Easy Peanut Butter M&M Crunch Cookies

If you love M&M’s, you’re going to love these Easy Peanut Butter M&M Explosion cookies. They’re super thick with a chewy inside, crunchy outside and stuffed with 3 flavors of iconic M&M’s candy, and swirls of Nutella.

 5-Ingredient Cookies Made In One Bowl

The cookies themselves only use six simple ingredients and you don’t need flour – creamy peanut butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, Nutella spread and the great chocolate candy treats. There’s no stand mixer needed for these cookies and you simply stir the ingredients together in a bowl, add the m&ms and they’re ready to bake. It’s one of my go-to cookie recipes when I need a quick and easy dessert that I know everyone will love.

Ingredients 

1 cup Peanut Butter – I’m usually a big fan of natural, no-sugar-added peanut butter, but these cookies really work best with the peanut butter brand such as Jif or Skippy They give it that extra rich and creamy, smooth peanut butter flavor and crumbly texture that natural peanut butter won’t do.

1 cup Sugar – Regular granulated white sugar. This recipe won’t work with any sugar substitutes 

1 tsp Vanilla Extract 

1 Egg – Don’t use any kind of egg substitute such as flax seeds or egg beaters

1 cup M&M’s

2 tbsp Nutella (optional)

How To Make Easy Peanut Butter M&M Explosion Cookies

Blend peanut butter, sugar, egg and vanilla by hand until fully blended, then scrape down the sides of the bowl.

If using, mix  in Nutella, you don’t want to fully blend it into peanut butter mixture, but more create a swirl throughout

Mix in M&M’s and using a large cookie scoop, spoon the cookie dough balls onto a well-greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet

Bake in the oven at 350 for 8-10 minutes. It’s best to check on these after 8 minutes – you don’t want the bottoms to get dark brown. They should still feel slightly undercooked in the middle.

Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then move the baked cookies to a wire rack.

Variations 

Peanut Butter – This recipe uses creamy but chunky peanut butter is great especially if you love peanuts!

M&M’s – I’ve tried lots of combinations but my favorite is a combo of classic, peanut butter and caramel flavors. But with new flavors coming out all the time, and seasonally, there’s so much fun to be had playing with different combinations! You can also use mini m&m’s

Nutella – My family are Nutella addicts so we love the addition of Nutella, but if you want to leave it out, they taste just as good without it!

Add chocolate chips

Storing Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

Kept in an airtight container at room temperature, peanut butter cookies will keep will for up to 5 days. You can also freeze them for up to two months in an airtight container or freezer bag and allow to thaw for 30 minutes