These easy M&M Christmas cookies are soft, chewy, and have the perfect amount of chocolate! With only 5 minutes of prep, they’re the perfect quick cookie to bake for the holidays.
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❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s delicious. Picture a not-too-sweet, chewy sugar cookie, but with crispy bites of chocolate. SO good, and the perfect color combo for the holiday season!
- You won’t need any special equipment. Simply mix everything in one bowl with a flexible silicone spatula, scoop, roll, and bake.
- It’s versatile. Don’t want M&Ms? Omit them to make my basic sugar cookie recipe. You can also swap out the mix-ins for an equal amount of chopped Oreos, or even try out my soft earl grey sugar cookies.
Looking for more holiday bakes? Try out my cute Christmas tree matcha brownies, or spiced Christmas cookie sandwiches.
Ingredients
To make the best M&M cookies from scratch, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- Melted unsalted butter makes the M&M cookie dough really easy to mix by hand.
- I like to use a mix of brown sugar and granulated sugar to create the perfect balance of flavor and chew. You can use light or dark brown sugar; dark brown sugar will just give you a deeper butterscotch flavor.
- Adding in both baking powder and baking soda gives us the exact texture and rise we’re aiming for!
- I used red and green M&Ms for the Christmas vibe, but you can always opt in for regular ones!
- You can use either vanilla extract or vanilla paste (1:1) in this recipe.
For the full list of ingredients and measurements, see the recipe card below.
💡 Baking Tips
- Weigh your ingredients! One of my favorite kitchen tools is a kitchen scale because it’s more accurate than measuring by volume. If you use cups, spoon the flour in gently, then level it with a knife or spatula.
- For rounder cookies, place a large circular cutter or mug on top of a freshly baked, warm cookie. Move it around in a circular motion until your cookie is perfectly round! This step is totally optional and purely for plating purposes! 🙂
How to Make Chewy M&M Christmas Cookies
Step 1: Mix together melted butter with brown and granulated sugars until fully combined.
Step 2: Add in egg and vanilla until smooth.
Step 3: Stir in dry ingredients until mostly combined, then fold in holiday M&Ms. Cover and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Use a cookie scoop (2-3 tablespoon capacity) to gather dough and place on lined baking sheet 3-4 inches apart—they will spread quite a bit!
Step 4: Bake M&M cookies at 350°F/177°C for 9-11 minutes, or until edges are slightly golden and middles are mostly set. (Optional: Scoot cookies and add extra M&Ms on top.) Let cookies sit on tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to fully cool. Enjoy!
For full instructions, see the recipe card below.
M&M Christmas Cookie FAQs
You can add about 1/2 cup chocolate chips/chunks, crushed pretzels, Oreos, etc., along with the M&Ms! Or, you can swap out the M&Ms completely with a different mix-in.
It helps to use a kitchen scale to ensure you are adding the correct amount of ingredients!
I also recommend scooting the cookies immediately after baking. This makes them rounder and yields that crinkled look as they cool.
Yes! You can scoop smaller cookie dough balls, around 2 teaspoon – 1 tablespoon of dough, which will yield over 25 cookies.
You can also use mini M&M’s if you have them on hand.
They can last at room temperature in an airtight container for up 5 days. See my storage instructions for more information.
Storage
If you’d like to make these Christmas M&M cookies ahead of time, you can freeze raw cookie dough balls for up to 3 months. Bake as usual, just add 2-3 minutes to the baking time.
- Room temperature: Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Freezing instructions: Store cooled cookies in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. You can also freeze cookie dough balls for up to a year and bake as usual—just add a couple more minutes to the baking time.
- Reheating instructions: Allow frozen cookies to thaw at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Or, reheat in the microwave at 10-second intervals.
😋 More Cookie Recipes
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Thank you so much! -Bianca ❤️
📖 Recipe & Video
M&M Christmas Cookies (Soft & Chewy)
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Equipment
- 1 large mixing bowl for mixing dough
- 1 Medium cookie scoop 2-3 tablespoon capacity
- Parchment Paper
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups (187.5 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) fine sea salt or table salt
Wet ingredients:
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (55 g) light or dark brown sugar packed
- 1 tablespoon (4 g) vanilla extract or paste
- 1 (1) egg room temperature
Mix-ins:
- 1 cup (236.59 g) M&Ms I used red & green; plus more for topping
Instructions
For the cookie dough:
- In a large bowl, use silicone spatula to mix melted ½ cup unsalted butter, ½ cup granulated sugar, and ¼ cup light or dark brown sugar until smooth.
- Mix in 1 egg and 1 tablespoon vanilla until smooth.
- Add in all of the dry ingredients: 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon fine sea salt. Mix until mostly combine, then fold in 1 cup M&Ms.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to 2 days.
Scoop & bake cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350°F/177°C and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- Use cookie dough scoop to gather dough (2-3 tablespoons). Place on lined baking tray, spacing cookies about 3-4 inches apart.
- Bake one tray at a time for 9-11 minutes, or until edges are slightly golden brown and middles are mostly set. For the perfectly aesthetic cookie (optional!), place a large circular cutter or mug on top of a freshly baked, warm cookie. Move it around in a circular motion until your cookie is perfectly round. Top with extra M&Ms.
- Cool cookies on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
Notes
- Weigh your ingredients! One of my favorite kitchen tools is a kitchen scale because it’s more accurate than measuring by volume. If you use cups, spoon the flour in gently, then level it with a knife or spatula.
- Room temperature: Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Freezing instructions: Store cooled cookies in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. You can also freeze raw cookie dough balls for up to 3 months and bake as usual; just add a few minutes to the baking time.
- Reheating instructions: Allow frozen cookies to thaw at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Or, reheat in the microwave at 10-second intervals.