Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies

With these Chocolate Chip M&M cookies, I’ve taken my favorite chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe and thrown in some M&Ms for crunch and rainbow color. Because who wants nuts for crunch in chocolate chip cookies when you can have more chocolate instead?!

Read on for all the tips and tricks for making easy drop cookies with M&Ms AND chocolate chips. Or just grab your M&Ms (in rainbow or holiday colors, plain or peanut butter), hit that Jump to Recipe button, and let’s make M&M chocolate chip cookies!

Ingredients

Brown butter is super easy to make. Melt the butter, let it bubble, and swirl it around until it turns a deep, nutty brown. Brown butter adds a rich butterscotch flavor to your chocolate chip cookies.

M&Ms come in all sorts of flavors and colors these days. You can use any standard size M&Ms or mini M&Ms in any variation. I’d just skip Mega sized ones or nuts.

My go to are Ghirardelli semi-sweet chips because they’re a bit smaller, but you can use any quality chip or chopped chocolate. If your family makes you put chocolate chips in everything like mine does, try this chocolate chip loaf cake, chocolate chip marshmallow cookie bars, blueberry chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chip scones, or one bowl chocolate chip banana bread.

Recipe tips and tricks

I started messing around with M&Ms in cookies when I was developing a candy bar cookie recipe. But every time I’d bake batches of candy cookies, tasters preferred these best M&M cookies.

Before you do anything else, brown the butter. In a saucepan, melt the butter and cook it on medium-low heat until the bubbling stops, the solid bits turn golden brown, and it smells like caramel. Set aside to cool.

In a medium sized bowl or your stand mixer bowl, beat the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cooled brown butter until well-mixed. Add in the eggs and vanilla extract, and beat until combined.

Add the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low to prevent over-developing the gluten.

Fold in the chocolate chips and M&Ms by hand. Reserve a few for the last scoops, and feel free to snack on some as you go. This is a judgment-free zone.

Scoop out dough balls about 2 tablespoons each using a #30 cookie scoop or two spoons onto a silicone- or parchment-lined baking sheet. They’ll spread a bit, so leave about two inches between them. If you’re going to freeze cookie dough balls of these M&M chocolate chip cookies, you can space them right next to each other on the baking sheet.

If you want to see M&M’s on the top of your baked cookies, you can press a few of those extra M&M’s into the tops of your cookie balls. It’s an extra step that’s not necessary, but some people like the look.

Chill the balls of M&M chocolate chip cookies before baking. At minimum, I’d put one baking sheet in the freezer while you’re scooping the second, but you can chill for longer. Chilling cookies gives them better flavor, better texture, and keeps them from spreading as much.

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges are golden but the centers still look a little soft. Add an extra minute or two if baking frozen cookie balls.

Recipe FAQs

Related chocolate chip cookie recipes

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