Sweeten your Easter celebration with irresistible Easter M&M Cookies, bursting with colorful candies that add a delightful crunch and chocolatey goodness to every bite. These festive treats are perfect for sharing with loved ones and are sure to be a hit at any springtime gathering or Easter egg hunt.
Easy Easter Cookie Recipe
If you’ve tried my Kitchen Sink Christmas Cookies, you know just how good the base cookie recipe is. I use it over and over, adjusting slightly and switching up the mix-ins for different holidays.
Today I present to you the Easter version with pastel M&M candies sprinkled throughout that make them so eye-appealing and festive. They’d be perfect to wrap in plastic wrap and add to an easter basket spread this year.
This Easter cookie recipe creates soft, gooey, extra chewy and oh so irresistible spring cookies. They never last long in my house because and are loved by all I share them with. The Easter Bunny told me they are the best cookies he’s ever had! And if you’re looking for more Easter desserts, you’ll have to checkout these Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs (Reese’s Copycat) or my family’s recipe for Carrot Cake which is literally the best ever.
Recipe Ingredients
- Flour: I used all purpose and have not tried any alternatives, so substitute with caution.
- M&M Candies: Use the pastel ones available at most grocery stores during the Spring!
- Sugar: We will use both brown sugar and white cane sugar.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Substitutions and Variations
Switch up your mix-ins:
- Use mini Cadbury eggs instead of the M&Ms for an even more Easter themed dessert. Really you can add any leftover easter candy to the mix (avoiding anything fruity).
- Add some salty mix-ins: Experiment with crushed saltines or even potato chips (the sugary & salty combo is better than you’d think!!). Similar to my Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies, the sweet & salty flavors together are delicious.
- Add crunch: Adding something like rice cereal or toffee bits will provide additional texture.
- Add Chocolate Chips: White chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate, dark chocolate. Whatever you like.
- Add nuts: Pecans, peanuts or walnuts would be super tasty in this recipe. Smaller pieces are better, so you’ll want them chopped.
- Want more color? Add sprinkles!
How to Make This Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, add the butter and cover with a paper towel. Melt in 30 second intervals or until it’s completely melted. Pour in both sugars and vanilla. Mix until completely combined (this will take a few minutes depending on how melted the butter is).
2. Fold in the whole egg. Scape the sides of the both to make sure all of the wet ingredients are mixed well.
3. Add in the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix together again. Note: really important to scrape the sides since not using an electric mixer here. If the batter is TOO soft and doesn’t have enough structure, add another 2 tbsp of flour. Mixed batter should resemble the texture pictured.
4. Fold in the chopped and full Pastel M&Ms.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use a 1 or 1.5 tbsp medium cookie scoop to scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet. Gently press down so the cookie is a thick disk or puck cookie instead of a round ball. Press extra m&ms into the top of the cookies (this helps create a prettier cookie 🙂). Place 6-8 cookies on the baking sheet. They will expand during baking so try to leave at least 2” around each one.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown while the middles are still slightly underbaked.
Use a glass or mason jar ring placed over the cookie to ‘shake’ the cookie back into a circular shape if they’ve expanded while baking.
Let the cookies cool for a couple of minutes on the pan before moving them to a wire rack. Enjoy warm with flakey sea salt or allow to cool. Both are divine.
PRO TIPS
For best results, measure the flour properly! This is KEY in cookies. Spoon INTO the measuring cup opposed to scooping the flour with the cup. Level off the flour before adding to the mixing bowl.
Move the cookies to a wire cooling rack after a couple minutes of cooling on the hot pan. This will ensure you get a golden brown bottom but still super chewy cookies that aren’t over baked.
Storage and Freezing
These can be stored in an airtight container either on the counter or the refrigerator if you like a chewy, chilled cookie. In your storage container, add a piece of bread (I like to use the end piece of a loaf). The cookies will draw out the moisture from the bread and keep them as the softest cookies.
You can also freeze these cookies baked or unbaked.
- To freeze unbaked dough, scoop the cookie dough balls and place on a cookie sheet as if you’re going to bake them. Place the entire cookie sheet in the freezer for 3-4 hours until each dough ball is frozen (this’ll prevent them from sticking together). Then, place in a Ziplock or airtight container until ready to bake. You can bake the dough balls from frozen for 2-3 extra minutes.
- To freeze baked cookies, allow them to cool completely before adding to a freezer bag or airtight container. I recommend layering parchment paper between each cookie stack. This will prevent the cookies from freezing altogether.
Recipe FAQs
A cookie scoop (or ice cream scoop) is ideal for evenly shaped cookies. I also like to use a mason jar ring or circular cookie cutter placed over the cookie and swirled in a circular fashion right when they come out of the oven to get perfectly round and even cookies.
When the edges (and edges only!) are golden, your cookies are done. You want the center slightly underdone when the cookies come out of the oven because they will finish setting as they cool. This is how we get a super soft and chewy cookie!
Even though I made these cookies with a 1.5T cookie scoop, I think the sweet spot would be 0.5 or 1T cookie scoop. The base of these cookies remind me Nestle Tollhouse and the smaller, 2 bite cookie is just TASTY!
Serving suggestions
Serve your cookies with a glass of cold milk or with this Copycat Wendy’s Chocolate Frosty! Hosting a Easter Brunch? Can’t go wrong with a pitcher of Limoncello Spritzes!
More Recipes You’ll Love
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Easter M&M Cookies
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Rubber Spatula
- parchment paper
- Baking sheet
- 1-1.5 tbsp cookie scooper
- Measuring cups and spoons
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 ⅔ cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- 2/3 cup pastel M&Ms
- 1/3 cup pastel M&Ms, crushed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
- In a large bowl, add the butter and cover with a paper towel. Melt in 30 second intervals or until it’s completely melted.
- Pour in both sugars and vanilla. Mix until completely combined (this will take a few minutes depending on how melted the butter is).
- Fold in the whole egg. Scrape the sides of the both to make sure all of the wet ingredients are mixed well.
- Add in the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix together again. Note: really important to scrape the sides since not using an electric mixer here. If the batter is TOO soft and doesn’t have enough structure, add another 2 tbsp of flour. Mixed batter should resemble this texture:
- Fold in the chopped and full Pastel M&Ms.
- Use a 1 or 1.5 tbsp medium cookie scoop to scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet. Gently press down so the cookie is a thick disk or puck cookie instead of a round ball. Press extra m&ms into the top of the cookies (this helps create a prettier cookie 🙂).
- Place 6-8 cookies on the baking sheet. They will expand during baking so try to leave at least 2” around each one.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown while the middles are still slightly underbaked.
- Use a glass or mason jar ring placed over the cookie to ‘shake’ the cookie back into a circular shape if they’ve expanded while baking.
- Let the cookies cool for a couple of minutes on the pan before moving them to a wire rack. Enjoy warm with flakey sea salt or allow to cool. Both are divine.
Nutrition
Video
Notes
more of our favorite Cookie Recipes…
- Easy Peanut Butter Cookies
- Oatmeal Snickerdoodles
- Chocolate Chip Cherry Cookies
- Lucky Charms Cookies
- Halloween Candy Cookies
- Kit Kat Cookies
- No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookie
- Funfetti Cookie Recipe
- Easy Peppermint Chocolate Cookies
- Avalanche Cookies (No Bake)
- Christmas Shortbread Cookie
- Pretzel Cookies
- Ricotta Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies
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If you’re using MyFitnessPal, search ‘A Paige Of Positivity’ and find Easter M&M Cookies calories and nutrition facts. Disclaimer: for most accurate macronutrients and caloric breakdown, it is recommended that you input each ingredient into your MyFitnessPal food diary.
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. It’s my passion to create dishes that can be shared with others. Tell me something you loved or just say hi!
These are excellent. My neighbors devoured them! Perfect for an Easter gathering.
Talk about simple!! These are the easiest cookies to make and are delicious! I don’t have a cookie scoop but two spoons worked good enough. A must make!
Such an easy recipe!! If you only have 30 min you can get these made! Fun having easter colors – used GF flour and still turned out great.
cookies from scratch, but make it EASY, delicious and fun! loved sharing these with friends for spring
These cookies are delicious! I made them with my grandson. No mixer needed. And the idea of using canning jar lids to keep them from spreading is genius!