- April 20, 2021
- Jessie Sheehan
- Cookies
4.50 from 16 votes
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Peeps, so these best ever chewy M&M cookies are some seriously delicious cookies – like no joke. They are incredibly chewy, wonderfully buttery AND vanilla-y (yes, I am a food writer and no, “vanilla-y” is not a technical term . . . ). They are tender and have crunchy edges and even if you are not an M&Ms fan (which I am and am REALLY hoping you are, too . . .) you will love the little bits of candy coated chocolate throughout these cookies, as M&Ms take on their own personality when surrounded by cookie dough – they just do.
Chewy cookies with crispy edges are kind of my jam, and if they happen to be best ever chewy M&M cookies that call for melted butter and NO resting time, which means they are over the top EASY- PEASY, well then all the better. And here’s the thing – I did not actually develop this recipe! I stumbled upon it in one of my ALL TIME fave magazines, Cook’s Country. Truth be told, I have let a lot of my magazine subscriptions dry up . . . but not those to Cook’s Country and Cook’s Illustrated – as I adore them both – but I digress.
The truth of the matter is that when I read the recipe in the magazine a few months back, I immediately knew I’d be making them due to not only the M&Ms (I mean candy in cookies?? Yes, please! Sign me up!) but also the melted butter. Whenever I develop a cookie recipe, I always consider whether melted butter will work, as using it guarantees a chewy cookie AND usually means you do not have to lug out your stand or hand mixer to make them! Win win!! So . . . the writing was on the wall from way back and if you’d like to see me MAKE these cookies on TikTok and Instagram Reels, be my guest (lucky you!).
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4.50 from 16 votes
Best Ever Chewy M&M Cookies
Recipe Author Jessie Sheehan
Course Candy, Dessert
Cuisine American, Candy, Cookies
Prep Time 10 minutes mins
Cook Time 9 minutes mins
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 yolk
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups M&Ms
Instructions
Heat oven to 425°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the M&Ms and whisk to combine.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the melted butter and the sugars until well combined. Whisk in the egg, yolk and vanilla until well combined. Add the With a flexible spatula, gently fold in the dry ingredients in until just combined.
Scoop 1/4 cup balls of dough using an ice cream scoop or dry measuring cup and evenly space the dough balls on the prepared sheets.
Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time (or, better yet, only bake off as many dough balls as you plan on eating, and freeze the rest on the cookie sheet, transferring them to a zippered plastic bag once they are frozen – add a few minutes to the bake-time when baking from frozen) for about 8 to 10 minutes. Cookies might seem a little light in color at this point, but they will be excellent – don't worry.
Let them cool about 5 minutes before eating them (and writing me a thank you letter).
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Cookies Chocolate Vanilla
Do you need more than 1 bag of sharing size M&M’s to make these (if not sneaking any) or do you need more?
How many cookies does it make?
Should you refrigerate the dough at any point, before baking?
This is a MUST MAKE for my grandkids & me!
you need 9 ounces – not sure how big a bag that is . . . it depends on how big you make them but about 16 large-ish sized cookies no refrigerating needed!
Thanks! I’m sure we’ll all Enjoy!
Yay!!
I intend on making them this weekend. Now that I have reviewed the recipe & video, I have another question. The recipe actually says to add the M&Ms to the dry ingredients, but the video shows adding them after the wet is added into dry, which I assume is correct. Printed recipe is wrong, video is correct? Maybe it doesn’t matter as long as the M&Ms get added. Yum!
sorry about that! yes – please follow the recipe rather than the video! thank you.
either way works!
Yikes! One more. The recipe says oven at 425 & bake for 8-10 minutes but the video says bake at 350 for 10 to 12 min. Which is best?
please follow the recipe! thank you. XO
I will try it the recipe way. Thanks! An early Happy Mother’s Day.
great and you too!
OMG YUM! Just made this recipe and am eating fresh cookies as I type this. So simple/easy to follow. I doubled the recipe but only used one shareable bag of M&Ms plus some mini chocolate chips (my preference) – still plenty of chocolate to go around. Using an ice cream scoop makes the perfect portion cookie. These cookies are sweet but buttery, chewy, and will melt in your mouth. I baked for 10 minutes at 425°F as directed – as the recipe notes, they were light in color but ended up being just right. I will be sharing this recipe and making again in the future.
Ps. Love the TikToks – it’s how I found your recipes!
Wow! Yay! So glad the recipe was a success and so glad u found me through TikTok!! Love that so much. XO
My thank you note! The cookies were a huge hit. The 3 kids totally enjoyed (parents & me also). One was counting & saw his sister grab #4 & he wasn’t happy he only had 3. Amusing to me, but not to him.
I only had dark brown sugar & the adults agreed it should be made with light brown sugar, as directed. I also goofed & used the video temp of 350 & stirred the M&Ms at the end. I made them 2 days ahead & froze them so my baking time was about 14 min total. They were still perfectly delicious. Wonderful! The kids said I can make them again for them, ASAP.
so glad to hear kathy! yay!!
I made these last night and they were amazing!! Definitely going in my recipe book for Christmases to come. Yes Jessie, you deserve a huge thank you!! 😛
Yahoo! So happy to hear that! Happy holidays. XO
I personally thought this was a weird proportioned recipe and the cookies did not turn out great. Darker on top, too gooey in middle
So sorry you weren’t happy with them. I have always had really great results – as I think you know the recipe is from Cooks Country Magazine and they are notoriously good at testing their recipes.
I’m an experienced baker and 425 did not work for me, underbaked and burnt on the bottom. Going to test at a much lower temp.
so sorry to hear that – the recipe is from cook’s country and that is the temp they recommend – honestly i don’t usually bake cookies at such a high temp, but for this recipe i followed the directions and it worked – i think baking at a lower temp the next time sounds like a good idea.
I suspect it depends on the size. I made the ones at the 1/4 cup size and baked at 425 and they were perfect. Then I made my usual size (about 1Tbsp each) and had to turn the oven down to 375 so they wouldn’t burn. I even rack position also matters. These should be in the upper third. Finally, you should get an oven thermometer to see if your oven runs hot/cold. Even the nicest ovens have hot spots. Then you can adjust all recipes according to your unique oven.
yes to all this!
Hi! I just made a batch of these cookies at the request of my son. I have a convection oven and baked the first pan at 425deg for 8 min (I even rotated the pan 1/2 way through) and they came out pretty dark, yet still chewy, but a little crispy on the edges. For the second pan I reduced the temperature to 400deg. They weren’t as browned, but still darker than what I’d like. Do I need to adjust the temp and/or bake time for a convection oven versus a conventional oven? Thank you!
Hi! I know the temp for these is unusually high but I tweaked the recipe from a Cook’s Country one and that is what they used and it works for me. I have convection too and you always drop by 25 degrees – so 400. But all ovens are different and yours might be running a little high. I’d say bake them at 375 and see how you do and only for 8 minutes. You could also bake off only one or two cookies at 375 and if it works, great and if it doesn’t adjust again higher or lower deep depending on the results.
Just made these today and they were amazing! I was skeptical about using 1/4 cup for each cookie but they came out so chewy. I might reduce the oven temp next time as they did get quite brown on the top, but overall a super quick and easy recipe with a great payoff.
So glad they worked for you and that u enjoyed. xo
These cookies are amazing! I pressed an extra four or five M&Ms onto the top of each cookie prior to baking with great results. Thank you!
yay!!!
