M&M cookie bars are chewy, chocolatey and so easy to make! Perfect if you’re looking for a last-minute holiday treat.
(Love making homemade bars? Try making some of my favourite cookie butter bars studded with white chocolate or a batch of these perfectly gooey and fudgy bake-sale-perfect brownies.)
I’ve always said that bars are cookies but lower maintenance. No need to chill the dough, no need to make sure you get evenly sized balls, no worrying about cookie dough spreading too much or not spreading enough.
Which makes these M&M cookie bars a fantastic holiday treat. Just transfer the batter to a pan, bake, slice and you’re good to go. They go so well with milk too. Santa (wink, wink) would love them.
And they don’t even need to be just Christmas bars. Make them all year round. They’re that good and that easy to make.
These M&M cookie bars are ready in less than an hour. And you don’t even need a mixer to make it!
1. PREP PAN. First you want to preheat your oven to 325F. Line an 8×8 inch baking pan with parchment paper with a slight overhang on each side. This will make it easier for you to lift up the bars later.
2. COMBINE DRY INGREDIENTS. In a medium bowl, stir your dry ingredients until combined: flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. COMBINE WET INGREDIENTS. In another bowl, stir melted unsalted butter and brown sugar until incorporated. Add eggs and vanilla extract and continue stirring until they’re thoroughly incorporated too.
This recipe uses 1 egg and 1 egg yolk. Not sure what to do with that extra egg white? Check out this egg white recipe collection!
4. ADD DRY INGREDIENTS AND M&MS TO WET INGREDIENTS. Add your dry ingredients and M&M chocolate to your wet ingredients and gently stir just until combined. Do not over mix.
5. TRANSFER TO PAN. Transfer the batter to your prepared pan and smoothen the top with a spatula. Optional if you’re feeling extra Christmasy: sprinkle more M&Ms on top.
6. BAKE. Now you can bake the Christmas bar cookies for 20-30 minutes or until the top starts to crack and the sides start pulling away from the pan. It will look a little underdone but don’t worry, the bars will continue to set as they cool in the pan.
7. COOL, SLICE AND ENJOY! Allow the bars to cool in the pan completely before lifting them up and slicing them. I usually slice them into 16 squares but you can slice them smaller or bigger if you like.
Ingredients
To make these MM cookie bars, you will need:
- All purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- M&M chocolate — try to grab some holiday M&Ms for a fun and festive treat but regular M&Ms will do too
Baking tools
As you can see from the video, you don’t need fancy tools to make these fun and festive M&M Christmas bars.
If you have some bowls, an 8×8 inch baking pan, measuring cups and spoons, and a spatula, you’re good to go!
I like using my bench scraper to cut bars but a sharp knife will do.
How to cut perfect clean squares
Speaking of cutting these into bars, if you’re serving them to company or giving them out as gifts, you want to cut them as evenly and as cleanly as possible.
It’s not always easy, especially since these MM cookies bars are soft and fudgy. But it can be done!
What you want is wait until the bars are completely cool.
Then put hot water in a glass and dip your sharp knife into it. Wait a few seconds until the knife is warm to the touch. Dry it with a tea towel.
Lift the bars from the pan using the parchment paper overhang and transfer to a cutting board.
Make your first slice then wipe your knife clean with a paper towel. Dip your knife into the glass with hot water again.
Repeat until you’ve sliced everything. Enjoy!
’Tis the most wonderful time of the year and if you’re looking to spread joy this season, making these Christmas cookie recipes are a great way to start.
- Meringue cornflake cookies are delightfully chewy, filled with crunchy cornflakes and bursting with bits of chocolate chips.
- Ube crinkles are soft, fluffy and bursting with the ube flavour you love. They are like mini ube cakes and are perfect for the holidays!
- Chewy M&M cookies are the best kind of chocolate cookies — soft and chewy, so chocolatey and a breeze to make!
- These chewy double chocolate chunk cookies are your favourite chocolate chip cookies but better! They’re soft and chocolatey with huge chunks of dark chocolate.
These easy cut out Christmas cookies are also so fun to make. Get the kids to join in!
Happy baking!
Did you make MM cookie bars? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.
M&M Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled
- ¾ cup brown sugar packed
- 1 pc large egg room temperature
- 1 pc egg yolk from a large egg room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 7 oz M&M chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325F. Line an 8×8 inch baking pan with parchment paper with a slight overhang on each side. This will make it easier for you to lift up the bars later.
- In a medium bowl, stir 1 cup all-purpose flour, ½ tsp baking powder and ½ tsp salt. Set aside.
- In another larger bowl, stir ⅓ cup melted unsalted butter and ¾ cup brown sugar until incorporated. Add 1 egg, 1 egg yolk and 1 tsp vanilla extract and continue stirring until they’re thoroughly incorporated too.
- Add your dry ingredients and M&M chocolate to your wet ingredients and gently stir just until combined. Do not over mix.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared pan and smoothen the top with a spatula. Optional if you’re feeling extra Christmasy: sprinkle more M&Ms on top.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the top starts to crack and the sides start pulling away from the pan. It will look a little underdone but don’t worry, the bars will continue to set as they cool in the pan.
- Allow the bars to cool in the pan completely before lifting them up and slicing them. I usually slice them into 16 squares but you can slice them smaller or bigger if you like.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only.
Kathereen
This is so easy to follow! Especially for someone like me who never really bakes!
Jolina
That’s awesome Kathereen! Hope you liked them 🙂
Juliana
This was so easy and delicious. I used M&Ms from Halloween if you can believe that! Made a batch with my daughters and we’re making some again for their friends. Thank you for the recipe!
Jolina
Glad you and your daughters liked them Juliana! Aren’t they the easiest thing to make and eat? 🙂 Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season!
Aisa
What a wonderful recipe! I love cookie bars, especially with M&M. I might have to make an 100 I love these bars so much!
Christa
These WERE SO GOOD! Stole some of the kids MMs and baked some bars and before they they can scream where is my candy I showed them this. SO GOOD! We’ll make some for christmas for sure when the red and green MMs come out.
Jolina
Glad you and the kids liked them Christa! And yes, watch out for those holiday M&Ms. They’re super fun!
Sally
Those look great. I wish I had some right now I’m crying!!!!!
Olya
That recipe seems easy and tasty which is the best combination. I will try to cheer my family with it.
Angela Tolsma
I have always loved how bar cookies look but have never managed to get the middle cooked! These look perfect for the holidays!
Bree
Now I am so ready to bake! I love m&ms and I love cookies so this is really looking yummy!!
Stephanie
I believe I have all of the ingredients except the M&Ms in my pantry. I’ll be raiding the Halloween candy in a few days for the M&Ms now to make these!
Jolina
Perfect! We have so much M&Ms leftover from Halloween. So few kids came trick or treating this year the weather was horrible!
Kate
Ooh, these look delicious – I love cookies! Will have to make some of these for my daughter…