Best M&M Cookies Recipe | Tasty Treats and Eats

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The Best M&M Cookies Recipe! These soft m & m cookies are so easy to make & delicious! The ultimate m and m cookie recipe everyone will love!

An overhead shot of M&M Cookies scattered on a piece of brown parchment paper with M&Ms

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Bursting with vibrant colors and delightful flavors, these M&M Cookies are the perfect treat for any occasion.

Whether you're a seasoned baker or a beginner in the kitchen, this simple recipe will guide you through the process of creating soft, chewy, and utterly irresistible cookies.

A stack of 5 m&m cookies on a piece of brown parchment paper the top cookie has a bite taken out of it with a jar of m&ms in the background

These are the Best M&M Cookies!

You can totally customize these cookies with seasonal M&Ms, making them the perfect dessert for any holiday or event!

Why do M&Ms not melt in cookies?

The thin candy coating helps the M&M's not melt when baked. However, when the cookies are warm, the inside of the M&M's will be melted.

Why you'll love this recipe for M&M Cookies

Delicious: The combination of rich and buttery cookie dough, the gooey texture of chocolate chips, and the vibrant crunch of M&M candies create a super tasty dessert!
Adorable Dessert: These cookies have an eye-catching appearance making them perfect for celebrations, parties, or even just brightening up an ordinary day.
Easy to Make: This recipe's simplicity and straightforward instructions make it accessible to anyone looking to create a scrumptious treat. Plus you only need pantry staples!

M&M Cookies Recipe ingredients

For these m&m cookies you'll need:

Ingredients for m&m cookies in small bowls: salted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, vanilla extract, all purpose flour, baking soda, m&ms, chocolate chips

How to make M&M Cookies

Using electric hand beaters or a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars together for 1-2 minutes, until pale and creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined.
Add the flour and baking soda and beat on a low speed until the ingredients are just combined.
Add in the M&Ms and chocolate chips. Cover the bowl and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Scoop the dough using a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop and roll into a ball. Place the dough balls on prepared baking sheets.
Bake at 325° the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until light golden brown on the edges. Allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking sheets.

Butter, sugars, egg, vanilla extract beat in a clear bowl to make cookie dough for m&m cookies on a white background with a small bowl of m&ms and a wooden spoon on the side

M&M Cookie dough in clear bowl without the m&ms added yet on a white background with a small bowl of m&ms and a wooden spoon on the side

Tips for perfect M & M Cookies

Chill the Dough: This helps the flavors meld together and prevents the cookies from spreading too much in the oven.
Use Room Temperature Ingredients: Room temperature ingredients blend more smoothly allowing for even distribution of flavors.
Don't Overmix the Dough: Overmixing can lead to tough and dry cookies. Mix just until the ingredients are combined; a few streaks of flour are okay.
Customize M&M Placement: Before baking, reserve a few extra M&Ms to press gently onto the tops of the cookie dough balls for professional looking cookies.

How do you keep M&Ms from cracking in the oven?

The heat from the oven is what causes the m&ms to crack. If you don't want them cracked, you would need to wait and press them on the top of the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven.

M&M Cookie Storage

Storing: These cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. For longer storage, you can freeze the cookies.

Freezing Cookie Dough: Baked cookies can be frozen in an airtight container or freezer bag. You can also freeze this cookie dough. Scoop into balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet or use these cookie dough freezing trays. Transfer frozen cookie dough to freezer bags. Check out this post for How to Freeze Cookie Dough for tips on saving cookie dough for later.

a m&m cookie with a bite taken out of it on a piece of brown parchment paper with more cookies and m&ms in the background

Substitutions for this Recipe:

Butter: Butter is essential to this recipe. We haven't tried it with dairy free butter but it might work!

Brown Sugar: You can make brown sugar with white sugar. You can add 1 teaspoon of molasses to 1 cup white sugar to make brown sugar. Check out this post on Sugar Substitutes for Baking for other ideas.

Sugar: We don't recommend substituting white sugar.

Eggs: We don't recommend substituting eggs, but you can read this article on Egg Substitutions for Baking if you need to substitute. Try it at your own risk!

Vanilla Extract: Helps to add flavor, we don't recommend substituting.

All Purpose Flour: We don't recommend substituting the flour, but you can check out this article on Substitutions for All-Purpose Flour.

Baking Soda: Baking soda is essential for this recipe. Do not substitute with baking powder.

M & M Cookie Recipe variations

Use holiday M&Ms - You can use any color M&M in this recipe. Christmas, Fourth of July, etc. I haven't tested this with other variations of M&Ms but I think it would work with peanut M&Ms!
Add in extra chocolate/mix ins. ¼ cup chopped walnuts or additional chocolate chips would be delicious in these cookies!

A white plate piled high with m&m cookies with m&ms scattered around on the white counter

M and M Cookie Recipe FAQs

Why are my M&M cookies flat?

Common reasons for flat cookies are not allowing the dough to chill before baking, using warm butter, and overmixing your cookie dough.

What makes cookies crispy or chewy?

The type of sugar used will affect the texture of your cookie. White sugar creates a crispier cookie and brown sugar makes a chewier cookie. The combo of sugars in this recipe leads to the perfect cookie that is crispy on the edges and chewy on the inside.

What is the secret to the best cookies?

The secret to the best cookies is having the right proportions of fat (butter) to sugar, not overmixing your cookie dough, and chilling the dough before baking.

Other easy cookie recipes:

M & M Cookies

The Best M&M Cookies Recipe! These soft m & m cookies are so easy to make & delicious! The ultimate m and m cookie recipe everyone will love!

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: m & m cookies, m and m cookie recipe, m&m cookies recipe

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 15

Total Time: 35

Servings: cookies

Calories: 191kcal

Ingredients

½ cup salted butter softened - 1 stick
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1.5 cups m&ms
½ cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Add the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar to a large mixing bowl. Using electric hand beaters or a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together for 1-2 minutes, until pale and creamy. If using a stand mixer, you may need to scrape the sides of the bowl once or twice.
Add the egg and vanilla extract to the bowl and beat once again until well combined with the butter mixture, scraping the bowl as necessary.
Add the flour and baking soda and beat on a low speed until the ingredients are just combined. Add in the M&Ms and chocolate chips
Cover the bowl and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 325°F/160°c. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Scoop the dough using a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop and roll into a ball (it doesn’t have to be perfectly round). Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets.
Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until light golden brown on the edges. The cookies will still be soft at this stage, but will firm up as they cool.
Allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking sheets.

Nutrition