This gluten free M&M cookie recipe is so good that it is in my top 10 favorite cookies. With their browned butter, caramelized flavors, and chewy texture loaded with crunchy milk chocolate M&M's, then topped with cute mini M&M's. They are easy to make and only take 12 minutes bake time!
½teaspoon baking powderalways check that it is gluten free as some brands contain gluten
½teaspoonbaking sodaalways check that it is gluten free as some brands contain gluten
¼teaspoonsalt
¼teaspoonxanthan gumomit if the flour blend already contains xanthan gum.
100gramsgranulated sugar
100gramslight brown sugar
2largeeggsroom temperature
1teaspoonvanilla extract
200gramsM&M's (Plus extra for topping if desired)
Mini M&M's for decoratingoptional
Instructions
How to make gluten free m&m cookies
To start browning the butter.
Cut the butter into evenly sized cubes. This helps it melt and brown more evenly. Place the butter cubes in the saucepan over medium-low heat.
Once the butter has fully melted, tiny bubbles will start to form on the surface and stir frequently with a whisk.
The butter will start foaming. As you stir, pay close attention to the color of the butter. It will gradually turn from yellow to a light tan, then to a golden brown. The process usually takes about 5-8 minutes.
Once the butter reaches a deep golden brown color with some small speckles on the bottom of the pan, and has a nutty aroma, immediately remove it from the heat. Do not let it go beyond this stage, as it can quickly turn from browned to burnt.
To stop the cooking process and prevent the butter from overcooking in the hot pan, you can transfer it to a heatproof bowl and leave it to cool for 10 minutes.
Mix some of the dry ingredients.
In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum and set aside.
Once the browned butter has cooled. In a large bowl mix together the eggs, sugar, vanilla and then add the butter
Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold in until it is almost fully combined, but you can still see some of the flour. Add the M&M's and continue to fold in until no flour is visible and the M&M's are evenly distributed.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour for the cookie dough to firm up.
Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas mark 3. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Use a cookie scoop or small ice cream scoop to portion the dough into a ball and onto the lined baking sheet, leaving a gap of approximately 3 inches between each cookie. To ensure ample space for spreading, it is advisable to avoid placing more than five to six cookies on a single baking sheet (depending on the size of your baking sheet).
Each cookie ball should weigh approx. 70 grams, this recipe should make around 12-14 m and m cookies. I recommend weighing the cookie balls to get an even and consistent-sized cookie.
Place the baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges of the cookies look very lightly golden. Remove from oven and leave to cool on the baking sheet until they are cool and firm before transferring to the cooling rack.
I recommend baking the baking sheets of cookies one at a time to ensure they are baked evenly, as they are best baked in the middle of the oven. The cookies will look softer in the center but will firm up as they cool.
After taking them out of the oven while they are still soft, I like use a round cookie cutter slightly larger than the cookies to help bring them to a nice round shape (See images in post above). I also like to add a few more M&M's plus mini M&M's into the cookies while they are still soft.
Notes
Recipe Tips
Tip #1:High-Quality Ingredients - I always recommend using good-quality butter, and pure vanilla extract. As this recipe uses only a few ingredients the better quality of ingredients will impact the final result of these gluten free M&M cookies.
Tip #2: Monitor the butter closely as it browns, as it has the potential to burn rapidly. Once browned, promptly remove it from the heat and transfer it carefully to a bowl to ensure it cools immediately, preventing any further cooking in the hot pan.
Tip #3:Wait until the brown butter has cooled as if it is still hot when the egg is added it will start to scramble the egg and we don't want that!
Tip #4:Chilling the cookie dough helps prevent the cookies from spreading too much in the oven.
Tip #5:Weighing the cookie dough balls will result in all the cookies being the same size and evenly baked. I recommend that each cookie ball should weigh around 70 grams.