The best “Kitchen Sink” Cookies happen to be vegan! It’s true. This delicious Kitchen Sink Cookie recipe is loaded with candy coated chocolates, chewy cranberries, crunchy peanuts, and chocolate chips!

Cookie recipes are so fun to make. Mostly because they only take a few minutes to prepare and the pay off is huge: homemade cookies are truly so much better than store bought!

These Nordic-Style Cardamom Sugar Cookies, my Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies, and these Iced Orange Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies are all on my holiday baking list this year. But there’s no way I could get through the season without making at least one batch of these Kitchen Sink Cookies!

I love these crispy, chewy Kitchen Sink Cookies because they’re sooo extra. There’s nothing delicate or subtle about this cookie recipe: they are loaded to the brim with chocolate chips, candy coated chocolate pieces (basically M&Ms but I use a vegan version) tart and chewy dried cranberries, and salted peanuts.

The result is a “kitchen sink” style cookie that is over-the-top delicious. Especially when dunked into a cold glass of almond milk. These cookies are made with flour and old fashioned oatmeal, which give these cookies extra flavor and texture. The oats, combined with brown sugar and vanilla, become toasty and buttery as they bake in the oven, and once they cool, the edges become slightly firm – meaning they soak up milk perfectly! Picture it: warm cookie fresh from the oven, cold glass of milk. It’s a beautiful thing, right?

What is a Kitchen Sink Cookie?

This style of cookie is called a “Kitchen Sink Cookie” because as the saying goes, it contains “everything but the kitchen sink.” Meaning it’s chock full of fun add-ins like chocolate chips, dried cranberries, candy-coated chocolates, and chopped nuts.

My recipe is a vegan, dairy-free, and easy to customize! Scroll down to see some fun add-in ideas!

Ingredients to Make Kitchen Sink Cookies

Flour – use all purpose flour for best results.

Oatmeal –  Good old fashioned oatmeal is the way to go here. It gives these cookies a delicious sweet and nutty flavor that pairs so well with brown sugar, chocolate and peanuts. 

Non-Dairy Butter. I recommend using the sticks instead of the kind that comes in a tub for best results. My go to is Earth Balance Salted Buttery Sticks.

Sugar and Light Brown Sugar – brown sugar makes these cookies chewy, and regular sugar creates those nice crispy edges.

Dairy-Free Chocolate Chips. There’s lots of vegan and accidentally vegan chocolate chips on the market so feel free to use your favorite brand for these cookies. I use Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips or 365 Semi-Sweet.

Candy-Coated Chocolates – pretty much M&Ms but I use a vegan version called Unreal Dark Chocolate Gems. I really like the peanut ones or the crispy quinoa ones. Both are great in this recipe! Just be careful when you read the bag, not all Unreal chocolates are vegan friendly. The one’s that are have a vegan label on the back.

Dried Cranberries – create a tangy, sweet, and chewy moment in each bite.

Ground Flax Seeds. Instead of using chicken’s eggs, we’ll mix ground flax seeds with water to make a flax “egg” which binds the cookies together and keeps them from falling apart.

Vanilla – a touch of vanilla extract compliments the sweet and buttery notes in these Kitchen Sink Cookies.

Chopped Peanuts – any variety of nuts that you like will work in this cookie, but make sure they’re both roasted and salted for extra flavor! I love using peanuts, but walnuts, pecans, and even hazelnuts are great. Can’t do nuts? Try sunflower seeds for a cookie that tastes like the best trail mix ever!

Sea Salt – balances the sweetness and brings out the buttery flavor.

Watch Me Make This Recipe

How to Make the Cookie Dough

The measurements for this recipe are on the recipe card below, but here’s some tips & tricks to give you an idea of how to make these cookies!

Step One- Make the Flax Egg

Instead of chicken’s eggs, we’re using ground flax seeds and a little water. This creates what’s known as a “flax egg” and it helps bind the other ingredients together just like an egg.

So mix those two ingredients together and set aside to thicken.

Step Two – Mix the Dry Ingredients

Measure the oats into a blender and pulse a few times to chop into a course oat flour. Then pour into a bowl along with the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Whisk well and set aside.

Step Three – Mix the Dry Ingredients

In bother bowl, combine softened vegan butter with cane sugar and light brown sugar and mix well/ This should take about 2 minutes. Next, add the flax egg we made earlier along with the vanilla and applesauce. Then mix for another minute.

Then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, half at a time. Mix just until no more flour is visible and then stop to avoid over mixing.

Step Four – Add fun stuff!

In this case, chocolate chips, candy coated chocolates, chopped peanuts, and chewy dried cranberries! Mix it all in and then scoop the cookie dough using a medium-sized ice cream scooper.

Step Five – Chill

Scoop the cookies onto a cookie sheet and chill for 20 minutes before baking. I know no-one wants to do this, but trust me, it results in a much better cookie! The reason we do this is because the butter needs to harden. Remember how it was softened before so we could properly mix it with the sugar? Well, if we put it in the oven now, the soften butter would melt very fast and the cookies would be flat and spread out. Instead, let the cookies chill for 20 minutes to allow the butter to firm up. This will make the cookies spread slowly and evenly as they bake, resulting in a chewy center with crisp, buttery edges. Yum!

Step Six – Bake

Bake at 375 for 10-11 minutes and enjoy!

Variations & Add-In Ideas

Customize this recipe with a few easy swaps!

• Add chopped peanut butter cups instead of chocolate chips
• Swap the chocolate chips for white chocolate chips
• Try walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts instead of peanuts
• Add 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and swap the cranberries for raisins and the peanuts for walnuts – trust me, so good!