Fun Oatmeal M&M Blondies
Tasty and easy to make, Oatmeal M&M Blondies are a fun and popular cookie or snack. You can even adjust the M&M color to the season!
Bar cookies are the workhorse of the cookie family. Fun and flavorful, they are also less work than cookies that need to be formed individually. And with the happy combo of easy and tasty, they are perfect anytime you need a quick treat! Potluck or lunchbox food anyone?
Of course, the stars of the bar cookie family are brownies and blondies. Rich and chocolatey, brownies are the better known of the two. But vanilla flavored, chewy blondies are also delicious–and worthy of a lot more attention than they get.
And if that’s not good enough, blondies are even better when filled with add-ins–like these colorful Oatmeal M&M blondies. Today I am using Valentine’s colors, but I have also done Easter cookies in pretty pastels.
What are Blondies?
Per Wikipedia, “A blondie (also known as a blonde brownie) is a variety of dessert bar. It resembles a chocolate brownie, but substitutes vanilla in place of cocoa”.
My first exposure to blondies was eating my aunt’s version at our annual Thanksgiving visits. When I first tried them, I couldn’t believe that any bar cookie without chocolate could possibly taste that good!
Why You’ll Love This!
Tasty. With their buttery, brown sugary, oatmeal goodness, these Oatmeal M&M Blondies are delicious–even without the M&M’s.
Easy. Bar cookies are the lazy person’s cookie—though this doesn’t make them any less fun and yummy!
Festive. I love all the different color holiday M&M’s and the fact that you can change them up for whatever holiday you’re celebrating. It’s Valentine’s Blondies today!
Healthier. With the substitution of oatmeal for some of the flour, Oatmeal M&M Blondies are just the teeniest bit healthier.
What You’ll Need
Ingredient Notes
- Butter. This adds richness and helps the blondies hold together.
- Light brown sugar. This adds sweetness and a hint of molasses flavor.
- Granulated sugar. This adds sweetness and helps keep the color “blond”.
- Egg. This helps the cookies lighten and rise, plus adds richness.
- Vanilla extract. This adds flavor.
- All purpose flour. This adds body to the cookie.
- Oatmeal. This adds flavor and body to the cookie.
- Baking soda. This helps the cookies rise.
- M&M’s. These add flavor and color. Consider using holiday colors to make Valentine’s blondies, Easter blondies, Christmas blondies or more!
Special Tools
- No special tools required!
Step by Step Directions
Line an 8 x 8 pan with parchment and spray with non-stick spray.
Cream together the butter and sugars.
Blend in egg and vanilla extract.
Combine flour, oatmeal and baking soda together, then mix into the butter mixture
By hand, stir in ¾ cup of M&M’s.
Pat into 8 x 8 pan lined with parchment or aluminum foil. Top with remaining 1/4 cup M&M’s pushing them very slightly in to batter.
Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
Variations and Special Diets
Perhaps the most obvious and interesting variation is to change the color of the M&Ms to match the season. Besides Valentine’s, Easter/Spring and Christmas, there are even 4th of July colors! Of course, the standard blend is great too.
You can also change the M&M flavor. I have found holiday colors in plain, peanut and peanut butter flavors. All good, thought the chocolate are my favorite. Can’t decide? Consider mixing!
No M&Ms? Use Chocolate chips for chocolate chip blondies, sprinkles for funfetti blondies, or raisins for raisin bars. Or use mini chocolate Easter egg candy to make Mini Egg Rocky Road. All yum!
Now for another amazing bar cookie, take a look at my Meringue Topped Bars. It’s kind of like a chocolate chip cookie in bar form that’s topped with meringue. Yes, a special taste treat.
And here are some yummy blondies from my friends:
- Brown Butter Blondies from Hezzi-D’s Recipe Box
- Butterscotch Chip Blondies from Palatable Pastime
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Blondies with M&M’s from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
- Chocolate Chip Marble Squares from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- White Chocolate Macadamia Blondies from That Recipe
Leftovers
Per the USDA, “Bakery or homemade cookies can be stored at room temperature two to three weeks … Cookies retain their quality when stored in the freezer for eight to 12 months.”
Be sure to keep them sealed so they don’t dry out. (And note that moist egg-y baked goods like cheesecakes or custards must always be refrigerated and will spoil quickly.)
Tips & FAQs
Lately I’ve been using a lot of dark brown sugar since I like the deeper, caramel-y flavor. But for this cookie, I thought it made the cookie a little darker than I liked for something “blonde.” So I adjusted the recipe to use half light brown and half granulated sugar.
You can see the dark brown sugar version on the left above. And if the darker look is fine with you go ahead and use all light or dark brown sugar if that is your preference.
Oatmeal M&M Blondies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter 1 stick
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup oatmeal
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup M&M’s divided – consider the holiday colors!
Instructions
- Line an 8 x 8 pan with parchment and spray with non-stick spray.
- Cream together the butter and sugars. Blend in beaten egg and vanilla extract.
- Combine flour, oatmeal and baking soda together, then mix into the butter mixture
- By hand, stir in ¾ cup of M&M’s. Pat into 8 x 8 pan lined with parchment or aluminum foil. Top with remaining 1/4 cup M&M’s pushing them very slightly in to batter.
- Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
Nutrition
Updated from the original, dated Mar 4, 2013.
Love this, its easy to make, fun, festive, and even slightly healthier with the oatmeal addition
Love that you can change the color for the occasion and an oatmeal blondie sounds delish!
With the oatmeal in there, I can almost convince myself this is a healthy snack! (I make myself giggle…) I do love all the differently colored M&Ms these days!
Same logic I used on the oatmeal! And I so agree on the M&M’s!
I’ve been seeing Valentine’s stuff everywhere! I’ll have to grab the themed M&Ms while they’re available! These sound yummy.
And if you miss out on Valentine’s just got for the Easter/spring colors!
Any recipe with M&M’s in it, is a recipe I want to make! I’m a huge fan and can never pass by a bag of seasonal M&M’s without picking up at least a few bags!
Inger, These are such lovely looking snack cookie bars! My grandchildren are coming for a visit next week maybe these will be on the menu!!
They are quick and easy too–they might be fun to do with the kids (I can just picture the M&M stealing 😉 )
holidays always seem to sneak up on me too! i love using oatmeal in my drop cookies and bar cookies, and the pretty pastel m&ms are a great touch!
I have a hard time believing holidays sneak up on you Grace! Your treats are always so inspired!
I wholeheartedly approve of this early Easter treat…YUM!!
😉
Hm, my comment appears to have gotten lost. so I’ll repeat myself. 🙂 LOVE oatmeal cookies, blondies with oatmeal = genius!
Yes, wordpress has suddenly decided to mark everything as spam (including my own comments), so I am having to siphon everything out of the spam folder manually, while I try to figure out what is going wrong.
Those are adorable…and I love your bunnies! I worked ahead for Easter too…and then went to a closet and discovered a set of bunnies I’ve had for years. I hadn’t added them to my Easter post, so think I will arrange them, take a photo and just add a second photo to the post.
My mother got me the bunnies years ago and I had no idea then how handy they’d be!
Adorable and delicious! YUM!
Thanks–they disappeared almost immediately!
Lovely treats!
Thanks! I love the pastel M&M’s–so springlike!
Good morning Inger,
Hope all is well with you:) Easter is a bit early this year but it sure isn’t feeling Spring like yet. However, I happen to adore Blondies and yours look mighty festive. I may just bake them up to celebrate day light savings time this weekend!
Thanks so much for sharing…
Hope you are well too Louise!
You know, last fall I planted some bulbs in pots and stored them in the spare fridge all winter. I am just getting the first growth and soooo happy I did this now! (If I actually get nice flowers this will be a fall post). Hopefully that tides me over until real spring arrives!
Thanks for the daylight savings time reminder–I am still not used to the earlier switch.
Easter already?
I may be posting a St Patrick’s Day recipe after this alas. But the Children’s Choir is looking for holiday themed treats to sell at their upcoming concert so I am in full-fledged holiday mode!
Mmmm yum love this delicious looking blondie is an Easter miracle 😉
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I have really enjoyed baking with holiday themed M&Ms this year–wish I’d thought of that years ago!
This is my favorite part of your post – “I couldn’t believe that any bar cookie without chocolate could possibly taste that good!” I can’t tell you how many times people have expressed dismay at the fact that I don’t like chocolate, but as you’ve mentioned delicious chocolate-less desserts do exist 🙂
Isn’t it the truth. And while I love great chocolate, I rarely like chocolate cake (though there have been some notable exceptions).
Inger, don’t cats chase rabbits? You might have put your kitten in the picture behind the rabbit, so I can see it. 🙂 lol I have to try these cookies. They look and sound so good.
I do need to work a way to get him into one of my posts!