Take Your Leftover Halloween Candy And Make Kitchen Sink Cookies

Throughout the month of October, when we are wholly under Halloween's spell, every trip to the grocery store seems like a good time to buy yet another bag of miniature candy bars. On November first, however, once the makeup has been washed away, and the spell has been broken, bowls piled high with leftover Halloween candy can become a little daunting. But rather than send that sack of sugar to the landfill, throw the whole kit and caboodle in your cauldron and whip up a batch of magical kitchen sink cookies instead.

Far lovelier than their name implies, the idea behind kitchen sink cookies is to use whatever ingredients you have in your pantry as mix-ins for your cookie dough. In other words, a batch of kitchen sink cookies can be crafted with just about "everything but the kitchen sink." While traditional kitchen sink cookies typically include both sweet and salty elements (think chocolate chips, pretzels, toffee, and potato chips), the beauty of kitchen sink cookies is that there are no concrete rules. This leaves room for creativity and improvisation and allows you to build a recipe perfectly tailored to your taste and texture preferences.

To make kitchen sink cookies with your leftover Halloween candy, you will first need to prepare a batch of your favorite cookie dough. Whether you prefer a light, vanilla-flavored cookie or a spicy snickerdoodle, anything goes when the restriction is to leave the kitchen sink where it is. If you got too chocolate-wasted at the Halloween party to even consider preparing homemade dough, store-bought cookie dough can work just as well.

Once your dough is ready, it's time to choose your mix-ins. Experimenting with flavors, colors, and textures is half the fun of kitchen sink cookies (the other half is eating them, of course), so don't be shy! Once you've made your selection, chop the candy and salty snacks into bits and fold them into the dough. For more Instagram-worthy cookies, save some of the morsels to sprinkle on top of the cookies right before popping them in the oven.

If the thought of consuming any more sugar is enough to make your head spin, don't fret! Because kitchen sink cookie dough can be kept in the freezer for up to six months, you can store it until it's time to make holiday cookies.