten free flour for the whole family to enjoy. Just switch up the flour 1:1 and the texture won’t change. Also make sure that your oats are gluten-free certified.
• Decorate. If you’re making these for a birthday or a halloween party, just add edible eyes to decorate the cookies and have fun decorating! I did that in my Monster Cookie Recipe that I baked in the oven.

Freezing

These monster cookies freeze very well! There are two ways to freeze them:

1. Freeze Unbaked.Scoop the dough into balls, place on a cookie sheet and freeze for 2 hours. When the cookie dough is frozen solid, remove from the cookie sheet and place in a zip top bag. This way, you can always take out as many as you like and bake from frozen but make sure to adjust the baking time.Freeze for up to 2 months.
2. Freeze Baked.After the cookies are baked and cooled completely, place them in a freezer safe zip top bag andfreeze for up to 1 month. Before serving, let them sit at room temperature for 30 minutes or microwave for a few seconds.

How to Air Fry any Cookie

It’s easy to adapt your favorite cookie recipe to bake in the Air Fryer. For baking in the Air Fryer, I always start by testing one or 2 cookies first. Lower the temperature to 330°F/160°C, and Air Fry for 5 minutes, check the cookie, and see if you need to add baking time. If you Air Fry at a higher temperature, the tops will start browning too quickly and the cookie won’t be cooked through.

Do not overcrowd the Air Fryer basket, do 5-6 at a time.

Other Cookies You Should Try

• Eggnog Cookies. These are soft sugar cookies frosted with delicious eggnog flavored frosting.
• Grinch Cookies. So easy and made with cake mix!
• Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies!These are absolutely the best!
• Ricotta Cookies.Soft cake-like delicious cookies that definitely do not taste like cheese! They are frosted with a simple vanilla icing, and decorated with colorful sprinkles.

I have a feeling that you will be making Air Fryer cookies all the time! Make sure to Pin this recipe so you can always find it.