What a weekend. Matt and I went to Philadelphia to celebrate the wedding of one of my best friends since 4th grade. She was a gorgeous bride and I was so happy to be a bridesmaid and such a big part of the celebration. Not going to lie, though, one of the highlights of the weekend may have been the wedding cake. After a week of limiting my carbs to make sure the dress would fit, I was extra excited for dessert. Matt and I shared so that we could try both options: vanilla bean cake with caramel buttercream and a chocolate chip pound cake with cookies ‘n cream filling topped with cream cheese icing. They deserve a lot of credit for such an amazing cake selection. Not to mention the fact that it was a stunning 6-tier wedding cake!
On the downside, after a bad cold all last week, a Friday night without sleep (long story) and full Saturday of wedding activities, I woke up feeling really lousy on Sunday and lost my voice. Not being able to talk is extremely frustrating! However, struggling to communicate with people for 24 hours reminded me how lucky I am to have all of my senses on a regular basis. It is amazing how all the little things are so easy to take for granted!
Now, as for these cookies (and bars), this is my latest post for The Secret Recipe Club. This month I got to choose a recipe from Life’s Simple Measures. The Kitchen Sink Cookies were actually perfect since you can put almost anything in them you want. Given that we are moving and trying to use up food we have on hand, it was a great way to deplete a few of my baking ingredients. [Sidenote: It is a good thing we aren’t moving far because I still have an entire kitchen of baking ingredients to use. I also told myself no more baking before we move next Tuesday but I already have my eye on the brown bananas just dying to get used for something delicious. Any suggestions? ]
Jess’s blog has a lot of other great baked good recipes that I considered including these Cinnamon Bun Scones, Double-Apple Mini Bundt Cakes and Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies. Be sure to check out her blog!
[print_this]
Kitchen Sink Cookies
Yield: 5 dozen cookies or 24 bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
- 1 3/4 cups Rice Krispies
- 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
- 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
Cooking Directions
- In a medium bowl, combine cereals, marshmallows and chocolate; set aside
- In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy
- On medium speed, mix in eggs and vanilla
- Stir in flour mixture until well-combined
- Stir in cereal/marshmallow/chocolate mixture
- Refrigerate cookie dough for two hours or until chilled
- When ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
- If making cookies, line baking sheets with parchment paper and use a cookie dough scoop or tablespoon (1 1/2 tablespoons each) to place cookie dough balls on sheets 2 inches apart
- Bake cookies 10-12 minutes or until golden brown
- Transfer parchment paper to a wire rack with cookies still intact and allow to cool completely before serving (well, unless you like a gooey, delicious mess)
- If making bars, line a 13×9 pan with parchment paper and press cookie dough into pan
- Bake for ~40 minutes or until golden brown and knife comes out clean from the center
- Allow pan to cool on a wire rack
Adapted from Life’s Simple Measures [/print_this]
What was the highlight of your weekend?
I love “throw it all in!” cookies! ;)
These are great! I love the idea of putting anything and everything that I can find in a cookie and they look really tasty.
Sounds like the wedding was awesome! And the cake was even better! Those are really fun kind of out-of-the-box choices. Love it!
and I love kitchen sink cookies…the mix of sweet and salty and whatever you have lying around never fails to be amazing.
These look delicious, but I have to say, the wedding cake does even more so! ;)
My weekend’s highlight was surprise-picking up my wife from work (she got called in for a full shift on Saturday) and having a dinner buffet ready for her that the cat had not attacked. :)
Just made some kitchen sink cookies not to long ago. I hadn’t had them before then but darned if they wont be making a repeat in my kitchen. I love the bars too!
(We were in Philly for a meet up this weekend! I wish we could have met you too!!!)
Oh I’m so sad I missed you! I was in wedding activities the whole time I was there anyway. Let me know next time you are there, I end up in the area somewhat often.
Gorgeous!
Love the name of these cookies! I know it’s rough having to move a pantry and fridge full of food! I’ve done it quite a few times. Just make somemore of these haha and you’ll be good to go :)
Oooh I love these kitchen sink cookies!
I had laryngitis a couple of months ago and it really was so frustrating to lose my voice. I hope you are feeling better!
Hope you are feeling better! Great cookies/bars. I love how you can add almost anything you want to this type of recipe, it’s so fun!
These look delicious, great SRC post! So glad to be in Group C with you! xoxo
Simply looks so inviting and love it with the oats added inside.
Looks delicious and I love when you can use up ingredients and have something wonderful from it.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my SRC recipe this month: Thin Mint Irish Coffee.
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
Good luck with your move! I hope it all goes smoothly. Hopefully we can meet up sometime soon, and I can hear all about it :) An NYC holiday blogger meet up, perhaps?
These bars look A-mazing. The perfect packing companion.
Yes, a meet-up is definitely necessary!
THOSE look so good! It’s funny you say that about the carbs and your dress. I was in a wedding last weekend and all of us BARELY fit into our dresses. The only thing I could think of was that the sizes in the store to try on were all stretched out some. It was nerve-wracking there for a minute, though!!!
My other friend had the same experience, I think you are right!
Fab cookies, so glad to have been paired with you this month.
Love the name of them and cookies look tasty.
Moving is a pain no matter how far you are going! At least you seized an opportunity to use up some pantry item. I had a couple of brown bananas and didn’t have time to do anything before we went to the cabin this weekend so I smashed them and froze them for later. Maybe you can put them in some pancake batter with chocolate chips for breakfast so you aren’t baking anymore?
Yum, banana pancakes is a delicious idea!
The cookies look great.
I love cookies that you can throw anything into. I like each bite being a bit different.
These look amazing! I love them!
I love all cookies, and love cookies that have everything in them even more.
Caramel buttercream? It is calling my name.
Wow, that wedding cake does sound incredible! I love when couples aren’t afraid to take a chance on different flavors! These cookies look so good, btw!
Kitchen sink, indeed! These look divine. Great SRC post. Hope you are feeling better.
So glad to see you tried out these cookies, I hope you liked them! I especially love how you turned them into bars, that’s a great idea and I might have to try it sometime. Hope you had fun!! See you next month!
These cookies/bars sound amazing!! All sorts of yummy ingredients thrown in there…I think I could handle a few or twelve :)
A delicious choice for the secret recipe club. I hope you feel better soon and I’m glad you had fun at the wedding (any chance for a pic of the cakes?). As for the bananas – I’m stumped, but I’m sure whatever you make will be amazing!
What a great recipe! We are moving in about 4 weeks, so I am working on cleaning out my pantry. Going to have to pull something like this off at the end when I am down to the last bits! Great pick for SRC!
Aw, you poor thing! Hope you ahve your voice back and have had some down time to catch up on sleep. It sounds like a lovely weekend, despite the voice & exhaustion, though, and good for you for looking on the bright side and being thankful for what you usually take for granted. The cookies sound great and definitely are LOADED!
A fun time despite the lack of voice I hope! These look delicious…especially in bar form. Mmmm
Eh, a lost voices is totally worth an amazing wedding experience! Hope you’re feeling better now though! Great cookies, I just adore secret recipe club :)
Oh wow! Love all these ingredients. Literally kitchen sink cookies!!
The highlight of my weekend was the Haunted History Tour here in New Orleans. I had some friends in town and we all went. It was perfect!
That sounds so fun!
I would have picked these out, too! I just love cookies with lots of delicious add-ins. I lost my voice this weekend, too, but thankfully not from a cold…just from too much yakking! Hope you’re feeling better…it sounds like a great weekend (and kudos for the bride and groom for having such yummy cakes!).
Oh, these cookies look absolutely fabulous, the recipe sounds delicious.
Oh I love Kitchen Sink cookies! Yours look so good :)
As for using ripe bananas, I have a great recipe for banana bread that just happens to be vegan! But if you’d rather indulge, I have a marbled banana bread-brownie recipe as well ;)
Oh share your links for next time I have bananas!
Sure! This is the vegan banana bread… I posted about a mango version, but I’ve made it plain as well and it was good!
http://thebakingfairy.blogspot.com/2011/07/vegan-mango-banana-bread.html
aaand this one is the brownie banana bread :)
http://thebakingfairy.blogspot.com/2011/07/marble-banana-brownie-bread.html
Thank you, yum!
Yum, these look delicious. Everything in that kitchen sink sure sounds good! :)
This looks great! Thanks so much for the idea…and the Sugar Rush!