Old-Fashioned M&M Cookies
Your perfect cookie for dunkin’! These Old Fashioned M&M Cookies are hard to resist. Packed with colorful candy-coated chocolate and rich, nostalgic flavor, they’re the ultimate treat for cookie lovers. Perfectly crisp on the edges and soft in the center, these cookies bring back classic homemade goodness in every bite.
This old-fashioned M&M Cookies recipe is the one I remember Mama making the most growing up. Unlike many of today’s cookies, these have a good crunch to them. That, along with a pure flavor brought about by the vanilla makes them absolutely perfect for dunking in milk. I repeat: Absolutely perfect. Divine. Sublime. Wonderful. I really, really, really, want you to make these and have them with a glass of milk — tonight!
An Old-Fashioned Cookie Recipe
Mama used to always make this Old Fashioned M&M Cookie recipe and put the little balls of dough on baking sheets before transferring them to the table where the three of us sat at the ready. She’d give each of us a little bowl of M&M’s and we had one rule: We could put three M&M’s on each cookie—no more. I didn’t understand why Mama had that rule until I made these classic cookies with my son for the first time. One cookie had fifteen M&M’s on it! 🤣
Now I do it just like Mama. M&M’s go into the dough, and each cookie gets exactly three on top before baking.
Ingredients for Old-Fashioned M&M Cookies:
- Solid Vegetable Shortening (I like to use Coconut Oil but you can use whatever you like)
- Brown Sugar (dark or light, whatever you have on hand)
- M&M’s
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Self Rising Flour (See FAQ on how to make your own)
- Vanilla
Tip for Getting Red M&M’s on the Cheap
I buy Christmas M&M’s for half price right after the holidays. Keep that in mind for next year if need be! It’s great to already have them on hand whenever the urge to make these old-fashioned m&m cookies strikes! I always store candies and such that I plan on baking with in mason jars rather than the original bags. Mason jars are reusable and keep them fresh better than the bags. Critters, if determined, can easily get into those bags, too. So glass jars is a safe way to keep everything stored until you need it!
How To Make this Old-Fashioned M&M Cookies Recipe Step-by-Step
Place your shortening in a mixing bowl and add sugars. I prefer dark because of the richer flavor but either one works. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix.
Add those M&M’s, but only add about half because you want to save some to put on the top!
Spray your baking sheet with cooking spray. Shape the dough into little balls about one inch in size. Add a couple more M&M’s on top
Bake for ten to twelve minutes or so… When they are done baking they’ll look like this. And they are ready for dunkin’!
These Old Fashioned M&M Cookies are the kind you’ll find yourself coming back to. Soft in the middle, just a little crisp around the edges, and loaded with that sweet candy crunch – just like Mama used to make. Go on and bake a batch, pour a cold glass of milk, and enjoy a little comfort straight from the oven!
Ingredients
- 1 cup solid Vegetable Shortening I use coconut oil but you can use your favorite
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp teaspoons vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/2 cups self rising flour*
- 1 1/2 cups M&M's
Instructions
- Combine shortening, sugars, eggs, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Gradually add in flour and mix well (or just dump it in all at once like I do). Stir in 1/2 cup M&M's, reserving rest to decorate the tops with.Form dough into one inch balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Decorate tops with additional M&M's (this is GREAT for kids to help with!) and bake at 375 for ten to twelve minutes or until golden brown. Makes about five dozen.
These look great, do they taste like a sugar cookie or a chocolate chip?
Hmm, I’d have to say the cookie part is more like a chocolate chip cookie than a sugar cookie, but really crunchy.
Did I mention crunchy?
lol
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
These look so simpl to make. Although I will need to use regular multicolour M&Ms. What could I use in place of shortening? I think I could find shortening here but it’s
just not as commonly used.
I love M&M cookies. Subway sells M&M cookies here but theirs are very soft and doughy.
Su, I found this on the Taste of Home website.
Butter can be substituted for shortening in equal amounts. However, there will be differences in your cookies. Besides having a rich buttery flavor, cookies made with all butter will spread more and have a darker color. If your cookies are spreading too much, keep the dough very cold, be sure the baking pans are cool and keep the oven temperature slightly higher than usual. You could also use a small amount of shortening in place of some of the butter to help the cookies keep their shape.
Isn’t Micha awesome?
If you want to avoid the spreading a bit and make it more like the originals you can also use margarine, which is a great deal like shortening. Just make sure sure sure that you don’t ever bake with light margarine, it’s disastrous!
I tried to make the filling for my cinnamon rolls with light margarine once because it’s all I had on hand. I don’t like to talk about it 🙁
Thanks Micha!
I’ll see if I can find some shortening because I’d like to keep it a Jordan Original. Hehe 😉
I’d love to make these with the nephew but none of the M&Ms would make it on the cookies. M candies as he calls them are his fave so they’d end up in his mouth instead. 🙂
Mmm… Those look good! I have some leftover M&Ms that my husband’s coworkers gave him for his Christmas birthday. They have his name and “Happy Birthday” on them! Cute, but not appropriate for my low carbing hubby! I considered baking Christmas cookies with them and giving them away, but didn’t get around to it with all the other things I had going on. Now I know I can sort them and have Valentine’s and St. Patty’s Day cookies!
I absolutely cannot wait to bake these. Wish I could go home from work early! My daughter will love to help me.
By the way, just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy following you on Facebook. I so do wish you were my neighbor! Good luck with the book. You and your family are special people and you have been working so hard. I’m so glad to see it paying off for you! 🙂
Hey Melanie,
I wish you were my neighbor, too!!!!!!!
I wonder if we could all just go in and set us up a big old commune. We could get a few hundred acres of farm land and put a biggggg old barn out in the middle of it for barn dances and gatherings and parties and such, then have little trails for bicycles and such and it would be one of those old fashioned neighborhoods where kids could roam and play and you wouldn’t have to worry because everybody would look out for them all.
Thank you so very much!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
OOOOOOOOH! My Mama liked to make M&M cookies too and I so I really do appreciate your bringing this recipe to the front today. I like your Mama’s idea about setting a limit on the M&M’s per cookie….a wise woman indeed. So, your tip about buying Christmas M&M’s and dividing them for Valentine’s and St. Patrick’s…well, I do that every year and now, because of you, girlfriend, I will now hafta squeeze my way through the newly-informed shoppers at the after-holiday sales for candy. Hmmmph! ~grins~ Thanks for all you do. I am sending a smoochie to Poochie. Love ya, T.
~giggles~
So many giggles in your comment, hehe. I can see you squeezing through the crowd and cursing me next year ! lol
Smoochies from the poochie!
Love you too!
CJ
I have been looking for a cute Valentine cookie recipe, and these fit the bill! And…I have some leftover Christmas M&M’s as well.
I have really enjoyed your site; reminds me of the recipes my mama made growing up. I follow other food blogs, but love yours b/c it is so southern and so close to home!
Oh Erika, thank you so much!!!
You just made my heart smile, I appreciate you being so sweet to me! Isn’t it amazing how we all seem to have a connection through our families and the food that nourished us growing up?
I hope you keep coming back, there is a special place for you at the southern plate table!!!
Gratefully,
Christy