Soft & Chewy Gluten-Free M&M Cookies

Soft & Chewy Gluten-Free M&M Cookies – This easy gluten-free m&m chocolate chip cookies recipe is perfect for your next cookie craving! Try it with seasonal m&ms to celebrate the holidays!

I love a good gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe, and it’s always fun to give them a spin, whether it’s adding toffee bits, stuffing them with Nutella, or making them into giant, bakery-style cookies. Yum!

One of our favorites lately has been these gluten-free m&m chocolate chip cookies. We used our favorite chocolate chip cookie dough base, then mixed in lots of colorful M&M candies to make them adorable, fun, and mega delicious.

I love that we can make these with classic rainbow m&ms, or mix things up with holiday colors & seasonal m&ms to dress them up for everything from Valentine’s Day to Christmas and everything in between.

This recipe is simple, delicious, and classic in every way. I think you’ll love them as much as we do!

Here’s what you need to make our soft, chewy gluten-free m&m cookies…

Here’s What You Need To Make Gluten-Free M&M Cookies:

• Butter. We start by browning the butter, which adds INCREDIBLE sweet, caramel-like notes to the cookie dough. These cookies *will* work if you just melt the butter, but taking the extra few minutes to brown the butter will give you the best flavor and texture. Highly recommend!
• Brown Sugar & Sugar. Using a mix of sugars helps give the cookies the right soft, chewy texture.
• Eggs + 1 Egg Yolk. Adding an extra egg yolk is one of my secrets for chewiness! (If you’ve never separated egg yolks before, try one of our 3 ways to separate egg yolks & whites.
• Vanilla. Plenty of vanilla extract plays up the notes of the brown butter and chocolate. So lovely!
• Gluten-Free Measure-For-Measure Flour & Cornstarch. We recommend this gluten free flour blend from King Arthur (not sponsored) because it gives the cookies the best taste and texture. If you substitute another 1:1 blend, be sure it includes xanthan gum or your cookies won’t turn out correctly. Then, a little cornstarch gives the cookies their chewy texture. So nice!
• Baking Soda & Baking Powder. We use both for the right texture. If it’s been a while since you checked, be sure you’re using fresh baking soda and fresh baking powder. You can check them for freshness in under 1 minute!
• Salt. Plenty of salt helps balance the flavor so these m&m cookies to trend too sweet.
• Semisweet Chocolate Chips or Dark Chocolate Chips. I love a mix of chocolate chips and m&ms in my gluten-free m&m chocolate chip cookies, but feel free to just use more m&ms if you like yours without chocolate chips!
• M&M Candies. And finally, our star ingredient–m&ms! We recommend plain milk chocolate m&ms or dark chocolate m&m’s for m&m cookies, rather than the larger filled m&ms (like peanut, almond, or caramel).

How To Make Gluten-Free M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies, Step By Step:

1. Start By Browning The Butter. Melt the butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a whisk constantly until the butter begins to foam. (Watch carefully when the butter begins to foam, as it will turn golden and brown quickly.) When the butter under the foam is golden brown (like honey) and smells sweet, remove the pan from the heat and transfer to the bowl of your stand mixer or a mixing bowl to cool for a few minutes, until it’s no longer hot to the touch. You want it room temperature, ideally, so it doesn’t melt the chocolate or m&ms.
2. Combine Brown Butter & Sugars. When the brown butter is at room temperature, add the brown sugar and sugar in a stand mixer or large bowl. Mix until the mixture looks like wet sand.
3. Add Eggs & Egg Yolk One At A Time. Beat in the eggs and egg yolk one at a time, mixing well (about 30 seconds) after each addition to combine.
4. Mix In The Vanilla. Stir in the vanilla and mix until it’s blended in.
5. Add The Dry Ingredients. Next, add the flour mixture, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix slowly until almost combined (there should still be a little flour visible).
6. Mix In The Chocolate Chips & M&M’s. Add the chocolate chips and the m&ms candies and stir until just combined and well distributed.
7. Chill The Dough. Cover and chill the dough AT LEAST 2 hours, up to 1 day. (This allows the flour to fully hydrate, which will give your cookies a soft, chewy texture rather than a coarse or gritty texture.
8. When You’re Ready To Bake, Preheat The Oven & Prep Your Pans. As soon as you’re ready to bake, remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
9. Scoop The Dough. As soon as the dough is soft enough to scoop, use a medium cookie scoop (2 Tablespoon cookie scoop) to scoop the cookie dough into balls. (You can scoop all of the dough now, just return it to the fridge in between batches so it stays chilled)
10. Bake & Cool The Cookies. Place 6 cookie dough balls on your prepared baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the centers look slightly underdone. Remove from the oven, top each cookie with a few extra M&Ms and let the cookies rest 2 minutes on the warm baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining cookie dough, alternating between baking sheets so you don’t put cold dough on a hot baking sheet.

Make Them Cute For Holidays!

Try dressing your gluten-free m&m cookies up for any holiday by using seasonal m&ms. (Don’t forget to double-check that the seasonal variety you buy is gluten-free!) M&M often makes seasonal color combinations for holidays like:

• St. Patrick’s Day. Zero in on the green m&ms or order a custom mix of green, light green & white for a St. Paddy’s day take on m&m cookies. (Mint & Key Lime m&ms are NOT gluten-free)
• Valentine’s Day. Make your valentine a batch of gluten-free Valentine’s cookies by using the red, white, and pink Valentine’s Day m&ms.
• Easter. I love the gorgeous pastel m&ms for Easter cookies. So cute! (Note: the pastel m&ms are gluten-free, but the eggs may contain gluten)
• 4th Of July. Stock up on red, white, and blue m&ms to make festive gluten-free 4th of July cookies!
• Halloween. Pick up the monster mix, or pick out fall colors, like orange, brown, red, and yellow.
• Christmas. Turn these into adorable gluten-free Christmas cookies by using red and green m&ms.

You can even order your own custom colors of m&ms directly from their website! This can work great for parties, birthdays, football games/sports teams, school colors, or celebrations any time. (You can even customize the text or image on the candies!

FAQ + Tips And Tricks For The Best Gluten-Free M&M Cookies:

Are M&Ms Gluten-Free? Most flavors of M&Ms are considered gluten-free! Mars (who owns M&M labels all their candies with an allergy statement. When checking seasonal or new flavors of M&Ms, check the allergy statement at the bottom of the ingredients list. If it says “May contain wheat” or “may contain gluten,” that variety is NOT gluten-free. We rounded up all the gluten-free m&m flavors here!

Don’t Skip The Chill Time! Chilling the cookie dough can DRASTICALLY improve the texture of many gluten-free cookies. While the dough chills, the flour hydrates, absorbing liquid from the dough and softening, which gives the cookies a softer, more chewy texture and cuts down on grittiness. It’ll also help control the spread of your cookies (warm or room temperature dough spreads more).

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