Easy Christmas M&M Cookies are a chewy, buttery cookie recipe filled with crunchy chocolate candies. Festive cookies in less than 30 minutes!
These easy, chewy cookies are the perfect Cookie Recipe to share at a holiday party or bring to cookie exchanges. For more classic holiday baking try our Gingerbread Cookies, Candied Shortbread Cookies, and Sugar Cookies.
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Sabrina’s Christmas M&M Cookies Recipe
This simple cookie recipe are sure to quickly become a family favorite. Theyâre really the perfect holiday cookie with a buttery, chewy texture and festive holiday colors from the crunchy M&Ms. Not only are they delicious, but Christmas M&M Cookies are great if youâre the one baking because theyâre so easy to make!
With this recipe, you can whip up a batch of cookies in under 30 minutes. The quick prep and baking time is especially great around the holidays when you have lots of other delicious recipes to bake and errands to run. M&M cookies are made with a similar simple base that you find in lots of classic cookies like Chocolate Chip Cookies. But, theyâre slightly less chewy, and instead of chocolate chips, we use festive M&Mâs to make kid-friendly, colorful cookies perfect for the holiday season.
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Ingredients
- Butter: You’ll start with 1 cup unsalted butter that has been softened to room temperature. It’s important to use soft butter, but not melted, so it whips up lots of air for softer cookies.
- Sugar: The 1 ½ cups sugar makes buttery cookies sweet but not overly sweet. They also help give the cookies a slightly chewy texture.
- Egg: You only need 1 egg to bind all the ingredients together. Make sure to also bring your egg to room temperature so it mixes in easily.
- Vanilla: To give your buttery sweet cookies some delicious flavor, you will add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. It’s best to use real vanilla extract for the best flavor.
- Flour: You’ll need 2 ¾ cups of flour to make the dough as well. You can use all-purpose flour, and make sure to sift it to remove the clumps so you don’t have to stir as much to mix it all the way in.
- Baking Soda and Baking Powder: The combination of 1 teaspoon of baking soda and ½ teaspoon baking powder help make these cookies light and soft, with a melt in your mouth texture.
- Christmas Candy: Of course you’ll need some red and green colored M&Ms to make these Christmas M&M Cookies! 1 cup of M&Ms is the perfect amount to ensure delicious candy in every bite.
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Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Stand Mixer: A stand mixer makes whipping up the cookie dough quick and easy. For soft and tender cookies, you want your butter nice and fluffy which the mixer adds so much air. Plus its more hands-free and easier to add the flour mix to the creamed butter.
- Cookie Scoop: While you are out picking up holiday baking supplies, you NEED to grab a cookie scoop if you don’t already have one! They don’t cost that much and they definitely step up your cookie making game. They make perfectly even cookies but they also prevent spreading because you aren’t handling the dough with your hands and melting the butter.
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How to Make
Time needed:Â 25 minutes.
- Prepare for Baking
Start the recipe by preheating the oven and lining your cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Cream the Wet Ingredients
Add softened butter and granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer. Cream butter with a paddle attachment for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Next, mix the egg and vanilla extract into the dough until smooth.
- Combine with Flour Mixture
Sift together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a separate bowl. Then add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer and mix until just combined into the wet ingredients.
- Add the M&M Candies
Finish the dough by mixing in most of the M&Ms, but set some of the candies aside for later. Just stir until they are evenly mixed in but don’t over-mix.
- Shape the Cookies
Use a cookie scoop to form balls of dough. Add each ball of dough to the prepared cookie sheet with about 2 inches between each of them. Press a few of the leftover M&M candies into the top of each cookie dough ball.
- Bake the Cookies
Put the cookies in the preheated oven. Bake for 8 minutes to make cookies with more chewy, soft centers. Or, bake for 10 minutes for crispy golden-brown cookies with crispy edges. Let the baked cookies cool for 5 minutes before eating.
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Nutritional Facts
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Christmas M&M Cookies Tips & Tricks
Bake with Parchment Paper
Baking with parchment paper is a game changer for your cookies! It not only keeps the cookies from sticking from your baking trays but it helps the cookies bake evenly. The paper creates a small barrier between the metal and the dough which helps the heat distribute better for cookies that come out perfectly baked!
Make these Cookies Ahead of Time
These cookies are also great to make ahead of time and freeze for later. You can either store the fully baked cookies in a freezer-friendly container for up to 3 months or freeze the cookie dough. To freeze cookie dough put the dough balls on the cookie sheet and flash freeze them for a couple of hours before transferring them to a freezer bag to store. When youâre ready to bake, place them back on the cookie sheet and add a couple of minutes to the baking time to get the perfect fresh cookies.
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How to Store
Serve: You can keep Christmas M&M Cookies at room temperature for up to 3 days. Put them in a zip lock bag or another airtight container so that they stay chewy. To keep them longer, put the cookies in an airtight container, and store them in the fridge for 1 week.
Freeze: The tasty cookies can also be frozen for up to 3 months! Freeze them on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper for an hour then transfer them to a freezer safe bag. Thaw at room temperature or in the fridge before enjoying them!
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Ideas to Serve
Toppings: For fun holiday toppings, try adding festive sprinkles, or crushed candy cane pieces. You could also drizzle melted chocolate over the top of the cookies before serving.
Cookie Bars: You can also make these cookies in bar form. Just press the cookie dough into a 9Ã13 inch baking pan to bake them into easy and delicious M&M Cookie Bars.
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Frequent Questions
No, for this easy cookie recipe, you don’t need to chill the cookie dough before baking them! Not chilling the dough makes softer, lighter cookies similar to a shortbread cookie. If you want to chill the dough, that is perfectly fine, it will make slightly firmer cookies that are a bit more golden brown.
If M&M candies sit in the cookie dough too long before baking, the coloring on the candy coating will start to melt and bleed into the dough. The cookies still taste great of course, they just may not look as neat and pretty as you want them.
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Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 3/4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup Christmas M&M candies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture on the lowest speed setting until just combined.
- Stir in most of the Christmas M&Ms.
- Add a heaping teaspoon of cookie dough per cookie to the sheet, 2 inches apart.
- Press a few candies into the top of each cookie dough ball.
- Bake for 8 minutes for soft cookies or 10 minutes for crunchy cookies.
- Let cool 5 minutes before removing from the baking sheet.
Nutrition
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Christmas M&M Cookies Variations
Extra Chewy Cookies: To make your M&M Cookies extra chewy, you can add brown sugar to the recipe. Using brown sugar makes more moist baked goods. So, if you want that you can use half white sugar and half brown sugar for the recipe.
Chocolate Cookies: An easy way to take Christmas M&M Cookies to the next level is to make chocolate cookie dough! Simply swap ¼ cup of flour with ¼ unsweetened cocoa powder for chocolate cookies.
Chocolate Chips: You can make a mixture of ½ cup chocolate chips and ½ cup chocolate candies in these cookies! Try white chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips to contrast with the milk chocolate in the candy.
Peanut Butter M&M Cookies: For salty peanut butter flavor, you can use our classic Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough as the base for this recipe. Then instead of using chocolate chips, try mixing in peanut butter or peanut M&Ms.
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