Peanut Butter M&M Cookies
These Peanut Butter M&M Cookies have a soft peanut butter cookie dough studded with creamy Peanut Butter M&M’s. It’s the perfect cookie recipe for the peanut butter lover!
If you’re not familiar with a Peanut Butter M&M, it’s like Reese’s Pieces but even bigger and creamier.
A friend introduced them to me and I was simultaneously very happy and deadly upset over how delicious they are.
They’re the best M&M ever, if you ask me.
This cookie has both amazing textures and intense peanut butter flavor.
I love biting into the soft peanut butter cookie dough, but getting those bits of hard candy shell that yield to the creamy peanut butter centers of the M&Ms.
Even though I highly recommend peanut butter M&Ms here, you may use other types of M&Ms.
You can use regular chocolate M&Ms, the peanut M&Ms with the actual nut inside, pretzel M&Ms, and so on.
How to Make Peanut Butter M&M Cookies:
Start by placing brown sugar, granulated sugar, and softened butter in a bowl:
Cream them together, then add in peanut butter and an egg:
Mix until incorporated:
Then add your dry ingredients, which is a mixture of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt:
Just before the flour has disappeared, add peanut butter M&Ms:
Use a large cookie scoop to portion out mounds of cookie dough.
You may place them on a lined baking sheet to bake immediately, or you can place scoops on a plate and freeze them for later.
After 12-14 minutes in the oven, the dough balls will spread and bake down, with the M&Ms still intact:
I love eating the cookies straight out of the oven, as the centers of the candies get especially creamy and warm.
Monster Cookies are a similar cookie that I also love making, along with Snickerdoodles, Shortbread Cookies, and Molasses Cookies. Enjoy!
Peanut Butter M&M Cookies
Ingredients
- 1.25 cups all-purpose flour (6.25 ounces by weight)
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups peanut butter M&Ms
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk to combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt. Set aside.
- Place the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl and cream them together with a hand mixer for approximately two minutes, until the mixture looks fluffy.
- Add the peanut butter and egg and mix until incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until the flour has almost disappeared.
- Finally, add the peanut butter M&Ms and stir them in gently with a spatula.
- Using a large cookie scoop, portion out mounds of the cookie dough on your prepared baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each cookie.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the edges are slightly brown and the mounds have flattened a bit. Let the cookies cool, then enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
Post updated in November 2018. Originally published January 2014.
26 Comments on “Peanut Butter M&M Cookies”
Delicious! For a double batch, I substituted 1 cup whole wheat flour and scanted the white sugar to about 3/4 cups. Rich and yummy still! I find that using some whole wheat flour makes cookies taste richer, believe it or not.
Can natural peanut butter be used in this recipe?
I know this is an old post, but would like to express my appreciation of you sharing this recipe. I just returned from a work trip and am doing a 14-day self-quarantine, with limited supplies on hand. No eggs, no butter, made tons of substitutions (1 tbsp ground flaxseeds mixed with 3 tbsp water for egg, used vegan butter for real butter, added 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon just because, etc). and the cookies STILL came out great! It is so nice to have a tray of homemade cookies when bombarded by depressing news. Thank you!
The last pans of these are in the oven as I type this. YUM! The texture and flavor of these cookies are divine. I plan to bring them to a 4th of July gathering where there will be several children. I know they will be a hit! (Just wish I could’ve found red, white and blue M&M’s). Definitely keeping this recipe and definitely making again!
I followed this recipe and the cookies were very dry and crumbly, kind of disappointed.
Hi!
If I leave the peanut butter out, will they still turn out flat, chewy, and crispy?
I made these a few days ago, turned out perfect, but I’d like to adapt it, maybe add a different flavour.
Do you have any tips to make sure they turn out the same? Or is it fine to follow the recipe, minus the peanut butter? 🙂
Hi Marsha, Unfortunately I don’t know without trying it, as that’s a major component in the cookies, and the peanut butter provides a lot of the fat. Playing with recipes in the kitchen is fun though, to see what happens!
I was wondering if these could be made as bars. If so, does anyone know what temp and for how long you would cook them?
That’s a good idea! I haven’t tried it so I’m not sure of the exact time, but if you wanted a thicker bar you could double the recipe, and bake it in an 8×8 square pan (I’d say maybe 25 minutes? Maybe longer).
I am a huge, huge M&M-fan, so these cookies are hard for me to resist!
They’re really good!
Thank you so much for that recipe! I love M&M cookies.
The peanut butter M&Ms are not available in Germany. Can I also use the normal chocolat M&Ms?
Angie, I used chocolate M & M’s. The peanut butter flavor of the cookies still came through and they were delicious!
I made these for Teacher Appreciation week at my son’s school. They were doing a Superhero theme so I bought chocolate M & M’s in blue, red & yellow (Superman colors.) Some peanut butter cookies don’t have enough peanut butter for my taste, but these definitely did. Very delicious!
These are excellent!!!
So happy to hear that, Patty!
So great you and Julie were able to hang out and cook together! I love Julie – she’s one of the first bloggers I met in person – great heart and spirit!
I love any peanut butter cookie there is and these look to die for!
silly me, wanted to say “I’d use peanut butter M&M’s” because the pictures look like you are using milk chocolate M&M’s, but I see in the recipe you are using the good stuff. Mmmmmmmmm, I loves peanut butter M&M’s. Can’t wait to make these with my 4 year old. He mixes the ingredients, I run the oven.
They are SO good! And dangerous. I liked Reese’s Pieces before but I admit like the PB m&ms better!
These look absolutely perfect!! Pass the milk and 3 of these please!
Ahh, I miss you so much! Had so much fun!! I can’t wait to come visit you!! xoxoxo and that picture of Angel…so sweet!!