Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies
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These fabulous Panera kitchen sink cookies are sweet and salty, thick and chewy. Also known as garbage cookies and compost cookies, they’re loaded up with a variety of tasty add-ins. Everything but the kitchen sink! Enjoy them as a tasty snack or yummy dessert.
📌 Pin Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies
👩🏻🍳 Why You’ll Love Kitchen sink cookies
- You’ll want to join the fun shared by 4 million Tiktok viewers who made Panera everything but the kitchen sink cookies go viral.
- Garbage cookies are customizable. Round up 2 cups of sweet and salty snacks found in your pantry. Use them as add-ins. Want to use potato chips instead of pretzels? Or M&Ms plus chocolate chips? Just do it.
- Compost cookies are a great way to use up leftovers – opened bags of snacks and treats just sitting in the pantry.
- These Panera kitchen sink cookies are a perfect copycat! They’re tender and chewy in the middle with a slight crispy edge.
- You’ll save money making these restaurant favorites at home.
- ⏲ Total Time: 25 minutes.
- 🥣 Recipe Yield: 15 cookies.
- ☕️ Pairing Suggestions: Coffee, iced vanilla latte, tea or milk.
🛒 Ingredients
- Butter: Provides rich moisture and a yummy buttery taste. Feel free to use salted or unsalted butter. If using salted butter, you can slightly reduce the amount of added kosher salt in the recipe.
- Granulated Sugar: Contributes sweetness to the cookie dough and ensures the edges of the cookies will be crisp.
- Light Brown Sugar: Contains molasses. This added moisture ensures the kitchen sink cookies have softer middles and a dense chewy bite. It also gives the treats a light caramel flavor and golden color.
- Large Eggs: Help bind the cookie dough ingredients together.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Enhances the sweetness of these compost cookies while providing a delicious bakery flavor and aroma.
- All-Purpose Flour: Adds structure to baked goods. But too much flour will result in stiff crumbly cookies. So be sure to use the fluff/sprinkle/swipe method for measuring flour.
- Baking Soda: This rising agent helps ensure our kitchen sink cookies will be tender and light.
- Kosher Salt: Enhances the flavor of the other ingredients while balancing out the sweetness.
- Milk Chocolate Chips: Contribute a chocolaty flavor with a sweet creamy taste. This is a primary add-in for Panera kitchen sink cookies. If desired, you can use chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips.
- Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips: These have an intense chocolaty flavor that’s much bolder than milk chocolate chips. Panera pairs these with the milk chocolate chips for the best tasting cookies.
- English Toffee Bits (or Caramel Bits): These are a must for authentic Panera kitchen sink cookies. Don’t leave them out.
- Mini Pretzel Twists: These salty add-ins are what Panera adds to their restaurant version of garbage cookies. They add texture and crunch.
- Maldon Flaky Salt (optional): Panera tops their kitchen sink cookies with a pinch of flaky salt. It enhances the flavor of the chocolate chips while doubling down on making the treats a sweet/salty confection.
📖 Recipe Steps
RECIPE PREP: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the softened butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add in the eggs and vanilla and mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Gently fold in garbage cookie add-ins: milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, toffee bits, and mini pretzel twists, until they’re evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough.
- With a (3-tablespoon) cookie scoop, drop rounded scoops of cookie dough onto the prepared baking trays, leaving 3 inches of space between each. These kitchen sink cookies will spread in the oven.
- Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden. Remove the baking tray from the oven. The cookies will be puffy.
- Gently tap the baking sheet on the counter to deflate the cookies. Working quickly, immediately place a large round cookie cutter over a cookie and gently swirl it in a circular motion to reshape the edges of the cookie so it’s perfectly round. Reshape all treats.
- Return cookies to the oven for 3 minutes, or until lightly golden. Do not overbake. Compost cookies should be tender and chewy. For a bakery-style look, gently press a few add-ins on top. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking tray. Sprinkle with a pinch of flaky salt.
🧑🏼🍳 Recipe FAQ
These are the most commonly-asked questions about kitchen sink cookies, and the most helpful answers for recipe success.
Classic cookies that are made with a hodgepodge of sweet and salty treats and snacks from the pantry. Because of all the varied add-ins, they’re called “everything but the kitchen sink cookies.”
Replace the all-purpose flour: use half gluten-free flour and half almond flour. Make sure all the add-ins are also gluten free.
After the cookies have cooled completely, transfer them to an airtight container. They can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Line an airtight container with parchment paper. After the cookies have cooled, arrange them inside the container. Separate the treats with parchment paper so they don’t stick together. Freeze for up to 1 month.
Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Pre-portion the cookie dough into small balls. Arrange them on the tray leaving space between each. Freeze for 1 hour, or until frozen. Transfer balls to an airtight container. Use parchment paper between the layers. Freeze for up to 3 months.
When ready bake the pre-portioned balls of cookie dough, preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake according to recipe instructions, adding a few more minutes to the listed baking time.
💡Kitchen Sink Cookie Add-Ins
Ready to get wild and experiment with tasty cookie add-ins? Traditional kitchen sink cookies are sweet and salty treats, but for texture and crunch you can add Rice Krispies. For the best tasting desserts, use 3 to 4 different mix-ins.
👉🏻 The only rule: Keep the grand total of add-ins to 2 cups.
Salty Add-ins
- Potato Chips
- Pretzels
- Nuts (walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, almonds, etc.)
- Popped Popcorn (remove uncooked kernels)
Sweet Add-Ins
- Mini Marshmallows
- Candy Bars (chopped up)
- Reese’s Pieces
- M&Ms
- White Chocolate Morsels
- Chocolate Chips or Chocolate Chunks
- Butterscotch Chips
🍪 More Easy Cookie Recipes
If you love cookies and baking, these are time-honored recipes you’ll be excited to try. To discover more delicious cookies on the blog, type the word “cookies” in the search bar. You’ll be delighted at what you find.
- Malted Milk Cookies
- Palmiers Cookies
- Lemon Curd Cookies
- Vanilla Creme Sandwich Cookies
- Biscotti Cookies
- Chocolate M&M Cookies
Rate This Recipe ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Flavor testers said these Panera kitchen sink cookies taste even better than those enjoyed at local Panera Bread restaurants. They adored the texture – thick and chewy middles, with a light crisp crunch along the edges.
If you agree this recipe’s a keeper, give it a 5-star rating in the comments. Then be a recipe hero. Share it with friends. 📌 Pin it to Pinterest.
Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies
- Total Time: 25 Minutes
- Yield: 15 Cookies 1x
Description
Panera kitchen sink cookies are irresistible. Packed with sweet and salty add-ins they’re thick and chewy with a crispy edge.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup (lightly packed) light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips or chunks
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
- 1 cup toffee bits
- 1 cup mini pretzel twists, hand-snapped into pieces
- Flaky sea salt, for garnishing
Instructions
RECIPE PREP: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add in the eggs and vanilla and mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Gently fold in milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, toffee bits, and mini pretzel twists, until they’re evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough.
- With a (3-tablespoon) cookie scoop, drop rounded scoops of cookie dough onto the prepared baking trays, leaving 3 inches of space between each.
- Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden. The cookies will be puffy. Gently tap the baking sheet on the counter to deflate them. Working quickly, place a large round cookie cutter over a cookie and gently swirl it in a circular motion to reshape the edges so the cookie is perfectly round. Reshape all treats.
- Return cookies to the oven for 3 minutes, or until lightly golden and a bit under-baked. For a true bakery-style look, gently press a few chocolate chips and pretzels into the top of each treat. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking tray. Just like Panera, sprinkle each kitchen sink cookie with a pinch of flaky salt.
Notes
How to store baked cookies: After the cookies have cooled completely, transfer them to an airtight container. They can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Cook Time: 15 Minutes
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Kitchen Sink Cookies 👉🏻 Join the Convo
Have you ever experienced the joy of making or eating kitchen sink cookies? Was it at Panera Bread? I’d love to hear about the first time you tried them. Join the convo in the comments below.
After dropping off Panera kitchen sink cookies at my husband’s office to help his team celebrate landing a big account, he’s been getting requests for more of these treats. So when I learned I could make them at home with this easy recipe, I was all in! I made a double batch this morning. My husband and his team said these homemade confections taste even BETTER than those from Panera Bread. I call that a huge win! Thank you Denay for sharing this recipe.