When brown butter and a classic chocolate candy such as M&Ms collide, they make the most incredibly delicious cookies. These brown butter M&M cookies are the best. They are buttery and soft, leaving you with a party in your mouth, a grin on your face, and your entire body in a major moment of euphoria.
I love making these cookies for friend gatherings, birthdays, or for a weekend treat.
Cookies lend itself to creating variations, and so this recipe is inspired by my cookie skillet, my triple threat cookies, and my classic brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
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What are the ingredients for this recipe?
These cookies call for very standard ingredients like butter, flour, and sugar. Specifically, let's look at what we need from start to finish.
- All Purpose Flour
- Baking Soda
- Butter - this needs to true room temperature. That means, if you place your finger tip onto the stick of butter and press in, it leaves a slight indent. Butter takes approximately 20-30 minutes to come to room temperature once removed from the fridge.
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- M&Ms - I like to use the mini ones as they spread nicely across the batter.
See the recipe card below for specific information about quantities
How do I make this recipe?
This recipe takes no time to put together, but with the extra steps of browning the butter, we will need to break this down into two steps: browning the butter and making the cookies. Here's how we do it:
Browning the Butter:
Add butter to a light-bottomed medium pan and turn flame on to a medium heat. It will begin to sputter and foam. This is a good thing! Continue to stir the butter and keep on a medium heat, ensuring the solids do not burn at the bottom. The aromas from the browned butter should be intense with nutty and buttery notes. Let the butter brown; keeping an eye on the butter for 5-7 minutes and turn off the heat. Scrape the browned bits and the browned butter into a bowl and set in the fridge for approximately 30 minute or until the browned butter has cooled just a bit.
Making the Cookies:
Begin by adding the cooled brown butter and sugar to a large mixing bowl. Cream butter and sugar using a hand whisk or a stand mixer until it forms a creamy paste, approximately 3 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time and mix to combine.
To the wet ingredients, add in flour and baking soda and mix a little at a time. Add in the mini m&ms and fold in with a spatula.
Using a large cookie scoop, scoop the dough and form balls. Place the balls on a baking sheet and let chill in the fridge for an hour. Once the hour is done, preheat the oven to 350º and place a few cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake the cookies for 12 minutes or until lightly brown; rotating racks from top to bottom halfway through. Let cool completely (approximately 30m) before serving to allow the cookies to fully set.
Hint: The cookies will continue to bake and set after they are taken out of the oven, so be sure to time them efficiently so that they don't over bake!
Recipe Swaps and Substitutions
If you're looking to adapt some things in this cookie recipe to fit your lifestyle, here's what I would suggest:
- Flour: you can swap out the all purpose flour to use gluten free, but the texture will change a little bit. If you are swapping out the regular flour, I recommend Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour for these.
- Butter: you can swap out the regular butter and opt in plant-based butter
- Chocolate: If you want to swap out the m&m's you can do so and just use chocolate chips.
Recipe Swaps and Substitutions
Cookies naturally lend itself to a variety of different add ins, so if you're trying to make this recipe your own, consider these variations:
- Skillet - throw the entire batter into one large cast iron skillet and bake for 30 minutes.
- Cookie Bars - add the batter to a 9x9 tin and bake for 25-30 minutes to form cookie blondies or bars
- Mix-ins: Get creative! Make these cookies with Reese’s pieces, and could be fun to throw in chopped milky way pieces or twix... SO GOOD!
Kitchen Equipment and Tools
Having a few trusty baking tools in your kitchen really makes a difference. Here are a few must-haves if you're looking to make delicious cookies every single time:
- Baking sheets
- Parchment paper
- Hand or stand mixer - I only have a hand mixer, and I love it!
- Cookie scoop
One other kitchen tool that I rely on heavily is the use of a scale. Kitchen scales help to make sure that the recipe turns out the exact same each time. A gram is a gram, however, a cup is not the same as a cup for me and for you. Why? We all scoop flour or sugar differently, so when we measure, we are getting the same weight each time. I highly suggest investing in a quality scale, I promise you it makes a difference. Some of my favorites are listed here.
How do I store these cookies?
You can store any cookies in a plastic or glass container and can be left on the countertop for up to 5 days. If you have leftover or want to make a batch for another day, freeze the cookie dough in an air tight freezer storage bag and be sure to label the date in which the dough was formed. Also, indicate the bake time and temp: bake at 325º for 18 minutes.
PRO TIP:
Add some flaky sea salt to the tops of the cookies for an added salty sweet flavor.
Hungry for More?
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
The Best Brown Butter M&M Cookie Recipe
Equipment
- 1 large mixing bowl
- measuring cups and spoons
- 1 kitchen scale optional
- 1 hand or stand mixer
- 1 spatula
- 1 whisk
Ingredients
- 310 grams All Purpose Flour Approx 2 ¼ cups
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 8 oz butter 2 sticks
- 50 grams cane sugar ¼ cup
- 150 grams light brown sugar ¾ cup
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup mini m&Ms
Instructions
For the Brown Butter
- Add butter to a light-bottomed medium pan and turn flame on to a medium heat. It will begin to sputter and foam. This is a good thing!
- Continue to stir the butter and keep on a medium heat, ensuring the solids do not burn at the bottom. The aromas from the browned butter should be intense with nutty and buttery notes.
- Let the butter brown; keeping an eye on the butter for 5-7 minutes and turn off the heat.
- Scrape the browned bits and the browned butter into a bowl and set in the fridge for 1 hour or until the browned butter is cooled and becomes solid again.
For the Cookies
- Cream browned butter and sugars together with a hand mixer. Add in eggs one at a time and mix.
- Next, pour in the vanilla extract and continue to mix.
- Add in flour and baking soda half at a time and mix until all dough is mixed.
- Add M&Ms into the dough and fold in using a spatula.
- Using an ice cream scoop, make medium sized cookie dough balls and set on the baking sheet, leaving room in between.
- Set in the fridge covered with plastic wrap for 60 minutes. Approximately 20 minutes before the timer finishes, preheat the oven to 350º.
- After the temperature begins to rise, take the cookies out, remove the cling wrap and bake 350° for 10-11 minutes until golden brown on sides and soft to the touch of a fingertip.
- Let cool for 20m then transfer to a cooling rack.
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