Our Kitchen Sink Cookie Recipe is very high on our list of all time favorite cookies. There’s A LOT going on in there and it all works! These cookies are sweet, salty, soft, chewy, and crisp.
The ‘over the top nature’ makes them the perfect holiday cookie, but the simplicity of making them will have you baking batches up all year long! We also love how flexible this kitchen sink cookie recipe is, you can add or omit things based on your flavor and texture preference.
Why are they called Kitchen Sink Cookies?
They’re called kitchen sink cookies, because they have “everything but the kitchen sink” in them! You basically raid your pantry for whatever sweet and salty goodies you have on hand, crush them up and add them to the dough to make a wildly delicious cookie!
How to make this Kitchen Sink Cookie Recipe?
Ingredients for Kitchen Sink Cookies
Tools you will need
- mixing bowls
- whisk
- hand mixer or stand mixer
- cookie scoop
- silicone spatula
- baking sheet
- parchment paper or silpat
- small spatula
- cooling rack
Process
- Melt some butter in a small saucepan and continue to cook until butter begins to smell nutty and lightly browns.
- Remove from heat and cool.
- Place browned butter and remaining butter in a bowl and using an electric mixer (or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment), beat together.
- Add both sugars and continue to beat together until light and fluffy.
- Scrape down sides of the bowl, add molasses and vanilla and continue to beat together.
- Beat in egg and egg yolk.
- In another bowl whisk dry ingredients together.
- Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture.
- Beat together until a dough comes together.
- Fold in mix-ins (you can also reserve a little of each mix-in to press onto the top of each cookie, before baking).
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 350˚F.
- Scoop dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet, about 1 ½ inches apart.
- Press any extra mix-in into the tops of the cookie and then sprinkle cookies with sea salt flakes and bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.
- Cool cookies for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
- Continue to cool cookies. Serve.
Tips and Tricks for Success
- Chill the dough – this will prevent the dough from spreading too much when baked.
- Don’t over mix – over-mixing with cause the cookies to become flat and crispy, instead of soft and chewy.
- Press extra mix-ins into tops of cookie dough scoops – we love doing this to make the cookies even more visually appealing!
Kitchen Sink Cookie Variations
There are so many different mix-ins you can sub in or out of this Kitchen Sink Cookie Recipe, which is why we love it so much. We just recommend using a blend of sweet and salty mix-ins. It’s also important that the total amount of mix-ins doesn’t excess the overall amount we used (4 1/3 cups) to ensure everything holds together with the dough base and bakes evenly.
- vegan mini marshmallows (if you use non-vegan marshmallows, they will totally melt and dissolve into the cookie)
- butterscotch chips
- milk chocolate chips (if dark chocolate isn’t your jam or if you just want to double down on chocolate goodness!)
- chopped candy bars (such as Snickers, KitKats, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (or even Reeses Pieces!)
- white chocolate chips
- crushed butter crackers (such as Ritz)
- crushed saltines or oyster crackers
FAQs
Yes, this dough (base) is more stiff in general. To test the dough, take a small amount of dough in your hand and give it a squeeze. If it holds together it’s okay. If it crumbles the dough is a little dry.
If your dough looks crumbly, it’s because it was over-mixed. To fix this issue, gently beat the remaining egg white into the dough mixture until fully incorporated.
Yes! The dough can be made, wrapped in a disc and chilled up to 5 days ahead of time.
Yes! To freeze, scoop chilled dough into individual cookies and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment (make sure the scoops of dough aren’t touching one another). Place baking sheet in freezer until scoops are fully frozen. Remove frozen cookie dough scoops from freezer and transfer to resealable freezer bag. Remove as much air from bag as possible and seal. Place bag in freezer for up to three months.
When ready to bake cookies, transfer frozen scoops onto a parchment lined baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart and bake for 17 to 20 minutes.
Yes! Place baked (and cooled) cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet, in a single layer, and freeze. Once cookies are frozen, transfer to a resealable freezer bag. Remove as much air as possible from the freezer bag and seal. Place cookies in freezer for up to 3 months.
When ready to serve/eat. Remove cookies from freezer and set out at room temperature until cookies have thawed, about 30 minutes.
More Cookie Recipes You’ll Love!
We love this kitchen sink cookie recipe so much. It makes awesome holiday gifts, are perfect for cookie exchanges and are delicious anytime snacking cookies! Some of our other favorite cookie recipes are:
- Meyer Lemon Meltaways
- Blueberry Yogurt Cookies
- Pain D’Amande (Almond Thin Cookies)
- Salted Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gingerbread Spiced Snowflake Sugar Cookies
- Salted Twix Cookies
- Poppy Seed and Lemon Cookie
- Marshmallow Stuffed S’more Cookies
- Strawberry Shortcake Cookies
Kitchen Sink Cookies
INGREDIENTS
cookie dough base
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup superfine sugar granulated is fine
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon molasses
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
kitchen sink mix-ins
- 1 cup dark chocolate, chopped
- ⅔ cup broken pretzels
- ⅔ cup roughly crushed wavy potato chips
- ⅔ cup rice krispies
- ⅔ cup roughly chopped malt balls
- ⅔ cup toffee chips
- 2 tbsp sea salt flakes for sprinkling
INSTRUCTIONS
- Melt 1 stick butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and continue to cook until butter begins to smell nutty and becomes lightly browned. Remove from heat and cool completely.
- Place both butters in a bowl and using an electric mixer (or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment), beat until light and fluffy.
- Add both sugars and continue to beat together until light and fluffy.
- Scrape down sides of the bowl, add molasses and vanilla and continue to beat together.
- Beat in egg and egg yolk.
- In another bowl whisk dry ingredients together.
- Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Beat together until a dough comes together.
- Fold in chopped chocolate, rice cereal, potato chips, pretzels, whoppers, and toffee bits until fully combined (you can also reserve a little of each mix-in to press onto the top of each cookie, before baking).
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days. (If chilling dough overnight, allow dough to sit at room temperature for about 1 hour before scooping onto a baking sheet, so dough is still cold, but just soft enough to scoop)
- Preheat oven to 350˚F.
- Scoop 3 ½ tablespoon sized balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet, about 1 ½ inches apart.
- Press any extra mix-in into the tops of the cookie and then sprinkle cookies with sea salt flakes and bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.
- Cool cookies for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
- Continue to cool cookies. Serve.
NOTES
- Chill the dough – this will prevent the dough from spreading too much when baked.
- Don’t over mix – over-mixing with cause the cookies to become flat and crispy, instead of soft and chewy.
- Press extra mix-ins into tops of cookie dough scoops – we love doing this to make the cookies even more visually appealing!
- The dough can be made, wrapped in a disc and chilled up to 5 days ahead of time.
- Scoop chilled dough into individual cookies and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment (make sure the scoops of dough aren’t touching one another). Place baking sheet in freezer until scoops are fully frozen. Remove frozen cookie dough scoops from freezer and transfer to resealable freezer bag. Remove as much air from bag as possible and seal. Place bag in freezer for up to three months.
- When ready to bake cookies, transfer frozen scoops onto a parchment lined baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart and bake for 17 to 20 minutes.
- Place baked (and cooled) cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet, in a single layer, and freeze. Once cookies are frozen, transfer to a resealable freezer bag. Remove as much air as possible from the freezer bag and seal. Place cookies in freezer for up to 3 months.
- When ready to serve/eat. Remove cookies from freezer and set out at room temperature until cookies have thawed, about 30 minutes.
Did you make this recipe? We want to see!
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Wow! These cookies are amazing! So delicious and perfect texture. I used my large ice cream scoop and got 30 cookies out of the batch. I look forward to making different mix-in combinations, such as chocolate chips, toasted almonds and coconut flakes (almond joy). Great recipe to use up bits and bobs of pantry ingredients. This is definitely a keeper!
These cookies were wonderful, huge hit. They were a little annoying to roll, ever thought of doing them as cookie bars to save time? Do you think it would work?
These were super yummy. I love a cookie that has a salty/sweet flavor with a nice bit of chewiness. These were perfect. I’m always nervous about making cookies because I suck when it comes time to scooping the dough out. My cookies are always less than uniform. These were so good that I didn’t care that some were misshapen! I didn’t use the rice crispies or malt balls because I didn’t have any. I used cinnamon Life cereal and graham crackers in their place.
Can you substitute caramel pieces for toffee chips?
Yes, but the caramel pieces will melt into the cookie a little bit!
Delicious recipe! My mixture felt pretty dry though after refrigeration, and they didn’t really flatten in the oven. Not sure what I did wrong. I didn’t have malt balls or rice crispies so I just upped the pretzels and chips a little. Only other difference was I used vanille bean paste instead of extract. Will try again!
When you say dark chocolate are you referring to chips or a bar chopped up?
I usually use a bar chopped up, but you can use chips too!
We have renamed these “Crack cookies” They are THAT good.
so glad you enjoyed this!
Can you substitute brown sugar for the molasses?
Totally!
I Made these cookies yesterday, my mom and I ate about 5 each!!!!!, they are amazing, and we had some leftover cookies in our cookie jar this morning and they taste even better today! lol I will be making these often on cheat days, Thanks so much for a wonderful recipe, I dont have a social media otherwise I would have tagged you.
Yay! Thank you :) So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Confused about recipe ingredients and directions. Ingredient list 2 sticks of butter softened. Directions list to melt one stick of butter and never mentioned the second stick of butter. So what is the correct amount of butter? Is it one or 2 sticks of butter. Melted or softened.
the recipe uses 2 sticks total, but only 1 stick is browned and cooled. the recipe directions have been updated to make it a little more clear!
love this! I know I’ve never had all of these things in one bite or cookie before and now you’ve given me the perfect excuse, so thank you for that and for this recipe!