Compost Cookies
When I first heard about Milk Bar’s famous Compost Cookie recipe by Christina Tosi, I knew I had to try it. As much as I loved the combination of salty and sweet flavors, what I appreciated even more was the inherent flexibility of this “everything but the kitchen sink” cookie. There are many versions of her recipe online, and I’ve drawn from several to come up with this one. I’ve seen it with and without coffee grounds, but I love the idea of putting something in my cookies that would have normally gone in the compost bin. And maybe you have some crumbled-up bits at the bottom of a bag of pretzels, breakfast cereal or potato chips that you can use, perhaps a few graham crackers that are going stale and that tiny amount of leftover chocolate chips and butterscotch chips that aren’t enough for a full batch of cookies. It sounds like a crazy approach to a recipe, but surprisingly, it all works.
Compost Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, (2 sticks)
- 1 cup sugar
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, or dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons coffee grounds, used but clean (you can also substitute fresh finely ground coffee)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ cup rolled oats
- 1½ cups chocolate chips, and/or white chocolate chips
- ½ cup graham cracker crumbs
- 1½ cups crushed pretzles, breakfast cereal and/or potato chips
Instructions
- Cream butter, sugars, coffee grounds and honey in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium high for 2–3 minutes, until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a spatula. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix on low speed until incorporated, and then beat on high speed for 10 minutes. The sugar will dissolve and the mixture will increase in volume.
- Then add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and oats and mix just until incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips and graham cracker crumbs, then gently fold in the crushed potato chip and/or pretzel crumbs. Try not to over mix but make sure they are fairly well distributed.
- Refrigerate cookie dough for at least 1–2 hours, or overnight. If you bake them without refrigerating, the cookies will spread too much.
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Using an ice cream scoop, portion the dough onto a parchment- or silicon-lined baking sheet, spacing them 4 inches apart. Bake 9–10 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to brown. Enjoy them warm from the oven or store in an airtight container for a few days or freeze. You can also freeze the balls of cookie dough and bake them a few at a time as needed.
