Try these kitchen sink cookies loaded with chocolate chips, pretzels, potato chips, and toffee bits. Everything but the kitchen sink! They’re soft, chewy, and easy to make.
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: These kitchen sink cookies are the perfect balance of delicious sweet and salty flavors and soft, chewy, crunchy textures. Irresistible!
How long it takes: 30 minutes from start to finish. No chilling required!
Equipment you’ll need: one bowl and a baking sheet
Servings: 40 cookies
The Best Everything But The Kitchen Sink Cookies!
Clear out your pantries and preheat those ovens, because when it comes to these chewy, fully-loaded kitchen sink cookies, anything goes. Kitchen sink cookies, also called compost cookies, are an easy cookie recipe made from soft vanilla cookie dough packed with chocolate chips, salty potato chips, pretzels, and toffee bits. To stretch it a bit, they include everything but the kitchen sink, hence the name! Every bite is filled with a delicious combination of flavors and textures, for a truly satisfying and delightful homemade cookie.
Why You’ll Love These Kitchen Sink Cookies
- Soft, chewy texture. The soft vanilla cookie dough base is similar to my chewy chocolate chip cookies. It makes soft-baked cookies with buttery bottoms and crispy edges.
- Use what you have on hand. The purpose of kitchen sink cookies is to use up the random ingredients you have kicking around in the pantry. You can follow this recipe as written, or change up the sweet-salty add-ins to suit.
- Freezer-friendly. Make a BIG batch and freeze half for later! Kitchen sink cookies freeze well, so you can always have them on hand for last-minute desserts and gifting.
What Is a Kitchen Sink Cookie Made Of?
These are soft, chewy cookies packed with a bit of everything: something sweet here, a little something salty there, extra crunch, melty chocolate… they have it all! I’ve included some notes below. Be sure to scroll to the recipe card for the full recipe amounts and details.
- Butter – Unsalted and softened to room temperature.
- Sugar – The combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar is key to a moist, chewy cookie.
- Vanilla and Egg – Make sure to use real vanilla extract. For best results, the egg should also be at room temperature.
- Flour, Baking Soda, and Salt – All-purpose flour works great here, or you can use whole wheat flour.
- Chocolate Chips – I like to use a mix of semi-sweet, milk, white chocolate, and butterscotch chips.
- Add-ins – Your choice of sweet and salty mix-ins. For this recipe, I use pretzels, potato chips (I recommend regular or ridged salted potato chips, not flavored), and toffee bits. Make sure that you don’t crush the pretzels and chips up too small.
- Flaky Sea Salt – This is optional but really drives home the salty-sweet flavors of these cookies.
How to Make Kitchen Sink Cookies
It’s time to throw the kitchen sink at these cookies! Here’s how to make these sweet and salty treats, step-by-step:
- Make the cookie dough. Start by creaming together the butter and both sugars, followed by the egg and vanilla. Lastly, stir in the dry ingredients to form the dough.
- Add your mix-ins. Fold in all your add-ins, in this case, the chocolate chips, pretzels, potato chips, and toffee pieces.
- Portion out the cookie dough. Next, drop spoonfuls of dough onto a lined baking sheet, leaving a bit of space between each cookie. Give the tops of the cookies a sprinkle of flaked sea salt if you like.
- Bake. Bake these kitchen sink cookies at 350ºF in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes to firm up before moving them to a wire rack to cool.
Do I Need to Chill the Dough?
Chilling the dough isn’t necessary for this cookie recipe. We tested the dough chilled (overnight) and unchilled and there wasn’t a noticeable difference in taste or texture. If you choose to chill your dough, or if you’re preparing the dough in advance, you may need to add 1 to 2 minutes to the baking time.
Can I Freeze the Cookie Dough?
Yes! If you’d like to prepare the cookie dough for your kitchen sink cookies in advance, you can scoop the dough into balls and freeze the whole batch, or freeze the dough balls individually to bake later.
- To freeze the cookie dough, pre-freeze the portioned dough balls on a baking sheet until solid. Afterward, transfer the frozen dough to a freezer bag to keep in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- To bake the cookie dough from frozen, place the frozen dough on a baking sheet and bake at 325ºF (instead of 350ºF) for 16 to 18 minutes.
Recipe Tips
This recipe makes a lot of cookies! Remember to bake in batches and follow these tips for the best kitchen sink cookies:
- Use room temperature ingredients. Room-temperature butter and eggs combine more evenly with the other ingredients. If you’re in a hurry, warm cold butter in the microwave for a few seconds, and place your eggs into a bowl of warm water.
- Don’t crush the potato chips too finely. Small crumbs will lose their crispy texture.
- Use a cookie scoop. It makes portioning out the cookies so much easier and ensures that your cookies bake up the same size. I recommend a #40 cookie scoop for this recipe.
- Line the baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. It helps prevent the cookies from over-spreading and keeps the bottoms of the cookies from browning too much.
- For a pretty presentation, save some of your add-ins (especially the potato chips) to press into the tops of the cookies before baking. This way they won’t get lost in the dough!
- Don’t overbake the cookies. This is rule #1 for perfectly chewy cookies! Your cookies might look a little underdone when they come out of the oven, and that’s OK. They’ll continue to set up as they cool on the baking sheet. If you happen to love crispy cookies, go ahead and bake them a bit longer.
The original kitchen sink cookies from Panera Bread don’t include nuts, but you can add some to this recipe! Chopped toasted pecans, walnuts, peanuts, almonds, and macadamia nuts are all good options. See the variations section below for details.
The secret to chewy cookies is a combination of the right ingredients and proper baking. This recipe uses both white and brown sugar for moisture, and leaves the cookies slightly underbaked, for soft, chewy kitchen sink cookies.
If your cookies are baking up flat or sunken, this is likely because your oven is too hot or your baking sheet is too hot. The higher temperature melts the butter too quickly, which causes the cookies to spread. Double-check your oven and adapt the temperature as needed.
Make These Kitchen Sink Cookies Your Own
You can get as creative as you’d like with different flavor combinations. Try these ideas:
- Add chopped nuts. Mix in toasted pecans, almonds, walnuts, or a mix of nuts. Macadamias, peanuts, and hazelnuts are easy options, too.
- Caramel. Chop up caramels to add to the dough, or drizzle homemade caramel sauce over the baked cookies.
- Candy. Try M&Ms, chopped candy bars, Andes mints, or funfetti sprinkles.
- Dried fruit. Stir in dried cranberries, dried cherries, or raisins.
- More mix-ins. For extra texture, add shredded coconut, rolled oats, or crushed-up graham crackers.
- Add a glaze. Borrow the sweet icing from my iced oatmeal cookies and dip or drizzle the tops of your kitchen sink cookies.
Mix-Ins for Kitchen Sink Cookies
Make sure that you don’t go overboard with extra add-ins. Try to keep any mix-ins (in addition to the chocolate chips) to no more than 1 ½ cups so that the dough still holds together.
- To Store: Cool cookies completely. Store your kitchen sink cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
- Freeze: Kitchen sink cookies freeze great! Stash the cooled cookies in a freezer-safe container or freezer bag and keep them frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost the cookies on the counter before serving.
More Easy Cookie Recipes
Kitchen Sink Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg (preferably at room temperature)
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups chocolate chips (try a mix of varieties like semisweet, milk, white, and/or butterscotch)
- ½ cup chopped pretzels (or itty bitty pretzels)
- ½ cup crumbled potato chips (don’t crush them too small!)
- ½ cup toffee bits
- Flaky sea salt, optional
Instructions
- Position oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and egg and beat again until combined.
- Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, gently mixing them together before stirring into the butter mixture. Mix by hand until just combined.
- Fold in chocolate chips, pretzels, chips, and toffee pieces.
- Using a cookie scoop or spoon, drop rounded heaping tablespoons (#40 cookie scoop) of dough onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. If desired, sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
- Bake in preheated oven for 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
- Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Repeat the process with the remaining dough.
Notes
- This is a fun cookie recipe where you can use whatever you have on hand, hence the name, kitchen sink cookies. Consider substituting shredded coconut, chopped nuts, chopped caramels, or rolled oats.
- Try to keep add-ins to 1 ½ cups (plus 1 ½ cups chocolate chips). You can use a little less, but if you use more, the dough may not hold together.
- If you use potato chips, you may want to add a few pieces to the top of each cookie before baking so they don’t get too lost in the dough. You can do this with any or all of the add-ins to make your cookies look pretty, too.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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