The Best Kitchen Sink Cookies
These Best Kitchen Sink Cookies are gooey, fudgy, and made with brown butter for extra nuttiness and caramel notes. They’re loaded with chocolate chips, toffee bits, and potato chips for the perfect blend of sweet and slightly salty.
We’ve been chasing a memory of the perfect cookies from our youth. They were sold at our middle school when we were kids, and they were the perfect balance of sweet and buttery and had wonderful toffee notes. These kitchen sink cookies come pretty dang close. Plus, we’ve added actual toffee and potato chips to make them even better.
Pull Up A Chair
Rachel: When someone asks me my favorite dessert recipe we have, this is almost always the one I pick. They remind me of a memory of my favorite childhood cookie, only maybe even better.
Emily: I love sweet and salty desserts. So many desserts can be one-note: just overly sweet. But these have a great balance with some salty flavor from the potato chips too.
Quick Recipe Snapshot
- Timing: 15 min prep + 10 min for brown butter + 10 min bake (per batch of cookies)
- Skill Level: beginner-friendly
- Flavors: sweet, a little salty, toffee-like, chocolatey
- Makes: 16 large cookies (bakery style)
- Uniqueness: brown butter base + toffee bits makes the whole cookie taste a little like caramel
- More Cookie Options: if you love cookies but want something different, try our Double Fudge Chocolate Cookies, our Chocolate Cherry Almond Shortbread Cookies, or our Classic Thumbprint Cookies.
Why We Can’t Stop Making These Kitchen Sink Cookies
- Sweet and salty. We love desserts that have just a little saltiness, and these cookies are beautifully balanced.
- Brown butter flavor. It’s a little extra effort, but it’s worth it if you want a super toffee-like flavor in your cookies. If you want to make these easier, however, you can just use softened butter.
- Thick and chewy. These cookies are soft and chewy in the middle and crispy on the bottom. They’re anything but cakey.
- Easy to customize. You can change up the mix-ins depending on what you like or have in your pantry!
- They’re a hit! These cookies are our most requested dessert. In fact, we’ve been asked to make these cookies for family members’ birthdays instead of traditional birthday cakes. For this reason, we try to keep the ingredients on hand at all times and we suggest you do the same!
Before You Start (How To Make These Even Easier)
All About Brown Butter
If you’ve done some baking before, you may have come across recipes calling for “brown butter” or “browned butter.” Here’s what you need to know.
What is Brown Butter?
Brown butter is butter that has been melted and cooked long enough that the milk solids turn brown. This happens when the water evaporates from the cooking process, and the leftover milk solids caramelize.
Brown butter has a satisfyingly nutty flavor and smell and it adds caramel undertones to baked goods, like these cookies.
How to Make Brown Butter
We usually prefer baking with salted butter (we know, it’s controversial), but for brown butter, we recommend using unsalted butter because it browns more easily. The salt in salted butter can cause the butter to foam up more when you’re melting it, making it harder to see when the milk solids are browning. This can make it easier to overcook the butter and turn it into burnt butter instead of brown. Here’s how to brown that unsalted butter:
- Cut the butter into tablespoon sized pieces. This will help it melt faster.
- Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat, stirring constantly.
- Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes until the butter has turned golden-to-medium brown in color and smells nutty (if it smells burnt, you’ve gone too far).
In our experience, brown butter works best in cookies if you cool it down slightly after it has melted. To do this, you can either refrigerate the butter until it’s no longer hot, or you can place the pot inside an ice-filled bowl and stir or whisk the butter until it is thicker, cooler, and still soft.
Ingredients in the Best Kitchen Sink Cookies You’ll Ever Have
- Flour – plain, all-purpose flour is best for these cookies. Always measure it by weight or the spooned and leveled method.
- Unsalted butter – unsalted butter is better than salted in this recipe because of how it browns.
- Sugar – we use both granulated and brown sugar in this recipe as they each react differently and help give these cookies their signature texture and flavor.
- Eggs – eggs provide lift and richness to these cookies.
- Salt – because we’re using unsalted butter in this recipe, this is even more important. We also top these cookies with flaky sea salt after they’ve baked.
- Vanilla – this helps add even more caramelly undertones to the cookies.
- Baking soda – the baking soda reacts with the acidity of the brown sugar to help provide just the right amount of rise when these cookies are baking.
- Sweet and salty mix-ins – everything but the kitchen sink, right? To achieve this, we mix in milk chocolate chips, toffee bits, and crushed potato chips (thicker chips with ridges work best, in our experience).
How to Make Sweet and Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prepare. Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. To make more cookies at once, you can line a second sheet with parchment to bake 2 batches simultaneously.
Make the brown butter. Melt butter in a pot over medium heat, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to medium-low when the butter starts to bubble, then cook for another 5 to 10 minutes until the butter is amber or golden brown in color and smells nutty. Chill the butter slightly in the fridge or place the pot in a bowl of ice and stir the butter with a whisk or spoon to cool it slightly. It should still be soft.
Mix dry ingredients together, then mix the wet ingredients together. Mix the flour, baking soda, salt together in a bowl and set aside. In a separate large mixing bowl, add the brown butter and both sugars and mix together with a whisk, spoon, or electric beater. Mix in the eggs and the vanilla.
Finish the cookie dough. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix them in until just combined. Then fold in mix-ins. Scoop the cookies into 2 to 3 tbsp sized balls. Spread 4 to 6 cookie dough balls onto the prepared baking sheet (if you’re using 2 sheets, spread out another 4-6 cookies on the second sheet). Press a couple more chocolate chips and crushed potato chips onto the tops of each dough ball so that they’ll bake into the tops.
Bake the cookies. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges look golden brown and cookies look slightly less done in the middle. They’ll continue to cook for a few minutes after they come out of the oven, and cooking them a little less keeps them fudgy later.
Shape and rest the cookies. While the cookies are still warm, place an inverted glass or biscuit cutter over each one and move it in a circular motion to shape each cookie into a perfect circle. This will also help the cookies get some wrinkles and extra chewiness. Let the cookies rest for a few minutes, then move them to a rack to cool completely. For extra sweet and salty vibes, top with flaky sea salt.
Important note: you’ll be tempted to eat these cookies warm, they actually taste better and more toffee-like after they’ve cooled. Trust us.
Our Tips for Making The Best Brown Butter Cookies
How To Serve and Store These Everything But The Kitchen Sink Cookies
We like serving these cookies on their own, with a glass of milk (regular, soy, almond), or with a scoop of ice cream on top to make it even more indulgent.
Because the recipe calls for cooking them until they’re just short of being set, they’ll stay moist and chewy and not dried out for a few days. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 to 4 days for best results. You can also portion out the dough into balls and freeze them to bake off later.
Other Possible Mix-Ins and Flavor Options
These cookies are super customizable. Keep the base the same and add in 2 ½ cups of sweet and salty mix-ins. Here are some options:
- Pretzels, butterfinger pieces, semi-sweet chocolate
- M&Ms, peanuts, pretzels
- Dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, roasted and salted macadamia nuts
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, crushed peanuts
- Butterscotch chips, semi-sweet chocolate chunks, potato chips
FAQs: The Best Kitchen Sink Cookies
Best Kitchen Sink Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour spooned & leveled (about 280g)
- 16 tbsp unsalted butter (1 cup; 2 sticks)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar packed
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup toffee bits (such as Heath)
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
- 1 cup broken potato chips (such as Ruffles)
- Flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)
Instructions
- Prepare. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. To make more cookies at once, you can line a second sheet with parchment to bake 2 batches simultaneously.
- Make the brown butter: melt butter in a pot over medium heat, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to medium-low when the butter starts to bubble, then cook for another 5 to 10 minutes until the butter is amber or golden brown in color and smells nutty. Chill the butter slightly in the fridge or place the pot in a bowl of ice and stir the butter with a whisk or spoon to cool it slightly. It should still be soft.16 tbsp unsalted butter
- Mix dry ingredients together. Mix the flour, baking soda, salt together in a bowl and set aside.2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, ¾ tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt
- Mix the wet ingredients together. In a separate large mixing bowl, add the brown butter and both sugars and mix together with a whisk, spoon, or electric beater. Mix in the eggs and the vanilla.16 tbsp unsalted butter, ¾ cup granulated sugar, ¾ cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla
- Finish the cookie dough. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix them in until just combined. Then fold in the chocolate chips, toffee chips, and potato chips.½ cup toffee bits, 1 cup milk chocolate chips, 1 cup broken potato chips
- Scoop the dough. For large cookies, scoop about 2 to 3 tbsp of dough per cookie. This recipe should make about 16 to 20 large cookies.
- Distribute the dough. Spread 4 to 6 cookie dough balls onto the prepared baking sheet (if you’re using 2 sheets, spread out another 4-6 cookies on the second sheet). Press a couple more chocolate chips and crushed potato chips onto the tops of each dough ball so that they’ll bake into the tops.
- Bake the cookies. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges look golden brown and cookies look slightly less done in the middle. They’ll continue to cook for a few minutes after they come out of the oven, and cooking them a little less keeps them fudgy later. Lightly sprinkle a little flaky sea salt on top of the baked cookies. [You can skip this if you are watching your salt intake.]Flaky sea salt
- Shape the cookies. While the cookies are still warm, place an inverted glass or biscuit cutter over each one so that the cookie fits inside the glass or cutter without being smashed on the edges. Move the glass or cutter in a circular motion to shape each cookie into a perfect circle. This will also help the cookies get some wrinkles and extra chewiness.
- Let them rest before eating. Let the cookies rest for a few minutes, then move them to a rack to cool completely before eating. The cookies are fudgier and more toffee-like after they've rested.
Notes
- Measure the flour correctly. Either weigh your flour using a cheap kitchen scale, or use the “spoon and level” method.
- Stop cooking the brown butter a minute before you think it’s done. It’ll keep cooking in the hot pan even after you remove it from the heat.
- Place the pot of brown butter into an ice bath. This will stop it from continuing to cook so that it won’t burn and you can use it sooner.
- Use thick potato chips (like Ruffles or kettle cooked chips). This keeps them from disintegrating or getting too soggy in the dough.
- Stop baking the cookies when they’re just starting to set. They’re done when you see golden edges and the tops have a little color too but still look fairly soft. They’ll keep cooking as they rest.
- Let them cool completely before eating. They’ll continue cooking while they rest, and they actually taste better and more toffee-like after they’ve cooled. Trust us.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a cookie recipe that beats all other cookie recipes, this is it. We’re honestly obsessed with these kitchen sink cookies. They’re what we make when we want an easy dessert that feels nostalgic and tastes totally amazing.
