Kitchen Sink Cookies

5 from 1 vote

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Chocolate chunks, caramel, peanuts, and potato chips join together in a supremely decadent cookie with a great array of textures.

Kitchen Sink Cookies

Everything But the Kitchen Sink Cookies

Technically the phrase “gild the lily” means to add unnecessary adornment to something that is already pretty, beautiful or impressive.  That’s technically what it means.  And there are plenty of times where I find myself at least mentally giving myself a little slap on the back of my own hand as I am tempted to add one more ingredient to a salad, one more garnish to a dish.  Restraint can be a very good thing. But so can gilding the lily.

Pile of Kitchen Sink Cookies on a white plate.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Potato Chips, Caramel and Peanuts

These cookies have nothing austere about them.  They are kitchen-sink cookies, chockablock with gooey-ness, crunchiness, saltiness and chocolatiness.  They are jammed with caramel, chocolate, and peanuts, and then topped with a generous sprinkling of lightly crushed potato chips.

If you have a friend coming over that’s on a diet, do not serve these, or you will be a Class-A sabotager. 

Kitchen Sink Cookies on a white plate.

You can use bagged chocolate chips or chunks in these cookies, but if you have two extra minutes,  take the time to chop up bars of semi- or bitter-sweet chocolate by hand — you will be rewarded with pretty striated cookies that have a multi-layered look, with thin layers of chocolate mixing with some big chocolate chunks, and all of the other goodies in the mix. Don’t be hesitant to scrape every bit of the chocolate shards into the batter; bigger pieces and little fragments together are what make these amazing.  

Kitchen Sink Cookies: Chocolate chunks, caramel, peanuts, and potato chips join together in a supremely decadent cookie with a great array of textures.

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Make Ahead Cookies

If you are able to plan in advance, and can make the dough a day or two ahead of baking the cookies, you will notice a deeper, more caramelly flavor in your cookies, and a more satisfying consistency thanks to a drier dough.  The baked cookies will last for up to 4 days tightly sealed – at least that’s what I think, based on no evidence whatsoever.

White plate of Kitchen Sink Cookies next to a cloth napkin.

How to Make Kitchen Sink Cookies

Make the basic cookie dough.

Blend in the chocolate pieces, and caramels.

Chocolate chunks pouring into a bowl of cookie dough.

Then the peanuts.

Either refrigerate the dough for later baking, or place 1 ½-inch balls of the dough onto a cookie sheet about 2 1/2 inches apart, and press down lightly, especially if still a bit chilled from the fridge.  A cookie scoop is great for this.

Woman scooping balls of cookie dough onto parchment paper.

Press a large pinch of crushed potato onto the top of the unbaked cookies.

Woman crumbling chips onto balls of cookie dough.

Bake in the preheated oven for 9 to 11 minutes until nicely browned, but still soft in the middle.  Rotate the trays if the cookies seem to be cooking unevenly.  

Remove the pan from the oven and let the cookies sit on the baking sheets for about 1 minute more to firm up a bit. Transfer the cookies onto a wire rack, and either serve warm or cool completely.

Kitchen Sink Cookies piled high on a white plate.

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5 from 1 vote

Kitchen Sink Cookies

Chocolate chunks, caramel, peanuts, and potato chips join together in a supremely decadent cookie with a great array of textures.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 36 Cookies

Ingredients 

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter , at room temperature
  • ¾ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks , or hand chopped chocolate bars
  • 10 soft caramels , each cut into ¼ inch pieces (see Note)
  • cup lightly salted cocktail peanuts , roughly chopped
  • 1 cup partially crushed salted potato chips

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 375°F. if you are planning to bake the cookies right away, otherwise preheat the oven 30 minutes before you bake them.
  • In a large bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda together and set aside.
  • Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together in a large bowl until creamy and well blended. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Blend in the vanilla.
  • Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing each addition in until incorporated. Blend in the chocolate pieces, caramels, and peanuts.
  • If not baking immediately, press plastic wrap directly onto the dough in the bowl and put in the refrigerator. If you can refrigerate the dough for 1 to 2 days, or up to 4 days that’s optimal, but you can bake them right away as well (the longer the dough sits, the deeper and more developed the flavors become).
  • Bring the dough to room temperature. Place 1 ½-inch balls of the dough onto a cookie sheet about 2 1/2 inches apart, and press down lightly, especially if still a bit chilled from the fridge. Press a large pinch of crushed potato onto the top of the unbaked cookies.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 9 to 11 minutes until nicely browned, but still soft in the middle. Peek part way through the baking time and rotate the trays if the cookies seem to be cooking unevenly.
  • Remove the pan from the oven and let the cookies sit on the baking sheets for about 1 minute more to firm up a bit. Transfer the cookies onto a wire rack, and either serve warm or cool completely.

Notes

Makes about three dozen (3 to 3 1/2-inch) cookies.

How to Cut Caramels

Note: cutting the caramels into little pieces take a couple of minutes, but you want those little pockets of melted caramel punctuating the cooking, so don’t skip them (and reward yourself with a caramel for your hard work!)

Nutrition

Calories: 175kcal, Carbohydrates: 20g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 23mg, Sodium: 83mg, Potassium: 112mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 12g, Vitamin A: 174IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 18mg, Iron: 1mg
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About Katie Workman

Katie Workman is a cook, a writer, a mother of two, an activist in hunger issues, and an enthusiastic advocate for family meals, which is the inspiration behind her two beloved cookbooks, Dinner Solved! and The Mom 100 Cookbook.

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