These Mini M&M Cookies are easy to make and even easier to eat! The simple recipe leaves you with a small batch of bakery-style cookies packed with candy-coated chocolate. They’re thick, soft, and chewy!
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⭐ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
While I certainly love baking dozens of bakery-style White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies for friends and family, sometimes I don’t want to do all of that work! That’s when small-batch cookie recipes come in so handy. A small amount of dough bakes into a handful of large cookies, leaving you with just the right amount for a small snack and less cleanup.
These Mini M&M Cookies are no exception. This go-to cookie recipe yields just four chewy chocolate cookies loaded with candy-coated chocolate mini M&Ms. They’re cute, colorful, and deliciously soft and chewy!
Just like my Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, the process is practically foolproof and easy to customize. The cookie dough bakes into thick, monster cookies with crisp edges every time. You can even prep the dough ahead of time, stir more sweet treats into the dough, and freeze the batch for months. It doesn’t get much better than that!
🍴Ingredients
These small batch cookies are made with everyday baking staples from your local grocery store:
- All purpose flour - I always have great results when baking cookies with AP flour. For gluten free cookies, use the same amount of a gluten free flour blend.
- Kosher salt - If you’re using a different type of salt, reference this conversion chart for proper measurement.
- Baking soda - This leavening agent reacts to the heat in the oven, causing the cookies to puff up and rise. Don’t use baking powder.
- Unsalted butter - Use organic, grass-fed, or cultured unsalted butter. They all taste better than conventional butter.
- White and brown granulated sugar - Using both sugars adds complexity to the cookies you won’t find if you used only one.
- Eggs - Let them rest on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes before baking to ensure they’re at room temperature.
- Vanilla extract - Adding a generous amount of good quality vanilla flavor is the secret behind homemade bakery-style cookies.
- Mini M&Ms & Chocolate Chips - M&M minis have a higher candy coating-to-milk chocolate ratio, so they taste sweeter than regular M&M’s. Feel free to use regular M&Ms if you prefer them instead.
⏲️ Substitutions & Variations
These soft and chewy cookies with mini M&Ms are perfect just the way they are, but here are a few of the many ways you can customize them:
- Double up on the chocolate. Add mini chocolate chips along with mini M&Ms for extra chocolatey goodness.
- Add other mix-ins. Try the cookies with chopped Oreos (or other cookies), chopped walnuts, toffee bits, chopped candy bars, shredded coconut, chopped pretzels, etc.
- Use holiday-themed mini M&Ms. They come in all kinds of different colors to help you celebrate Halloween, Christmas, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, and more.
- Want more cookies? Double or triple the recipe to make enough for everyone!
📖 Step by Step Instructions
Are you ready to make these luscious candy-loaded cookies? Here’s how it’s done:
Step 1: Mix Ingredients. Mix the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together in a separate large bowl. Add the dry flour mixture to the bowl of wet ingredients, and stir until just combined. To finish, fold in the mini M&Ms.
Step 2: Chill the cookie dough. Divide the dough into four pieces and roll into balls. Place the balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and set it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Step 3: Bake the cookies. Place the baking sheet with the chilled cookie dough balls in your preheated oven. Bake until the edges are firm and the centers are soft. Cool your cookies on a wire rack, and enjoy!
👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips
- Cream together softened butter and sugars until light and fluffy for a tender cookie texture.
- Add the dry ingredients gradually to prevent clumping and ensure an evenly mixed dough.
- Gently fold in the mini M&M candies at the very end to preserve their vibrant colors.
- Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to portion the dough for consistent cookie sizes.
- Bake at the recommended temperature and time to achieve a golden exterior and soft interior.
- Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in an airtight container for maximum freshness.
💭 Recipe FAQs
Yes! The rolled dough balls need to be chilled in order to solidify the butter and improve the taste and texture. You can leave them to chill for at least 30 minutes or overnight to save time. Make my cookie butter cookies if you're looking for a no chill recipe!
Absolutely! While I developed these cookies specifically for small-batch baking, the more, the merrier. Simply double or triple the ingredients, follow the recipe as instructed, and bake the dough in several batches.
Soft-baked homemade cookies tend to fall flat when the dough is overmixed, if the dough isn’t cold enough, or the ingredient measurements are off (highly recommend using a kitchen scale to avoid this).
❄️ Make ahead and storing
Make ahead: You can make the cookie dough and roll it into balls up to 24 hours ahead of time. Then, the next time you're ready for dessert, pop them in the oven, bake to chewy texture perfection, and serve!
Storing: Once your perfect cookie is baked, keep your cookies in a covered airtight container on the counter for up to 1 week - perfect for an after school snack.
Freezing: For best results, I recommend flash freezing the raw cookie dough balls, then placing them in a freezer-safe bag and freezing for up to 3 months. No need to thaw before baking, but you will probably need to bake them for a few extra minutes.
For an epic cookie freezer stash, make some chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar, oatmeal breakfast cookies and brown butter cookies - then bake a few off for a varied cookie treat!
If you try this recipe for these Small-Batch Mini M&M Cookies, please leave a 🌟 review and share your creation with me on social media! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Pinterest - for more delicious recipes sent straight to your inbox, sign up for my newsletter! 📧
Looking for more treats and cookies to whip up? Head on over to my recipe page for more new delicious ideas to create in your kitchen!
Mini M&M Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ Cup (150 g) All-Purpose Flour
- ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ⅓ Cup (75 g) Unsalted Butter, Melted
- ¼ Cup (55 g) Brown Sugar
- ¼ Cup (50 g) Granulated Sugar
- 1 Egg, large
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ Cup (100 g) Chocolate Chips, with a few saved for post-bake
- ½ Cup (118 g) Mini M&Ms
- Flakey Sea Salt, post-bake
Instructions
- Whisk together the all-purpose flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl.1 ¼ Cup All-Purpose Flour, ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt, ¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
- Mix together the butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients and stir until everything is combined. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and m&ms.⅓ Cup Unsalted Butter, ¼ Cup Brown Sugar, ¼ Cup Granulated Sugar, 1 Egg
- Divide the dough into four even balls (about 145g each) and roll into spheres - place on a lined plate or baking tray. Place your dough in the fridge overnight, or at a bare minimum for thirty minutes - this helps add to the texture, flavor and spreading of the cookie when they are ready to bake.1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract, ½ Cup Chocolate Chips, ½ Cup Mini M&Ms
- Prepare your baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the cookies about 3-4 inches apart on your baking sheets.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and one sheet at a time, bake your cookies until the edges are firm and the centers are soft, about 13-15 minutes. These are big cookies so they will take some time to bake through!.
- Sprinkle with flakey sea salt, cool your cookies on a wire rack and enjoy!Flakey Sea Salt
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