Anything Cookies {One Basic Cookie Dough, Endless Kinds of Cookies}

Use this basic cookie dough recipe to make pretty much whatever kind of cookie you're craving right now.

The chocolate or vanilla dough mixes up in about 5 minutes. After that, toss in anything you like, in whatever combination strikes your fancy.

Chocolate, peanut butter or butterscotch chips, roasted nuts, chopped candies, shredded coconut, pretzels, oatmeal, dried fruit, sprinkles, chopped cookies, graham crackers, mini marshmallows... Start with this base cookie dough to bake any kind of cookies.

One Basic Cookie Dough Recipe for Any Kind of Cookie

It's the middle of the afternoon or late at night and you're rummaging around in the kitchen for something sweet, willing something delicious and freshly baked to magically appear in front of you.

We've all been there. And, that is why this anything goes basic cookie dough recipe exists.

The dough takes about 5 minutes to mix up and will happily accept as much or as little of any mix-ins you happen to have on hand. All you have to do is decide if you want a chocolate or vanilla cookie base, then stir in anything you like. 

What kind of cookie do you want to bake today?

Craving something salty-sweet? Toss in a few handfuls of roasted, salted nuts or salty pretzels. 

In desperate need of copious amounts of chocolate? Add a few tablespoons of cocoa powder and then stir in a ridiculous amount of chocolate chips.

Longing for the comfort of oatmeal raisin? No problem.

Want to let the kids go crazy with sprinkles? Let them!

Want to make cookies with a pantry that looks something like this? Two half eaten packages of easter candy, an open bag of peanut butter chips and another of mini chocolate chips, a snack-size bag of pretzels, about 30 almonds, some toasted coconut and roasted peanuts leftover from last week's curry, three Oreo cookies, and a nearly empty jar of Nutella?

Dump it all in there, baby. I'm telling you. Anything goes with this one cookie dough base recipe.

Two Tips for The Best Cookies Ever

#1. Large cookies can handle lots of mix-ins.

When it comes to cookies that are stuffed with all sorts of delicious mix-ins, my preference is for them to be quite large. Why? Because there is a much better chance that each cookie will have a nice distribution of mix-ins when they are on the large side.

#2. Under bake your cookies.

The amount and variety of ingredient that you add to this base cookie dough will affect how long they need to bake. So, pay attention to your cookies as they bake, and remove them from the oven when they are slightly underdone in the middle.

Trust me on this. If you're looking for a slightly gooey, soft cookie center, under baking them ever so slightly is the way to go. 

The recipe calls for baking generous golf balls sized mounds of dough for 10-11 minutes. If you're baking even larger cookies, you'll probably need to bake them for a couple minutes longer. If baking smaller cookies, take them from the oven sooner.

Essentially, you're looking for cookies that are set and a bit golden around the edges, but still soft looking in the middle. When unsure, err on the side of under-baked cookies. 

How many mix-ins should you add to this one basic cookie dough?

In the vanilla cookies you see pictured here, I added between 5 and 6 cups of mix-ins:

• About 2 cups of pretzels
• 1 cup each dark chocolate chips and heath bar candy pieces
• And a cup or two of roasted, salted almonds.

But, in the chocolate cookies pictured here, I added only about 2 cups of dark chocolate chips.

So, the amount of mix-ins you add to this basic cookie dough is really up to you.

The dough itself will accept a large volume of mix-ins. But, let the ingredients themself guide how much you add of each mix-in.

For example, 5 cups of chocolate chips would make for extremely sweet cookies. Sometimes - and I don't say this lightly - there really is such thing as too much chocolate.

Likewise, if you're only adding crushed Oreos, or chopped peanut butter cups, adding more than 2 cups is likely to result in cookies that are waaaaay too sweet.

However if you're adding in a mixture of salty and sweet items, like oatmeal, raisins, white chocolate chips, and salted almonds, 5 cups total should be about right. Just let your personal tastes, preferences, and common sense guide you to your perfect cookie.

If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Scroll down to rate this recipe and leave a comment, or take a picture and tag it @ofbatteranddough on Instagram.

Anything Cookies are a Building Blocks Recipe

Building block recipes are tried-and-true recipes that I consider foundational to great home baking. They are the kind of recipes I come back to over and over again, sometimes baking them as is, but often using them as a jumping off point to create something new. > Scroll through all Building Block recipes.

Happy baking!