M&M Cookies + Video
These bakery style M&M Cookies are loaded with chocolate chips and M&M candies. They’re crispy on the edges, soft and chewy in the center, with plenty of chocolate throughout. The best M&M cookies! No chill time required — just make and bake.
When I worked in a grocery store bakery and we made M&M cookies, they were basically chocolate chip cookies with M&M’s on top. It used to bother me, because it felt like it was cheating to only use a few M&M’s per cookie.
The Best M&M Cookies
I’ve since concluded that the best M&M cookies are made with both chocolate chips and M&M’s candies.
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Using chocolate chips in addition to M&M’s gives it more smooth chocolatey goodness, with the look and crunch of the chocolate M&M’s candies, mostly on top.
Sure you can buy M&M’s mini’s or M&M’s baking bits to distribute the candies better, but I still prefer my M&M cookies to be made with chocolate chips and classic M&M’s.
Soft or Crisp Cookies?
The way you make and bake these M&M cookies will determine the final product. Everyone likes their cookies a certain way. Here are some general tips:
- Use soft, yet firm butter. The butter should be cold, and give a little when touched. Melted butter, or butter that is too soft, will make the cookies spread too thin. You can refrigerate the dough if your butter is too soft to help combat this.
- For soft cookies: Bake cookies until the edges are barely starting to brown and the centers look just slightly under-baked. Let the cookies rest on the pan for a few minutes, to finish baking, for a soft-baked cookie.
- For crispy cookies: Bake cookies until golden brown on the top and edges; baking an additional 2-3 minutes past the recommended time.
Thick or Thin Cookies?
There are a few tricks to make these M&M cookies thicker or thinner.
- For thick cookies: Use more cookie dough, about 2 Tbsp per cookie. And shape the cookie dough balls tall and round. You can also press the edges of the cookie inward just after the tray comes out of the oven. I like to do this with a serving spatula. For the thickest cookies, refrigerate the dough for 30-60 minutes before baking.
- For thin cookies: Use a smaller portion of dough, about 1.5 Tbsp per cookie. Other options include using slightly softer butter, or slightly pressing the dough 1/3 of the way down after it is scooped.
Tips for Making M&M Cookies:
- Use a cookie dough scoop. This helps the M&M cookies bake evenly and look uniform. I prefer a #30 or #40 scoop. NOTE: The bigger the number, the smaller the scoop, and the smaller the number the bigger the scoop. These two sizes are between 1.5 and 2 Tbsp of cookie dough. I used a #30 scoop for the cookies shown.
- Gently place a generous amount of M&M’s on top of cookie dough balls before baking. Only mix a small portion of M&M’s into the chocolate chip cookie dough and press the majority of the M&M candies into the tops. Be generous because the cookies spread, and you want M&M’s in each bite.
- NOTE: In the bakery, we would have M&M’s on a tray, then pick up the cookie dough balls, and press the tops into the M&M’s until they stuck. The only problem with this is that it flattens the tops of the cookie dough, and if you want thicker cookies, you don’t want to flatten the dough at all. Grab a handful of M&M’s and use your pointer fingers to place them into the cookie dough, maintaining the shape of a ball.
- Space cookie dough 3-inches apart, not two. I like to bake 8 cookies per tray compared to the typical dozen (12). (See second photo in post.) First of all, you don’t want your cookies melting into each other. Secondly, the more cookies on the tray, the thinner the cookies bake because the heat is trying to distribute evenly across all of the cookies.
I hope you love this recipe as much as I do! It uses more vanilla and a bigger ratio of brown sugar to granulated sugar for maximum flavor.
More Cookie Recipes:
- Soft-Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies – includes a special ingredient to make them perfectly thick, chewy, and soft!
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies – a classic peanut butter cookie recipe studded with chocolate chips.
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies – thick, soft, and chewy, with plenty of hearty old fashioned oats and creamy chocolate chips.
- Double Chocolate Crinkle Cookies – soft and fudgy with chocolate chips added for twice the chocolatey goodness.
- Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies – loaded with pretzels, caramel bits, and chocolate chips, for a salty-sweet cookie treat.
- Sour Cream Cookies – soft and fluffy with just the right amount of sweetness — they’re perfect with or without frosting.
M&M Cookies
These bakery style M&M Cookies are loaded with chocolate chips and M&M candies. They're crispy on the edges, soft and chewy in the center, with plenty of chocolate throughout.
Yields cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) butter, (2 sticks) room temperature
- 1 cup (200 g) brown sugar, gently packed
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 3 ¼ cups (390 g) all-purpose flour, (stir, spoon & level)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup (170 g) chocolate chips
- 1 ½ cups (336 g) M&M’s candies, divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line cookie sheet trays with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and both sugars. Cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix well and scrape the bowl with a spatula.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Add the chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of the M&M’s. Mix gently on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.
- Scoop cookie dough balls (about 2 Tbsp each) and place onto prepared baking sheet about 3-inches apart. (8 cookies per tray.) Generously press M&M’s into the tops of cookie dough balls (about 6-7 M&M’s per cookie) maintaining a round shape.
- Bake at 350˚F for 8-10 minutes until edges are just barely starting to brown. For thicker cookies, press edges inward with a cookie spatula while still warm. Allow to cool for 1-2 minutes on the tray, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
- Use unsalted butter or salted butter and adjust salt as needed.
- To measure flour properly: stir the flour to incorporate air into it, then spoon it into the measuring cup, and level it with the back of a knife. I have added the weight in grams to help with this.
- For thicker cookies: Refrigerate dough 30-60 minutes before baking in addition to pressing edges inward while still warm.
- For crispier cookies: Bake 2-3 minutes longer, until golden brown all over.
- Store M&M cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 cookie | Calories: 178kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 133mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 21g
Disclaimer: Nutritional values were calculated using a third-party tool and are provided as an estimation only.
Did you make this?
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These cookies are sooo good and just the thing for the Holidays when using Christmas M&M’s. Thank you they are delicious.
Love those holiday M&Ms. Glad you enjoyed this recipe Maura!
I don’t usually leave comments on recipes, but I had to come on here and say these are DANG GOOD COOKIES! I weighed my flour which I think made a good difference. I switched up the m&ms for Valentine’s Day cookies. … I’ve also eaten quite a few for… quality control purposes 😉
Thanks for the awesome recipe, I can’t wait to try more of yours!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe Marissa and that you took the time to share your experience with the recipe. Thank you!
Just made these. And they are very good and was easy.
So glad you enjoyed them Lynn!
These are the best cookies I have ever made/ had in my whole life!!!! Is there anyway you have or could create a recipe for this for a small batch? Perhaps a cookies for 2 recipe?
Thanks!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these cookies Kelly. I don’t have a small batch recipe, but I do have a single microwave cookie that could be shared for two here: https://www.dessertnowdinnerlater.com/microwave-chocolate-chip-cookie/
Also, you can always freeze the cookie dough in balls and make just a couple at a time, as you wish. We do it all the time. It will just take about 3-5 minutes longer to bake from frozen.
OMFG THIS IS LITTERALLY THE BEST I’VE GOTTA TRY THIS..
Do you have a weight for the flour? I prefer weighing over measuring when baking for accuracy, especially after the mixed reviews. I don’t trust my measuring, haha!
I don’t have the weight measurements, but just make sure you stir your flour, spoon it into the cup, and then level it off. You can start with a 1/4 cup less flour and bake one cookie as a “test” if it spreads too much then you can add more flour 2 or 4 Tablespoons at a time. Then test another. You can always refrigerate the dough if it spreads too much as well.
Dough is very dry/crumbly. I spooned in flour and leveled off. Butter sat out over night to reach room temperature. Baked and, as mentioned already turn out more like little muffin tops than cookies.
Unfortunately, based on the dry/crumbly result of your cookie, you somehow still ended up with too much flour. It’s really important to give the flour a good stir/fluff it up before you measure it. The flour settles when it is stored and will compact into the cup even if you spooned it in without fluffing it up first. A possible reason for puffy/muffin-like cookies would be that the butter and sugar were creamed together too long. And/or it was mixed too long after the eggs were added. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you.
these are the best cookies in the world.
Glad to hear it! We love them too. The dough base is perfect with other mix-ins as well.
Hi dear
Can we freeze this dough in the form of balls for future use?
Yes! Absolutely. They will just need to bake 2-3 minutes longer when baking from frozen.
im having a little problem with my batter is came out so runny , i dont want to keep adding flour , why would that happen???
This can happen if the butter is too soft, or it was over-mixed with the sugars. You can try adding 2-4 Tablespoons of extra flour or you can refrigerate the dough until it firms up.