These Kitchen Sink Cookies are loaded with crunchy candy, smashed pretzels, chewy caramel, and chocolate chips. My recipe involves zero chilling and is ready to bake in 15 minutes! Recipe includes how-to video!
Everything But the Kitchen Sink Cookies
With so many tasty options, it can be tough to decide what kind of cookie to make. Maybe you’re feeling classic chocolate chip, or maybe you want something a bit more fun and colorful, like M&M cookies. Luckily with my kitchen sink cookies, you don’t have to decide, because they include just about every add-in you could possibly want! Well, everything but the kitchen sink, that is…😉
Today’s recipe uses the dough from my pudding cookies as a base. It’s quick and easy to mix together with no chilling required and yields super soft and chewy results. We’ll load up that dough with plenty of candies and add-ins (pretzels in cookies? Yes!) before baking and diving in. You can of course substitute your favorite candies or add-ins; nuts, potato chips, and chopped peanut butter cups are all great options. Feel free to get creative!
Why use my recipe:
- Freezes easily for cookies on-demand.
- Carefully designed to be perfectly soft and chewy.
- Quick–less than half an hour from start-to-finish!
- Completely customizable–add your favorite mix-ins.
- No chilling!
What You Need
The base of these cookies is pretty simple, but you can get as creative with the mix-ins as you like! Here’s what you need:
- Flour. Use all purpose flour for today’s recipe (do not use self-rising). Make sure to measure your flour properly, otherwise your cookie dough could be dry and crumbly (which will ultimately make your cookies dry).
- Instant pudding mix. You know I’m a big fan of 100% from-scratch recipes, so you may be surprised to see boxed instant pudding mix in this ingredient list. There’s just something about cookies made with it though; they’re just SO soft and chewy! Use just the dry mix (not the milk or any other ingredient called for on the side of the box). You can use your favorite flavor; I like vanilla, caramel, and butterscotch.
- Egg + egg yolk. An extra egg yolk helps make the cookies tender, rich, and chewy. I do this with a lot of my cookie recipes (like my brown sugar cookies!).
- Pretzels. I use the small pretzel twists. Make sure to measure before breaking and smashing them up, but don’t pulverize them to dust or you’ll lose that nice crunch that they add.
- Candy. I like to use caramel bits (or chopped up caramels), M&Ms, chocolate chips (milk or semisweet), and toffee bits (with or without the chocolate coating). Most of the candy in this recipe can be substituted with your favorite candy–just don’t use fruity or hard candies.
SAM’S TIP: Never place cookie dough on a hot baking sheet! Let cookie sheets cool completely before adding more cookie dough, or the cookies will begin to melt.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Them
- Cream the butter, sugar, and pudding mix until well combined.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and stir to incorporate.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients.
- Add your mix-ins and stir until combined.
- Scoop the dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet and flatten slightly.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 350F. Let cool completely on the cookie sheet before enjoying.
SAM’S TIP: These cookies hold their shape pretty well thanks to the added pudding mix, so you’ll need to flatten them slightly with your fingertips before baking to encourage them to spread a bit (and not stay in a round ball).
Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t have or can’t find pudding mix, I suggest you make my red white and blue cookies instead and use the add-ins for this recipe. That recipe is very similar to this one, but without pudding mix.
Yes! Follow the instructions for drop cookies in my how to freeze cookie dough post. You will want to flatten the cookies slightly before wrapping in plastic. Note that your cookies may require an additional few minutes in the oven when baked from frozen.
These cookies get their funny name from the fact that they’re loaded with so many mix-ins, they have everything but the kitchen sink!
These cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days…if they last that long! 😉
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Kitchen Sink Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup (200 g) dark brown sugar firmly packed (You may substitute light brown sugar)
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1 3.4 oz (96 g) packet Instant vanilla pudding mix or preferred flavor
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk room temperature preferred
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups (315 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 (75 g) heaping cups small pretzel twists measure before crushing pretzels
- ⅔ cup (110 g) toffee bits
- ¾ cup (125 g) caramel bits (or 15 caramels cut into quarters)
- ½ cup (105 g) mini M&Ms
- ½ cup (85 g) chocolate chips (milk chocolate or semisweet)
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Place butter, sugars (dark brown sugar and granulated), and dry pudding mix in a large bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer) and use an electric mixer to cream together until well-combined.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200 g) dark brown sugar, ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar, 1 3.4 oz (96 g) packet Instant vanilla pudding mix
- Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir well to combine.1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.2 ½ cups (315 g) all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt
- Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until completely combined.
- Place pretzels in a ziploc bag ad use a rolling pin to smash a bit until broken (but not completely crushed). Add pretzels, toffee bits, caramel bits, mini M&Ms, and semisweet chips and stir until combined.2 (75 g) heaping cups small pretzel twists, ⅔ cup (110 g) toffee bits, ¾ cup (125 g) caramel bits, ½ cup (105 g) mini M&Ms, ½ cup (85 g) chocolate chips
- Scoop cookies by 2 Tablespoon-sized scoops and place on prepared baking sheet, spacing cookies at least 2” apart.
- Gently flatten cookies by pressing down with your fingers, then bake for 10 minutes
- Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
This recipe was originally published June of 2014. Photos, text, and recipe have been updated and a new video has been added.
Mary
I have made these cookies many times. Everyone always loves them and asks for the recipe. Sometimes I add some butterscotch chips to the mix because I think the butterscotch compliments and chocolate chips and toffee bits. Thanks for a great recipe!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Mary! 🙂
Linnea
I tried this recipe with leftover Halloween candy as the mix-ins (m&ms, Twix, snickers, KitKats, etc) and they were absolutely delicious! I took them to a party, and everyone raved about them!
Sam
That’s a great way to use up some extra candy! I’m glad everyone enjoyed them! 🙂
Amber laska
I made these with whit chocolate chips instead of MnMs and they were awesome! Very nostalgic 🙂
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Amber! 🙂
Cher
Hi,
This is my go to cookie recipe now with the following changes for high altitude. I use two whole eggs and only 2 1/3 cups of flour. I also substituted 1/2 of butter with butter flavored Crisco. GREAT!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much! Thank you for your feedback on high altitude baking. 🙂
Jennifer
Hi Sam! Love your recipes! Can these be made into Bar cookies?
Sam
Hi Jennifer! I think they will probably work. I’m not sure of a bake time though. 🙂
Jan Lysak Ruiz
HOLY SMOKES, THESE COOKIES ARE AMAZINGLY ADDICTING!
These are now my new FAVORITE cookies. Thank you so much for sharing.
These are TERRIFIC!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Jan! 🙂
Jan
I have been making a version of chocolate cookies for over 50 years but this one is such a fun and tasty variation. Didn’t add the caramels but everything else and created firm but great texture cookies for all to enjoy. Well done to you Sam! And thanks.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the cookie so much, Jan! 🙂
Shelia Arnold Evans
Can I substitute with sugar free pudding?
Sugar Spun Run
I haven’t tried it, Sheila, but you should be ok. Let me know how they turn out. 🙂
Samantha
I’ve been looking for a decent dough recipe for years and this looks absolutely amazing! However, my boyfriend isn’t the biggest sweets guy. Is there any supplement for the Butterscotch pudding mix? Or is that what ties it together?
Sam
Hi Samantha! The pudding mix is what helps make this dough what it is–extra soft and chewy. If you omit the pudding you would lose some of that unfortunately, however if it’s the butterscotch flavor that’s the problem you could certainly substitute with another flavor of pudding (vanilla would be a good choice). I hope this is helpful!
Cate @ Chez CateyLou
I am SO indecisive too! I mean how can you pick between rolos and heath bars?? I love your solution!!
Sam
Thanks Cate! 🙂
Chris @ Shared Appetite
Hahaha I very much have trouble with the words “stop” and “eating” when there are cookies in front of me! Especially these beauties!!! Love all the toppings you threw in there. I also like to sometimes throw in pretzels or potato chips for that salty factor 🙂
Sam
Ah I love the idea of adding something salty! Next time there will be pretzels in there!
Lyla
Wow they look really good 😋
Jess @ Flying on Jess Fuel
I am so, so, so, SO indecisive about EVERYTHING! It’s bad. But I love these cookies. Why choose just one mix in when you can have ALL THE MIX INS!!! Love!
Sam
Haha glad I’m not alone in the indecisiveness club! Thank you Jess! 🙂
Natalie @ Tastes Lovely
Haha, Zach’s joke that you’d never be able to decide whether to upstairs or downstairs actually made me laugh out loud! Haha! That is so true! I would probably be the same way.
I love how many goodies are in this cookie! The more candies you can fit in there the better!
Sam
🙂 Thank you Natalie! It definitely solves my indecisiveness issue by just including EVERYTHING!
Cindy @ Pick Fresh Foods
Sam, I totally agree there are so many choices. I know people love choices, but do we need 200+ on one menu? Haha
These cookies look delicious. I know my guys would love the candy pieces in here 😀
Sam
Way too many choices! Thanks Cindy! 🙂
Annie @Maebells
These look fantastic! You filled them with so much good stuff! I love soft and chewy cookies, I can’t wait to try them!
Sam
Thank you Annie!