If you love thick, bakery-style cookies and you love peanut butter, these Peanut Butter Peanut M&M Cookies are about to become your new favorite.
These are not the classic fork-pressed peanut butter cookies. Instead, they’re soft, chewy, and loaded with chopped peanut M&M’s inside and whole pastel peanut M&M’s pressed on top for the perfect Easter finish. The peanut butter base is rich and flavorful, while milk chocolate chips add melty pockets throughout. They bake up thick like a bakery chocolate chip cookie but with peanut butter in every single bite. And honestly? I don’t know why we don’t see these more often.
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
- Thick and chewy centers
- Slightly crisp edges
- Peanut butter + peanut crunch combo
- Melty milk chocolate throughout
- Perfect for Easter with pastel M&M’s
- No fork-pressing required
They’re nostalgic, colorful, and feel just a little elevated.
What Makes These Different from Traditional Peanut Butter Cookies?
Traditional peanut butter cookies are often crumbly and pressed with a fork before baking. These are built more like a bakery-style chocolate chip cookie.
We use:
- Melted butter for chewiness
- Brown sugar for moisture
- An extra egg yolk for richness
- Chill time to control spread
The result? Thick centers, chewy texture, and peanut flavor in every bite.
RECIPE TIPS
Underbaking the cookies: This is essential to getting the texture right. I bake my cookies for 11–12 minutes and then remove them from the oven and let them cool completely on the cookie sheet. Letting them cool on the hot pan will continue cooking them at a lower temperature without drying them out. This is what gives you that thick, chewy center. If you prefer a slightly crispier cookie, bake for 13–14 minutes. They’re still delicious, but I’m always team soft and chewy 🙂
Chocolate: For this recipe I use milk chocolate chips along with peanut M&M’s. The milk chocolate adds that melty chocolate flavor that balances the peanut butter perfectly. You can substitute semi-sweet or dark chocolate if that’s what you prefer, but I personally love the creaminess of milk chocolate here.
Chopping the M&M’s: I recommend roughly chopping about half of the peanut M&M’s before mixing them into the dough. This ensures peanut and chocolate are distributed evenly throughout every bite. Leave the remaining M&M’s whole to press into the tops right after baking for that bakery-style look.
Chilling the dough: Chilling the dough will help with two things: cookie spreading and flavor. These cookies will spread as they bake, but chilling the dough for 45–60 minutes keeps them from spreading too much and helps create thick centers. As the dough chills, the flavor also deepens. It’s truly a win-win 🙂 I keep the dough in the refrigerator and only pull out what I need for each pan. Bake the dough straight from the fridge.
Cookie dough scoop: I always get questions about what scoop I use, so I wanted to link the ones I used for this recipe! I like this set because it comes in 3 different sizes. For these cookies, I used the large size (about 3 tablespoons). Using a cookie dough scoop gives you uniform dough balls so they bake evenly and stay thick.
Baking sheet: For all of my cookie recipes I suggest using a quality cookie sheet. You can use a jelly roll pan, however I find the edges of the cookies tend to brown faster and bake differently. A light-colored baking sheet helps the cookies bake evenly without over-browning on the bottom.
Storage
Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. To keep them extra soft, you can place a slice of bread in the container — the cookies will absorb the moisture from the bread and stay chewy longer. If you’d like to store them longer, they freeze beautifully for up to 2 months. You can also freeze the cookie dough balls and bake them straight from frozen, simply adding 1–2 extra minutes to the bake time.
How to Get Perfectly Round Cookies
Since these cookies will spread as they bake, shaping them right out of the oven makes a big difference. As soon as the cookies come out and while they’re still hot, place a large round cookie cutter (or a glass or bowl slightly larger than the cookie) over the top. Move it in a gentle circular motion for 3–5 seconds, lightly nudging the cookie into shape. This rounds out the edges and gives you that perfectly circular, bakery-style look. You can also use a butter knife or another utensil to gently push in the edges if needed.
These Peanut Butter Peanut M&M Cookies are thick, chewy, peanut-forward, and loaded with chocolate. The combination of peanut butter, peanut M&M crunch, and melty milk chocolate makes them feel indulgent but nostalgic at the same time. They’re perfect for Easter with pastel M&M’s, but honestly? I’d make them year round.
Peanut Butter Peanut M&M Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter melted
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter not natural style
- 1 ½ cups light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup peanut M&Ms roughly chop about half of them
- ½ cup milk chocolate chips
- extra peanut M&Ms and chocolate chips for topping
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix until fully combined. Add eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
- Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix just until combined. Do not over mix. Fold in chopped peanut M&M’s and milk chocolate chips. Cover and chill dough for 45–60 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ while the cookie dough is chilling. Bake for 11–12 minutes, until edges are set and centers look slightly underbaked. Immediately press more peanut M&M’s and chocolate chips into the tops. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.