Cookies might not be able to prevent or cure infectious diseases – but baking can certainly cheer you up, relieve stress, and give you something (other than endlessly watching the news) to do.
For those trapped at home right now, and maybe with limited baking ingredients: enter Compost Cookies! (AKA Everything but the Kitchen Sink Cookies.) They’re a perfect way to use whatever you have on hand in your pantry – especially if it’s a lot of little things, but not enough to make a single-flavor cookie. I use dark chocolate chips, cornflakes, and mini marshmallows in this recipe, but you can easily accommodate whatever you have at home. This recipe is super versatile.
- Instead of dark chocolate chips – You can use milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, chopped peanut butter cups, or another candy
- Instead of cornflakes – You can use any cereal, chopped pretzel pieces, or even potato chips
- Instead of mini marshmallows – You can omit entirely, or use a different candy
Basically, you can make these as healthy(ish) or outrageous as you want. The sky is the limit.
If not gluten-free, you can use regular all-purpose flour in place of the gluten-free blend (and omit the xanthan gum, as it won’t be needed).
These cookies are really fun, deliciously indulgent, and hopefully give you something happy to focus on during these crazy times. For those with kids – I imagine these would be super kid-friendly, and fun for little hands to bake, too!
PrintGluten-Free Compost Cookies
Cookies in the time of global pandemics. These compost cookies are not only delicious and a super fun way to marry lots of different flavors and textures – but they’re also a great way to use up your pantry. You can easily adapt these to whatever mix-ins you have on hand.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 24 1x
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Baking
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut oil or vegan butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups packed coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour (I’m a big fan of this blend from Bob’s Red Mill, which uses garbanzo bean flour as a base and is a little healthier than standard AP flours)
- Pinch of xanthan gum, if flour blend doesn’t already contain it
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 2 cups cornflakes, or cereal of choice
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350º F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add coconut oil/vegan butter and sugar, and beat with an electric mixer on medium-high until well-combined, about 1 minute.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until smooth and creamy, about 1 more minute.
- Add in the flour, xanthan gum (if using), oats, cereal, baking soda, and salt, and beat on medium speed until just combined and with no clumps of flour remaining.
- Add in the dark chocolate chips and mini marshmallows, and stir to evenly distribute.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, spoon approximately a heaping tablespoon of dough at a time onto your baking sheet with parchment paper. Make sure to leave plenty of room in between cookies, giving them space to spread.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes on the middle rack of your oven. Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. Repeat baking process one pan at a time until all cookie dough has been used up.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Two tips for optimal cookies:
- Make sure all ingredients are truly at room-temperature before adding to the batter. To bring eggs to room temperature in a pinch (without having to let them sit out for a long time), place in a bowl of warm (not hot) water for 10 minutes. This is really important for creating cookies that don’t spread too much.
- Bake cookies one batch (and pan) at a time on the middle rack of your oven. Once cooked, don’t let them sit on the pan for too long before transferring to your cooling rack. This is really important for perfect, evenly-cooked cookies.
