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Our best-loved M&M chocolate bars have chewy layers of oats and chocolate studded with M&Ms – this top-requested dessert feeds a crowd!
Our go-to Dessert
We LOVE hosting and inviting friends and family over – and of course feeding them! Which is why we love bar desserts that feed a crowd, like our best-loved M&M chocolate bars!
This dessert is a go-to and requested ALL of the time! As mentioned before, they make several servings in one batch (15 in this one) and are easy to throw together (about 10 minutes prep).
And who doesn’t love M&Ms? You could even change it up and use your favorite flavor. We LOVE Baking with M&Ms – from M&M cookies to M&M cookie cake – they’re a delicious addition to so many desserts and the perfect addition to the chewy oats in this one.
Even our local firefighters love this treat and request it each year!
WHY WE LOVE IT:
- So easy – so yummy! They are so simple and delicious. EVERYONE asks for the recipe. They’re also great with ice cream.
- The perfect treat to change up. Use different M&Ms for different holidays (or birthdays!).
- Plan ahead of time. This treat can easily be made in advance which is great for busy days.
Ingredients
PREP TIME: 10 minutes
COOK TIME: 25 minutes
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour – see How to Measure Flour
- 1½ cups quick-cooking rolled oats – also known as instant oats
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar – or dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, divided – see How to Soften Butter Quickly
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk – NOT evaporated milk
- 1 (11.5-ounce) bag milk chocolate chips – or use semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips. Try peanut butter, white chocolate, or peanut butter chips.
- 1 cup plain M&M’s candy – or mini M&M’s, Reese’s pieces, holiday sprinkles, toffee bits
How to Make M&M Chocolate Bars
- PREP. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-x-13-inch baking dish and set aside, or Line the Pan with Parchment Paper.
- OAT BATTER. In a large bowl, mix 1½ cups flour, 1½ cups oats, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 cup butter with a spoon. Remove 1 cup of the mixture and set aside.
- Press the remaining oat mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
- CHOCOLATE LAYER. In a medium pot, combine 1 can of condensed milk, 1 bag of chocolate chips, and the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. Stir constantly until the chips are melted and everything is mixed well.
- Pour the melted chocolate mixture over the oat layer and spread evenly. Sprinkle the reserved 1 cup oat mixture over the chocolate.
- BAKE. Top with 1 cup plain M&M’s and bake for 25–30 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan before cutting.
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Collections
M&M Chocolate Bars
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups quick-cooking rolled oats
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, divided
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 (11.5-ounce) bag milk chocolate chips
- 1 cup plain M&M’s
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, and 1 cup butter with a spoon. Remove 1 cup of the mixture and set aside.
- Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
- In a medium pot, combine condensed milk, chocolate chips, and the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. Stir constantly until the chips are melted and everything is mixed well.
- Pour the chocolate mixture over the oat layer and spread evenly. Sprinkle the reserved oat mixture over the chocolate.
- Top with M&M’s and bake for 25–30 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan before cutting.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe FAQ
Whether you make these ahead of time or wish to store leftovers, store covered on the counter for 3 days. To freeze, wrap tightly with plastic and a freezer bag for 2-3 months.
If I make it gluten free would I need to make it with baking soda or any additional ingredient?
I’d love to make this but I want to double it. When I clicked on the “2x” I see the ingredients changed but not the directions. I’m wondering if the pan size would change and some of the amounts to be reserved, etc. I hope you can help me out!
Thanks!!
Do you think I can substitute butterscotch chips for the chocolate chips?
Yes! Absolutely!
These are so easy to make and even easier to eat (the entire pan if you are not careful). Highly recommend!
Absolutely one of my favorite recipe to make for the kids. They would gobble up the entire batch if I let them. So easy to make.
These are always gone quickly. So delicious, and quick fix for your chocolate cravings. I switch back and forth between milk chocolate and semi sweet.
Ooh yes, both milk and semi sweet are so tasty. I’m glad you love the bars!!
Delicious and so fun!
These look awesome! I’m baking treats to include in our free lunch summer program and I know the kids will love them! The question I have is if the chocolate layer solidifies or stays gooey. These need to be packed in the lunches to send home to the families we serve so gooey isn’t an option. Thanks so much for such yummy recipes! Can’t wait to hear from you!
Oh how fun!! I’m so glad you are able to use this recipe for something like that. Yes, the chocolate solidifies a bit, but it’s a soft solid… if that makes sense. 😉 It solidifies enough so when it is cut into a bar, it keeps its shape and the chocolate doesn’t ooze out. You can also freeze the bars before which will help them stay solid and nice for packing into lunches. Best of luck!
Thank you so much! Can’t wait to make them:)
Karen
Delicious!! Made these for my kids last night and they were a huge hit. Definitely will be making these more often. So good and easy.
Oh yay! Glad to hear the bars were a hit with your family!
Love this recipe. It’s simple and so yummy and I love that I can use different m&ms for the holidays
Love these so much. My go to dessert went I head to friends or families houses. So easy and yummy.
These are delicious! And incredibly easy to make. An easy way to get the caramel taste!
Oh my goodness. These are so yummy. My entire family ate them up over the weekend and there were none left. Will definitely be making them again soon.
SUPER yummy, can’t go wrong with M&M’s and more chocolate! 😆
This is a family favorite of always turns out perfect 🙂
Love making these. I always get compliments!!
Great recipe they were a big hit at my golf event
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that!! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
So the recipe says “softened” butter, but in the comments it seems I was supposed to melt it? Which is the correct way?
So you will use softened butter when making the dough (1 cup). Then for the chocolate layer, you add chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and 2 Tbsp of butter to a saucepan and heat, so that butter will melt in with the other ingredients in the saucepan. So you kind of do both. 🙂 Hopefully that helped clear up any confusion. We have a video on this post showing how to make the bars too which can help giving a little clarification too.
Ahmayziinggg!!! I cooked them for 28 minutes. Still gooey. But I like gooey
Me too! Thank you for trying them!
So good. Who doesn’t love a good cookie bar? These are one of our favorites. We will be making today with holiday M&Ms just to make sure the sugar coma is complete. 😂
We love this recipe! I haven’t brought it anywhere where people don’t comment and say how much they like it! Totally crowd pleaser and love that it’s a bar cookie- easier to make a lot of them and fast.
One of my favorite recipes! Whenever I bring it to an event, everyone wants the recipe!
These bars are so yummy! They are very flavorful and tasty.
Glad you think so 😉 Thank you!
So yummy!
My family loves these and has requested them many times already. Quick and easy recipe.
Soooo yummy!
These have become a family favorite! Soooo yummy!
I’ve made these at least twice. I love them! This year I’m trying to make holiday treats in advance. Can they be frozen?
Glad you like them! You know, I have not tried freezing them. So, I am not sure how they freeze.
My family loves these!
So glad they do!! Thank you!
Melt in your mouth delicious! I w I was looking for an easy recipe for my kids to help me make for Father’s Day for my husband. This was the pefect one! Great tasting, simple directions and wonderful website!
Glad you found this one! We make these quite a bit for those reasons! Thank you!
Easy Delicious treats!
So glad you think so!! Thank you 🙂
GreaT recipe. Family loves this. I add a teaspoon of vanilla to the choc. Mixture.
Thank you!
Sounds great! I am glad your family loves them! Thank you 🙂
Such a quick and delicious dessert to take to a get together! Thanks!
These were scary good with M&M’s! Next time I’m going to try toffee bits. I may be in big trouble. 😉
Holy deliciousness- I could eat the whole pan!
Can’t stop eating these!! So yuMmy! I had to send half the pan with my husband to work so that i WOULDN’T eat anymore. He told me that people were calling them “crack” bars becuase they were so Addicting! Lol will definitely be making these again! But only when i have lots of people coming over 😉 thanks for the recipe!
LOL!! I know what you mean!! Thank you for sharing the recipe 🙂
I made the for all of the cousins tonight. These are so easy, and so delicious! Thanks!
I’m glad they liked them!! Thanks so much!
These look great, but how big is a bag chocolate chips? They come in different size packets! What weight did you use?
I don’t have to ounces in front of me, but it’s just the regular size bag. It’s not tiny, but it’s not the largest one. You can’t go wrong with chocolate chips, so It doesn’t have to be exact. It’s as little or as much as you like 🙂 Hope that helps!!
This is the perfect one for upcoming sunday :). Thank you Admin
Yes, or for me..anytime during the week 😉 Thanks and I hope you like them!
I made these and added a layer of PB on top of the oat before the chocolate, then topped with mini Reese’s Pieces-delicious for a PB fan. I’ve made them both ways, and with the PB layer & M&Ms on top, anyway they are YUMMY!
Oh, those sound delicious!! Thanks for sharing those ideas!
I made these for a holiday party last weekend. I knew they would be amazing just by looking at the ingredients…. but they exceeded my expectations! They are SO good! I must say, a little bar goes a looooong way. They make a rich and dense bar. So easy to make, and a new party favorite. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I just made this recipe and it was awesome! I made a couple modifications and used Reese’s Pieces instead.
http://www.theweekdaygourmet.com/reeses-pieces-chocolate-oat-bars/
Oooh – Reese’s Pieces would be a great addition!! So glad you liked it! 😀
Wow!! These are sooo good!!
SO glad you like them. They’re definitely one of my “go-to” recipes!! Always a hit with any crowd. 😉
Forgot my rating.
I refer to these as “Crack Bars”. They are incredible & so addicting. I don’t have any experience with the drug but I couldn’t resist giving them a funny name that could reference their addictivness. : )
LOL! I admit that it’s hard to eat just one. I find myself cutting off little squares of it all day long. 😉
OMG these were so good! My husband who is not a sweets person loved them and requested I make more!! I decided to freeze them to hide them from the kids and the sneaky goobers would just go in and grab them! New family favorite in our household. Going to try skor ones tonight!
YAY!! I LOVE hearing this. It’s one of our favorite treats too and we love switching out the M&Ms for the different holidays. I’ll have to try SKOR next time too – sounds delicious!
Delicious recipe!! One question – in the ingredients list, it states melted butter. But then in the directions, it states softened butter. I’ve now made it both ways accidentally. With melted butter, it came out great, for sure. I’m waiting for the softened butter batch to cool currently 🙂 Just wondering -thx!!
Thanks for the heads up. Melted butter works, but I usually just use softened butter. I changed the recipe to that. Hope you like them! 😀
In my opinion, they taste the same using either melted or softened butter. But I did find that the oat mixture was more crumbly with the softened butter, which made it easier to sprinkle the reserved part on top. Just delicious!!
Good to know! Glad they were both yummy. 😉
Hi Kristyn: I have just came across your recipe for m&m chocolate oat bars, they look so yummy, could you please send me back an e-mail telling me if I add 1 cup or 2 cups of chocolate chips, it says in the recipe 1 bag. Thanking you in advance for your reply.
I’ve made these twice now and added about 1.5 cups (400 grams) of choc chips. A bag of chips is typically 12 oz, I believe.
Did you like them?
Yes!! My whole family loves them, and they will be my new school bake sale go-to 🙂
Great looking – planning to make this week…just two questions …
2 sticks of melted butter in the crust? That seems like A LOT
Are the M&M minis or regular size?
I plan to make a 2nd batch w/banana chips replacing the M&Ms… thoughts anyone?
Yes – 2 sticks of butter… never said they were healthy. 😉 You can always try reducing the amount of butter if you don’t want to use that much. Also, I used Regular M&Ms but mini M&Ms work well too. 😉
Do you know how many ounces in the bag of chocolate chips? I’m in England and would guess our bags are different sizes? can’t wait to make these!
Hannah, a bag of chocolate chips is usually 12 oz. (sometimes 11oz.) in the US. That’s 2 cups of chocolate chips. How big are they in England?
Thanks both! They are only 4oz over here so I’m glad I checked!
Thanks for helping Hannah out!! I hope you can enjoy them in England. 😉
Thanks for the choco-chip info, I was just going to ask about it myself. We don’t really have chocolate chips, as such, here in Finland, but it is easy enough to chop up chocolate bars.
Do you know how big the bag of chocolate chips is that you used? I’m in England and ours are probably a size? I can’t Wait to make these!
hannah – a bag of chips in the US is equiv to approx 2 cups of chips. hope that helps.
Can i use regular chocolate milk bar instead of chips?
These were a huge hit, but all of my m&ms fell off. Maybe next time I should put them on before the crumb mixture?
I would maybe also trying pushing them in just a bit before sticking them in the oven. 😉
Ok so I am not sure what went wrong here but I made these last night and was so excited because they looked so good, but they were terrible all I could take was flour! I followed recipe exactly as stated.
Hi Lacey. I’m sorry you had problems making this. We’ve made these half a dozen times in the last few months and never had problems, nor have any other readers that I know of so I’m not sure what went wrong. :/
Hi, these look great! The only quick oats I have are the premade packets of brown sugar maple oatmeal from Quakers. Can I use this as the quick oats?
I would definitely try to buy some. Have never used the oatmeal packet oats and to ensure they turn out I’d use the package of quick oats you get at the store. 😉
….. NO !!! …..
I cannot wait to make these!! Is it melted butter or softened butter? I see both in different places!
These bars are amazing!!!! The melted butter actually goes in the flour/oatmeal mixture and the 2 Tbsp of butter (doesnt need to be softened) goes in the sweetened cond milk mixture. Yum! I could eat the whole pan!
These look amazing. I’m so trying these this week! Your desserts always look so good….and no, you are not crazy–it’s the life of a blogger!
Great Treat! I’m making these for After School Treats with GF Flour!
Let me know what your kids think. They are one of our FAVORITE treats. 😉
Can these be frozen, if I make them ahead of time?
Hi Dawn. Unfortunately, I haven’t tried to freeze them. If you try, let me know, and I’ll be sure to make a note of it so others can know if it does work. 🙂
Love bars like this! Chewy, with sweet. cond milk, the M&Ms, mmm! Right up my alley & pinned!
I made these this week.
I ADORED them.
As did my husband and five of our children and all of my friends at our co-op where I shared them.
I replaced the m&m’s with chocolate covered sunflower seeds.
These are definitely on my go-to list now as well.
(And I’m sharing your link on my blog this week and sending people to YOU!)
Thank you so much for sharing.
Oh man, I would have never thought to try Chocolate Covered sunflowers seeds. They would be delicious! Thank you so much for the tip. I will try that next time I’m making them. 🙂
These are like the ones I’ve made for years. Love them! In place of step #4 I use 32 unwrapped caramels and 1/2 cup condensed (not sweetened). Melt in heavy sauce pan over low heat till melted. I also add 1 cup chopped nuts on top with the m&ms. Love my caramel and chocolate. 🙂
Oh man – CARAMELS would be amazing!! Will try that next time I’m making these – thanks for the tip!! 😀
Yummy! Can’t wait to try them!
xoxo
Thanks, Jen!! I think you’ll LOVE them… and so will your kiddos!! XO
You had me at M&M 😉
LOL!!! You have to try these, Des – they are SOO good!! 😉
YUM! These look so good! My mom makes a similar recipe and it is one of my faves!
This was my first time trying a recipe that had these kinds of ingredients, and it was obviously a hit!! Will need to try out your mom’s recipe one of these days. 🙂
These look so good! I’d love for you to join the Pinworthy Projects party! http://www.atkinsondrive.com/pinworthy-projects-link-party-12/
I made these last night for a get together we had with old high school friends. I’m more of a peanut butter person, so I replaced 1/2 the chocolate chips with peanut butter chips (though normal PB probably would have worked just as well) and instead of M&Ms used Reese’s Pieces. They were a huge hit! The whole pan was gone within the hour. Definitely making these, again. Thanks so much for the fantastic recipe!
So glad you liked them, Erica! Reeses Pieces sounds like a great idea… I think I’ll have to try that next for Lorin. I think all Merkleys like PB. 😉
They look really super delicious 🙂
And they taste super delicious too!! I promise you’ll love them if you try them. 😀
These look quite amazing. I love me some m&ms too.
The M&Ms are the perfect topping for these oat bars. Hope you like them! 😀
Ha! I love the “behind the scene’s photo”! I feel like we are sisters–that is totally something I would have done. I liked you before, but now I might be in love! Oh, and holy yum, MAKING THIS!
LOL! Too funny!! So glad there is someone who would have done the same thing and not thought I was absolutely crazy. I had to laugh though cuz I’m sure my hubby’s students were questioning if it was a Christmas, Fall or Regular dessert when he brought them to school the next day – ha!
Hi Lil’ Luna. These look amazing. I have special occasion coming up and I have to bring something. These are perfect. I was wondering if I can substitute milk chocolate chips with semi sweet chocolate chips. Also you say in the recipe one cup of melted butter but ask to blend the soft butter……..Is this butter meant to be melted or just softened. Thank you for your help. I am looking forward to making them….
Lynn
Oh these look so good Kristyn!
I’m sorry you had a problem with these Valerie. We’ve made these countless times and have never had anyone think they flour was overpowering. We also haven’t had problems with the M&Ms sticking. :/