If you’re looking for the Panera Kitchen Sink Cookie recipe, you’ve found it! Full of chocolate, coconut, and walnuts with toffee bits and salt sprinkled on top, they are the most delectable cookie you’ll ever have!
Last year, I did a review on Panera Bread and their new clean menu (no artificial colors, preservatives, sweeteners, etc.). I was given some gift cards so my family and I could try all the menu items we liked. And we liked them all!
But the thing I liked the most was their Kitchen Sink Cookie. If you’ve never heard of a Kitchen Sink Cookie before, it’s basically a giant cookie you throw everything into, except the kitchen sink 🙂
Panera Bread Kitchen Sink Cookies have chocolate chips, caramel, and pretzels. I decided to make my own variation with some different add-ins.
First, I started out with my fantastic classic College Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. Then I add shredded coconut and chopped walnuts, and sprinkled toffee bits and kosher salt on top. The result was a thick, chewy cookie with the perfect combination of texture and amazing flavors.
You can of course use caramel and pretzels as well (or in place of the add-ins I used). Keep reading for my suggestion on the type of caramel to use in this delicious copycat recipe.
Today’s Freebie!
Ingredients for Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies
- butter
- granulated sugar
- brown sugar
- eggs
- pure vanilla extract
- baking soda
- salt
- flour
- chocolate chips
- shredded coconut
- walnuts
- toffee bits
Other add-ins for Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies
Feel free to substitute or add in as many of these ingredients as you like!
- Small crunchy pretzels or pretzel sticks (broken in pieces)
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips (or milk or dark chocolate chips)
- Chocolate chunks
- White chocolate chips
- Mint chocolate chips
- Pecans
- Potato chips (broken)
- Macadamia nuts
- Raisins
- Craisins
- Oatmeal
Equipment and Supplies for Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies
- cookie sheets
- silicone baking mats or parchment paper
- large cookie scoop
- stand mixer or large bowl
- wire rack
Tips for Making Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies
- Don’t add the toffee bits to the cookie dough. Save them and sprinkle them on top of the cookies right after they come out of the oven. If you mix them in the dough, they will melt and lose their delectable crunch! Also, save some kosher or flake salt for sprinkling on the top as soon as they come out of the oven.
2. If you want to make giant cookies, use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to measure the dough for each cookie, and then roll the dough between your hands to make them into balls. Then put just two of the balls of dough in a row on your baking sheet. Bake them at 325 degrees F. for 15 minutes until the edges are golden brown. The lower temperature and longer cooking time will help the dough cook more evenly.
3. If you decide to go with the traditional pretzel and caramel for add-ins, I suggest using Kraft Caramel Bits. It’s so much easier to use these than to try to cut those soft caramels squares into pieces.
4. Store in an airtight container for up to a week. Ha ha! Who am I kidding? They’ll never last that long!
Alternately, you can put the cookies in an airtight freezer bag and thaw them on the counter for a few hours before eating.
These are seriously some of the most gorgeous, mouthwatering, best cookies I have ever made. If you want a knock-out, home run cookie (not sure where all the sports references are coming from right now, but okay….) then you must make these Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies. You can thank me later 🙂
Today’s Freebie!
Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies
If you’re looking for the recipe for the Panera Kitchen Sink Cookie, you’ve found it! Full of chocolate, coconut, and walnuts with toffee bits and salt sprinkled on top, they are the most delectable cookie you’ll ever have!
Ingredients
- 4 cubes butter (2 cups), softened (use real butter!)
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups brown sugar, packed
- 3 eggs
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5-6 cups flour
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 2 cups chocolate chips
- 1 cups shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup toffee bits
- sea salt or kosher salt, to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cream butter and sugars together.
- Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
- Add two cups of the flour, along with the salt and baking soda. Mix well.
- Add the remaining three to four cups of flour and mix well. (You might want to start out with less flour and bake a couple "test" cookies to see if you need more flour).
- Add the chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, and shredded coconut, and blend.
- Using a cookie scoop, place balls of dough two inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. (I prefer to use stoneware , baking mats, or parchment paper).
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. You want the edges to just barely be browned, but the centers will still be soft. Note that it will take cookies longer to bake if you use stoneware--especially the first batch.
- As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, sprinkle with toffee bits. You can press them gently into the tops of the cookies to help them stick. Then sprinkle with sea salt or kosher salt if desired.
- Let rest on the baking sheets for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 60Amount Per Serving: Calories: 188Total Fat: 9.8gSaturated Fat: 5.6gCholesterol: 26mgSodium: 94mgCarbohydrates: 23.1gFiber: .8gSugar: 12.8gProtein: 2.6g
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Oh my gosh these cookies look so delicious! The combination of coconut and walnut is just tasty and I can only imagine how good these cookies smell while baking 🙂
Love the name! And the recipe! Yum!
These look AMAZING!!!! I can’t wait to try them!! The name is cute too!!! Thanks for sharing!
These look soooo good!! And I love the idea of leaving the toffee bits out and sprinkling on after!
WOW! This cookie has it all, and I have a feeling a batch of these goodies would NOT last long in my house!
The recipe doesn’t list any chocolate chips or chocolate chunks in the ingredients. Can you please share what quantity you used? Thank you!
Oh my gosh, you are right! How could I forget those! I’ve added them to the recipe now. Thanks for letting me know!
Hi, I had one of these at Panera, OMG they are Devine. But I don’t see a mention of pretzels or how much. This one I ate had the pretzels in.
Hi Janis! Yes, the Panera cookies do have pretzels, and you are free to add them to my version as well! I would add I cup of broken pretzel pieces to the dough.
If I made this recipe using the traditional Panera ingredients (caramel, pretzels) would you recommend putting both of those ingredients in with the dough? Or at the end after they come out (like with your toffee)?
Thanks for the recipe! Looks amazing!
Hi Allison. I would add the caramel (I’d use caramel chips, not caramel sauce or those big squares of caramel) and pretzels to the dough. But you can also press some broken pretzels on top right after they come out of the oven as well!
just had my first ” Kitchen Sink ” cookie at Panera … it won’t be my last – delicious beyond words
Absolutely LOVE the Kitchen Sink cookies at Panera. Was so hopeful for this recipe. I even purchased true toffee bits, even though I don’t like toffee! Followed the recipe exactly. What a disappointment. They are nothing like the Panera version. These should be called “Flour cookies” as that’s what they taste like…Flour! Keep looking for another Kitchen Sink copycat recipe is my suggestion. Now, my problem is what to do with a mountain of cookie dough! I knew I should have quartered the recipe.
Sonja, I’m so sorry these didn’t turn out for you! I’m not sure what went wrong. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps too much flour got added. This is really easy to do if you scoop flour rather than spooning flour into the measuring cup or fluffing up the flour before you measure it (which is what I always do). I wish you luck finding a recipe that works better for you!