The Cookies This Cookbook Author Is Mailing to Her Mom for Mother’s Day
Use up whatever is in your pantry.
Updated Oct 11, 2018 1:29 PM
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The way Gaby Dalkin tells it, these cookies are basically her birthright. “They’ve been in the Dalkin family for years—honestly, longer than I can even remember,” she says. Her dad has been making some version of them for decades, keeping them stashed in the freezer for an emergency sweet tooth salve. “Of course, now that I’m an adult and don’t live at home, I’m forced to make these on a weekly basis,” she says. Recently, she took her love for them a step further and put them in her upcoming cookbook, Eat What You Want: 125 Recipes for Real Life.
The cookies in question are definitely worth making in bulk: Stuffed with an assortment of add-ins, like M&M’s and dried apricots, they’re basically the dessert version of pantry pasta. Freestyle the ingredients with whatever you have on hand—the end result will be just as chewy and delicious as long as you maintain the same proportions. And with Mother’s Day around the corner, they’re also the perfect long-distance gift. “Customize them with whatever your mom loves,” suggests the What’s Gaby Cooking blogger.
She’ll be mailing a batch to her own mom, keeping to the original family-favorite recipe of dried cranberries and chocolate chips. Her packing tip: Let them sit on the baking sheet for 4 to 5 minutes after they come out of the oven to firm up a bit, let them cool, pop them into an airtight container, and freeze them for maximum life span. “They’re my dad’s kitchen sink cookies…for mom,” she adds.
Dalkin’s cookbook officially comes out April 28, but we got a sneak peek at the recipe. Grab your baking sheet.
Dad’s Kitchen Sink Cookies
Makes roughly 3 dozen cookies.
The Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ cups old-fashioned oats, pulverized in a blender for 30 seconds until smooth
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup M&M’s
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup chopped dried apricots
The Recipe
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large stand mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars for 2 to 3 minutes, until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down both sides of the bowl with a spatula in between additions. Add the vanilla and mix to incorporate.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, pulverized oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix everything together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches, mixing on a low speed blend.
- Add the M&M’s, chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and dried apricots and mix by hand for a few seconds until just incorporated (you’ll need some elbow grease!).
- Using a medium-size cookie scoop, scoop 12 balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, depending on how chewy you want your cookies. I’m a 10½-minute kind of cookie baker.
- Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat process with the remaining dough. Freeze cookies as needed.
Reprinted from Eat What You Want: 125 Recipes for Real Life. Copyright © 2020 by Gaby Dalkin. Photography by Matt Armendariz. Published by Abrams.
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