How to Make Soft and Chewy M&M Cookies at Home

These M&M Cookies will soon become your new favorite. They’re soft, chewy & packed with M&Ms for the perfect treat. It’s an easy cookie recipe that doesn’t require any dough chilling, so you can whip up a batch in no time. They can be made with regular or mini M&Ms – but either way – they’re the best M&M cookie recipe around.

I love cookies. And I don’t think anyone can say no to one of these M&M cookies. They’re thick, chewy, super soft, deliciously buttery, and filled with chocolate and pretty rainbow colors.  I’ll take five please.

As a child, I longed for M&M cookies since my parents opted for healthier cookie varieties. But on Saturdays I’d go grocery shopping with my Dad and the supermarket gave out free cookies to children that were members of their elite “Cookie Monster Club”. And as a chartered member – I’d was lucky enough to get a gigantic M&M cookie almost every weekend. Clearly, I reached the upper echelons of society at age 8.

Now that my social status has fallen and I’m too old for free M&M cookies at the grocery store, it’s time to make my own.  And I guarantee they’re 1000% times better.

M&M Cookie Recipe

These M&M cookies are perfectly soft and chewy. They’re also just the right level of thickness – so you can pack them with lots of M&Ms, and there’s zero dry cookie crumbs.

What I also love about these cookies is that you don’t have to chill the dough, and they still turn out soft and chewy without being too thin.

The main secret to the perfect texture is using a combo of shortening and butter. Cookies made with shortening have that extra “melt-in-your mouth” quality, and will definitely remind you of the bakery cookies you bought as a kid. However, butter provides more flavor than shortening. So by using a combo of both shortening and butter, you get the perfect texture and more flavor. 

Tips for Making M&M Cookies

• Make sure your butter is softened to room temperature, but not melted.
• Beat together the butter, shortening and sugars for a good 2 minutes. This helps evenly distribute the sugars and adds air to the batter, which gives the cookies a better texture.
• After adding in the flour, squeeze a little dough between your fingers. If it sticks to your fingers mix in a little more flour – adding 1 tablespoon at a time.
• Form the dough into balls about 3 tablespoons in size. Make the balls taller than they are wide – this way the cookies stay thick and chewy as the bake, instead of spreading too thin.
• If your cookies do not flatten enough as they bake, that means you added too much flour. Gently press the cookies down flatter before baking.
• If the cookies spread too thin, that means there’s not enough flour. Pop the dough balls in the fridge for 15 minutes before baking to avoid spreading.
• Feel free to use regular M&M or mini M&Ms.
• For smaller cookies, form them into balls about 1.5 tablespoons in size and bake for 8-10 minutes.
• Underbake your cookies just slightly for the perfect soft texture. The tops should look just set when you take them out of the oven. 

Milk chocolate, peanut, almond, dark chocolate, peanut butter – so many delicious M&M options for these cookies. Bake them, eat them, love them – these M and M cookies are always a hit.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter* softened to room temperature
• 1/2 cup shortening*
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup M&Ms regular or mini
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

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