Buttery, homemade m&m cookies are stacked on a wooden cutting board. One cookie is laying flat and another cookie is on it's side leaning against the stack of eye-catching cookies. Several pastel-colored chocolate candies are sprinked around the cutting board. A small glass jar with a white ceramic topper shaped like a bunny is next to the fresh baked cookies, it's filled with colorful pastel m&m candies. Vintage Pyrex coffee cups with yellow sunflowers and a lilac plant are slightly blurred in the background for a decorative effect.

Classic, soft-baked M&M Cookies are the cookies that take me right back to my childhood.

My mom had a handful of scratch-made cookie recipes that she would make from time to time, and fortunately these eye-catching cookies were on that short list. When these cookies were cooling, our whole house smelled like heaven, and we were all buzzing with anticipation to eat them!

These soft, buttery M&M cookies are very similar to classic chocolate chip cookies but made even better by the crunchy, colorful candy-coated bits of chocolate mixed in. It’s not an exaggeration to say my siblings and I found them to be irresistible back in the day.

Judging by how quickly my little family ate up 3 dozen of these cookies last week, I’d say they are still irresistible in the present day as well!

My mom always used the recipe for M&M cookies that was printed on the back of the bags of candy. It was definitely a keeper! However, I have adapted the recipe only very slightly to suit our tastes, but the results are just as scrumptious as the original… perhaps even more so.

The original recipe (from the 1960s) called for one cup of shortening, and I use one cup (two sticks) of salted butter to make these cookies instead. These rich cookies turn out buttery, soft, and delicious!

Buttery homemade cookies are studded with festive, colorful m&m candies. A few pastel colored chocolate candies are spread around a fresh-baked stack of golden cookies. A beige tea towel with a pasted floral pattern is next to the stack of cookies on a wodded cutting board and a small clear glass jar is filled with pastel m&m candies.

I’ve got these cookies all dressed up for spring in these photos; I absolutely love the spring-themed, pastel-colored M&M candies. They may be my favorite version of the famous candy… but I will eat them in any season! 🙂 I’ve featured them before in my recipe post for an easy, no-bake Fruity Snack Mix..

These eye-catching cookies are ideal for holiday variations or for any other occasion. Simply swap out classic M&Ms for any of the festive color combinations available seasonally at grocery stores. There are also businesses that offer custom M&M color combinations for occasions such as gender reveals, baby showers, weddings, graduation parties, or even Mother’s Day!

Check out these custom M&M color combos for baby shower theme candies or this pretty pastel blend for Mother’s Day! Custom M&Ms would look pretty on the dessert table in a bowl… or they could be baked into some fantasically buttery cookies, just sayin’!

Happy Spring and Happy Easter, y’all! 🐰🩷💐🌷

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Classic M&M Cookies

Recipe by Marcelle at A Little Fish in the Kitchen

0.0 from 0 votes

Colorful M&M candies make these soft-baked cookies an eye-catching treat! The pastel-colored seasonal candies are perfect for Spring and Easter baking. These buttery cookies are similar to classic chocolate chip cookies, but made even better by the crunchy, candy-coated bits of chocolate mixed in. Old-fashioned M&M cookies are soft, buttery and irresistible!

Course: Dessert, BrunchCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Yield: 72

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Cook Mode

Keep the screen of your device on

Ingredients

1 cup salted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup brown sugar firmly packed
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups plain m&m candies, any color combo

Directions

Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat and set it aside. Preheat the oven to 375°. Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy (1-2 minutes), then beat in the vanilla and eggs.
Sift dry ingredients together (I usually just run a whisk through the dry ingredients), and add the flour mixture to the butter mixture (I do this one half at a time) blending the ingredients until just incorporated. Fold 1/2 cup of the M&M candies into the cookie dough.
Drop teaspoons of cookie dough on the prepared cookie sheet. (*see notes below) Decorate the individual tops of the cookies with remaining candies (place 3 or 4 on top of each one).
Bake cookies at 375° for 10 -11 minutes or until the tops and edges are very lightly browned. Slight crackling on the tops of the cookies should occur. Allow cookies to cool on a rack.
Pour yourself a cold glass of milk or a hot cup of coffee or tea and enjoy!

Recipe Video

Notes

The original M&M cookie recipe calls for teaspoonfuls of batter to be dropped which will yield around 72 (2-1/2 in) cookies. I normally use a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop which yield larger cookies and around 3 dozen. I’ll bake them for 12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.
Recipe from A Little Fish in the Kitchen blog and www.alittlefishinthekitchen.com. Please contact the author for permission to republish.