A four-stage recipe for the famous Milk Bar Compost Cookies. Incredible flavor and texture in a fun, unconventional cookie.
Ingredients
Compost Cookies
16Tbsp (2 sticks) butter (225 g)
1cupgranulated sugar (200 g)
2/3cuptightly packed light brown sugar (150 g)
2Tbsglucose* (50 g)
1egg
2tspvanilla extract (2 g)
1 1/3 cupsflour (225 g)
1/2teaspoonbaking powder (2 g)
1/4teaspoonbaking soda (1.5 g)
1teaspoonkosher salt (4 g)
3/4cupmini chocolate chips (150 g)
1/2cupmini butterscotch chips (100 g)
1/4recipeGraham Crust, recipe follows (85 g)
1/3cupold fashioned oats (40 g)
2 1/2teaspoonsground coffee** (5 g)
2cupspotato chips*** (50 g)
1cupmini pretzels (50 g)
Graham Crust
1 1/2 cupsgraham cracker crumbs (190 g)
1/4cupmilk powder/dried milk (20 g)
2Tbspsugar (25 g)
3/4tspkosher salt (3 g)
4Tbspmelted butter (55 g)
1/4cupheavy cream (55 g)
Instructions
Graham Crust (Makes 2 Cups)
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 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 g (1 to 1½ 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.
Cookie Dough
Combine the butter, sugars, and glucose in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and 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 over mixing the dough.) Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
Still on low speed, add the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, graham crust, oats, and coffee and mix just until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add the potato chips and pretzels and paddle, still on low speed, until just incorporated. Be careful not to over mix or break too many of the pretzels or potato chips. You deserve a pat on the back if one of your cookies bakes off with a whole pretzel standing up in the center.
Scoop & Chill
Using a 2 3/4 oz ice cream scoop (or a 1/3 cup measure), portion out the dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Pat the tops of the cookie dough domes flat. Wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 1 week. Do not bake your cookies from room temperature— they will not bake properly.
Bake
In the meantime heat oven to 350 degrees F (see notes). Arrange the chilled dough a minimum of 4 inches apart on parchment- or silpat-lined sheet pans. Parchment-lined pans will help keep the shape of the cookies better. Bake for 16-18 minutes (see notes). The cookies will puff, crackle, and spread. Remove cookies from oven when they are 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.
Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before transferring to a plate or an airtight container for storage. At room temp, cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month.
Equipment
Stand mixer
2 3/4 ounce cookie scoop
Notes
*In a pinch, substitute 1 tablespoon (18 g) corn syrup for the glucose.** If you aren't a coffee drinker or don't have coffee grounds on hand, you can substitute for cacao nibs (we used Crio Bru) or add more of other cookie ingredients such as oats, chocolate chips, etc.***Try to find a thicker, more substantial potato chip for this cookie. At Milk Bar they use Cape Cod potato chips because they aren’t paper-thin, and so they do not break down too much in the mixing process.
Similar to the Milk Bar Cornflake Cookies, we found the baking temperature and time of 375 F for 18 minutes to be too hot and too long. We tested three additional temperatures and bake times and conclude that the best way to prepare these cookies is at 350 F convection for 10 minutes, or 350 F non-convection (regular bake setting) for 16-18 minutes. Make sure and pull the cookies from the oven when the edges are golden brown and the center of the cookie is still bright yellow.
To make your Compost Cookies more visually appealing, gently press a whole or cracked miniature pretzel into the top of the dough before refrigerating.