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This is the salty and sweet chocolatey cookie of your dreams! Fudge Trash Cookies are the idyllic combination of a vanilla cookie base that is stuffed with potato chips, multiple types of chocolate, toffee, pretzels and a dollop of hot fudge. If it’s yummy, don’t throw it away because it probably has a place in this cookie.
Fudge Trash Cookie Recipe
I probably shouldn’t put the word “trash” in the name of a cookie, but I promise you these cookies are anything but garbage. The concept of a trash cookie is that you can toss anything you’d like in them. Potato chips? Pretzels? M&M’s? Chocolate chips? Chopped chocolate? Peanut butter chips? You get the point. With a yummy, thick and gooey brown sugar-y vanilla base, these are totally customizable to whatever you need them to be. But to make them even more fun, we stuff the middle with hot fudge. Because, why not? The only thing ‘trash’ about these cookies is their magic power to encourage your household peeps to do their chores, aka, get them to take out the actual trash.
Like caramel more than hot fudge? I have a caramel kitchen sink cookie that you’re going to LOVE.
Ingredients
*You can find instructions and exact quantities in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Salted butter, softened – I always use salted butter, but you can sub in unsalted butter if you’d like! I just recommend adding an extra pinch of salt to the dough if you make the swap.
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract – This gives the base cookie such a yummy, rich flavor.
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Crushed pretzels – I use the small regular pretzels and just top them into my mixer and let it break them up!
- Thick ripple potato chips – The extra saltiness and crunch from these chips really make it!
- Mini chocolate chips – You can swap these for mini m&m’s if you want to.
- Toffee pieces – I used the chocolate toffee pieces, but there’s plenty of chocolate in these cookies so you can totally do plain, too.
- Chopped milk chocolate – Use whatever type of chocolate bar here that you’d like!
- Hot Fudge Topping – This will go in the middle of the cookie and it tastes UNREAL. I used Smucker’s brand, but any should do.
How to Make Trash Cookies (with a hot fudge center!)
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- In a bowl, add all your mix-ins and toss together. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light in color and fluffy in texture. You will want to mix for about 2 minutes.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the egg and vanilla. Mix until well incorporated.
- Next, add in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until a soft dough forms.
- Add your mix-ins and mix on low until evenly distributed.
- Portion out your dough using a #12 scoop.
- Create a crater in the center of each dough ball and drop in ½ Tbsp of hot fudge. Form the dough around the fudge, sealing it in. Stud the tops with a few extra pretzel and chip pieces for more texture and visual appeal.
- Arrange 6 dough balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for 12-14 minutes or until the tops no longer look glossy and start to brown slightly.
- Once removed from the oven, allow the cookies to cool completely on the pan.
- Store in an airtight container on the counter for 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
How should I store these cookies?
Once cooled, store your cookies in an airtight container on the counter for 3-5 days!
Can I freeze these cookies?
Yes! You can freeze these cookies for up to 3 months! I recommend placing all of your cooled cookies onto a cookie sheet. Place the entire cookie sheet into the freezer and ‘flash freeze’ until they start to harden slightly. Move the cookies to a ziptop bag or airtight container, with parchment between layers of cookies and freeze.
Karli’s Kitchen Faves
Here are a few of my favorite kitchen tools that I used to make this recipe!
- Kitchenaid Mixer – I really love this thing. It’s not necessary for making good cookies, but I love the size of the bowl and the power. A Hand Mixer is also an excellent option for when you don’t want to mix things by hand.
- Cookie Sheet – These cookie sheets have put in WORK in my kitchen. If you’re looking for a brand that will stand the test of time (and cookies), this is my recommendation.
- Silicone baking mat – I love using this or parchment paper to line my cookie sheets to make it easy-peasy to get cookies off of the pan without sticking.
- Cookie scoop set – These are sturdy and won’t break when it, you know, scoops dough. I love these for making pretty + even cookies! I used a #12 scoop for these cookies.
- Spatula – I love these silicone spatulas for scraping down the sides of the mixer.
- Bowl – I love how giant these are! They’re perfect for mixing up the mix-ins before adding to the dough.
Favorite Filled Cookies
Fudge Trash Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (222g) salted butter, softened
- 1 cup (246g) brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (115g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups (342g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup (45g) crushed pretzels
- 3/4 cup (30g) thick ripple potato chips
- 3/4 cup (150g) mini chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup (132g) toffee pieces
- 3/4 cup (150g) chopped milk chocolate
- 1 jar (11oz) hot fudge sundae topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- In a bowl, add all your mix-ins and toss together. Set aside.3/4 cup (45g) crushed pretzels, 3/4 cup (30g) thick ripple potato chips, 3/4 cup (150g) mini chocolate chips, 3/4 cup (132g) toffee pieces, 3/4 cup (150g) chopped milk chocolate
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light in color and fluffy in texture. You will want to mix for about 2 minutes.1 cup (222g) salted butter, softened, 1 cup (246g) brown sugar, 1/2 cup (115g) granulated sugar
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the egg and vanilla. Mix until well incorporated.1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Next, add in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until a soft dough forms.2 1/4 cups (342g) all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt
- Add your mix-ins and mix on low until evenly distributed.
- Portion out your dough using a #12 scoop.
- Create a crater in the center of each dough ball and drop in ½ Tbsp of hot fudge. Form the dough around the fudge, sealing it in. Stud the tops with a few extra pretzel and chip pieces for more texture and visual appeal.1 jar (11oz) hot fudge sundae topping
- Arrange 6 dough balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for 12-14 minutes or until the tops no longer look glossy and start to brown slightly.
- Once removed from the oven, allow the cookies to cool completely on the pan.
- Store in an airtight container on the counter for 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Baked these for the first time today. The flavor is awesome. The one thing I did note, my dough seemed a bit dry. I struggled to keep it together when stuffing it, so not sure if I did anything wrong.
Karli, can you give me some advise on the dryness?
Make sure the butter is softened before mixing! You can also try reducing the flour by 1/4 cup and see if that helps!
Would I be able to make the dough, portion it out, and then refrigerate these cookies to bake the next day?
I’ve never had a problem doing this with any other cookie but wasn’t sure with the fudge filling.
Absolutely! Let them sit at room temperature while the oven preheats and bake like normal.
If you were using the gram measurements, I noticed they are quite a bit off. In my baking I use 1 C brown sugar = 200-220g, more importantly, 2.25 C of flour is only about 280g.
Hi! If you have questions about why your measurements may differ, please check out this post: https://cookingwithkarli.com/metric-measurements/
I want to make these, they remind of a cookie in a supermarket that I used to visit.I was looking at the instructions and it says to wrap the cookie around a caramel, but I couldn’t find any caramels listed in the ingredients.
Sorry, there was a typo! It is fixed now. If you want to try these cookies stuffed with caramel instead of fudge, check out my Caramel Kitchen Sink Cookie: https://cookingwithkarli.com/caramel-kitchen-sink-cookies/
Great recipe! There was major spreading in the oven so they were no longer-filled. For the second batch, I froze them and that seemed to help a bit!
I am a homemaker and I pretty much just use your recipes now. Anytime I’m making cookies. They always turn out amazingly good and your instructions are so complete and clear