Looking for a fun and easy Easter dessert recipe? These Easter M&M cookies are chewy on the inside, crisp along the edges, and perfect for Spring. They start with a brown sugar cookie dough and are full of pastel M&Ms and mini chocolate chips.
Something I love about living in the US (as someone who has lived abroad) is the abundance of seasonal candies. It seems as if every major candy brand rolls out holiday variations of their most popular treats. Reeses? We’ve got eggs, pumpkins, and Christmas trees. Sour Patch Kids? We’ve got hearts, red and green, and jellybeans. And then we have M&Ms, where we are rewarded with an assortment of seasonal colors for just about every holiday.
Some features about these M&M cookies:
- They are crisp along the edges and chewy in the middle.
- They start with a brown sugar cookie dough base, similar to a chocolate chip cookie dough. This recipe actually follows a very similar ingredient ratio to these brown butter toffee cookies.
- The dough is loaded with pastel colored M&Ms and mini chocolate chips.
- The dough freezes really well. You can make these a few weeks in advance and pull them out to bake on Easter day.
Ingredients for Easter M&M Cookies
Here is everything you will need for these cookies along with a few notes!
- All purpose flour: I recommend measuring flour with a digital scale to ensure as accurate as possible measurement.
- Unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- Granulated sugar and brown sugar: a mixture of these two types of sugar creates a balance of flavor and texture.
- One egg and one egg yolk, at room temperature: quickly warm up the eggs by soaking them in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes.
- Vanilla extract, for flavor
- Baking soda, to give the cookies spread and rise
- Fine kosher salt
- Easter M&Ms: these are Easter themed cookies but feel free to save this recipe and replace the Easter M&Ms with any other variety throughout the year.
- Mini chocolate chips: to add extra chocolate flavor into the cookies. I recommend mini chocolate chips because they add little bits of chocolate throughout the dough without competing with the M&Ms. You can sub regular chocolate chips or white chocolate chips though.
Tips for M&M Cookies
The great thing about these cookies are that they are easy to make! Here are a few tips along the way
Chill the cookie dough: while I’m certainly not the most patient person on the planet, I do highly recommend chilling this cookie dough for at least one hour. A few things happen while the dough is chilling that leads to a 10x better cookie. One, the flour absorbs moisture and flavor (like marinating), which results in a chewier, more flavorful cookie. Two, the fats set, meaning that the cookies will spread less while they bake.
Don’t overmix the flour: the enemy of a great cookie is too much gluten. Overmixing the flour will cause gluten to develop, which will lead to tough and dense cookies. Make sure to only mix until the flour is combined, and be gentle when folding in the M&Ms. Also, another great plug for chilling the cookie dough is that it actually helps relax any gluten. 😉
Use room temperature ingredients: make sure that your eggs are actually at room temperature. Cold eggs will not mix as well into the butter, and may also cause the fats to split (the butter escapes from the dough). Quickly warm up your eggs by soaking them in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes.
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
Freeze pre-scooped balls of cookie dough and pop them in the oven for fresh cookies anytime the craving hits.
Follow all of the instructions for this recipe to make the cookie dough. After scooping out the dough, place them on a parchment lined plate or tray, spacing them so they do not touch. Freeze the cookie dough, on the tray, for 30-40 minutes to firm them up so that they do not stick together. From there, you can transfer the balls into a zip-loc bag and store in the freezer.
The great thing is you can make this cookie dough a few weeks in advance, and then enjoy them all the way up to Easter!
Pin & Save for Later
Want to make these Easter M&M cookies but aren’t ready to bake yet? Gathering some Spring baking ideas? You can hover over (or tap on mobile) any image in this post to save it to Pinterest. While you’re at it check out these other great Spring recipes such as a fully loaded carrot cake, caramel carrot cupcakes, or fluffy lemon poppyseed bread.
Easter M&M Cookies
These Easter M&M cookies are chewy on the inside, crisp along the edges, and perfect for Spring. They start with a brown sugar cookie dough and are full of pastel M&Ms and mini chocolate chips.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226g) butter, softened
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup (142g) light brown sugar, packed
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 egg yolk, room temperature
- 2 ¾ cups (330g) flour
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ¾ cup Easter pastel m&ms
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Make sure to pause every minute to scrape down the sides of. your bowl.
- Add the egg, followed by the egg yolk, and then vanilla extract. Fully incorporate each ingredient before adding the next. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for another 1-2 minutes, until fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add this to the mixer and fold it in on low speed until the flour is just combined.
- Gently in the M&Ms and mini chocolate chips.
- Cover and transfer the dough to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- To bake, start by preheating the oven to 350°F. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop 1.5 tbsp sized balls of dough onto the cookie sheet, making sure to space them 2 inches apart. Bake for 11-12 minutes, or until edges are slightly golden and middles are puffed up. It's okay if the middle is slightly underbaked as long as the dough isn't super shiny.
- Let the cookies cool for 5-10 minutes on the cookie sheets before removing them.
Notes
- Chilling the dough: if at all possible, do not skip this step. Chilling the dough is highly beneficial to ensuring that the cookies are flavorful and chewy. It will also prevent the cookies from spreading too much while baking. I recommend chilling for at least 2 hours, but overnight is even better. If the cookie dough becomes too cold to scoop, let it warm up at room temperature for a while.
- Chocolate chips: I recommend mini chocolate chips because they add little bits of chocolate flavor throughout the cookie without competing with the M&Ms. However, you can substitute regular chocolate chips or even white chocolate chips.
- Freezing cookie dough: You can freeze balls of cookie dough and pop them in the oven to enjoy cookies anytime you want. After scooping the dough, space them out on a plate or tray and pop them into the freezer for 30-40 minutes, until they are firm. Then, transfer them into an airtight bag. The cookie dough will keep for around 3 months.
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