M&M Cookies

Published Dec. 8, 2021

M&M Cookies
Anna Williams for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Susan Spungen. Prop Stylist: Sarah Smart.
Total Time
30 minutes
Rating
4(2,343)
Comments
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These easy one-bowl cookies make the best gifts and add nostalgia to any cookie plate. But they’re also great for when you just want a really good homemade cookie as quickly as possible. This part is essential: The butter must be soft enough to whisk by hand. Use butter that’s been sitting at room temperature for a long while, even overnight or up to 24 hours. Chopping the M&M’s into rainbow shards creates a more even distribution of chocolate and candy coating throughout the dough. When these cookies bake, they will rise slightly then fall as they cool, one of the most beautiful indicators of deep chewiness.

Featured in: 24 Days of Cookies

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Ingredients

Yield:About 16 cookies
  • ½cup/115 grams unsalted butter, very soft
  • 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar
  • ¼packed cup/57 grams dark brown sugar
  • 1large egg, at room temperature
  • 1tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal) or ¾ teaspoon coarse kosher salt
  • ¼teaspoon baking soda
  • cups/185 grams all-purpose flour
  • ½cup/96 grams M&M’s
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 large sheet pans with parchment.

  2. Step 2

    In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, sugars, egg, vanilla and salt by hand until smooth and fluffy, at least 1 minute. Whisk in the baking soda, then switch to a rubber spatula. Add the flour, then carefully and coarsely chop the M&M’s, and add them, too. Gently stir to combine. Place the bowl in the refrigerator while you wait for the oven to finish heating.

  3. Step 3

    Using two spoons or a cookie scoop, plop out 2-tablespoon/50-gram rounds spaced a couple of inches apart on the sheet pans. (You should get about 8 cookies per pan.) Bake until lightly golden at the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely on the sheet pan; they will continue to cook as they sit.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
2,343 user ratings
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Comments

The only modification I would make with this delicious recipe would be to use mini M&Ms instead of the regular size candy. You end up with more chocolate per bite. I also use mini chocolate chips in my chocolate chip cookie recipe as well. People tend to enjoy the smaller chocolate addition.

I just made these for the fam today. I used mini M&Ms and only 150 grams of sugar (cos I don’t love things overly sweet), but otherwise followed the recipe. They were a huge hit. We couldn’t stop eating them. :/

Just made these with the idea that if the NYT has 24 days of cookies, we should eat 24 days of cookies. Made as written except I doubled the M&Ms (I had chopped mine - no minis to be found). Was the easiest thing ever - butter definitely needs to be soft and they were consumed immediately. Day one: check.

I love this recipe and make it all the time. The perfect cookies.

Crazy good! Tripled the recipe to bring to two holiday potlucks. Used M&M minis, a smidge less sugar, and a 1 tbsp cookie scoop that enabled me to get 15 cookies per sheet. I experimented with adding extra M&Ms on top as some other commenters did, but found I preferred the aesthetic of the M&Ms fading into the dough. If you put them on top the dye bleeds around the shells more obviously which looks less appetizing. Truly can't go wrong with these.

100% agree with the idea of using mini m&m's instead, as chopping is just too messy and a little dangerous. I think there was something just a little too sweet about these, or maybe it was the lack of chocolate in every bite to offset the specific sweetness of the cookie base... with the m&m's they were a perfect flavor.

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