11 Candy-Filled Cookie Recipes That Satisfy All Your Cravings

Much as we love candy and other sweet treats, we also recognize that dessert should be enjoyed sparingly. Yet this creates an internal dilemma. If we only have dessert, say, once a week, how do we choose among our many candy favorites?

Worse: what happens when a cookie craving strikes?

Don't pretend like you don't get them. We all love cookies. Every once in a while it feels as though we're called to cookies. But instead of grabbing a package of Chewy Chips Ahoy and polishing off the the entire thing, we like to enjoy the entire process, from ingredients to mouth, of home-baked cookies.

Best of all, we don't have to set aside our candy cravings while we enjoy cookies. We can just combine them. Have a gander at these 11 candy-filled cookie recipes. You're sure to find more than a few that fit your fancy.

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies

Credit: Java Cupcake

When we wrote about how people eat M&Ms, we missed an obvious one. People love M&M cookies — and who can blame them? They're so popular that you can buy a 20-pack at almost any grocery store. You can even get chipwiches with M&M cookies. So clearly, when we write about our favorite candy-filled cookies we're going to include at least one featuring M&Ms.

Betsy from Java Cupcake has a wonderful recipe that is not only delicious, but also seasonable. She uses her basic cookie recipe, but adds that flavor of fall by adding cinnamon (mmmmmmm) and fall-colored M&Ms. If you can find a bag of those, have at it. Otherwise, you can just pick the brown, red, yellow, and orange ones out of your normal bags. We're pretty sure you know what to do with the green and blue ones.

Get the recipe at Java Cupcake.

Flourless Monster Cookie Dough Dip

Credit: Cupcakes and Kale Chips

While this isn't quite a healthy dessert recipe, it's kale compared to many of the decadent treats below. You're certainly not going to bake this mix — we don't even want to think of how that would turn out — but don't you prefer raw cookie dough anyway? The best part about this treat: no raw eggs, so you don't even have to worry.

Brianne from Cupcakes and Kale Chips shares this unique concoction with us, and for that we are grateful. It's essentially M&M cookie dough hummus, since it uses a can of chickpeas. It also features old fashioned oats, so you'll almost feel good about enjoying this treat.

Get the recipe at Cupcakes and Kale Chips.

Candy Bar Crusher Cookies

Credit: Picky Plate

Those cookies look pretty normal, right? Sure, but looks can be deceiving. Not explicitly pictured above: a crushed Butterfinger bar, plus chopped Nestle Crunch, Kit Kat, and PayDay. It's all put right into the dough and baked along with the rest of the cookies. Just imagine seeing these and then biting into them, not knowing the candy goodness that awaits.

Jenny at Picky Plate has some serious taste, as she shows with these cookies. If you think this recipe isn't making a return when we write about what you can do with leftover Halloween candy, you're pretty nuts. These cookies might be the single best thing you can make with the candy that your kids don't consume.

Get the recipe at Picky Plate.

Leftover Candy Cookies

Credit: LaurenConrad.com

While the idea of crushing candy bars and adding them to cookie dough is ingenious, it's not the only way to make candy-filled cookies. Think of this in terms of cheeseburgers. Most of the time, you just put the cheese on top of the patty, just as most candy cookie recipes have you put the candy on top of the cookie. Picky Plate's method is like shredding the cheese and mixing it with the beef.

Lauren Conrad's method is like putting the cheese in the middle of the patty, as you'll see in certain specialty burger joints. You make the cookie dough as normal while you chop some mini candy bars in half. Then you wrap the dough around the bar. When you bite in, you get your texture and flavor of choice. It can be soft and gooey, like a Milky Way, or rich and crunchy, like a Kit Kat.

Get the recipe at LaurenConrad.com.

Loaded Candy Cookie Bars

Credit: My Baking Addiction

Now we're hitting the big time. Cookies are great and all, but there's just something about cookie bars. For me, it's the surface area ratio. In a normal cookie you get mostly surface area, with a little gooey center. With cookie bars you turn the gooey up to 11. Add in some candy, and how can you go wrong?

Emily from My Baking Addiction adds a little something something to these cookie bars. And by something something, I mean Cadbury Mini Eggs and miniature marshmallows. Seriously: mini marshmallows. How much more gooey can you get? None. None more gooey.

Get the recipe at My Baking Addiction.

Cookie Dough and Candy

Credit: The Pioneer Woman

Everyone has a relative who makes some version of this recipe, right? For me it's my aunt, who makes them whenever she has family over. She uses peanut butter cookie dough and mini Reese's cups. Maybe your aunt (or mother, or cousin) uses a different combination. That's exactly what Ree at The Pioneer Woman suggests we all do: try these cookies with different combinations of candies and doughs.

Again, this is perfect for that leftover Halloween candy. You can try it with any kind o minis — Ree tried it with Three Musketeers pressed into brownie cookies, and boy do they look gooey. Whichever combinations you choose, one thing will remain constant: the simplicity. Ree says you can get it done with 10 minutes of prep.

Get the recipe at The Pioneer Woman blog.

Rolo Stuffed Ritz Crackers

Credit: Something Swanky

Excuse me? I thought this roundup was about cookies. And last time I checked, Ritz crackers weren't cookies. How could you mistake sweet, gooey cookies with savory, hard crackers? Pretty easily, actually, given how Ashton at Something Swanky has modified your standard Ritz crackers. If you still object to these after you see what she did, well, we'll just keep quiet about that.

You want to talk simple? All you do is place some Ritz crackers on a cookie sheet and top each with a Rolo candy. Bake until the Rolo gets soft and melty, and then slam another Ritz cracker on top. Boom. Instant chocolate-caramel-filled cookie. And yes, we're going to call this a cookie. Once you start chomping down on it, you'll probably agree.

Get the recipe at Something Swanky.

Almond Joy Cookies

Credit: HeatherChristo.com

When we inevitably do a brownie roundup, I promise to share my mom's Almond Joy brownies recipe. It will seriously blow you away. She has never, unfortunately, adapted that recipe for cookies. Thankfully, Heather Christo has. Her recipe for Almond Joy cookies has our mouths watering.

Instead of taking Almond Joy bars, chopping them up, and throwing them in the cookie dough, Heather does everything from scratch. That includes the dough itself (butter, eggs, flour, baking soda, sugar, salt) and the Almond Joy concoction (slivered almonds, chocolate chips, and shredded coconut). She recommends sweeteneed shredded coconut, although with the 1 1/2 cups of white sugar in these cookies the unsweetened variety probably won't take away anything.

Get the recipe at HeatherChristo.com.

Malt Whopper Pudding Cookies

Credit: Chef in Training

Look at any worst-candy list and you'll almost certainly see Whoppers on there, probably ranking highly. With this I could not disagree more, and I will one day get on a soap box and declare my love for this oft-maligned candy. But for the time being I'll just seek out recipes that use them creatively.

It would be easy enough to chop them up and throw them into cookie dough, but Nikki, the Chef in Training, adds a little twist. She keeps the whoppers whole (essentially subbing them for chocolate chips, a decision we adore), and adds a box of vanilla pudding powder and some malt milk powder. The result is a maltily delicious cookie that will change the way you think about Whoppers.

Get the recipe at Chef in Training.

Twix Bar Cookies

Credit: Your Homebased Mom

Here is another deceptive cookie. Look at it, and you might think it's a peanut butter cookie. But that's not even close. Leigh Ann at Your Homebased Mom brings us this Twix bar cookie recipe, and we love it for so many reasons. Let us count the ways.

1) She puts 12 — TWELVE — tablespoons of butter in a batch, and we love us some butter.

2) There is twice as much brown sugar as white sugar.

3) Instead of two eggs she calls for a single egg plus a yolk. Mmmm. Egg yolks.

4) She has a sweet tale of how her husband proposed to her using acrostic poems and Twix bars. Seriously.

Get the recipe, and the story, at Your Homebased Mom.

Banana Reese's Cookies

Credit: Inside Bru Crew Life

We end this roundup on a strong note, with a delectable recipe from Inside Bru Crew Life. It involves not cookie dough, but instead chocolate cake mix. Yep. Just add butter. From there you add brown bananas, peanut butter cups, Reese's pieces, and chocolate chips. Are you salivating yet? We sure are.

This dough gets so thick that you'll have to get in there with your hands to mix in the candy. But as you can see from the end result, the effort is well worth it. And in case you had any doubts about going out and making this recipe right away, we'll share this picture:

Credit: Inside Bru Crew Life

You can get the whole recipe, plus a whole ton more pics, at Inside Bru Crew Life.