These Kitchen Sink Cookies are loaded with everything but the kitchen sink! Featuring a rich, buttery dough, melty chocolate chips, toffee bits, crunchy pretzels, and salty potato chips, my kitchen sink cookie recipe is one for the books.
Ingredients
Also known as compost cookies, these treats stand out with their perfect balance between sweet and salty! Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe:
- Unsalted butter - It should be soft enough to indent with your finger, but not so soft that it looks greasy. Feel free to use vegan butter.
- Brown sugar - You’re welcome to use light or dark brown sugar here. Alternatively, use less-processed varieties like muscovado sugar, grated piloncillo, or jaggery.
- Granulated sugar - If you’re going vegan, opt for organic cane sugar.
- Egg - Make sure to use a large egg, and let it come to room temp before mixing up your dough to prevent the butter from seizing.
- Corn syrup - For added chewy texture. Honey or maple syrup works as well!
- Vanilla extract - Feel free to use an equal amount of vanilla paste or vanilla powder, half as much ground vanilla bean, or swap in the flavor extract of your choice (e.g. almond) for a different flavor profile.
- All-purpose flour - Plain white flour is perfect for these cookies. Feel free to swap in a gluten-free measure for measure blend containing xanthan gum if needed.
- Fine salt - To balance the sweetness and enhance the flavor.
- Baking soda & baking powder - To add rise as well as color and flavor to the cookies.
- Chocolate chips - I tend to reach for semisweet chocolate chips here, but you’re welcome to use white, milk, or dark chocolate chips instead. You can also use mini chocolate chips!
- Potato chips - Go with plain salted potato chips rather than ones that have a flavorful coating.
- Pretzels - Rods, twists, or pretzel thins will all work. If you have pretzel nuggets, I suggest bashing them in a zip-top container using a rolling pin so they’re not too big and crunchy.
- Toffee bits - Buttery, salty-sweet, and crunchy. If ever there was a candy meant for these cookies, toffee is IT! If you're dairy-free, you can make your own dairy-free toffee bits using a recipe like this.
- Flaky sea salt - Optional, but encouraged for the very best kitchen sink cookie experience.
How to Make Kitchen Sink Cookies
These unexpectedly delicious treats come together in just a few simple steps:
Step 1: Cream. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Step 2: Wet ingredients. Add the egg, corn syrup, and vanilla extract, and beat again, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
Step 3: Dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add this to the bowl of the stand mixer, and mix on low until just combined.
Step 4: Add mix-ins. With the mixer still on low, fold in the chocolate chips, potato chips, pretzels, and toffee bits. Cover the bowl and let the cookie dough rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Step 5: Prep. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Step 6: Shape. Scoop about 2½ tablespoons of dough onto the palm of your hands and roll it into a ball. Place the balls of dough on the parchment paper, leaving at least 2 inches between.
Step 7: Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the pan for about 10 minutes before taking them off onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Cookie Mix-In Options
One of the great things about these everything cookies is how adaptable they are - you can add almost anything into the dough! Here are some fun ideas on what you could add to your cookies:
- White chocolate chips
- Butterscotch chips
- Peanut butter chips
- M&M's
- Chopped Halloween candies
- Chopped holiday chocolates
- Crushed cereal
- Crushed graham crackers
- Chopped nuts
- Shredded coconut
- Sprinkles
- Dried cranberries
Gluten-Free Cookies
Swap the all-purpose flour for your favorite cup-for-cup (also known as measure-for-measure or 1-to-1) gluten-free flour blend. Make sure it has xanthan gum in it. Make sure you also use gluten-free pretzels!
Dairy-Free Cookies
Can’t do dairy? Simply use vegan butter instead! If your vegan butter is a little lower in fat content compared to regular butter (i.e., less than 8 grams of fat per 2 teaspoons of butter), use ⅔ cup vegan butter and ⅓ cup refined coconut oil (the flavorless kind) or shortening. Be sure to use dairy-free toffee bits as well!
Tips for Making This Recipe
While this kitchen sink cookies recipe is pretty straightforward, I’ve learned a few tricks along the way:
- Patience is a virtue. Let the cookies cool completely before eating them. The pretzels don’t re-crisp until they’ve cooled completely. If you eat them while they’re warm, the pretzels feel stale. You’ve been warned!
- Leave space between the balls of dough. These buddies are fully loaded and prone to spreading, so give them plenty of room to do their thing.
- Make ‘em like a bakery. Use a round cookie cutter or glass that’s slightly larger than the cookies to swirl the baked cookies and make them perfectly circular.
- If you like soft, fudgy centers, underbake the cookies a touch.
- Rest the dough. Giving the flour time to rehydrate will yield a better consistency. This is especially important if you’re using gluten-free flour! Chilling the dough will also prevent them from spreading out too much.
Storage & Freezing
- Storing: Put baked cookies in an airtight container and store them at room temperature for up to 5 days (3 days if making them gluten-free or dairy-free).
- Freezing: Portion the dough out into balls and freeze them in a single layer until hard. Place the frozen cookie dough balls in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container for up to 2 months. Whenever a cookie craving strikes, just pull out however many cookies you want to bake, then bake as directed adding a minute or two onto the bake time as needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
The name is a shortened version of "everything but the kitchen sink cookies", and implies that you're throwing in whatever you've got on hand. In the case of these cookies, the name hints at the blend of ingredients that go into the dough—ranging from chocolate and pretzels to potato chips and beyond.
It's as if you raided your pantry and tossed in a bit of everything, barring the actual kitchen sink, of course! So, in essence, it's a playful nod to the cookie's loaded, anything-goes character.
While it’ll vary from recipe to recipe, my kitchen sink cookies feature pretzels, potato chips, toffee, and chocolate. Feel free to add your own flair, though!
Try this amazingly simple cookie-cutter swirling hack. It works like a charm every time!
Panera has made quite a name with its renowned Kitchen Sink Cookies, and let's not forget the equally legendary Compost Cookie from Momofuku Milk Bar. While my cookies are not a direct copycat of the Panera kitchen sink cookie recipe, they're definitely to die for delicious!
My recipe doesn’t include them, but that’s not to say that you can’t! Feel free to add the nuts (or nutty candies) of your choice.
More Cookie Recipes
- Do you love chewy peanut butter cookies? You have to try my dairy-free peanut butter cookies recipe! Strong peanut butter flavor, crisp edges, with chewy centers.
- If you love thumbprint cookies, these thumbprint cookies are buttery and filled with leftover cranberry sauce from the holidays! SO good.
- Looking for the perfect chocolate chip cookies? My browned butter chocolate chip cookies are it!
- Check out these chocolate chip cookies if you're gluten-free. Their soft, chewy, fudgy centers will have you second-guessing if they're really gluten-free!
I hope you love this Kitchen Sink Cookie Recipe! For more tasty snack and dessert ideas, be sure to follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook. You can also sign up for my email newsletter to get all of my new content delivered straight to your inbox — I swear to not spam you!
Kitchen Sink Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon corn syrup or honey
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour see Notes for gluten-free option
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1½ cups chocolate chips
- 1 cup crushed potato chips
- ½ cup chopped pretzels
- ½ cup toffee bits
- flaky sea salt optional
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the egg, honey, and vanilla extract, and beat again, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add this to the bowl of the stand mixer, and mix on low until just combined.
- With the mixer still on low, fold in the chocolate chips, potato chips, pretzels, and toffee bits. Cover the bowl and let the cookie dough rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop about 2½ tablespoons of dough onto the palm of your hands and roll it into a ball. Place the balls of dough on the parchment paper, leaving at least 2 inches between.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Let the cookie cool on the pan for about 10 minutes before taking them off onto a wire rack to cool completely.
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