These kitchen sink cookies are perfectly chewy, buttery, and loaded with chocolate chips, toffee bits, crunchy pretzels, and salty potato chips. The combination of salty and sweet flavors paired with the crispy and gooey textures make these cookies insanely good!
I love baking for friends and family, and through years of making these cookies, I’ve perfected the recipe so it turns even the biggest pretzel skeptics into fans. I have no doubt these are going to be a favorite amongst your friends and family, too.
Ingredients & Swaps
You don’t need anything fancy to make these—just a few pantry staples and your favorite mix-ins. Here are a few key ingredients to keep in mind, plus some easy swaps if you’re baking gluten-free or dairy-free:
Unsalted butter - It’s better to use unsalted butter than regular salted butter, so you can control the amount of salt yourself. It should be soft enough to indent with your finger, but not so soft that it looks greasy. Feel free to use vegan butter sticks. If your butter is lower in fat content (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.
Corn syrup - Helps to keep the centers of the cookies soft and chewy.
Flour - Choose all-purpose flour or a gluten-free measure for measure flour blend that contains xanthan gum.
Chocolate chips - I like dark or semisweet chocolate chips for this recipe. You can use milk chocolate but I find that it’s too sweet. If you’re dairy-free, make sure to check the chocolate chip package to ensure it doesn’t contain any dairy.
Potato chips - It adds both crunch and a savory bite. Choose plain salted potato chips and try to use ones that are thick, so they’re don’t crumble away and get lost in the cookie dough when you’re mixing the ingredients together.
Pretzels - Adds the most crunch to these cookies. Sticks, twists, or pretzel thins will all work. Make sure you use gluten-free pretzels if you want to make these cookies gluten-free.
Toffee bits - If you're dairy-free, you can make your own dairy-free toffee bits using a recipe like this.
Flaky sea salt - Optional, but highly encouraged if you love the combination of salty and sweet!
Cookie Mix-In Options
One of the great things about these cookies is how customizable they are—you can add almost anything into the dough! Here are some fun ideas:
- 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
Tips for Making This Recipe
Here are some tips to keep in mind so your kitchen sink cookies come out perfectly every time:
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 cookies are fully loaded and prone to spreading, so give them plenty of room in between.
Make them look perfectly round. Use a round cookie cutter or glass that’s slightly larger than the cookies to swirl the baked cookies and make them perfectly circular.
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.
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
- 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.
Nutrition
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.
Baking from frozen: 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. You can leave some of the mix-ins out, or replace them with something else. Feel free to add your own spin to this recipe!
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.
Panera’s cookies use a combination of semi-sweet and milk chocolate, caramel pieces, pretzels, and topped with flaked sea salt. 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 nuts 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 this gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe if you're gluten-free. Their soft, chewy, fudgy centers will have you second-guessing if they're really gluten-free!
- These gluten-free oatmeal cookies are another great option for my gluten-free readers, whether you make them with chocolate chips or raisins!
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