kitchen sink breakfast cookies

Author’s Note: In honor of the Family Breakfast Project, I am sharing seven days of easy family breakfast recipes. At the end of the week, I’ll write about how the project went for our family. You can try it out too! Sign up for emails, click through on the web, or download the whole guide here. {Disclaimer: I am not being paid for sharing the program; I am mentioning it because I think it’s a great way to help you share breakfast with your family.}

Have you made cookies for breakfast? I stick them in the freezer and defrost a few at a time. Reheated for a minute or two in the toaster oven, they taste like fresh-baked indulgent treats and make breakfast on the go a snap.

I’ve shared a recipe for breakfast cookies in the past. I still love that one for its low sugar content (applesauce FTW!) and lots of grains; it’s more of a Clif bar than a cookie, really. But when I need to use up bits of baking ingredients from my cupboard, or when I feel like my kids could use a big dose of butter, adding “everything but the kitchen sink” is a great way to accomplish those goals.

As with most Good Things that have to do with baking, I do declare Martha Stewart’s recipe for kitchen sink cookies to be the very best. But because I make them for the kids to eat for breakfast, I altered the recipe by removing some sugar and chocolate chips. Like Deb, I also substitute white whole wheat flour when it doesn’t compromise flavor.

And as usual, I add a Southern twist by incorporating homemade lard in baking recipes when I have it on hand. Why lard? Because I believe in the ingredients our great grandmothers used. Because it adds great texture to cookies. And because it is largely misunderstood; lard has less saturated fat and almost double the monounsaturated fat of butter. But if lard makes you squeamish, or you don’t have any homemade*, you can substitute with butter.

kitchen sink breakfast cookies
makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients:
1 c. (two sticks, 16 Tbs.) unsalted butter**, softened
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. white whole wheat flour
1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. oats
3/4 c. bittersweet (~60% cacao) chocolate***, coarsely chopped
1 c. raisins
1 c. dried cranberries
1 c. sweetened flaked coconut
1 c. walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy (note: see Design Mom’s post about cookies for baker’s tips). Add eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Add vanilla.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour through salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in stages until well incorporated, then fold in remaining ingredients.

Drop batter with tablespoons or an ice cream scoop, 2 inches apart, onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Wet fingers and press cookies down until they measure about 2 inches.

Bake at 350º for 16 to 18 minutes until golden brown. Leave for 2 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to cool on a wire rack.

*I say homemade lard because store-bought lard typically is hydrogenated to make it shelf-stable, meaning it contains the dreaded and decidedly unhealthy trans fats.
**As I mentioned above, I substitute 2-3 Tbs. lard for some of the butter in most baking recipes.
***We buy chocolate that’s on FEP’s list; my favorites are 365, Kallari, Newman’s Own, & Taza