Compost Cookies

Has anyone ever been to Momofuku Bakery in New York City? The bakery is located on 2nd Avenue on the corner or 13th St., and is one of those delicious wonders fusing old time New York with modern international cuisine.  Wait? What does that mean? Well, the great thing about Momofuku, is that much like old time New York, it has a cult following--crooners, locals, businessmen, and other New Yorkers know the bakery.  They eat its "crack pie," "compost cookies" and dine at its milk bar.  Yet, like much of international modern New York, Momofuku comes from an Asian inspired business model with its fantastic in-house hipster chefs who wear brightly colored headbands.  Momofuku is as if Hello Kitty moved to New York circa 1940 and decided to bake some zaney cookies.

What do I love about Momofuku? I love their crazy recipes.  Anyone can make chocolate chip cookies and apple pie, but can they make these traditional recipes from potato chips, pretzels, Fritos, and pounds of chocolate?! Probably not, and that's what I LOVE about Momofuku.  Finally, after much wait, I acquired the recipe for the bakery's most popular cookie, Compost Cookies.  These treats are similar to the "Dump Cookies" of an earlier post, only they demand the addition of salty ingredients like chips and pretzels  making this cookie your ultimate, clearly delicious, salty + sweet desert.

Compost Cookies
Christina Tosi, one of the Momofuku chefs, is credited with making this recipe and you can find her original here.  However, I've made numerous changes to the original (the omision of corn syrup, addition of whole wheat flour instead of all purpose, and an overall change to the heat and cook time).  Also, this recipe calls for 3 cups of filling ingredients--1.5 cups of salty stuff and 1.5 cups of sweet stuff.  You can literally put anything in here for these fillings, but if it's your first time making this recipe, I suggest you keep the salty ingredients in tact whilst playing with the sugary stuff.  Basically, make this for the first time using Fritos, potato chips, and pretzels, but feel free to play with your chocolate chip/sugar combination.

Ingredients:
* 1 cup butter
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1 cup regular sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon almond extract
* 2 large eggs
* 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 teaspoons kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 1/2 cups your favorite sweet/chocolatey treats: I used 1/2 cup dark chocolate morsels, 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup cocoa crispies
* 1 1/2 cup salt ingredients: I used 1/2 cup honey mustard pretzels, 1/2 cup regular potato chips, and 1/2 cup Fritos (all of which are crumbled into miniature pieces)

1.)Preheat oven to 350F.  Cream butter and sugars in an electric stand mixer on low.  Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl after 2-3 minutes to incorporate all ingredients.
2.) Add and mix wet ingredients--eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. 
3.) Add and mix dry ingredients--baking soda, salt, baking powder, and flour.  Mix on medium-to-low speed and continue to scrape down the sides of your bowl to fully integrate the ingredients.

4.) NOW, the fun part: mix in your favorite fillings by starting with the sweet stuff.  I used chocolate chips, mini chocolate chips, and cocoa crisps.  Add the salty ingredients last (so they don't lose their structural integrity during the mixing process) and scrape down the bowl one last time.
5.) Scoop onto a greased cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop (the tool of any great cookie chef!).
6.) Bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes or until edges are a little more than slightly browned.  For some reason, it's REALLY easy to overcook this recipe in a conventional oven.  The first time I made these, I actually burned 90% of my cookies! It was a travesty--I hadn't burned cookies since I was about 10 years old, so I suggest a serious bit of caution during the cooking process.   I'm still uncertain as to why these cookies overcooked the way they did with my first batch.  Perhaps the original instructions of 400F for 9 minutes was the cause.  SO, bake these at 350F and check at 6 minutes.  You'll be glad you did.  The resulting cookie is soft in the middle with some elements of being crunchy.  YUM.
7.) Remove from oven and allow to sit on the cookie sheet for another minute.  Then, transfer to wax paper, or cooling rack.
8.) Feed to friends and cooking assistants.  Enjoy!

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