Compost Cookies

By Nora

This cookie doesn't look like anything special, does it? Well, trust me when I tell you this is the cookie to rule all other cookies. It's the Beyonce of cookies. The Peyton Manning of Cookies. The Monet of cookies, if you will. It doesn't look like much at first glance, but when you take a bite and really experience it, it will change you. 

If you've heard of Momofuku Milk Bar restaurant, you've probably heard of their famous Compost Cookie. At the very heart of it, it's a simple chocolate chip cookie, but when you add the rest of the unusual ingredients, it becomes a work of art. Partially because YOU can customize this cookie with whatever treats you happen to have laying around, or you can purposefully craft it to be the perfect amalgamation of salt and sweet. I'm telling you, there's nothing like it.

When i'm talking salty and sweet, i'm not just talking caramel and sea salt here. I'm talking potato chips, Rollos, pretzels (chocolate covered or not), butterscotch chips, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, Capn' Crunch cereal, M&Ms, Fritos, WHATEVER.  Let your heart be your guide! And when you serve this cookie to someone who's never had one before, the look on their face is priceless. They are revelling in how good it tastes, and then trying to figure out what the heck is in it. And then before they realize it, they're reaching for another. 

So i'm going to provide you with MY preferred recipe for this cookie, but there are so, so many ways to fool around with this. The original Momofuku Compost Cookie has coffee grounds in it, and I tried a batch that way once, and the black specks in the cookie kind of skeeved me out and I didn't notice a discernable taste difference. But some people swear by it. I'm telling you, this cookie is a religon. It can encite passion; start wars. Don't say I didn't warn you.

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups pretzels, ridged potato chips, and cheddar crackers
• 1 1/2 cups crumbled Hershey bar, peanut butter chips, and malted milk balls

Cream together the butter and sugars, and once everything is smooth, add the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix together the dry ingredients and gradually blend into the butter mixture.  Don't overmix here; just enough so everything is blended together. Once that's done, put your salty ingredients into one ziploc bag and your sweet stuff into another. Pound them with a rolling pin until everything is crushed to your desired level of crumbliness. Some people like big chunks of the stuff in there, but it's up to you. Mix the crumbled up salty/sweet stuff in there with the rest of the cookie dough until it's evenly distributed. Then drop the dough in rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet covered with a Silpat or parchment paper. Now comes the very important part---cover the cookies with plastic wrap and chill those suckers for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight. This is a crucial step.  If you skip it, the texture of the cookies will be all wrong.  When the time comes, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bake them for about 11 minutes. 

Comments

[Caitlin]

Nora, I'm so glad you posted this! I put the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook on the Food Lush Gift Guide and I've been thinking about these cookies off and on ever since. I'm such a sucker for salty and sweet. I'm going to have to finally try them, I think!