Description
Christmas Kitchen Sink Cookies are festive, colorful, and packed with a variety of sweet and salty mix-ins like M&M’s, white chocolate chips, pretzels, and potato chips. These cookies combine multiple textures and flavors in a single bite, perfect for holiday celebrations or any time you want a fun and flavorful treat.
Ingredients
Scale
Cookie Dough
- 3/4 cup salted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 2 egg yolks, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Mix-ins
- 1/2 cup red and green M&M’s
- 1/3 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup pretzel pieces
- 1/3 cup potato chip pieces
- 2 tbsp red and green jimmies (sprinkles)
Instructions
- Preheat Oven: Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside to ensure the cookies don’t stick and bake evenly.
- Cream Butter and Sugars: In a large bowl, add the softened salted butter, light brown sugar, and granulated white sugar. Using an electric mixer, cream them together for about two minutes until the mixture becomes light and fluffy, which helps create a tender cookie texture.
- Add Egg Yolks and Vanilla: Mix in the egg yolks and vanilla bean paste or extract at medium speed for two more minutes until the batter turns pale and fluffy, helping to incorporate air and enhance flavor.
- Combine Dry Ingredients: Add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the wet mixture. Stir just until combined; avoid overmixing to keep cookies tender.
- Fold in Mix-ins: Gently fold in the red and green M&M’s, white chocolate chips, pretzel pieces, potato chip pieces, and red and green jimmies (sprinkles) with a spatula until evenly distributed throughout the dough.
- Scoop Dough: Using a cookie scoop or spoon, portion the dough into 20 equal-sized balls. Place them on the lined baking sheets about two inches apart to allow room for spreading during baking.
- Optional Decoration: Optionally, add a few extra mix-ins on top of each cookie dough ball to enhance appearance and texture.
- Bake Cookies: Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes if you prefer chewier centers, or up to 12 minutes for crisper edges.
- Shape Cookies: *Optional:* Immediately after removing the cookies from the oven, use a large circular cookie cutter to gently swirl around each cookie to form a perfect round shape, pressing the ingredients together.
- Cool Cookies: Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes to firm up, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely for an additional 10 minutes.
- Store: Once cooled, store any leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days to maintain freshness.
Notes
- Measure your flour properly by spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off with a knife to avoid using too much flour, which can make the cookies dry. Alternatively, weigh flour for accuracy: 1 cup equals 125 grams.
- Using a cookie cutter right after baking helps to form perfectly round, uniform cookies by pushing the ingredients together before fully set.
- Adding extra mix-ins on top of the cookie dough balls before baking is optional but can enhance the festive look of the cookies.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 180
- Sugar: 14g
- Sodium: 110mg
- Fat: 9g
- Saturated Fat: 5g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 22g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 2g
- Cholesterol: 25mg
