Kitchen Sink Cookies

At a glance

What stands out: Kitchen sink cookies are loaded with chocolate chips, pretzels, potato chips, and toffee bits (everything but the kitchen sink!). With a reliable balance of rich sweet and salty flavors, kitchen sink cookies are soft, chewy, and straightforward to mix.

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

A standby “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 a straightforward 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 rich combination of flavors and textures, for a truly satisfying and delightful from-scratch cookie.

What Makes These Cookies Special

Soft, chewy texture. The soft vanilla cookie dough base is similar to our chewy chocolate chip cookies. It makes soft-baked cookies with buttery bottoms and crispy edges.

A good way to use odds and ends. 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 and/or 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 goes in

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! We've included some notes below. Be sure to scroll to the recipe card for the full recipe amounts and details.

• Butter – we use unsalted butter for baking. Be sure it’s softened to room temperature before you get started.
• Sugar – The combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar is key to a moist, chewy cookie.
• Vanilla and Egg – 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 – we 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, we use pretzels, potato chips (we 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 drives home the salty-sweet flavors of these cookies.

How it comes together

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 (see cooking tip below).

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 we Need to Chill the Dough?

Chilling the dough isn’t necessary for this cookie recipe. We tested the dough chilled (overnight) and unchilled; 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.

Make Ahead

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

• 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.
• 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 evenly chewy cookies! Your cookies might look a little underdone when they come out of the oven, and that’s okay. 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.

Possible Mix-Ins

Choose from this list or come up with your own ideas. Just be sure to limit the total amount of chocolate chips to 1 ½ cups, and additional mix-ins to another 1 ½ cups (3 cups total).

• Chopped nuts. Mix in toasted pecans, almonds, walnuts, or a mix of nuts. Macadamias, peanuts, and hazelnuts are straightforward options, too.
• Caramel. Chop up caramels to add to the dough, or drizzle from-scratch 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 ideas. For extra texture, add shredded coconut, crushed-up graham crackers, or rolled oats (if you like rolled oats in your cookies, be sure to give our cowboy cookies a try).
• Add a glaze. Borrow the sweet icing from our iced oatmeal cookies and dip or drizzle the tops of your kitchen sink cookies.

How to Store

To store: Cool cookies completely. Store your kitchen sink cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

To freeze: 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.

• Yield: 40 cookies
• Prep: 20 minutes
• Cook: 12 minutes
• Total: 32 minutes

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

Method

1. Position oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
2. 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.
3. Add the vanilla and egg, and beat again until combined.
4. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, gently mixing them together before stirring into the butter mixture. Mix by hand until just combined.
5. Fold in baking chips, pretzels, chips, and toffee pieces.
6. 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.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
8. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.

Notes

Don’t get carried away! 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.

Pro tip: 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.

Storage: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months.

To freeze 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.