Soft and Chewy M&M’s Cookies — Super soft, chewy, buttery M&M’s cookies that totally are irresistible! Loaded with M&M’s and perfect for springtime, Easter, Mother’s Day and more!
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These easy homemade M&M’s cookies turned out so soft, moist, and tender in the interior with perfectly chewy edges. The dough is buttery, with hints of vanilla.
There’s an abundance of M&M’s in every bite and I love biting into their shells. The dichotomy of smooth, supple dough, generously flanked with candy, and hearing those little shells crack and crunch as I bite down, and feeling the crunchy coating bits between my teeth, like sweet little eggshells, it’s just something I love.
They’re the best M&M’s cookies I’ve ever had. And not just because there’s pink M&M’s baked in, but that doesn’t hurt.
Ingredients Needed
To make this M&M’s cookie recipe, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Cornstarch
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Milk chocolate M&M’s
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make M&M’s Cookies
Now, this is some of the easiest, fastest, and least fussy cookie dough you’ll ever make! Here’s how these spring cookies are made:
- Combine the butter, egg, sugars, vanilla, and beat until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Add the all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and mix.
- Fold in the M&M’s and you’re done. So easy.
- After the dough comes together, form two tablespoon-sized mounds.
- Place all the mounds on a large plate, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 5 days, before baking. If you bake with warm dough, your cookies will spread more and won’t stay as thick and puffy, which is why I always bake with chilled dough.
- Bake the cookies at 350F for 8 to 10 minutes, no more.
Tip for Rolling the Cookie Dough Balls
I wasn’t skimpy with the M&M’s, to the point that when you’re forming the dough mounds before baking, it may seem like you have as many M&M’s as dough in your mixing bowl. Just stuff them back into the dough if they’re trying to fall out, and later you’ll savor each and every crunchy candy-coated bite.
Recipe Variations
This is a classic chewy M&M’s cookie recipe, but there are a few ingredient swaps you can make:
- M&M’s color: To make these M&M’s cookies appropriate for any season or get-together, simply switch up the M&M’s colors you use. I used pastel M&M’s for Easter, but these cookies are easily customized!
- Chocolate chips: If you don’t have M&M’s on hand, you’re welcome to use semi-sweet chocolate chips instead.
- Bars: If you don’t feel like making individual cookies or don’t have time for the dough to chill, press the dough into an 8- or 9-inch baking dish and bake until golden around the edges and just set in the center.
Recipe FAQs
Cornstarch is the secret ingredient that helps these cookies bake up super soft. Cornstarch is why pudding cookies and cake Mix cookies bake up so soft! It worked like a champ here, keeping the cookies soft and tender, without being cakey.
Yes, you MUST chill the cookie dough for at least 2 hours. If you bake warm dough, your cookies will spread in the oven.
Yes, you can make the cookie dough and shape it into balls and then chill or freeze the dough to bake off later.
The cookies shown in the photos were baked with dough that had been chilled for two days, allowed to come to room temp for 15 minutes, and then baked for 8 1/2 minutes, with trays rotated at the 4-minute mark.
The cookie tops should be set, but barely, and will be pale, glossy and appear underdone, but they firm up as they cool. Baking any longer than 10 minutes and you run the risk of the bottoms browning too much, the M&M’s cracking, or ending up with hard, dry, rock-like hockey pucks after cooling.
Yes, you’re welcome to use any variety of M&M’s you’d like in this recipe.
Yes, you’re welcome to add chopped nuts, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and more to these cookies. Just keep in mind that you shouldn’t add more than 1 1/2 cups mix-ins total.
Storage Instructions
Baked cookies: Store the chewy M&M’s cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Raw cookie dough: Can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
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Soft and Chewy M&M’s Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 ½ cups milk chocolate M&M’s, or another variety of M&M’s, or chocolate chips may be substituted
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugars, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-creamed, light and fluffy, about 5 minutes (or use a hand mixer and beat for at least 7 minutes).
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, optional salt, and mix until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Add the M&M’s and fold in by hand.
- Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping mounds. Place mounds on a large plate, flatten mounds very slightly with your palm, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat, parchment, or spray with cooking spray. and place them on the baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart; I bake 8 cookies per sheet.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until edges have set and tops are just beginning to set, even if slightly undercooked, pale and glossy in the center. Do not bake longer than ten minutes as cookies will firm up as they cool (The cookies shown in the photos were baked with dough that had been chilled for two days, allowed to come to room temp for 15 minutes, and were baked for 8 1/2 minutes, with trays rotated at the 4-minute mark. They have chewy edges with soft pillowy centers).
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Cookie Recipes with M&M’s:
M&M’s Chocolate Chip Cookies — These bakery-style M&M’s cookies are soft, chewy, buttery, and LOADED with M&M’s and chocolate chips. No one can resist these cookies!
Chocolate Cake Mix M&M’s Cookies — Foolproof cookies made with just 5 ingredients!! If you’re craving chocolate and want to make super EASY cookies that are soft, FUDGY, and delicious, this is the recipe to make!!
The BEST Oatmeal Chocolate Chip M&M’s Cookies — Between the chewy oats, the gooey melted chocolate, and the slight crunch from the M&Ms, there’s wonderful texture in every bite.
Soft M&M’s Pudding Cookies — This is my new favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies. They’re soft, buttery, and this version is loaded with milk chocolate M&Ms and semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Monster Cookies — My recipe for classic monster cookies that are chock full of creamy peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, and M&M’s makes both kids and adults reach for just one more cookie! Fast, EASY, soft, perfectly chewy, and they’ll become a family FAVORITE in no time!
Santa’s Kitchen Sink Cookies — Santa and everyone else won’t be able to resist these AMAZING cookies loaded with everything but the kitchen sink!! EASY, festive, salty-sweet treats with a FUN ingredients list!!
Originally posted March 12, 2013 and reposted with updated text April 1, 2022.
I just pulled my first trays from the oven and they turned out great! I used Arrowroot Powder instead of the cornstarch. I doubled the recipe, but only had one bag of M&Ms so they could use more candy but other than that, perfection. Thanks for the great recipe!! My three little valentines are going to gobble these up today :)
Glad they turned out great for you and that the arrowroot powder was fine, too! Happy Vday!
Just made these- they turned out fabulously! I used 1 c Valentine’s Day M&M’s and 1/2 c chocolate chips and they were divine! Perfectly soft & chewy, just how an M&M cookie’s supposed to be! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for trying them Havens & glad they came out exactly perfect for you! Happy Valentine’s Day!
I made these m&m cookies and they were soooooo good. They spread a bit more than in your photos. Not sure where I went wrong. I was careful about chilling them and such. Only thing I could think is maybe I am not creaming the butter enough AND I used salted butter. Regardless though they are delicious and I will try again possibly doing a better job of creaming the butter.
I will also try King Arthur brand flower as suggested in other comments.
My family loves your cookies! As always, thanks for the recipes and suggestions.
Thanks for the great comment (and thanks for taking the time to post it here). Glad you enjoyed the cookies so much :)
Ok I followed your exact m&m recipe and it was a disaster. I chilled the dough overnight and it was so hard I couldn’t get it out of the bowl. In fact it broke my wooden spoon in half. I struggled with it, baked per the instructions and ended up with little hockey pucks :(
If you followed the recipe exactly, then you would have scooped the dough into balls, chilled the balls, then baked them. From what you described, it sounds like you chilled your entire bowl of dough, thus the broken spoon and saying you couldn’t get it out of the bowl. Sorry you didn’t read the recipe correctly.
With a lot of struggle, I get the dough out of bowl and baked them per your instructions. Like I said, they turned out like hockey pucks. I don’t think chilling in the bowl vs chilling in balls should cause that issue? Wasted an entire batch of ingredients. Who knows what the problem was but I guess I will just use my original recipe next time.
I’m certain that what you did, when you didn’t follow the directions I indicated, contributed to your results not being like mine. Sorry that you chose to do things that way. I have used this dough base in many other cookies on my site, i.e. Snickers, Twix, and many more – and have never had anyone write saying they had such difficulty like you did which would seem to indicate that’s where the problem came in. Sorry for your trouble!
These look delicious. Thinking of making them with red and green for my daughter’s school. Did you use a convection oven for these? And if not would that be a good idea? Thanks!
I just bake in a regular oven – the one that’s in my apartment. Nothing fancy. Since I don’t have a convection oven, I don’t know how that would change baking time or effect results. I would bake in a regular oven if you can so you can duplicate my results.
Hi!
I made these with reeses pieces tonight (boss’s birthday tomorrow, those are his favorite!) – they’re a bit too sweet for me, but I know they’ll be a HIT tomorrow. Next time I’ll try m&ms or semi sweet chocolate chips. Yum.
Glad you think people will like them!
They did! All gobbled up. :)
Trust me, the pumpkin honey cookie has already been pinned!! I thought maybe between the 2tbsp of pumpkin pie spice & then the M & M’s it might be too overwhelming?? Should I cut down on the amt. of spice? Can you come here & make them??? LOL!! I’ll definitely keep you posted!!
Hi Averie! I came across this cutie M & M cookie recipe. Thank you for posting it! I have an idea & I need your advice/help. It’s the first day of Fall today & I purchased a bag of Pumpkin Spice M & M’ s at Target. How could I doctor this recipe a little to make it more accepting to the M & M? Should I add some pumpkin pie spice to it? Cut down on the vanilla? Please help!!! I completely trust your advice!!! Happy Fall!!!!! Amy
You could just make this recipe as written and add about 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice or I have another recipe I just posted for soft and puffy pumpkin spice and honey cookies (look on my sidebar recent posts for link – on my phone right now and hard to link) and just add the mms to that recipe. Lmk what you do!
Is it okay if I make large and thin cookies out of this? Won’t make any difference right?
I prefer thicker cookies just because thin usually means crispier and I don’t like crispy cookies at all. You can bake them larger and thinner if that’s your preference though. Lmk how it goes!
Made these last night for a cookie exchange — unfortunately they turned out with a distinct taste of “hmm, these really need salt” so I’m not going to use them, but I think with the 1/2 t of salt listed in your other similar recipe, they would be great!
Yes, there is salted listed in the ingredients list in these – “salt, optional and to taste”
Salt in sweets is a hard thing to state universally because one person may think they need salt, but another may think they’re just fine without; which is why I always say to salt, to taste. Sounds like you may be one of the people who can handle more rather than less. And I wouldn’t write them off for a cookie exchange. What you think ‘needs salt’ – others may not. Trust me! I hear all sides of the salt issue from my readers, which is why, again, I’m at the ‘to taste’ stage. I let that fall on you all :)