These rainbow M&M cookies are soft-baked style with extra chewy edges. We recommend mini M&Ms so you can pack more into each cookie. Chilling the cookie dough for 2 hours is an imperative step, so make sure you set aside enough time.
This was one of the first recipes ever published on my website. It’s always been a favorite, but I recently began adding a little extra baking soda and flour so the cookies hold shape better. (You’ll see 1 teaspoon of baking soda and an extra 2 Tablespoons of flour listed in the written recipe below.) I figured you’d want a reminder about these cookies or, if you’re new to my website, a little encouragement to try them!
Here’s What to Expect:
- Texture: Think about a soft-baked chocolate chip cookie. Truly, does anything compare? These M&M cookies have the same tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture. They’re extra chewy with dozens of mini M&Ms packed in each cookie. Do you crave even more texture? You’ll enjoy my oatmeal M&M cookies.
- Flavor: I use extra brown sugar in this cookie dough, so you’ll taste that warm and classic flavor in each bite. Pair that with plenty of butter and oodles of chocolate candies.
- Ease: We have a pretty straightforward cookie dough here. After chilling the dough, roll into balls, then bake. A beginner could easily master this recipe.
- Time: Set aside enough time to chill this cookie dough. It’s a fairly sticky dough and without time in the refrigerator, your cookies will melt all over the baking sheet.
Soft-Baked M&M Cookies – Key Ingredients
A few ingredients add to their signature flavor and texture. Here’s how:
- Flour: I used to prepare this cookie dough with 2 cups of flour, but started adding another 2 Tablespoons. This helps soak up more liquid (butter, egg) so the cookies stay thicker.
- Cornstarch: A touch of cornstarch helps create a softer, thicker cookie. I add it to many of my cookie recipes, including these super soft chocolate chip cookies. By the way, that cookie dough is pretty similar to this one. Here we’re using a little more flour, sugar, and an extra egg yolk. (And thus yields more cookies.)
- Butter: Room temperature butter is the base of this cookie recipe.
- Granulated & Brown Sugar: Sugar does more than sweeten the cookies. The granulated sugar helps them spread and the brown sugar keeps them soft. For extra soft and tender cookies, we use more brown sugar than white granulated sugar here.
- 1 Egg + 1 Extra Egg Yolk: Have you ever baked my chewy chocolate chip cookies before? They’re the most popular cookie recipe on this website. I swear by using 1 extra egg yolk in that dough because it helps bind the ingredients and maintains a moist, chewy cookie. We’re doing the same thing here.
- Mini M&Ms: You can use any M&Ms, but I recommend mini so there’s more in each bite. If the M&Ms are larger, such as peanut M&Ms or peanut butter M&Ms, roughly chop them first. If desired, grab an extra 2 Tablespoons of M&Ms and press a few into the top of each cookie when they’re warm from the oven. This is purely for looks!
Success Tip: Chill The Dough!
The cookie dough is pretty soft, so make sure you take the time to chill it in the refrigerator. The cookies will spread into puddles otherwise. If you don’t have time to chill the dough, I recommend making these soft baked M&M cookie bars instead.
After chilling, roll the cookie dough into balls and bake:
Small, Medium, & Large
Do you have a copy of Sally’s Cookie Addiction cookbook? If so, you’ll see Giant M&M Cookies on page 31. My cookbook recipe yields massive cookies, but today’s are regular/medium size. Do you like teeny tiny treats? Try these mini M&M cookies instead. They’re bite-size cookies and the dough doesn’t require chilling in the refrigerator. All 3 recipes pretty much use the same exact ingredients, just in different quantities and ratios. You can’t go wrong with any, especially if you love M&M cookies!
Print
Soft-Baked M&M Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: 30 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These rainbow M&M cookies are soft-baked style with extra chewy edges. I recommend mini M&Ms so you can pack more into each cookie. Chilling the cookie dough for 2 hours is an imperative step, so make sure you set aside enough time.
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 2 Tablespoons (265g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup mini M&Ms (plus 2 Tablespoons for topping, optional)
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat softened butter for about 1 minute on medium speed until creamy. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar, then beat on medium-high speed until creamy and combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Beat in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Pour in 1 cup M&Ms and beat on low speed for 20 seconds or until combined. Once completely combined, cover cookie dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours or up to 5 days.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Roll cookie dough into balls, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, and arrange 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. While the cookies are still warm, press the remaining 2 Tablespoons of M&Ms into the tops of the cookies. This is optional and just for looks. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Allow to come to room temperature and continue with step 4. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Keep Dough Cold: It’s best to keep unused cookie dough in the refrigerator as the batches are baking.
- Add Chocolate Chips: You can easily add chocolate chips to this cookie dough. I recommend reducing the amount of M&Ms to 3/4 cup and adding 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Stick with about 1 – 1.5 cups total add-ins.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer or Handheld Mixer | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cooling Rack
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: m&m cookies
These were absolutely delicious! If I double the recipe, do I also double the baking soda and salt?
★★★★★
Hi Felica, correct! Simply double all of the ingredients.
Great cookies. Very soft, very thick, and lots of M&Ms. We used the mini size Sally recommends. Our new favorite cookie recipe!
★★★★★
I love these cookies. They lasted about five minutes in my house. My family loved them. I used the regular M&M’s and they turned out great. I will use this recipe again. I will recommend this recipe also.
★★★★★
Made these cookies with my kids today. Turned out fantastic! My husband said they taste just like the local bakery cookies. I think they’re better! Super easy recipe to follow even baking with a 7 and 4 year old. Definitely recommend chilling the dough as the recipe states. My cookies came out nice and thick, but I could see the cookies spreading if you skip the chilling. This will be my go-to cookie recipe from now on!!
★★★★★
I used smarties rather than m&m’s due to personal preference and they came out perfectly. Will definitely make again.
★★★★★
Hi, i just made these & they are delicious .
How can i get a more cracky top on the cookies like yours? Mine are smooth on top
Thanks
Sujata
Hi Sujata, an extra minute or two in the oven should help you get those nice crackly tops. Also be sure your butter is room temperature too (and not too cold). Finally, you can try gently “banging” the pan on the counter after they come out of the oven to help create the crackly tops as well. We’re so glad you enjoyed these!
These cookies were a delicious treat to eat, but they were a bit crunchy for my liking! Overall, these were amazing and very fun to make!
Thanks for sharing this recipe!
★★★★
Absolutely delicious! I make these at least once a month and they always get rave reviews. These and the soft chocolate chip cookies are tied for my favorite cookie recipe of Sally’s!
★★★★★
This is my first time making this kind of cookies. I’m so glad i found this recipe. I wanted a soft, chewy and not a thin cookie. I’ve watched and googled all the different recipes and this is the one for me. The only change I made was using only 1 c brown sugar. I would probably reduce it more to 3/4 c since I tucked in extra m&m’ s after taking the cookies out of the oven for a more pleasing appearance.
★★★★★
WoW! Just wow! This recipe is perfect and I love that it comes with weight to make it more precise.
I cannot make another recipe without the whole family complaining that they want the M&M cookies.
I have tried several of your recipes (Mac n’ cheese, biscuits, brownies, black bean burgers etc) and they were all amazing. Thank you for sharing!
I make them egg free with Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer and I recommend it!
★★★★★
Can I substitute chopped mini eggs for the m & m’s?
Thank you!
Sure can!
The cookies were cooking very weird and it took me 10-15 extra minutes to make them half way decent. When I took them out the last time they were still RAW. I would definitely not recommend doing these cookies. They didn’t even taste that good. I am very disappointed in how these turned out. I will not using SBA ever again. If I could give them zero stars I would.
★
I am so sorry, I was very wrong. The next day they were just like the picture. I jumped to conclusions and I am sorry for that. Please forgive me.
★★★★★
By replacing it with chocolate beans can I make it Choco cookies for chocolate lover kids?
Hi Awais, you can certainly replace the M&Ms with chocolate chips or other chocolate add-ins. Or, chocolate lovers will definitely appreciate our Inside Out Chocolate Chip Cookies, too!
WHAT A HIT! These turned out so great and were gone in a flash.
★★★★★
Hi Sally, I love your recipes so much. I try most of them – they turn out great most of the times. I have a concern though, many times I get air bubbles on top of my cookies and they don’t look as good as yours. Can you say what I am doing wrong?
★★★★★
Hi Swati, air pockets could appear in cookie dough if it is over-mixed. You could try mixing at a lower speed. Hope this helps!
First of all I am super excited to try theses! But I had a question before I attempt… would the cookies will be fine if I softened the butter in the microwave? Or should I just leave them out for the night?
Thanks,
Klailea
★★★★★
Hi Klailea, we don’t recommend microwaving butter to bring it to room temperature, but we have a video in this post about how to quickly bring butter to room temperature. Overnight will be too long to bring them to room temperature, too. We hope you enjoy these cookies!
So do you put the cookies in the oven cold from the fridge? I’m confused about that part. Currently baking right now and they’re taking way longer than 12 minutes. What’s the purpose of putting them in the fridge if it says let come to room temperature? They look tasty! Thank you!
Hi Caitlin, the cookie dough is pretty soft, so that’s why we take the time to chill it in the refrigerator. The cookies will spread into puddles otherwise. After their chill time, we recommend letting them warm a bit so that they’re easier to roll into balls. Depending on how cold they are when they go into the oven, it’s normal for them to take a minute or two longer in the oven. Hope this is helpful and that the cookies were a success!
Hi Sally I was wondering could I use a brown sugar substitute and Splenda instead of regular sugar?
Do you have any sugar free recipes?
Hi Sherice, we haven’t tested this recipe with Splenda or other sugar substitutes, but let us know if you do. We do have a collection of healthier sweet recipes — hope you find some to enjoy!
Do you think this would work with partially chopped Cadbury mini eggs? I’m looking to make something with those!!!
Can’t see why not — how festive!
So good!
also highly recommend using dark brown sugar 😉
★★★★★
YASSSSSSSS! I finally get the PERFECT MM/CC COOKIES!!!!! oh 10+ RATING!!!
★★★★★
How would I be able to keep this chewy texture but cut the sugar? These came out way too sweet even when I reduced the sugar amount and the cookies also didn’t flatten as much.
★★★★
Made these yesterday as valentine gifts for my grandsons. They turned out perfect even though I had bought peanut butter valentine m&ms and they were big. No adjustments were made. Picture perfect as well! I switched my oven to convection for the last few minutes.
★★★★★
A hit in our home; so much that they were gone in a flash. My daughter declared these the best cookies I’ve made in a while. (One question: can regular size M&M be used, and if so, do quantities need to be adjusted?)
★★★★★
Hi Barbara, absolutely. Same amount of regular sized M&Ms, and you may want to chop them up a bit (but not necessary). Glad they were a hit!
What would happen if the cornstarch was left out? We don’t have that in the UK and I dont have the necessary subs. Thank you!
Hi Angelyn, you can omit the cornstarch if needed. It helps make the cookies extra soft and chewy, but they will still be delicious. Hope you’ll give them a try!
Any sense in adding baking powder?
I believe you could use Potato Starch I hope this helps
★★★★★
I always enjoy your cookie recipes, and these were (as expected) delicious!
★★★★★
I made these cookies yesterday and they are so delicious I love the chewy texture.I made double the receipt and put the extra dough in freezer. Thank you for all wonderful cookie recipes I make a new cookie ever week.
★★★★★
These cookies were delicious. I loved how they are chewy from the cornstarch.
★★★★★
I just got a bag of toll house funfetti morsels. Do you think this is a good base for the cookie if I replace the m&ms with the chip morsels? They taste just like vanilla cake!
Hi Lauren, Yes you can use those instead of the M&Ms here. Enjoy!
These are SO good. I don’t think they are going to last long in our house.
★★★★★