SUPER Chewy & Moist Christmas M&M Brookies
Christmas treats don’t get better than these! This recipe for SUPER chewy & moist Christmas M&M Brookies will knock your socks off! Such a fun, unique, and absolutely delightful recipe for cookie exchanges, Christmas parties, or just a sweet treat to share with family, friends, and neighbors!
Tell your sweet tooth that it’s about to meet its new best friend.
These Christmas M&M Brookies (brownie cookies) are UN-BE-LIEV-A-BLE.
It’s Christmas joy, wrapped up in a cookie.
A delicious chocolate chip cookie + a chocolate chocolate chip cookie with white chocolate chips (i.e. the brownie part) + Christmas M&Ms = the perfect combination for all chocolate lovers out there!
I paired my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe with a slight variation of my favorite triple chocolate peppermint cookie recipe (no peppermint in this recipe!), and I’m pretty sure this is a match made in heaven.
They’re soft.
They’re chewy.
They’re melty.
You. will. love. them.
So will everyone you share them with!
Let me show you how to make ’em!
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How to Make Christmas M&M Brookies
(spoiler alert: they’re super easy to make!)
Step 1: Cream together butter & sugar for chocolate chip cookie dough
Creaming them together for 2-3 minutes helps get some air into there (adds some great texture to the cookies and also helps a little to prevent spreading) & helps the sugar to dissolve more into the butter.
Step 2: Add in vanilla & egg
You don’t want to over mix on this part – mix until everything’s blended, scrape the sides of the bowl, mix a little more, and then turn off the mixer.
Step 3: Mix in dry ingredients & fold in chocolate chips
You’ll whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt) in a separate bowl, and then gently add them into the wet dough. Mix just until everything’s blended, then add in the chocolate chips and give the mixer a few more spins.
Step 4: Gently add M&Ms
The M&Ms are prone to breaking, so add them with the mixer on low, and don’t overbeat. Just a few rotations around the bowl should be fine!
Now, transfer this dough into another bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and store in the fridge while you assemble the chocolate dough.
Step 5: Cream together butter & sugar for chocolate (brownie) dough
(Yes, at this step, it’ll look exactly the same as creaming the butter & sugar for the chocolate chip cookie dough).
Step 6: Add in the egg & vanilla
I know, starting to feel like deja vu, huh? It’ll start looking different in the next step!
Step 7: Add in dry ingredients
Once again, don’t over mix! Just a few rotations around the bowl will do!
Step 8: Gently fold in chocolate chips & white chocolate chips
Step 9: Gently add M&Ms
Almost there!
You can keep the chocolate dough in the mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and add to the fridge.
You’ll want to chill both cookie doughs for about an hour. (You can chill them longer, but an hour will do!)
Step 10: Roll dough into balls
Take a pinch of the chocolate chip & a pinch of the chocolate dough and put ’em together.
Easy enough, right?
Tip: If you want more chocolate chips & M&Ms to show, add a few to the outside of each dough ball and smush a little dough over them. Then they’ll show up more after baking.
Also, I always, always, always use these USA baking pans for all of my cookies. I’ve sung their praises a thousand times – they are AMAZING. My cookies bake so evenly on them, and they pop right off the pan. NO STICKING!
Step 11: Bake at 350 for 9 minutes
Step 12: Remove from oven, cool slightly on baking pan, and then transfer to a cooling rack
All done! All that’s left to do now is share them with others & ENJOY!
These are so perfect for Christmas parties, cookie exchanges, or just a fun treat to share with others for the holidays!
Have some questions before making these? Here are some tips & tricks for perfect Christmas brookies!
Questions about these Christmas M&M Brookies:
- Do I have to chill the dough before baking it? 99% YES. I give you 1% leeway, because you can make these cookies without chilling them, but believe me, they taste WAY better if the dough has been chilled for at least an hour before baking. I did a side-by-side test and didn’t change anything in the recipe other than making these without chilling the dough, and then making another batch with chilling the dough, and the ones made from the chilled dough knocked the un-chilled ones right out of the park. The flavor was much better, but the texture was the biggest difference – the ones that were baked after chilling were much chewier and softer. And, because of that, they also lasted longer – the ones that you don’t chill won’t taste fresh for more than about a day. The ones made from the chilled dough still maintain a great chewy, moist texture even after 2-3 days. Just trust me. Chilling the dough IS WORTH IT. (And this is coming from a very impatient baker!)
- Can I freeze these? Yep! I personally think it’s easier to just make them and then freeze the already-baked cookie (rather than freezing the cookie dough, waiting for it to completely thaw, and then baking it), and yes, the frozen cookies still come out tasting super fresh. You can thaw them on the counter to bring them to room temp, or you can nuke them in the microwave for a quick snack/serving. Delish either way!
- How long do these brookies stay fresh? Especially if you chill the dough before baking them, you can make these 2-3 days ahead of time and they’ll still taste great. But, because there’s not much better than a fresh chocolate chip cookie, if you do plan to make these ahead of time, I’d put them in the freezer soon after you bake them (once they’ve cooled down to room temp) and then get them out of the freezer a few hours before you’re ready to serve them. Then they’ll stay super duper fresh! But, if you’re making these to bring out of town, then rest assured, you can make them a few days ahead of time and they’ll taste just fine.
- What’s the texture of these cookies like? The entire thing is like a chewy chocolate chip cookie. The reason I’m calling them “brookies” is because, 1) People aren’t really searching for “chocolate chocolate chip cookie and chocolate chip cookie cookie recipe” (did you laugh when you read that? because I definitely chuckled when I typed it!), when in reality, that’s exactly what this is: a chocolate, chocolate chip cookie + a chocolate chip cookie = one delicious cookie recipe. But, when you search “brookie” on Google, you start to see more of what I’m offering here, so I decided to go ahead and give it that name. And then 2) When I made the chocolate-only version of this cookie (i.e no chocolate chip half; just a chocolate cookie with semisweet and white chocolate chips), a friend of ours said, “These taste exactly like a brownie cookie.” And I thought about it, and you know what? They really do! But, if you’re curious about the consistency, both cookie doughs have the same texture when baked together: it’ll taste like one delicious, chewy, soft, melty chocolate chip cookie, just with the added bonus of an extra chocolate-y side.
- Do I have to use white chocolate chips? No, they do add a little extra dimension to the cookie, but you can definitely get away with just using chocolate chips.
- How about milk chocolate chips? I haven’t tried them! When I did my extensive chocolate chip cookie testing, I definitely found that semisweet chocolate chips tasted a lot better than milk chocolate, but I haven’t tried milk chocolate with the all-chocolate cookie…might be worth testing!
Enjoy & merry Christmas, friend! Hope you make some sweet memories with others this season!
Christmas M&M Brookies
Equipment
Ingredients
Chocolate chip cookie dough
- 1 stick unsalted butter softened (room temp)
- 3/4 c packed brown sugar
- 1/4 c granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 c semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 c red & green M&Ms
Chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough (the "brownie" part)
- 1 stick unsalted butter softened (room temp)
- 1/2 c packed brown sugar
- 1/3 c granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
- 1/4 c cocoa
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 c white chips
- 1 c red & green M&Ms
- Optional: Plus extra chocolate chips semisweet and white & M&Ms for adding to dough balls if you want them to "pop out" of the dough a little more after baking.
Instructions
To make the chocolate chip cookie dough:
- Using a stand or a hand mixer, cream together the butter & sugars for 2-3 minutes.
- If you're using a stand mixer and your hands are free, you can whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt) in a separate mixing bowl and set aside.
- Add the vanilla & egg to the creamed butter/sugar & mix briefly - just until the egg is blended in. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly mixed.
- Gently add in the flour mixture and mix just until blended.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Gently add in the M&Ms - they're prone to breaking if you mix them too hard, so just give them a little stir into the dough.
- Transfer the cookie dough from the mixing bowl into another bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set in the fridge to begin chilling.
To make the chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough (the "brownie" part):
- Using a stand or a hand mixer, cream together the butter & sugars for 2-3 minutes.
- If you're using a stand mixer and your hands are free, you can whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt) in a separate mixing bowl and set aside.
- Add the vanilla & egg to the creamed butter/sugar & mix briefly - just until the egg is blended in. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly mixed.
- Gently add in the flour mixture and mix just until blended.
- Fold in the chocolate chips (semisweet & white).
- Gently add the M&Ms - same drill as the chocolate chip cookie dough recipe!
- Cover the cookie dough with plastic wrap, and set in the fridge to begin chilling.
For the rest of the instructions:
- Chill BOTH cookie doughs (covered with plastic wrap) for at least 1 hour. You can chill for longer, but make sure to put them in the fridge for at least an hour. Believe me, this makes a HUGE difference in flavor & texture!
- Remove dough from fridge & preheat oven to 375.
- Pinch together a bit from each dough, then roll together into a ball. If you want more chocolate chips & M&Ms poking out of the dough after baking, add a few more to each dough ball.
- Keep going until you have a dozen on a cookie pan, and then add the pan to the oven and bake for 9 minutes.
- Repeat for remaining dough!
(If I can get it just right, I can end up making 24 cookies out of this, but I often end up getting about 28 out of it. If you want an even 2 dozen, just add a little bit of extra dough to each dough ball to make them slightly bigger.)