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The Magic Formula to Making Kitchen Sink Cookies

Follow our guidelines and flavor plain sugar cookies any way you want.
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Published Mar. 2, 2023.

The Magic Formula to Making Kitchen Sink Cookies

Craving cookies, but only have a handful of chocolate chips left in your pantry?

Or maybe you’re at the bottom of a potato chip bag and want to make use of those supersalty crushed chips—something other than funneling them directly in your mouth (guilty!).

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10 ingredients. 45 minutes. Quick, easy, and fresh weeknight recipes.

You can take any of these pantry odds and ends and turn them into customized kitchen sink cookies.

First, you’ll want to start with your favorite sugar cookie recipe. (This M&M Sugar Cookies recipe works great—just leave out the M&Ms if you don’t want them in your kitchen sink cookies.) To flavor the cookies with spices, extracts, or citrus zest, add those ingredients along with the liquid ingredients in your dough. If you throw in a flavor extract, skip the vanilla extract—otherwise, you’ll get extract overload.

If you’re using any stir-ins, mix those in after your dough comes together. Just make sure they’re evenly distributed so that every bite of your finished cookies is bursting with delicious chunks of goodness.

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After rolling out your dough balls and transferring them to a baking sheet, you can press them flat and top them with press-ins. You can even top them with crushed cookies for some real cookie-ception!

One thing to keep in mind: These measurements work with sugar cookie recipes that make 12 cookies, so be sure to scale your add-ins up or down if needed. Now the world can be your cookie-shaped oyster.

Flavorings

Add any of these flavorings along with the liquid ingredients in your dough.

  • Up to ½ teaspoon total of ground spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, or pumpkin pie spice
  • ¼ teaspoon of flavor extract, such as almond, coconut, peppermint, or orange (if using, skip the vanilla extract)
  • ½ teaspoon of grated lemon, lime, or orange zest

Stir-Ins

Stir ½ cup into dough after combining wet and dry ingredients.

  • Chocolate, white chocolate, or butterscotch chips
  • Shredded coconut
  • Mini marshmallows
  • Chopped nuts
  • Crushed potato chips
  • Sprinkles
  • Chopped cooked bacon
  • Dried fruit
  • Oats

Press-Ins

Use ⅓ cup and distribute evenly among flattened dough balls before baking.

  • M&M’s
  • Reese’s Pieces
  • Crushed peppermint candies
  • Chopped peanut butter cups
  • Mini pretzels
  • Crushed cookies
  • Peanuts
  • Coarse or flake sea salt (use ½ teaspoon)

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