Description
Ultimate Christmas kitchen sink cookies packed with festive M&M’s, crunchy pretzels, chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows. Perfect for holiday parties and cookie exchanges!
Ingredients
For the Cookie Base:
- 1¼ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1¼ cups packed dark brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1¾ cups cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the Christmas Mix-Ins:
- 1 cup red/green Christmas M&M’s
- 1 cup pretzels (mini twists or stick pretzels), broken into pieces
- ½ cup milk chocolate chips
- ½ cup miniature marshmallows
- Flaky sea salt (for topping)
Instructions
Cream butter with both sugars until fluffy – about 2 minutes. Mix in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, mixing just until combined. Don’t overthink this part.
Mix all flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in separate bowl. I always do this step because lumpy flour ruins everything.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture slowly on low speed. Stop mixing when it just comes together. Overmixed dough makes tough cookies.
Fold in M&M’s, pretzels, chocolate chips, and marshmallows with wooden spoon. I break pretzels by hand – makes different sized pieces that look more natural.
Wrap dough and refrigerate minimum one hour. Overnight is better. I know waiting sucks but cold dough makes thick cookies instead of pancakes.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line pans with parchment. Scoop 2 tablespoons dough per cookie, space 2 inches apart. Keep unused dough cold while baking batches.
Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are golden but centers look underdone. Sprinkle flaky salt on hot cookies immediately. This step makes people think you’re fancy.
Leave cookies on hot pan few minutes before moving to racks. They’ll break if moved too soon. Eat one warm for quality control purposes.
Notes
Break pretzels by hand instead of knife. Uneven pieces distribute better and look homemade.
Don’t flatten cookie balls before baking. They spread naturally and stay thick.
Rotate pans halfway through if your oven has hot spots like mine does.
Common mistakes:
- Overmixing after adding flour
- Skipping chill time
- Baking too long
- Using cold butter
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: Chill Time: 1 hour Cook Time: 10-12 minutes per batch
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American