Compost Cookies

This recipe should come with a warning for various reasons.

Reason #1 : I’ve eaten 5 since I’ve baked them yesterday…FIVE.

**slaps herself in the forehead**

Reason #2 :  There are 2 sticks of butter in this recipe.

Reason # 3 : People that try these will ask you to bake them again and again.  You will, and then you’ll eat five more when that happens.

Reason #4 : People that you give this recipe to will hate you afterward because they will have eaten five of them in one sitting.

****BAKE AT YOUR OWN RISK****

The first time I ate this cookie was at Ma Peche (part of the Momofuku family). I have since then been obsessed with all things David Chang and/or Christina Tosi (you understand if you’ve tried the crack pie — click here for the recipe for that one).  Momofuku’s wonderfully creative dessert chef is Christina Tosi.  This is her recipe that is cut & pasted from Oprah’s website.  Photos and obscene commentary by yours truly. You knew O would be all over this shizzle.

The cookie is kind of a 2 parter.  You need to make the Graham Crust Recipe first.  The recipe makes 4 times the amount you need for 1 batch of Compost Cookies.  You can save the rest of this graham stuff in the fridge for up to a month for the next time you want to make these cookies.

It won’t be longer than a few days before you want to bake them again though.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Don’t hate me.

Please.

Graham Crust Recipe

Recipe created by Christina Tosi
Original Content  |  November 08, 2011

  |

Makes about 340 grams (2 cups)

Ingredients

• 190 grams (1 1/2 cups) graham cracker crumbs
• 20 grams (1/4 cup) milk powder
• 25 grams (2 Tbsp.) sugar
• 3 grams (3/4 tsp.) kosher salt
• 55 grams (4 Tbsp. or 1/2 stick) butter, melted, or as needed
• 55 grams (1/4 cup) heavy cream

Directions

Toss the graham crumbs, milk powder, sugar and salt with your hands in a medium bowl to evenly distribute your dry ingredients.

Whisk the butter and heavy cream together.

Add to the dry ingredients and toss again to evenly distribute. The butter will act as a glue, adhering to the dry ingredients and turning the mixture into a bunch of small clusters. The mixture should hold its shape if squeezed tightly in the palm of your hand. If it is not moist enough to do so, melt an additional 14 to 25 grams (1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons) butter and mix it in.

Eat immediately, or deploy as directed in a recipe. The crust is easiest to mold just after mixing. Stored in an airtight container, graham crust will keep fresh for 1 week at room temperature or for 1 month in the fridge or freezer.

Compost Cookies Recipe

Recipe created by Christina Tosi
Original Content  |  November 08, 2011

Excerpt:

Compost cookies always turn out great in my mother’s kitchen because she infamously has a hodgepodge of mix-ins, none in great enough quantity to make an actual single-flavored cookie on its own. My brother-in-law calls them “garbage cookies”; others call them “kitchen sink cookies.” Call them what you want and make them as we make them at Milk Bar or add your own favorite snacks to the cookie base in place of ours.

Makes 15–20 cookies

Ingredients

In a pinch, substitute 18 grams (1 tablespoon) corn syrup for the glucose.For the coffee grounds in this cookie, we tested the recipe with freshly roasted and ground artisanal coffee from Stumptown as well as with craptastic coffee grounds that you can find just about anywhere. We discovered that it doesn’t make a difference what kind you use; the cookie is delicious every time. Just make sure you don’t use instant coffee; it will dissolve in the baking process and ruin the cookies. And, above all else, never use wet, sogalicious grounds that have already brewed a pot of coffee. We use Cape Cod potato chips because they aren’t paper thin, so they don’t break down too much in the mixing process.

• 225 grams (16 Tbsp. or 2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 200 grams (1 cup) granulated sugar
• 150 grams (2⁄3 cup, tightly packed) light brown sugar
• 50 grams (2 Tbsp.) glucose
• 1 egg
• 2 grams (1/2 tsp.) vanilla extract
• 225 grams (1 1/3 cups) flour
• 2 grams (1/2 tsp.) baking powder
• 1 1/2 grams (1/4 tsp.) baking soda
• 4 grams (1 tsp.) kosher salt
• 150 grams (3/4 cup) mini chocolate chips
• 100 grams (1/2 cup) mini butterscotch chips
• 1/4 recipe Graham Crust (85 grams or 1/2 cup; see separate recipe)
• 40 grams (1/3 cup) old-fashioned rolled oats
• 5 grams (2 1/2 tsp.) ground coffee
• 50 grams (2 cups) potato chips
• 50 grams (1 cup) mini pretzels

Directions

Combine the butter, sugars and glucose (or corn syrup)  in the bowl of a stand mixer

Fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the egg and vanilla, and beat for 7 to 8 minutes.

Reduce the speed to low and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. (Do not walk away from the machine during this step, or you will risk overmixing the dough.) Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

Still on low speed, add the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, graham crust (from your first recipe) oats and coffee, and mix just until incorporated, about 30 seconds. I used the big mama chips.  Ain’t nothing mini about this recipe, so why start here?

Okay.  You know I am a deviant.  Sometimes that makes me cooler, but this time, mmmm not so much.  Tosi knows what she’s talking about.  First of all, I didn’t use parchment paper. 

Second of all, I didn’t refrigerate the dough for an hour.  Ms. Smartypants put the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes and thought she was the cat’s meow.  Popped them into the oven while she took a 7 minute shower. Bad. Move. Mr. FSL ended up banging on the bathroom door because the smoke alarm was going off.  I jumped out of the shower with soapy hair to see this:

That would be my kitchen filled with smoke and Rocco running for cover.

Yikes!

Burnt cookies.

Attempt #2 happened the next day.  I followed the directions.  Seriously.

Heat the oven to 375°.

Arrange the chilled dough a minimum of 4 inches apart on parchment- or Silpat-lined sheet pans. Bake for 18 minutes. The cookies will puff, crackle and spread. After 18 minutes, they should be very faintly browned on the edges yet still bright yellow in the center. Give them an extra minute or so if that’s not the case.

Booyah!

*kisses fingertips*

Perfecto.

Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before transferring to a plate or an airtight container for storage shovel into mouth while still hot and make odd groaning noises. At room temp, cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month.  Psssht!  Good luck keeping them in the house and out of your dirty little paws for 2 days!