These easy vegan “M&M” cookies are the perfect recipe if you are looking to make a dairy free cookie recipe that’s also vegan. The brightly colored chocolate candies make the perfect fun treat!
Before you start yelling at your computer screen, not having read the post yet, let me clearly say up front that yes, this recipe is indeed 100% vegan. Promise. These are 100% Vegan M&M cookies.
I’ll spare you the details of my childhood, but M&M cookies were a favorite around holidays. Kids are naturally drawn to brightly colored things and that’s one reason that I loved making this recipe so much.
I don’t think that just because you may dairy free and/or vegan that you have to give up amazingly delicious things like M&M cookies for example. And that’s true whether you are 5 years old or 50. Everyone should be able to enjoy fun and delicious foods!
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What Ingredients Do You Need For Vegan M&M Cookies?
Of course the full recipe is below this, but the ingredients that you will need for this dairy free cookie dough recipe are:
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Ground Flax Seeds
- Water
- Coconut Oil
- White Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Vanilla
- Vegan Chocolate Candies
How do you make vegan M&M cookies?
The three biggest reasons that a classic recipe for M&M cookies are not vegan is the butter, eggs, and the chocolate candies themselves.
Luckily, these three things can easily be swapped out with vegan butter and vegan chocolate candies. For the eggs, we use flax eggs.
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a very small bowl, whisk together water and flax seeds. Set aside for at least 10 minutes. (*This makes the flax egg)
In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
Place coconut oil and both sugars in a large bowl and beat until a creamy consistency (roughly 3-4 minutes). Mix in vanilla and flax egg once egg is ready.
Slowly add flour mixture until fully combined. Fold in chocolate candies with a spatula. Scoop out a tablespoon and form a ball.
Place on parchment lined sheet tray.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cooked completely.
How do you make flax eggs?
In order to make a flax egg, you need one tablespoon of ground flax seeds and two tablespoons of water. If you want, the water can be replaced with dairy free milk.
If you need to replace multiple eggs in a recipe, then you would use this amount PER egg you are replacing.
Once you combine the ground flax seeds and water, whisk together until the mixture starts to become gelatinous. Then, let mixture sit for 10-15 minutes.
You can use flax eggs in many recipes, like these dairy free M&M cookies, and other recipes such as muffins, pancakes, or brownies.
Can you prep this vegan M&M cookies ahead of time?
These can be prepped up to 7 days in advance. Make sure once cooled, you store them in an air tight container.
Can you make these Top 8 Allergen Friendly?
Yes. Flour and the coconut oil are the ingredients that fall under that Top 8 Allergens.
The coconut oil can be swapped with vegan butter. Use a soy free vegan butter. We love Earth Balance soy free for this. It comes in a red tub.
For the flour, you can use Measure for Measure Gluten Free flour in this cookie recipe.
Where do you find vegan M&Ms or chocolate candies?
Luckily, you don’t have to go far to find vegan M&Ms anymore. It is important to note that dairy free chocolate candies are more expensive than ones that are not dairy free.
We use UnReal’s dark chocolate gems. We have found them at Whole Foods, but they are also available at Vitacost and Thrive Market if you have accounts there.
And best of all…. if you never want to leave your house, you can find them vegan M&Ms on Amazon.
Note: Not all UnReal chocolates are vegan. Specifically the dark chocolate ones are. We use the dark chocolate crispy gems in the photos. These gems are non-GMO, vegan, no artificial ingredients, colored by veggies.
The packaging does state that it’s made in a facility that handles milk, so if cross contamination is a concern, you should avoid these.
**Update: A reader let us know about vegan chocolate candies from NoWheyChocolate. They are Top 8 Allergy Free and made in a safe facility.
WHAT ARE OTHER DAIRY FREE DESSERTS RECIPES THAT I CAN MAKE?
Whether you are having a dessert bar of deliciousness at your next get together, or you just want to have even more amazing dairy free desserts at the ready, we recommend you trying out some of these delicious non-dairy desserts (all are vegan):
- Vegan Rice Krispie Treats
- Dairy Free Brownies
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- The Best Dairy Free Lemon Pound Cake
- Triple Chocolate Dairy Free Cookies
- Dairy Free Chocolate Cake
- Perfect Dairy Free Apple Pie
- Dairy Free Cinnamon Rolls (could be breakfast or dessert)
Pin these vegan m&m cookies for later:
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Vegan M&M Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 1.5 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/4 cup vegan cane sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup Vegan M&M Chocolate Candies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a very small bowl, whisk together water and flax seeds. Set aside for at least 10 minutes. (*This makes the flax egg)
- In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
- Place coconut oil and both sugars in a large bowl and combine until a creamy consistency (roughly 3-4 minutes).
- Mix in vanilla and flax egg.
- Slowly add flour until fully combined.
- Fold in chocolate candies with a spatula.
- Scoop out a tablespoon and form a ball.
- Place on parchment lined sheet tray.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cooked completely.
Notes
Share a photo of our recipe you made! Tag us @makeitdairyfree and use #MakeItDairyFree on Social so we can feature you!
This post was first published on 4/16/19 and updated on 12/6/2019.
Can I swap the coconut oil for melted vegan butter? Want to try making these tonight, they look delicious!
Yes! You can! Let us know what you think!
Followed the recipe exactly, I did however double the batch. Not sure what went wrong but the dough just crumbled apart. Tried fixing the dough using some basic methods but was not successful. Very unhappy about having to throw away the entire mix. Flour to Liquid mixture seams off or it needs a better binding agent. Possibly increasing the amount of flax egg used? Great idea though!
Hey G, We’re really sorry it didn’t work out for you. We typically try to troubleshoot, but it’s hard when we aren’t exactly sure here and you said you followed exactly. We actually remade these recently ourselves with no issue, so the literal only thing we can think is that something isn’t working when trying to double the batch.
This happened to me too. I just added a little bit of oat milk and that did the trick!
Thanks for the feedback
THANK YOU! I also had this happen with regular size batch. Oat milk did the trick!!
Added a little RSO to coconut oil then blended with sugars, resulted in soft,chewy, and sweet inkrEDIBLE Medible
Thanks so much for sharing that, I’m sure others may be wondering! We appreciate you taking the time to leave a rating for us. Have a great week!
Amazing! I followed the recipe to the tee and they turned out great!
Everyone who had them loved them, thanks for sharing:)
Yay!!! We’re so excited to hear that! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review! We hope you have a great day!
Great recipe, easy to follow the clear instructions. The cookies turned out how I expected. New vegan testing recipes. One I would recommend and will definitely make again.
Thank you 😍
So glad to hear that you liked it! Thanks for sharing a review and letting others know! We appreciate it so much. Have a great day and enjoy your new journey