These copycat Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies are loaded with decadent chocolate chips, creamy caramel, and salty pretzel pieces. Soft and scrumptious, these cookies could be the ultimate sweet and salty snack.
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What makes Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies so special?
Can’t decide between something sweet or something salty? Then make this Kitchen Sink Cookie recipe, and you won’t have to choose! Inspired by the Kitchen Sink Cookies served at Panera, the sweetness comes from the chocolate chips and caramel bits, while the salty components are pretzel bits and a dusting of sea salt.
If you love soft and chewy cookies and salted caramel, you won’t want to give this recipe a pass.
Why you’ll love this recipe
A glance at the ingredient list can give the impression that this Kitchen Sink Cookie recipe is complex. But it really isn’t. If you can bake chocolate chip cookies from scratch, you’ll have no issues making these.
Although replacing the standard all-purpose flour you usually use may require a trip to the grocery store, one bite will prove to you that all the effort was worth it.
These homemade Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies will surely impress your guests and become a family tradition.
Kitchen Sink Cookie Ingredients
For copycat Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies, you’ll need:
- Cake flour
- Bread flour
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Coarse salt
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- White granulated sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Dark chocolate chips
- Kraft caramel bits
- Pretzels, broken into small pieces
- Sea salt
Ingredient notes
This cookie recipe is unique because it uses both cake and bread flour. But don’t be tempted to substitute all-purpose flour because you won’t get the same results. The reason is protein.
Cake flour contains about half the protein as bread flour, while the protein level of all-purpose flour falls somewhere between the two. The more protein, the more gluten develops in the dough and crisper cookies. The proportion of cake to bread flour in this recipe is tweaked to give you the ideal cookie texture.
How to make Kitchen Sink Cookies like Panera’s
To mix the dough:
- Sift together the cake flour, bread flour, baking soda, baking powder, and coarse salt into a large mixing bowl—reserve for later.
- Add the unsalted butter, light brown sugar, and white granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl.
- Use a stand or electric hand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment to cream the ingredients at medium-high speed until the butter lightens in color, about five minutes.
- While mixing, add the eggs one at a time. Continue mixing the wet ingredients until you fully incorporate the eggs.
- Lower the speed of the mixer and add the dry ingredients a third at a time.
- Scrape all the cookie dough from the paddle attachment into the bowl.
- Use a wooden spoon to stir in the chocolate chips, caramel bits, and pretzel pieces.
- Press a sheet of plastic wrap onto the surface of the cookie dough to prevent it from drying out, and put the bowl in the fridge to rest. Letting the dough rest is crucial to allow time for the flour to hydrate fully and ensure the cookies have the proper texture. Ideally, you should rest the dough for 24 to 36 hours, but it will keep in the fridge for up to three days if needed.
To bake the cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Place parchment paper or a non-stick silicone baking mat on a baking sheet.
- Scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking tray. For large cookies like the ones Panera sells, use a large cookie scoop (about 3.5 ounces). You can also use less dough for smaller cookies but will need to reduce the cooking time accordingly.
- Push down any add-ins that are poking out of the dough and sprinkle sea salt over the top of the dough balls.
- Bake in the oven until lightly browned, about 18 to 20 minutes for large cookies and 12 to 14 minutes for smaller ones.
- Remove the baking tray from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking tray for about 10 minutes. Carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Ingredient substitutions
You can easily customize these cookies with other ingredients and mix-ins. Here are some ideas:
- Caramel – Use toffee bits
- Chips – Use semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or butterscotch chips.
- Nuts – Add chopped pecans or walnuts.
- Salty – Add crushed potato chips.
- Sweet – Add dried cranberries or raisins
How to store copycat Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies
Put Kitchen Sink Cookies in an airtight container and keep them on the counter or freeze them. Cookies will stay softer in a plastic container. To prevent the cookies from sticking to each other, try setting a piece of parchment paper between each layer.
How long do these cookies last?
Room-temperature cookies can stay fresh for up to a week, while frozen cookies will keep for months. You can eat the cookies frozen or thaw them on a plate at room temperature before serving.
More Panera Bread copycat recipes
Favorite cookie recipes
- Snickerdoodle Cookies
- No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
- Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
- Pecan Sandies
- Samoa Cookies
- Tagalong Cookies
- Thin Mints
- Walkers Shortbread Cookies
Check out more of my easy recipes for cookies and the best copycat Panera recipes on CopyKat!
Panera Kitchen Sink Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour (8 1/2 ounces)
- 1 2/3 cups bread flour (8 1/2 ounces)
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
- 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar (10 ounces)
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons white granulated sugar (8 ounces)
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 10 ounces dark chocolate chips
- 5 1/2 ounces Kraft caramel bits
- 1/2 cup crushed pretzels
- sea salt
Instructions
- Sift the cake flour, bread flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Using a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low, add the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined, about 5 to 10 seconds. Fold in the chocolate chips, caramel bits, and crushed pretzels.
- Press plastic wrap against the surface of the dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. The dough may be used in batches and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours before baking.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat to prevent the caramel from sticking to the pan.
- Scoop 6 mounds of dough (about 3 1/2 ounces each, the size of generous golf balls) onto a baking sheet. Make sure to flatten any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes.
- Repeat with the remaining dough.
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