These kitchen sink cookies are inspired by Nova Scotian storm chips, so they’re packed with all the chips (regular, BBQ, and chocolate), Skor bits, marshmallows, and a couple secret ingredients that add some extra buttery deliciousness. You’ll definitely want to make these when the next storm is on its way—just make sure to get them in the oven before the power goes out!
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What are Kitchen Sink Cookies?
Kitchen sink cookies are a delicious twist on the classic chocolate chip cookie, but with lots of different mix-ins added like M&Ms, pretzels, and even chips. The name is based on the saying everything but the kitchen sink, because you can mix in just about anything you like! My family and I moved to Nova Scotia a few years ago and Storm Chips are a beloved tradition here, and I thought a Storm Chips-inspired take on kitchen sink cookies would be super yummy!
What are Storm Chips?
I didn’t know either, until my family moved to Nova Scotia and Hurricane Fiona showed up before we even finished unpacking. While I was stress-prepping, panic-researching, doomscrolling, and overstocking on groceries, I noticed the chip aisle was suspiciously empty. I turned to the internets and learned that Storm Chips have been a bit of a tradition in Nova Scotia for the last several years. Storm chips are a nice way to ride out a bad storm with your favourite salty snacks. That’s a tradition I can definitely get behind! The phrase was coined in 2014 by CBC host Stephanie Domet and has since taken on a life of its own, inspiring memes, a song, a chip flavour in its own right, and even a pizza. To mark its 10th anniversary, I baked a cookie in tribute—salty, sweet, chewy, and just the right kind of storm-ready.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- They’re packed with flavour. These sweet and salty cookies use browned butter (heaven!) with toasted milk powder for extra browned butter goodness, as well as finely-ground Ritz crackers to add even more delicious salty butter flavour to the dough.
- They’re full of contrasting textures. The dough, potato chips, and marshmallows combine to create an irresistible cookie that’s chewy, crunchy, gooey, and crispy.
- They’re so easy to customize! I like using a mix of plain and BBQ chips, Skor bits, and milk chocolate chunks, but you can absolutely sub in whatever you like (or have on hand). I think these would be great with chopped up pretzels, Doritos, Cheetos, dark chocolate chunks, you name it. If it’s a chocolatey, caramel, or salty snack you crave when you have to hunker down, I bet you’ll love it in these cookies.
Tips for Success
- Use a light-coloured pot or pan to brown the butter, such as aluminum or stainless steel. This makes it easier to tell when the butter has reached the right colour so you can take it off the heat when it’s really nice and toasted but before it burns. Don’t walk away from the stove—you’ll want to stir the butter regularly to make sure none of the milk solids stay at the bottom of the pot too long and burn. Learn more about how to brown butter here.
- Grind the Ritz crackers very finely. Ideally they should be the texture of fine breadcrumbs before you add them to the rest of the dry ingredients. A food processor is the easiest thing to use, but if you don’t have one you can also pop the Ritz crackers into a Ziploc bag and roll a rolling pin back and forth over it until it reaches a fine crumb consistency.
- Turn the pans halfway through. Most home ovens (even convection) don’t bake very evenly. Turning the pans 180˚ about halfway through the bake time is an easy way to make sure the cookies spend some time in different parts of your oven, helping them bake more evenly. If you want to bake two pans at the same time, you should also switch which rack they’re on.
- Let them cool. All of the butter and marshmallow means the cookies will be really soft straight out of the oven. Leave them to cool on the pan for 5–10 minutes to firm up a bit, then transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Key Ingredients
- Ritz crackers. These add a wonderful rich buttery flavour to the dough. Use plain Ritz crackers, and grind them to the consistency of fine bread crumbs.
- All-purpose flour has a medium gluten content that is perfect for cookies. Bleached or unbleached will work equally well. Sub this out for a gluten free baking flour such as Cup4Cup to make this recipe gluten-free (just make sure any mix-ins you use are also gluten-free).
- Unsalted butter is best, but since these are meant to be a sweet + salty cookie anyway, you could use salted butter if that’s all you have on hand.
- Skim milk powder (AKA powdered milk) adds extra browned butter flavour to the dough. The delicious nutty flavour of browned butter comes from carefully toasting the milk solids that are naturally a part of butter. Adding skim milk powder essentially adds more milk solids to the butter.
- Plain & BBQ Chips. This was by far my favourite chip combo when I was developing and testing this recipe, but you can use whatever chips you like. Though if you go with sour cream & onion chips, don’t come at me if it turns out super weird! Either regular or ruffled chips are great. Ruffled chips do add an extra dimension of texture that I think works really well.
- Skor Bits. These delightful pieces of caramel combine so well with the saltiness of the chips. If you don’t have or can’t find Skor Bits, you could take some hard caramel candies like Werther’s Originals and either chop them up into little bits or pulse them in a food processor.
- Milk chocolate chips or chunks are a must! Use semi-sweet or dark chocolate if you prefer.
- Mini marshmallows really tie the room together and produce a gooey and chewy cookie. For the version of the recipe shown here, I mixed the marshmallows into the dough. That means some of the marshmallows will wind up on top of the cookie and melt, while some of them will wind up on the bottom and caramelize. For the batch I made in this video, I pressed a few marshmallows on top of each cookie before baking. Do whichever you prefer!
How to Make Kitchen Sink Cookies
- Preheat your oven to 350˚F (175˚C). Line 2 or 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a food processor to turn the Ritz crackers into fine crumbs. If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a Ziploc bag and rolling pin.
- Place the smaller portion of the butter in a large heat-proof mixing bowl. Brown the rest of the butter and pour it over the butter in the bowl. Mix until melted, then add the sugars, egg and yolk, and vanilla, and mix until completely combined.
- Whisk together the flour, Ritz crumbs, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and fold together until combined.
- Add the mix-ins, and fold in until evenly distributed. The dough will feel like it’s barely holding together because of all the mix-ins. Don’t worry, it will bake OK!
- Use a cookie scoop to portion out the dough, and roll it into balls. You may need to squish them so they hold together. Leave at least 2″ (5 cm) of space between each cookie on the sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the cookies have spread, and are lightly golden brown around the edges.
FAQ
Butter in its usual state is a semi-solid emulsion of fat, water, and milk solids. Browned butter is what happens when you heat the butter to the point where all of the water evaporates out, and the milk solids caramelize, lending a deliciously nutty flavour to the butter (not to mention an amazing smell to your kitchen!). Adding powdered milk is a great way to amp up the flavour of browned butter because it essentially adds more milk solids to the butter. You can learn more about browned butter here.
Absolutely! The best way to freeze the dough is by first scooping it into cookie-sized portions on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat. Press the marshmallows in, and cover the sheet with plastic wrap. Freeze until the dough balls are solid (about 2-3 hours) then transfer to a freezer bag. When a Storm Chips Cookies craving hits, all you need to do is pop the frozen dough balls onto a lined baking sheet and bake. You don’t even need to defrost the dough before baking, just add another 1–2 minutes or so to the baking time. These are best baked within 3 months (though to be honest I have baked frozen cookie dough balls that have been in my freezer for over a year, and they turned out just fine).
Store these in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Yes! Just use a gluten-free baking flour mix (such as Cup4Cup) instead of the all-purpose flour. Make sure all of the mix-ins you’re using are also gluten-free!
Kitchen Sink Cookies (Inspired by Storm Chips)
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat your oven to 350˚F (175˚C).
- Place 75 g Ritz Crackers in a food processor and blend until it resembles fine bread crumbs. If you don't have a food processor, put them in a ziploc bag and roll a rolling pin back and forth over it until reaching a fine crumb consistency.
- Add the Ritz crackers to a medium bowl, along with 220 g All-Purpose Flour, 1 ¼ tsp. Baking Powder, ¼ tsp. Baking Soda, and ½ tsp. Kosher Salt. Whisk to combine.
- Place 56 g Unsalted Butter in a large heatproof bowl and set aside.
- Place the remaining 114 g Unsalted Butter in a small saucepan. Melt the butter over medium heat. If using, stir in 20 g Skim Milk Powder as soon as the butter is melted.
- Keep heating while stirring or whisking constantly until the bubbling subsides and the milk solids turn a lovely golden brown and immediately remove from the heat. The butter should smell amazing at this point!
- Pour the hot browned butter over the fresh butter in the heatproof bowl. Whisk until the fresh butter is melted and combined with the brown butter.
- Add 150 g Granulated Sugar and 150 g Light Brown Sugar and whisk until smoothly combined. Add the 1 tbsp. Vanilla Extract, 1 Large Egg and 1 Large Egg Yolk Whisk until combined.
- Switch to a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Add the Ritz cracker mixture, and fold it in. Be careful not to overwork the dough or you could activate too much gluten and wind up with tough cookies. It's better to err on the side of slightly undermixing at this stage—you can finish combining the flour mixture when you add the mix-ins.
- Add 40 g Potato Chips and 40 g BBQ Chips, 100 g Milk Chocolate, and 50 g Skor Bits. Fold in gently until evenly distributed. Add 60 g Mini Marshmallows and mix in now, or top the dough balls with marshmallows before baking.
- Line 3 half-sheet pans (13" x 18") with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Scoop mounds of dough leaving at least 3" of space in between. You should have 6–8 cookies per baking sheet. Press 3–4 mini marsmallows on top of each cookie.
- Bake one sheet at a time for 8–10 minutes, until the cookies have spread and the marshmallows have melted and turned a light golden brown. You may want to turn the sheet halfway through to ensure your cookies bake evenly.
- Leave to cool on the pan for 5–10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
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