If you’re looking for The Best Christmas M&M’s Cookies, you’ve arrived! The secret to soft, chewy cookies is pudding mix. These cookies are easy to make and easy to customize with your favorite M&M flavors.
For a fun twist, try our Chocolate M&M’s cookies too! We used our favorite M&M cookies recipe (complete with sprinkles) to make today’s holiday version.
Why this Recipe is Best
Add M&Ms to just about any cookie (or M&M Brownies) and chances are I’ll be on board. But when you want the M&Ms to really stand out, pairing them with the right cookie dough is important.
This dough is made with instant vanilla pudding mix. Why add pudding mix to cookies?
- Because pudding mix adds flavor while also making the cookies soft, chewy and sweet.
- That soft cookie texture is the perfect vehicle for M&Ms with a crunchy candy shell.
- We used M&Ms with festive holiday colors, along with sprinkles, to get these M&Ms Cookies ready for Santa! (need more holiday inspiration check out our christmas cookie recipes!)
You should also give our M&M cookie bars a try! So chewy and delicious.
Ingredient Notes
- Pudding Mix. Make sure to use instant vanilla pudding mix, not the cook ‘n’ serve variety.
- Melted Butter. This helps give the cookies the perfect consistency. They’ll spread and firm up as they bake but stay soft and chewy in the center.
- M&Ms. We used the special holiday M&Ms for these cookies. The recipe works beautifully with any flavor or color of M&Ms you like!
- Sprinkles. Feel free to change up the color of the sprinkles for different occasions or holidays. We recommend Jimmies sprinkles (the long, rectangular ones) or nonpareils here.
Easy Instructions
These cookies start like most: creaming together the melted butter and sugar.
Next, you’ll add the eggs, vanilla extract and pudding mix, followed by the dry ingredients.
Fold in the M&Ms and sprinkles. Now, drop the cookies by the spoonful onto a baking sheet.
Bake for about 11 minutes. Let cool before enjoying.
PRO TIP: For a thicker cookie dough that spreads less, chill dough for an hour!
Tips and Tricks
- The cookies are likely to appear soft when you first remove them from the oven. They’ll continue to firm up a bit as they cool so be careful not to overbake.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. Enjoy within 1 week.
- Line your baking sheet with parchment paper before baking the cookies to prevent sticking and make clean up a breeze.
- Freeze Cookies. Use my tips on how to freeze cookie dough for later.
- Got more M&M’s? Try our M&M Cheesecake Bars or M&M frosting.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, these M&Ms Cookies freeze well both baked and unbaked. Baked cookies can be stored in freezer bags for up to 3 months.
Unbaked cookies should be scooped and frozen on a baking sheet until firm, then transferred to freezer bags. No need to thaw them before baking. Just place them on a cookie sheet frozen, adding a couple more minutes to the bake time.
Yes, salted butter can be used in this recipe. If you need to use salted butter, I recommend omitting the added kosher salt to help balance out the saltiness of the baked M&Ms Cookies.
I love the way that Jimmies sprinkles hold up to baking! Other kinds of sprinkles, like nonpareils and sugar sprinkles will tend to bleed into the dough.
Of course you can! Feel free to try this recipe with any kind of M&Ms you love. Peanut Butter M&Ms, White Chocolate M&Ms and Peanut M&Ms would all be delicious choices.
More Easy Cookie Recipes
- Snickerdoodles
- Cut Out Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Toll House Cookies
- Icebox Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies
Favorite Cookies
See all Cookies recipes
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Christmas M&M’S Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 box Instant Vanilla pudding mix 3.4 ounce
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 package holiday M&M'S 11 ounc (about 1 1/2 cups)
- ¼ cup holiday sprinkles
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with sugars until creamy. Add in pudding mix, eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add flour, baking soda and salt. Fold in M&M’S and sprinkles.
- Drop by large tablespoon (I use this scoop for perfect sized cookies) onto parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Bake in a 350°F oven for 11-13 minutes. Do not over bake, cookies may appear soft. Allow to cool and enjoy!
Notes
- If you want thicker cookies, chill dough for at least an hour before baking.
- STORAGE: Store cookies in airtight container for up to one week. Or freeze in airtight container for up to three months.
Nutrition
The Best M&Ms Cookies are made with pudding mix! Bake up a batch of these for your family’s Christmas celebration, or whenever you’re craving the heavenly combination of cookies and M&Ms candies.
We love these cookies so much! I just made another batch and immediately froze them for Christmas because my kids keep eating them!
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe! Will surely have this again! It’s really easy to make and it tasted so delicious! Highly recommended!
These cookies were awesome, so festive and cute, perfect for our work Christmas party!
I have had a recipe similar, if not exactly, like this one for a few years. Mine is called “Santa’s Favorite Cookie” and it is a favorite with everybody I bake for. I give baked goods (4 or 5 kinds of cookies, sweet breads, etc.) to coworkers and friends every year and this is the cookie they always make sure is in the box.
My cookies when I took them out and they were cooling they had flattened, I am not sure what I did wrong. Someone please help, it may have been my butter as it was sitting out since last night so it was very soft!
Oh the butter was definitely much too soft!
I made these at Christmas with the usual type sprinkle, (loved them!!). I’m planning on making these for a baby shower. She’s having a girl and I was looking for sprinkles in pinks. I found non-pareils (sp?). Will these work the same or be too crunchy?
I prefer the jimmies. You can purchase them on amazon 🙂 http://amzn.to/2kxW9ZE
They taste great but are so flat and not very pretty. I froze half the batch so hopefully they won’t be as flat when I bake them.
OMG! just made these yesterday. they were awesome. they are now my favorite cookies, really yummy.
thanks for the recipe
So glad you enjoyed them!!!
I made these today. YUM! I melted the butter, added the sugars, and then added the eggs before adding the vanilla pudding. I did not use parchment paper. I baked them on a stone cookie sheet for 11 minutes. They didn’t look done when I took them out of the oven, but they firmed up and were perfect. I’m planning to make another batch later this week.
Awesome!!!
Ok, read the story accompanying this recipe and she does say she melts the butter. Wasn’t a typo in recipe.
Definitely don’t melt butter, as soon as I finished I knew something was off. Should of realized you can’t cream with melted butter, her base recipe she uses to make variations of this recipes calls for “softened” butter.
Is the butter supposed to be melted or just softened? Bc I would think if melted, it wouldn’t cream well..
Yum! I love how the pudding keeps the cookies so soft. These are totally perfect for Christmas!
These look great. I have had trouble in the past with adding pudding to the cookies. For some reason the pudding made it gritty. Any idea of why?
I have been making pudding cookies for years. I make sure the butter and sugars are well creamed and smooth before adding the pudding, while being sure to scrape the bowl to ensure there’s no leftover/hiding bits on the bottom/sides. Works for me. Good luck!