If you’re looking for a way to use up a bag of starter AND have a huge cookie yield, this Amish Friendship Bread Dump Cookie recipe is for you! Also known as kitchen sink cookies (because you can put in everything BUT the kitchen sink, LOL), dump cookies are easy, tasty, and made to be shared with others.
Use this basic cookie recipe and add in whatever you have in the pantry: rolled oats, chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, flaked coconut, leftover Halloween candy. They keep well and are great on-the-go treats. Think: bake sales, teacher appreciation, kid snacks, Super Bowl munchies, holiday cookie swaps. Better yet, make the dough in advance and store it in the fridge or freezer so you can make a batch whenever the craving strikes.
These cookies make the perfect anytime edible gift. Check out my printables library to find great gift tags and labels!
Amish Friendship Bread Dump Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup shortening
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1½ tsp vanilla
- 1 banana mashed
- 5 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup oats rolled or old-fashioned
- 2 cups chocolate chips
- 2 cups coconut shredded or flaked
- 2 cups nuts (we used macadamia) chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F (176° C).
- Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and oats in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, cream starter, butter, shortening, and sugars. Add eggs one at a time, then mashed banana and vanilla. Mix well.
- Create a well in the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients, stirring until incorporated.
- Fold in whatever mix-ins you’d like: chocolate chips, shredded coconuts, nuts, etc.
- Drop rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet (or use parchment paper for easy clean-up).
- Bake 12 to 14 minutes, or until cookies begin to brown on the edges.
- ENJOY!
Notes
>> Have you tried this? Give it some stars and leave a comment below letting us know how it worked for you!
I was very excited to discover the recipes for doing different things for the Amish starter. I have been making sweet breads for many years. Always fantastic. I am having poor luck with cookies. Doing the dump cookies today. The dough is difficult to work with. They flattened out baking and the chips stuck to the parchment paper. I have Snicker doodles made up for tomorrow. Lost half of my cookies today. Not sure if I should bother. Taste great!
I was disappointed in these cookies. The recipe makes an overabundance of cookies and they were not great. I thought they would be fat thick cookies since the recipe was using the starter, but the cookies were very thin and I did not care for the taste of the banana in my chocolate chip cookies.
How do you know how much extras you can add ? A cup of Rice Krispies? 1/2 cup? Thank you
Hi Judy! You can definitely add extras to your preference in type and amount! You may want to cut back on another “extra” if you do add something else. For example: substitute one cup of nuts for a cup of Rice Krispies. Happy baking!
I would add in white chocolate and dried cranberries – Do I have to share???? LOL okaaaaay I will share it with my family and neighbors.
At Christmas time, one could add some candied fruits for fruitcake cookies. In the original I might replace the choc. chips with raisins.
I love making cookies will try this one for sure
Hmm, something to put in the “use over-ripe banana” file.
Is “dump cookie” the new term for “drop cookie”? When I think “dump,” I think of those cakes where you toss everything in the pan and barely stir it.
Dump cookies are a great idea for using up the bits and pieces of leftover sweet chips and dried fruit.
I’d take out some of the add in and stick with just chocolate chips and maybe oats. I like simpler cookies myself
This is my son’s kind of recipe. He would love collecting anything and everything from the baking cupboard to make cookies.
this is a great way to use up the last little bit of everything! thanks!
The coconut, chocolate chips, and nuts cover the bases fairly well. I saw some Heath candy bar chips at the store a few weeks ago. That buttery toffee flavor would go great in these cookies, with the added crunch.
I would put m&m
Toasted pecans and coconut with mini chocolate chips and cherry bits would make this perfect for me! Yum!
I would add chocolate chips, coconut and caramel to make this perfect for me. I would share this with my kids.
I love your add-ins but would swap chocolate chips for dark chocolate chips, then swap the nuts for dried cherry, keeping the coconut too! I would share them with my husband and my Bunco group.
These sound so yummy! I don’t know why, but I am thinking pecans would be a nice addition. Love the add in tips suggested! We both like cookies so this recipe is a natural keeper for me! I am thinking my in-laws would love them too!
I have 36 starters in my freezer. I was thinking I wouldn’t get to make cookies with the kids this year because of some expensive car repairs… now I know I have the base for 36 different types of cookies!
I think cinnamon chips would be a great mix-in.
These are on my cookie baking list this year, I will add dried cherries and pecans.
I have to make cookies this week for a cookie exchange. Definitely going to try these and may add red and green M&Ms!
I buy spectacular dried Blenheim apricots from Apricotking.com, and went overboard recently, so will need to ude dome for baking. I think chopped dried apricots, chopped pecans, white chocolate chips, and shredded coconut would make an outstanding dump cookie.
I think I will try these with cranberries and white chocolate for my daughter.
These cookies look really yummy. The thing I would add is one of my favorites in cookies is cinnamon chips. I would share these with my grandchildren who love the cinnamon chips in muffins, cookies and many more things.
I think I would add cherries since I have a bunch of trees so I’m always looking for ways to use them. I would share with family and friends.
I’m all about the chocolate, so if I make these, they will DEFINITELY be STUFFED with chocolatey deliciousness! Mmmm…chocolate….
This recipe seems to be very forgiving… I like that you can be creative with the add-ons. I want to try this with craisins and walnuts.
I would substitute cranberries for the coconut. Sounds great! I would also like that it is so easy. My husband and my great grandchildren would love them. My husband likes anything with chocolate chips. I would have to leave out the coconut and the cranberries for him. The rest of us would like the cranberries.
I like me some butterscotch chips–that would make it perfect for me! And who wouldn’t I share it with?! If they all stayed at my house it would be dangerous for me. xD
I never knew you could make cookies with a starter !! Definitely chocolate chips and M&Ms!
No mint for me – but everything else is possible!
This looks like an amazing base recipe that would be yummy on it’s own, but the additions take it over the top. My family loves dried fruits in oatmeal type cookies, chocolate chips, too. Maybe even a spot of peanut butter? Or sweet spices like nutmeg. I would make these for my kids, but also (shhhhh) I’d make them for me, too!
Raspberries, cranberries, white chocolate chips, macadamia nuts for a cookie exchange
Will add coconut, chocolate chips and pecans. Will share them with my kids.
These remind me of the recipe for “Monster Cookies” … only using my newest secret … Amish Friendship Bread!
Looks like a great recipe…..my favorite add-ins would be toasted pecans, coconut, and chocolate chips! Can’t wait to try this recipe out on the neighbors.
I might try adding some dried tart cherries with dark chocolate chunks for my sister who loves chocolate covered cherries.
White chocolate chips, macadamia nuts and raspberries to share with my daughter!
Fantastic!!! I love baking cookies for my grandchildren! They will want red and green M&M’s . These cookies look so festive 🎄
How would I decide how much to make and how much to freeze? Do I make the basic cookie dough and freeze some then add extras as I thaw out a batch of it and then add what extras I want after thawing the dough?
Hi Gloria! It’s up to you how much you want to make and how much you want to freeze. If you don’t know what add-ins you want to use, we’d recommend freezing the dough without the add-ins and adding them in when you’ve thawed the dough and are ready to bake. Let us know if you have any other questions.
For the holidays I will add dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. Leave out the coconut and maybe banana I could add an egg yolk for moisture.
Looks like a fun recipe to dump in all the left overs from the other cookies I bake, who doesn’t love a cookie with shredded coconut and chocolate, can’t wait to try these, once my starter is ready, a few more days to go.
What about crushed leftover candy canes. The kids would have blast crushing them.
I would not add coconut because my kids would not like it and that is who I would make them for! I would just add more nuts and chocolate chips!
will be making these this weekend. I will be making them for my husband and our kids. I am going to try to add dried cherries to them.
I absolutely love dump cookies. I’ll need to make these for my in-laws for Christmas. I love how easy it is to vary what gets “dumped” in.
Love this recipe! I think chopped up Reeses cups would be the perfect add-in. I’d share them with my neighbors.
I made this recipe. It makes a lot, my mixer could barely handled it. I followed the recipe until it was time to add the chocolate chips. The dough was not thick enough. It was more like a thick batter. I added another cup of oats and two more cups of flour and put it in the refrigerator overnight. I baked some of the cookies and I think I added too much flour. The cookies are OK but not great.
What can be used in place of the banana? I’m not big on that flavor, especially in a cookie.
Can you use any of the various starters for all the recipes?
Hi Darlene,
All the recipes on the website are meant for use with the traditional starter. That being said, I know some people swap starters but I can’t say for sure how it will turn out. The alternative starters have recipes that go with them. If you do try something different, let us know how it goes so we can share your results with others!
Thank you for your answer. I seen a few starter recipes on the website so thought they all could be used for any of the recipes on the site.
This sounds wonderful! Because I now mostly cook for Hubz and me, I have trouble with recipes that are too big, including Friendship starter. It is great to have other ideas besides basic bread.
These sound yummy! I think I’ll whip up a batch for our neighbors. We have an elderly couple next door, and we have new neighbors across the street.
I can’t wait to try this recipe! Sounds easy enough for the kids to make and they sound delicious too.