Old-Fashioned M&M Cookies

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Your perfect cookie for dunkin’! These Old Fashioned M&M Cookies are hard to resist. Get some milk and start dunkin’ ASAP!

M & M Cookies Recipe

This old-fashioned M&M Cookies recipe is the one I remember Mama making the most growing up. Unlike many of today’s cookies, these have a good crunch to them. That, along with a pure flavor brought about by the vanilla makes them absolutely perfect for dunking in milk. I repeat: Absolutely perfect. Divine. Sublime. Wonderful. I really, really, really, want you to make these and have them with a glass of milk — tonight!

An Old-Fashioned Recipe

Mama used to always make this recipe and put the little balls of dough on baking sheets before transferring them to the table where the three of us sat at the ready. She’d give each of us a little bowl of M&M’s and we had one rule: We could put three M&M’s on each cookie — no more. I didn’t understand why Mama had that rule until I made these with son for the first time. There was one cookie that kid had put fifteen M&M’s on! ~laughs~ 

So now I revert to Mama’s wisdom. I put some M&M’s in the batter and then each cookie is adorned with exactly three M&M’s on top!

Keep reading to see how to make these little beauties as well as how I get my all red M&M’s for half price!

Ingredients for this Old-Fashioned M&M Cookies Recipe are:  

  • Solid Vegetable Shortening (I like to use Coconut Oil but you can use whatever you like)
  • Brown Sugar (dark or light, whatever you have on hand)
  • M&M’s
  • Sugar
  • Eggs
  • Self Rising Flour (See FAQ on how to make your own)
  • Vanilla

 

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*Tip for Getting Red M&M’s on the Cheap*

I buy Christmas M&M’s for half price right after the holidays. Keep that in mind for next year if need be! It’s great to already have them on hand whenever the urge to make these old-fashioned m&m cookies strikes!

*I always store candies and such that I plan on baking with in mason jars rather than the original bags. Mason jars are reusable and keep them fresh better than the bags. Critters, if determined, can easily get into those bags, too. So glass jars is a safe way to keep everything stored until you need it!

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Then I sort them by color.

Red ones are perfect for Valentines Day

and the green ones are great for the very next holiday: St. Patrick’s Day!

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I put the green ones back in the jar and my kids will be ready to make our “lucky” cookies and treats next month.

Now let’s get to this recipe!

How To Make this Old-Fashioned M&M Cookies Recipe Step-by-Step

Place your shortening in a mixing bowl and add sugars.

I always just use whatever brown sugar I have on hand whenever a recipe calls for brown sugar of any kind.

I prefer dark because of the richer flavor but either one works.

add eggs and vanilla

Add eggs and vanilla.

Mix the M & M Cookie batter

Mix all that up until creamy and blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl if you need to.

Mama’s recipe says to add your flour gradually.

~arches a brow and smirks~

Raise your hand if you think I’m gonna do that…

Yeah, right. Dump all of your flour in at once. Walk on the wild-side with me.

Mix her up and add those M&M’s 

I add about half because you want to save some to put on the top.

M & M cookie recipe dough

It will look something like this.  

 

Spray your baking sheet with cooking spray. Shape the dough into little balls about one inch in size.

Add a couple more M&M’s on top

Bake for ten to twelve minutes or so…

When they are done baking they’ll look like this. And they are ready for Dunkin’!

 

M & M Cookies Recipe

Old-Fashioned M&M Cookies Recipe

You are gonna love these Old-Fashioned M&M Cookies! They really are made the old-fashioned way. Just enough crunch and tasty goodness to have the family coming back for more.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 9 minutes
Total Time: 29 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cookies
Servings: 4
Calories: 190kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 cup solid Vegetable Shortening I use coconut oil but you can use your favorite
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups self rising flour*
  • 1 1/2 cups M&M's

Instructions

  • Combine shortening, sugars, eggs, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Gradually add in flour and mix well (or just dump it in all at once like I do). Stir in 1/2 cup M&M's, reserving rest to decorate the tops with.Form dough into one inch balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Decorate tops with additional M&M's (this is GREAT for kids to help with!) and bake at 375 for ten to twelve minutes or until golden brown. Makes about five dozen.

Nutrition

Calories: 190kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

You may also enjoy these cookie recipes:

No Bake Chocolate Cookies

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Italian Cookies Recipe lightly sweet, cake like goodness!

Chewy Sugar Cookies

“You must not lose faith in humanity.

Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,

the ocean does not become dirty.”

~Ghandi. How very true this is.

Submit your quote here or just visit to pick up a little inspiration and a few extra smiles for the road 🙂

 

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100 Comments

  1. These look so simpl to make. Although I will need to use regular multicolour M&Ms. What could I use in place of shortening? I think I could find shortening here but it’s
    just not as commonly used.

    I love M&M cookies. Subway sells M&M cookies here but theirs are very soft and doughy.

    1. Su, I found this on the Taste of Home website.

      Butter can be substituted for shortening in equal amounts. However, there will be differences in your cookies. Besides having a rich buttery flavor, cookies made with all butter will spread more and have a darker color. If your cookies are spreading too much, keep the dough very cold, be sure the baking pans are cool and keep the oven temperature slightly higher than usual. You could also use a small amount of shortening in place of some of the butter to help the cookies keep their shape.

      1. Isn’t Micha awesome?

        If you want to avoid the spreading a bit and make it more like the originals you can also use margarine, which is a great deal like shortening. Just make sure sure sure that you don’t ever bake with light margarine, it’s disastrous!

        1. I tried to make the filling for my cinnamon rolls with light margarine once because it’s all I had on hand. I don’t like to talk about it 🙁

  2. I’d love to make these with the nephew but none of the M&Ms would make it on the cookies. M candies as he calls them are his fave so they’d end up in his mouth instead. 🙂

  3. Mmm… Those look good! I have some leftover M&Ms that my husband’s coworkers gave him for his Christmas birthday. They have his name and “Happy Birthday” on them! Cute, but not appropriate for my low carbing hubby! I considered baking Christmas cookies with them and giving them away, but didn’t get around to it with all the other things I had going on. Now I know I can sort them and have Valentine’s and St. Patty’s Day cookies!

  4. I absolutely cannot wait to bake these. Wish I could go home from work early! My daughter will love to help me.

    By the way, just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy following you on Facebook. I so do wish you were my neighbor! Good luck with the book. You and your family are special people and you have been working so hard. I’m so glad to see it paying off for you! 🙂

    1. Hey Melanie,
      I wish you were my neighbor, too!!!!!!!

      I wonder if we could all just go in and set us up a big old commune. We could get a few hundred acres of farm land and put a biggggg old barn out in the middle of it for barn dances and gatherings and parties and such, then have little trails for bicycles and such and it would be one of those old fashioned neighborhoods where kids could roam and play and you wouldn’t have to worry because everybody would look out for them all.

      Thank you so very much!

      Gratefully,
      Christy 🙂

  5. OOOOOOOOH! My Mama liked to make M&M cookies too and I so I really do appreciate your bringing this recipe to the front today. I like your Mama’s idea about setting a limit on the M&M’s per cookie….a wise woman indeed. So, your tip about buying Christmas M&M’s and dividing them for Valentine’s and St. Patrick’s…well, I do that every year and now, because of you, girlfriend, I will now hafta squeeze my way through the newly-informed shoppers at the after-holiday sales for candy. Hmmmph! ~grins~ Thanks for all you do. I am sending a smoochie to Poochie. Love ya, T.

  6. I have been looking for a cute Valentine cookie recipe, and these fit the bill! And…I have some leftover Christmas M&M’s as well.

    I have really enjoyed your site; reminds me of the recipes my mama made growing up. I follow other food blogs, but love yours b/c it is so southern and so close to home!

    1. Oh Erika, thank you so much!!!
      You just made my heart smile, I appreciate you being so sweet to me! Isn’t it amazing how we all seem to have a connection through our families and the food that nourished us growing up?

      I hope you keep coming back, there is a special place for you at the southern plate table!!!
      Gratefully,
      Christy

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