Learn How To Make Perfect M&M Cookies! These really are the best chocolate chip cookies and I simply can’t wait to share them with you!
The Best M&M Cookies
Are you ready for the best m and m cookies recipe? I’ve been making these M and M cookies for years now and they are ALWAYS a hit. In fact, I’m making a batch today for some neighbor gifts!
What defines a perfect cookie to you? It’s quite different for everyone I imagine. For me, the cookie has to be soft and chewy but crispy around the edges with just the right texture. This cookie that I’ve developed has all of those things which is why this recipe is titled How To Make Perfect M&M Cookies 🙂
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Crowd Favorite. These cookies are a favorite at every party.
- EASY! They’re easy to make!
- Can’t Mess Them Up! Fail proof recipe!
Try my Chocolate Malted Cookies too! Follow Picky Palate on Instagram for daily recipe inspiration!
What You’ll Need
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make M&M Cookies at home. See the recipe card located at the bottom of the post for full details.
- Salted Butter, Softened– For most of my recipes I use salted butter, but unsalted is just fine here too.
- Granulated Sugar– This fine sugar brings the sweet to the cookies.
- Light Brown Sugar– The light brown sugar also brings the sweetness to the cookies.
- Large Egg– For consistency use large eggs for your baking.
- Pure Vanilla Extract– For best tasting results use pure vanilla extract.
- All-Purpose Flour– Flour is the main dry ingredient for the cookies.
- Kosher Salt- This coarse salt is commonly used in cooking and baking. Find it near the table salt.
- Baking Soda– Baking soda helps the cookies rise during baking.
- Mini Chocolate Chips– Mini chips can be found in the baking section near the other chocolate chips.
- Mini M&M’s– Find the mini M&M’s near the candy section in most grocery stores. Regular size are fine too if you can’t find the mini.
How To Make The Best M&M Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper.
Cream Butters and Sugars. In a large mixing bowl cream your butter and sugars until well combined.
Wet Ingredients. Pour in your egg and vanilla mixing to combine.
Dry Ingredients. Add your flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt, stirring to combine.
Chocolate. Add chips and m and m’s stirring to combine.
Scoop Dough Onto Baking Sheet. With a medium cookie scoop, place dough 1 inch apart from each other. NOTE: Do not press the cookie dough before baking. Leave just like this. UPDATE: If your cookies don’t flatten after baking as my photo shows below, try pressing the cookie dough to about a 1/2″ thickness before you bake.
Bake. Bake for 10-12 minutes until cooked through. Let cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
Secret Ingredient To The Best M&M Cookies!
Instant Pudding Mix! Add a few Tablespoons of vanilla instant pudding mix with your dry ingredients.
This is how they’ll come out. Perfect! Enjoy friends!
Tips For Making The Best M&M Cookies
- Don’t alter the recipe, use all ingredients as listed.
- For a more firm cookie, refrigerate your cookie dough for 24 hours before baking.
- Always use butter, not margarine. I prefer salted butter for my chocolate chip cookies.
- Don’t skip creaming your butter and sugars for a good 2 minutes. Helps create a fluffy, chewy cookie.
- Try sprinkling dough with just a touch of salt for a perfect sweet and salty combination.
- Don’t overtake your cookies. Cookies will continue to cook on hot cookie sheet when removed from oven.
- Let cookies cool completely before storing in containers. This will keep their crispness
How To Serve
Serve cookies for any occasion where cookies are needed. They make the perfect sweet treat. Great for gifting to neighbors and even bake sales.
How To Store Leftovers
Store any leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Freezing Instructions
You can freeze the scooped cookie dough, flash freeze on a cookie sheet for 30 minutes then place dough into an airtight container and freeze up to 3 months in the freezer. To freeze the cookies, place them in an airtight container for up to 3 months in the freezer. Thaw before enjoying.
Try More Delicious Cookie Recipes
- The Best Brown Butter Cookies
- Churro White Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Malted Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies
How To Make Perfect M&M Cookies
Equipment
- Oven
- cookie sheet
- parchment paper
- mixing bowl
- cookie scoop
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- mixing spoons
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1-1/2 cups all purpose Gold Medal Flour
- 3 tablespoons Instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1 or 1-1/2 cups Mini M and M’s
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl cream your butter and sugars until well combined. Add your egg and vanilla mixing to combine. Add your flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt, stirring to combine. Add chips and m and m’s stirring to combine.
- With a medium cookie scoop, place dough 1 inch apart from each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes until cooked through. Let cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
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I’m a total cookie freak. As soon as I saw these I knew I had to make them. My ingredients are coming to room temp right now.
Yay! Let me know how they turn out!!
Thank you, thank you, thank YOU! As much as I’m afraid to bake a batch of the babies (for fear of devouring then all myself), they just look too irresistible to pass up! You described my favorite cookie texture, so vanilla pudding mix is going on my shopping list! 🙂
I love the mini chocolate chips! I just bought a bag and made the mistake of telling my husband I bought them… I dont have them anymore =/ Now let’s hope I can find them again (and hide them from the hubs LOL!!) I havent ever put in the instant pudding into my cookies. I really need to try this 🙂 These cookies look beautiful as ever!
OMG! PUDDING! I so have to try these today!
I love pudding mix in cookies! I bet it makes these cookies fabulous!
This is my favorite cookie ever, ever, ever – and you just made it look even more appealing! Saving these to try soon, thanks Jenny!
Thanks Georgia 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
Do you think you could use chocolate puddin mix? Or would you have
To adjust the sugar? I oy have chocolate pudding mix right now.
Not sure about the chocolate pudding mix. Might just make them a bit darker. It’s worth a shot 🙂
Did use the chocolate pudding (only cuz I didn’t have vanilla ). Yes it made them darker but OMG!! Everyone LOVED them this way. I always make m&m chip cookies at Christmas. And this were a wonderful change from the norm. Thanks for sharing your pudding secret.
OH MY these look amazing!!! We’ll be making these soon for sure.
I recently put pudding in my chocolate chip cookies…it makes a world of difference!!
You can’t go wrong with m&m cookies! I need to try using pudding in cookies like this!
Thank you for posting! I’ve been waiting for this!!
Thanks for being patient 🙂 I know I teased everyone for a good week!
Must try these this weekend! I noticed you were stirring by spoon and not mixer. I think this makes a difference in cookies but not sure why. What is your opinion or theory regarding this?
You know what Joan, I honestly make cookies both ways. Not sure I’ve seen a major difference between the two in my experience.
THEY LOOK SO GOOD !
THE LIGHT IN YOUR HOME FOR YOUR PICTURES IS SO LOVELY TO SEE. NOT TOO MUCH SUN IN OHIO RIGHT NOW!
Thanks so much Kelly. It’s been nice and sunny in CA 🙂
Jenny I think all of your cookies look petty darn perfect anyway:)
Haha! Thanks Gerry 🙂
Hey! I really want to know if instead of all purpose flour i can use regular flour? because in the country i live there is none of that
Wow those do look perfect! I wish I could reach in the monitor and grab one!
Too bad my oven is broken….I would be baking these tonight otherwise!
Talk about a lightbulb moment!! How had I never heard this secret before! I’m stocking up on pudding mix this week.
Ooo, you’ll love it Megan! Enjoy 🙂
They do look perfect and very enticing! And if I made them i would have m and m’s left over. What’s a girl to do?
omg. JELLO!! No way. That is such a cool trick and one that I’ve never tried before! All over this for this weekend.
These are just too cute, Jenny!!! The mini chips and candies make them just precious!!!
They are … GORGEOUS ! Unfortunately, in France, I don’t think I would find your magical ingredient ! 🙁
But they look yummy !
If you don’t have pudding mix you can try what always works for me. I have a great recipe that doesn’t always come that perfect consistency. So, I decided to try ingredients that my mother had used and I had turned my nose up at. Instead of butter I use half margarine and half shortening. I know there are purists who cringe at such ingredients, but seriously…it’s cookies. The enormous amount of sugar and fat in it already makes it a proceed with caution food. All I know is that my cookies always come out perfectly crunchy, chewy and delicious!
Cringing purist here- the butter is also the flavor- Margarine & Shortening do nothing to contribute to flavor not to mention that Margarine is full of trans-fats and so bad for you.
Love the pudding mix trick! My kiddos will go crazy for these M&M cookies!
I’m not sure what it is, but m & m cookies always look and sound so amazing! The colorful m&ms make the cookies so much better than just normal chocolate chips. and pudding cookies, great choice. I can’t wait to try these out!
Love pudding cookies! These look amazing and I had no idea that Ghirardelli has minis!!
Yes, yes, yes! Such a great classic!
these look perfect indeed! I love them, must make them!
I love making pudding cookies! So soft!
Jenny, these are my favorite all time cookies! I have been messing with a recipe I have, but it just wasn’t turning out how I wanted it to. You found the secret! Thanks, I cant wait to give these a try!!!
Jenny! These TOTALLY look so perfectly soft! I LOVE pudding in cookies – they’re like the best kept secret ever. Sometimes I don’t even like to tell people I used it 😉 these look amazing!! I NEED to find those Ghiradelli mini’s!!
Pudding mix! That is crazy! I am going to the store to buy some today! What a clever idea. These cookies look sooooo good!
Wow! My cookies never come out quite this perfect looking!
I need to try the pudding mix trick! On the lookout for Ghirardelli Mini’s- haven’t spotted those yet!
Thank you so much for sharing this secret ingredient Jenny!
My cookies are usually less good looking than yours.
Beautiful cookies! I also like adding instant pudding into cookie dough…so many flavor options! I normally find the Mini M&M’s in the candy aisle, at my local Wal-Mart- they are so cute and fun to bake with!
Looking good! I’ll have some for breakfast please!
Jenny they are indeed perfect! Pudding mix is amazing stuff. It keeps everything so soft, moist, tender, and can do no wrong. I love it in banana bread and no matter how hard I try to use other things in it’s place, nothing quite gives me the results that it does. I love these cookies of yours. Pinned!
The pudding! Who would have thought? I am totally pinning this recipe and whipping up a batch for my weekend crowd who will sooooo love me (love you) for these! Thanks!
Deon @ipinnedit.com