compost cookies

I love the salty/sweet combination Chocolate covered pretzels, salted caramels, you name it, I like it (especially when there is dark chocolate involved.  I first read about the Compost cookie on Serious Eats, who had done a review of Momofoku Milk Bar in New York,  and there was this cookie that had potato chips and pretzels in it. I was intrigued.  I didn't know how the crunchy of the chips/pretzels would do and if they would get overcooked in the oven.  I filed them in the part of my brain that holds places I want to go to visit when I'm in New York, and promptly forgot about it.

I would see different reviews of Momofoku Milk Bar, and then would mention the Compost Cookie, and I would think hmmmmmmm. Until a few weeks ago, when one of my favorite food bloggers, The Amateur Gourmet, put the recipe for the cookies on his website.  As it often happens, I had a hankering to make the recipe. I thought about it, and thought about it, and thought about it some more. But I was leaving for Japan in a few days, and I really didn't have time to be baking cookies. 

Then, I headed down to Tim's before Japan, and we found ourselves with a free evening before we went.  Because we love to cook, we headed to the grocery store and got the ingredients for roasted chicken with potatoes, and the compost cookies.

We got down to work, and I was surprised at the method for making these cookies. Once you have creamed the butter and sugar, you add the eggs and vanilla, and then beat for 10 minutes, creating a light and fluffy texture for the batter. then you mix in the flour and other add ins, just to incorporate. I think this gave the cookies an awesome texture and I am definitely going to try it with some of my other cookie recipes. (up next: chocolate chip and peanut butter). I also followed the recipe to dose them out with an ice cream scoop, which made some definitely huge sized cookies (mine tend to be cookie-scoop size)  I put them on the cookie sheet, put them in the oven, where they proceeded to spread out uncontrollably, and get too brown around the edges and still borderline raw in the middle. It was at that point I looked at the recipe again, and realized that the cookies needed 1hr to 1 week refrigeration. I threw the rest of the dough into the fridge, waited for an hour (while I was falling asleep) and put the second batch in to bake.  they looked a little better, but still not great.  

When we got back from Japan, I read an article on  Christina Tosi (pastry chef of Momofoku Milk Bar) that said that the butter she used for cookies was the fancy European butter Plugra.  I was itching to try the recipe again, and this time I wanted to use the Plugra (what Tim calls 'magic butter') and give the cookies a longer chill time in the fridge.

And there was success!  And happiness in the land. The combination of the magic butter and the resting time in the fridge for the dough made fantastically chewy, awesome cookies.  The salty and sweet of the peanut butter chips and the semisweet mini chips, combined with the kettle chips and the pretzels.... I can't wait to make these cookies again.

Recipe:

My add ins:

3/4 c Mini semisweet choc chips

3/4 c peanut butter chips

3/4 c crushed pretzels

3/4 c crushed potato chips

If you like salty and sweet, make these now.

Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies of Deliciousness.

Have I talked about the shortbread cookies at Panera before? No? that is a glaring and irresponsible oversight. I love the shortbread cookies at Panera. They are buttery deliciousness.  And apparently, the recipie to which is closely guarded by Panera, due to my diligent fruitless internet searches.

So. I have tried other shortbread recipes, but they have not come close to the awesome of the Panera ones. As a result, I decided to branch out and make Brown Sugar Shortbread cookies. I took a recipe from Ina Garten that I made as regular shortbread, which was good, a solid B+ and substituted the sugar with dark brown sugar, which gave it a nutty, deeper flavor. I think these rival the ones at Panera in terms of tasty-ness.

I used the fall shape cutouts that I borrowed from my cousin Kelly,  the big ones are leaves and the tiny ones are acorns.

 

Cooling on the racks. 

 

Acorns just out of the oven (excuse the crappy kitchen lighting)

I am going to try to resist eating all of them before work on monday.

Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies 

(adapted from an Ina Garten Recipe)

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 3/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/2-inch thick and cut with a 3 by 1-inch finger-shaped cutter. Or cutter of your choice. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.