Description
Santa’s Trash Cookies are a delightful and colorful treat, featuring a mix of sweet and salty ingredients like M&M’s, peanut butter chips, potato chips, and broken pretzels. These cookies offer a perfect balance of flavors and textures, with a golden brown exterior and a slightly glossy, chewy inside. Ideal for a fun snack or festive dessert, they are easy to prepare and bake, making them a great choice for holiday gatherings or anytime you crave a crunchy, sweet, and salty cookie.
Ingredients
Scale
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 g) butter
- 1 cup (220 g) packed brown sugar
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups (420 g) all-purpose flour
Mix-ins
- ¾ cup (125 g) M&M’s
- ½ cup (85 g) peanut butter chips
- ½ cup (25 g) potato chips
- ½ cup (40 g) broken pretzels
Finishing
- Flaked sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Sheets: Preheat your oven to 365°F (185°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper to prevent sticking and ensure even baking.
- Cream Butter and Sugars: In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium-high speed for 3 to 4 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy, which helps create a tender cookie texture.
- Add Eggs and Vanilla: Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract until fully incorporated, ensuring a smooth, uniform batter.
- Incorporate Dry Ingredients: Slowly add baking powder, baking soda, salt, and all-purpose flour to the wet mixture. Mix gently to combine without over-mixing; it’s okay if there are small patches of flour remaining as this prevents tough cookies.
- Fold in Mix-ins: Gently fold in the M&M’s, peanut butter chips, potato chips, and broken pretzels, evenly distributing the mix-ins to maintain texture contrast.
- Shape Cookies: Using a ¼ cup scoop or large ice cream scoop, form large dough balls. Place 6 to 8 dough balls per baking sheet, then press a few extra M&M’s and mix-ins on top for visual appeal and extra flavor. Sprinkle with flaked sea salt over each dough ball.
- Bake: Bake for 11 to 14 minutes, watching for a golden-brown exterior and a slightly glossy center. If the cookies spread unevenly, use a spatula to gently nudge edges back into a round shape immediately after baking.
Notes
- This cookie is versatile; feel free to swap mix-ins with whatever you have on hand, such as chocolate chips, white chocolate, or chopped candy bars, for customized flavors.
- Using grams for measuring ingredients, especially flour, provides better accuracy. If using cups, spoon the flour lightly into the cup without packing to avoid dense cookies.
- Adding the flaked sea salt on top provides a delightful salty contrast enhancing the cookie’s flavors.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 210
- Sugar: 14g
- Sodium: 150mg
- Fat: 10g
- Saturated Fat: 6g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3g
- Trans Fat: 0.2g
- Carbohydrates: 26g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 3g
- Cholesterol: 25mg
