Compost Cookies

My son has his first week of March break this week so we are hanging out and doing all sorts of fun stuff. He certainly deserves some cookies to enjoy on his week of nothing but video games til 1am, sleeping in till mid morning and munching bon bons on the couch while I fan him with a palm frond and rub scented oils into his tender feet.


Originally we were thinking chocolate chip but that just seemed so boring. We all know there are amazing chocolate chip cookies to be had out there and The Neighbour makes them for him all the time. As I was nosing around the internet I kept coming upon versions of these compost cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar. The only problem was that they all made too many cookies and as I have said many times, I have no self control around certain foods and a cookie that was full of salty AND sweet? Forget about it.



I was really happy to find this version on Whisked because it appeared to make a smaller batch than any of the others I found so I wouldn't have to have The Kid hide the extra cookies and not tell me where they are. That would only lead to pain and hardship and I don't want to hurt my own child, for god's sake.


For the sweet baking ingredients I used a combination of:
dark chocolate chips
milk chocolate chips
butterscotch chips
peanut butter chips
crushed up skor bar bits


for the salty ingredients I used a combination of:
pretzles
ruffles potato chips
some black sesame corn chips


I have bought some sponge toffee to use in the next batch and I will leave the peanut butter chips out of those because next week The Kid has geek camp and here in Ontario, everything must be nut free if you are taking any food into any event or building that included kids.


Oh, the other thing that made me love this recipe was the addition of coffee grounds. Someone gave us a really nice bag of pre ground creme brule coffee, which was so nice of them. Unfortunately, I don't like flavoured coffees so it has been sitting in my cupboard, staring me down, making me feel guilty since christmas. I have no desire to drink a cup of creme brule flavoured coffee but would LOVE to eat a cookie that has creme brule flavoured coffee in it. As far as I am concerned, flavoured coffee was invented just to put in cookies. 


We will be making some sort of version of these cookies on a regular basis from now on.

My Compost Cookies
adapted from Whisked who adapted them from Momofuku Milk Bar


1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup & 2 tbsp Light Brown Sugar
1/2 tbsp corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla 
1 large egg
3/4 cup & 2 tbsp cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup sweet things that you would usually put in a cookie
1/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup  crushed salty things that you would NEVER put in a cookie
1 & 1/2 tbsp dry creme brule coffee grounds




First you are going to cream your butter, the sugars and the corn syrup in your stand mixer on medium high for 2 or 3 minutes, until it's nice and fluffy.
Next,  throw in the eggs and vanilla on and mix for another 10 minutes.
Turn the speed down to low and add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and give it a quick whirl around until it's just mixed - don't over mix or your cookies will not be fabulous.

Now you  add in your favourite sweet additions, the oats, and coffee grounds and , again, just give it a quick mix.

Finally, add the salty things and just mix it enough that it's all incorporated in there - I did that part by hand.

Use an ice cream scoop to form your cookies - it should be about 3 tbls in each cookie. Put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet, making sure that there is at least 3" between so they can spread. Put the sheets in the fridge for at least one hour. I don't know why but every single recipe I saw says you MUST do this so that means it's important.

Preheat to 375F

Bake for 14-18 minutes depending on the size of the cookies and your oven. I read a million recipes for these and that was the range given for the most part. I used two trays so they were on separate racks and I switched them  after 7 minutes. Bottom line, keep your eye on them and let them start to brown a bit before taking them out.
**EDITED TO ADD THIS NOTE:
I made them a second time with slightly different ingredients and chilled them for just one hour and they were totally different than the first batch, which I chilled for a few hours. The cookies that I chilled for only one hour were quite thin and chewy and really great but the cookies that were chilled for longer were thicker and spread less so it depends on your preference, as far as texture goes. I also cooked the cookies that were chilled for only one hour for about 11 minutes and that was enough.