Kitchen Sink Cookies are chewy, delicious butter, brown sugar and vanilla cookies stuffed with whatever you have around that sounds good. And they are the perfect cookies to make really big; keep reading to see what other giant cookies the Creative Cookie Exchange bakers came up with.
The coughing plot has thickened! Turns out all this time I was on a drug that causes coughing. Which was awesome in the sense that stopping the medicine got rid of 90% of the coughing. But in the meantime, the doctor ordered a lung x-ray just to make sure that there was no additional problem going on. And the x-ray found “calcification” which led to a CTscan that found nodules here and there. If I sound nebulous it is because everything is nebulous. I am pretty sure it all falls under “probably nothing but needs to be checked out” which means if there is any exciting news I will share but otherwise just assume I am kinda stressed, seeing doctors, and trying not to think about it. And feeling bad that my blog has not been my main focus lately. I promise I am still here!
So all of that craziness explains why I did not get my Creative Cookie Exchange post out on time. But I made the cookies so they are getting shared belatedly! With a big caveat. I am sharing the recipe as I would make them–but would you believe I got everything ready to go and then discovered I had barely any all purpose (AP) flour or white whole wheat flour? Is that insane or what? But I decided to share the recipe anyway because what I did worked–and it is a good lesson in the fact that cookies, particularly drop cookies, unlike cakes and bread, are incredibly flexible when it comes to flour. For the most part, whole grain flours work in drop cookies (the exception being a flour with a strong taste where the taste does not work–but texturally they should be fine). And if you are concerned you can add a little starch or, in my case, I added about 1/3 cup of sweet rice (mochi) flour. The original recipe I was adapting from called for 3 cups of all purpose flour–but truthfully I was always planning to substitute half of that with white whole wheat flour. I had about 1/4 cup of all purpose flour and maybe 1/3-1/2 cup of white whole wheat flour. To that I added the mochi flour, and from there I added oat flour until I hit 3 cups.
These Kitchen Sink Cookies turned out fantastically, and I truly believe it had nothing to do with the funky combination of flours used. My family went crazy for these–although we ate them in pieces. Giant bakery style cookies are fun to make occasionally, but let’s face it, you could practically have one for dinner but all the nuts in the world will not make these health food.
Speaking of nuts, you might be wondering about the name of the cookie. When I think of giant cookies for whatever reason Cowboy Cookies are the first cookie to pop to mind. But apparently I have always had Kitchen Sink Cookies and Cowboy Cookies confused. Because every single recipe for Cowboy Cookies I found had coconut in them. And I like flaked coconut in cookies just fine, but Sammy hates coconut and honestly coconut was not the vibe I was going for. Whereas a Kitchen Sink Cookie is much more flexible–you can toss in everything but the proverbial kitchen sink. Don’t have pecans (traditionally used in Cowboy Cookies)? Add whatever nut you feel like. Or add cacao nibs if they sound better. Hate coffee? Leave out the coffee grinds–and if you are feeling adventurous, add some spice that sounds good. Don’t want to add potato chips? Try coconut, pretzels or even a second nut. The only non-negotiables to me are the rolled oats, although I would be curious to try rolled barley flakes also, and the chocolate chips–because I am a chocoholic. Dried fruit would also work in these if you are so inclined.
As I mentioned these Kitchen Sink Cookies started with me Googling ideas for Cowboy Cookies, and it is instantly clear that the internet’s favorite Cowboy Cookie recipe is former First Lady Laura Bush’s. I think every prominent newspaper in the country published their version of it! So I decided to adapt from her recipe.
Adapted from Laura Bush. Like all drop cookies, these are best made ahead, leaving at least 30 minutes for chilling before baking. As many of you know, I love to salt the tops of my cookies, but I chose not to here because of the salted nuts and salted potato chips. If you use ingredients with less salt, I recommend adding a flaky or coarse sea salt to the tops before baking.
- 1 1/2 cups (126 g) AP flour
- 1 1/2 cups (120 g) white whole wheat flour
- 1 T baking powder
- 1 T baking soda
- 1 t fine sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks; 12 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 T vanilla extract
- 3 T ground coffee beans
- 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 2 cups (8 oz) salted, roasted pistachios, coarsely chopped
- 2 cups lightly crushed potato chips
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Whisk together the first 5 ingredients and set aside.
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Beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugars in 4 additions, beating until light and creamy after each addition and also scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl after each addition.
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Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Keep scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl.
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Add the vanilla and ground coffee beans. Beat until incorporated.
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Add the flour mixture in 2 additions, mixing on the lowest speed. Keep scraping! When it is mostly mixed in, scrape the bowl and add the oats. Mix on the lowest speed until mostly incorporated.
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Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl after each mix in. Next add the chocolate chips and repeat, and then the pistachios, and repeat.
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Add the potato chips last as they are the most fragile. Mix on the lowest speed until just incorporated.
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Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or place in an airtight container) and place in the fridge to chill at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.
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When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 F with the racks placed in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
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If you are anything like me, this part will be hard. Scoop out about 1/3 cup of dough per cookie and place 4 of them per cookie sheet. Yes these babies are huge! You can also make them smaller, about 3 tablespoons sized balls, and I promise not to tell. Be sure to adjust the baking time accordingly--and you may need a higher temperature to get a nice golden crust.
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Bake for 16-19 minutes, switching front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking. The color of these cookies can be hard to judge because of the coffee grounds--when they no longer look wet on the outside and have browned, remove them from the oven. I let mine rest for 10 minutes on the cookie sheets, to promote continued cooking, to make sure they were baked all the way through.
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Stored in an airtight container, these cookies were delicious for 3-4 days (that is all they lasted!).
This month, the Creative Cookie Exchange is sharing Big Cookies! You can also use us as a great resource for cookie recipes by checking out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts (you can find all of them here at The Spiced Life). You will be able to find them the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month! If you are a blogger and want to join in the fun, contact Laura at thespicedlife AT gmail DOT com and she will get you added to our Facebook group, where we discuss our cookies and share links.
If you are looking for inspiration to get in the kitchen and start baking, check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made:
- Big O Cookies from All That’s Left Are the Crumbs
- Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Sweet Corn Bacon Skillet Cookie from Food Lust People Love
- Kitchen Sink Cookies from The Spiced Life
Looking for a Kitchen Sink Cookies collage to pin?
These look fabulous. I’m sorry you’ve been having so many issues!