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 🙂
Try my Chocolate Malted Cookies too! Follow Picky Palate on Instagram for daily recipe inspiration!
What You’ll Need
- 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
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper.
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In a large mixing bowl cream your butter and sugars until well combined. Pour in your egg and vanilla mixing to combine.
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Add your flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt, stirring to combine.
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Add chips and m and m’s stirring to combine.
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With a medium cookie scoop, place dough 1 inch apart from each other.
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Bake for 10-12 minutes until cooked through.
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Let cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
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Enjoy!
Secret Ingredient To The Best M&M Cookies!
Add a few Tablespoons of vanilla pudding mix with your dry ingredients.
Give a nice stir to combine until dough forms.
Pour in your chocolate chips.
Mini or regular size M and M’s.
My kind of dough.
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.
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.
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!
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Nutrition
Welcome to my online kitchen! Picky Palate is where you’ll find family friendly recipes along with the best Disney eats, tips and copycat recipes! 
These cookies are wonderful! I only had butter flavored shortening on hand but it worked perfectly.
These really are the best.
These are a favorite-at Christmas, I use the red and green M&Ms.
These were great! Soft and yummy. I used M&M mini’s because that’s what I had and they turned out great!
Very quick and tasy cookie. Got many compliments when we took them to a school party.
I made these last week and they were a big hit at the office! I love that they were not time-consuming to make but yet look like you put a lot of effort towards them, much like a lot of these recipes. Not to mention they are perfectly soft and delicious! I look forward to making these again soon.
Is there anything special I can do to stop the dye in the M and M’s from spreading?
I haven’t had any trouble with the color spreading, perhaps add them in once the dough is formed and barely combine them. See if that helps.
thanks for the recipe im going to use mint M&Ms ….I couldn’t find a recipe for using the mint ones that wasn’t a chocolate cookie 🙂
I made your cookies yesterday and the dough was very crumbly and the cookies did not flatten out like yours. I’m not sure what I did wrong they tasted wonderful but I was going to try and make them again this weekend. Is there any helpful hints you may can help me with these? Thank you so much.
I love how colorful these cookies are! Looks delicious!
What size scoop did you use?
Do these freeze well? I’m baking ahead for Christmas but Im afraid to make these in case the colors bleed when they thaw. Hoping you know!
I made this dough as the recipe was written before reading reviews. That was a mistake (especially since I was trying to bake with my 2 year old haha) My dough was WAY too crumbly like others said, way too many chocolate chips/m&Ms. So I made another batch of just the dough and this time used only 1 cup of flour. (So for a double recipe I ended up using 2.5 cups flour .) Came out perfect like the photo. I would definitely make these again but not without the changes.
I did not have vanilla pudding but I did have Lion Brand custard powder- worked perfectly. Great recipe!
Wowwww!!! I have used this recipe probably 10 times since I saw it here, and it’s wonderful, amazing, and delicious! Although…. this is the first time I’ve realized that I should have been using the powder of vanilla pudding, and not actual vanilla pudding…? I’ve been putting in the already made pudding every time!
Can’t wait to make it correctly this time.. great recipe 🙂
This recipe was interesting so I tried it! The ratio of ingredients made for a crumbly dough ? Not sure what the amount for butter and eggs -flour was though out. But anyway .. I used the recipe again , cause I wanted to try the pudding mix idea. I re-did it and changed the amount of eggs, flour, butter to resemble a more realistic cookie dough and it worked great ! Also added baking powder !
These are STILL my favorite “go-to” for Christmas baking!! Love them!
Best cookies I’ve ever made… thanks for that recipe… it’s fool proof !!!!
Hey! I really want to know if instead of purpose flour i can use regular flour? because in the country i live there is none of that
I make tons of chocolate chip cookies. This is BY FAR the best recipe I’ve ever made. Perfect dough (which I do eat, despite the raw eggs) and perfect cookies. Genius recipe. Thank you!!
Do you HAVE to add the vanilla pudding mix?
Yes!! Its the secret ingredient that really makes the consistency of these cookies perfect!
This recipe is very similar to one I pinned off Pinteres a few years ago!! It’s soooooo amazingly good!!! Secret ingredient is the same (pudding)! I use 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 white sugar, instead of half and half. I also form very large scoops, press down with more m&ms on top, and refrigerate dough balls for at least 2 hours!! Then I bake for about 11 minutes! Oh, and I always add 1 overflowing teaspoon of good vanilla!!
Perfect 🙂 took a picture but didn’t know how to post it 🙁 thanks u!
For some reason it was very dry. only added 1c of the flour and had to add a tablespoon of water or so. I reread the recipe few times to make sure wasn’t missing anythin. hey the husband and kids will still eat them. no loss here
I followed your recipe why did they come out flat! Taste great but not thick like a normal cookie!
Awesome recipe perfect as written.
I LOVED this recipe. They came out perfect. The recipe and directions were spot on. My new go to cookie recipe for chocolate chip and m&m cookies. Thank you
This is a great recipe but i just dont have pudding mix…is the measurements and recipe still good to go if i just subtract the puddibg mix? I want to make these so bad
I followed recipe , as stated, without adding the chocolate bits. I also chilled the dough for 15 min, and after placing the balls onto the cookie sheet, I added 2-3 more m&m’s on the top of each. THese cookies came out just as pictured and definitely NOT FLAT. They look amazing! I must try the vanilla pudding secret next time I bake chocolate chip cookies. Made these cookies for a baby shower, to go along with 5 other different kinds, and I know these will be the first to go…..thank you for such a great recipe…..
This is so good! I made this today and took them to neighbors and they were a huge hit! Thanks for the great recipe to share!
Hi Jenny,
Your recipes are DELICIOUS and I LOVE your blog. My go to cookie recipe is your “Perfect M&M Cookies”. Can this recipe be doubled? Also, would I be able to freeze the scoops of dough to bake at a later time? Thanks!
Yes, I tried freezing the dough and they bake up perfectly.
Thanks, Dana =)
Can these be frozen raw to cook later?
Can this dough be frozen for future baking? Or would you bake the cookies and then freeze them?
I love these but… the texture is sorta weird. After just a little bit theyes go pure crunchy. That’s not quite the right word. To hard maybe. They are perfectly baked at the beginning! Any suggestions on what I can add to keep them softer?
Hi!
I can not say enough good things about these cookies.
I’ve made them for bake sales, class presentations, family parties, and friends and family. They are absolutely delicious, and I make them at least once a week!
Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe!!
Can u use salted butter instead of unsalted