🍫🍪🎄 Christmas Kitchen Sink Cookies are loaded with everything but the kitchen sink! Easy and festive, with the perfect sweet-salty combo, they’re irresistible treats with a FUN ingredient list!
My Favorite Unique Christmas Cookies
These everything but the kitchen sink cookies are a spinoff of my Cowboy Cookies meets Compost Cookies. The cookies are soft and chewy, there are tons of textures from all the add-ins, and if you love salty-sweet treats, these will be a new favorite for you.
For all those inquiring minds, the potato chip flavor isn’t very pronounced at all. They add texture and saltiness, and are a great addition.
The same can be said for the pretzels, although the pretzels definitely give more noticeable crunch than the potato chips. Make these Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies next with your extra pretzels.
Looking for more Christmas cookies?
Add my Christmas shortbread cookies, Christmas cut out sugar cookies, and soft frosted holiday sprinkles cookies to your must-make list this holiday season!
What’s in These Kitchen Sink Christmas Cookies?
For these easy Christmas cookies, you’ll need:
- Butter
- Brown and granulated sugars
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour – I haven’t tested this recipe with gluten-free flour, but imagine it would work if you use a 1:1 all-purpose gluten-free flour
- Baking soda – Make sure it’s fresh and do NOT confuse it with baking powder
- Mix-Ins – Chocolate chips/chunks (dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate, or white chocolate), holiday colored M&M’s (red and green), pretzels (I use skinny rods), and potato chips
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Kitchen Sink Cookies
These cookies follow a very typical cookie-making protocol.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter, add the sugars, egg, and vanilla.
- Beat everything together before adding the dry ingredients.
- Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl. Add in all the remaining add-ins.
- Scoop the dough into mounds using a cookie scoop or 1/4 cup measuring cup, and chill the dough. Arrange on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Feel free to sprinkle a little flakey sea salt on top of the scooped cookie dough balls.
- Bake just until the edges and tops of the cookie dough are set. When you’re baking the cookies, keep a close eye on them because in my oven, at 8 minutes they’re underdone, and anything over 11 minutes and they are prone to burning on the bottom, so watch for that perfect sweet spot in your oven. Cool on the pan, no need for a cooling rack!
Do I Have to Chill the Cookie Dough?
Yes! It is very important to chill the dough because otherwise, these cookies will be very prone to spreading. I recommend 3+ hours in the fridge (or overnight). You can probably get away with chilling the dough for 30-ish minutes in the freezer, but I haven’t tested that method personally.
You want to chill the dough in individual cookie mounds, not in one big bowl that you stash in the fridge. Otherwise, you’ll be trying to chisel out rock-hard dough from a bowl, and it’s very difficult, crumbly, and not advised.
What Else Can I Put in these Christmas Kitchen Sink Cookies?
This is a very flexible recipe with regard to the add-ins. If you feel like omitting some of the add-ins and swapping them for something else, go for it.
Exact quantities will vary based on what you add and what you eliminate, but you can experiment and see how things go, and play it by ear as long as you’re a somewhat experienced baker. If you’re not an experienced baker, I recommend sticking with the recipe as written the first time you make the cookies.
If you have any of these items in your pantry and are feeling experimental, they could be fun add-ins:
- Extra chocolate chips
- Chopped pecans
- Chopped walnuts
- Toffee bits
- Diced candy bars pieces (Snickers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Milky Way, Rolo, etc.)
- White chocolate chips
- Peanut butter chips
- Butterscotch chips
- Old-Fashioned Whole-Rolled Oats (if you try this, I’d go with 1/2 cup and then reduce the flour by 1/4 cup and see how the dough consistency looks)
- Sweetened shredded coconut (same advice as with the oats above)
- Cereal (Special K, Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies; same advice as with the oats above)
Christmas Kitchen Sink Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer Fitted with a Paddle Attachment
- 1 Silpat Mat
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more only if needed (see step 5)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and/or chunks, I used a mixture
- ¾ cup holiday colored M&Ms, I used plain
- ¾ to 1 cup skinny pretzel rods, halved (loosely measured)
- 1 heaping cup potato chips, loosely measured
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) add the butter and beat on high power to cream it (whip it; you’re not adding any cream) for about 2 minutes.
- Add the egg, sugars, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until creamed and well combined, about 3 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, baking soda, salt, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the chocolate chips, M&Ms, pretzels, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Add the potato chips and beat very briefly, about 20 seconds, to incorporate. Note – At this point the dough should have the consistency of typical cookie dough, a bit sticky and tacky, but not overly moist. If it is too wet, add 2 to 4 tablespoons flour, or as needed to get the dough to come together better and be less sticky.
- Using a medium cookies scoop, form approximately 16 equal-sized mounds of dough.
- Place the mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 5 days. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet).
- Bake for about 9 to 10 minutes. Note – 8 minutes in my oven the cookies are underdone but anything over 11 minutes and they are prone to burning; watch your cookies and not the clock when determining doneness and keep a close eye on them. Bake just until the edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t overbake. Cookies firm up as they cool.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
More Easy Christmas Cookie Recipes:
25 Holiday Cookie Favorites – The tried-and-true favorites are all here! If you need a holiday cookie recipe, this collection has you covered!
12 Easy No-Bake Holiday Desserts – No time to bake? Here are 12 FAST and EASY no-bake recipes! Whether you want chocolate, peanut butter, cheesecake, bark, or truffles, these recipes have you covered!
Soft and Chewy M&M’s Chocolate Chip Cookies – If you’re looking for a new M&M cookie recipe, this is THE ONE! Soft, buttery, and irresistible!
Soft Frosted Holiday Sprinkles Cookies – Tender, buttery cookies topped with cream cheese frosting and loaded with sprinkles! Easy, no-roll holiday cookies that everyone goes crazy for!
Ritz Cookies (No-Bake Christmas Cookies) — If you need a ridiculously easy, no-bake dessert for a party, holiday cookie exchange, or just have a spur of the moment craving for chocolate and peanut butter, these Ritz cookies are perfect!
great
great
These look fun and delicious–lots of favorite treats all in one cookie! Have a nice Thanksgiving Averie!