momofuku milk bar's compost cookies

I visited Momofuku Milk Bar, helmed by Christina Tosi, over a year ago and wasn't at all intrigued by its compost cookie. I think I was put off by the coffee grinds.  Last week, I read not one, but two blog posts about this garbage compost cookie with pretzels, potato chips and other assorted cupboard detritus, and I became curious. The final straw was when The BFF came over with a brownie filled with Oreos and toffee bits. "A Compost Brownie!" I exclaimed. Well, not really, as she purposely chose those add-ins to enhance her recipe.  I, with less lofty ideals, am interested in clearing out some of the odds and ends in my pantry and have come up with an interesting mix.

Poppycock with Pecans

Rolos and Butterfinger Jingles

Pretzels

The recipe is found here at Regis and Kelly's website.  (n.b. After reading countless comments on other websites, I increased the amount of flour to a generous 1 3/4 cups.  You could try 2.  The original measurement of 1 1/2 c. isn't enough.)

Basically, it's a chocolate chip cookie recipe with mix-ins.  I had to run out to get the corn syrup, which did not make it into the photo shoot.

I needed to check that the Jingles, leftover from Christmas, were cookie-worthy and am glad to report they're just fine.  The popcorn was a bit of a pain to cut and a few rolled off the board and onto the floor.  The five second rule applies in the this house.  (That would be for me, NOT the batter!)

You're supposed to use a 6 oz. ice cream scoop for the cookies.  I have no idea what the ball weighed, but I made them BIG and put 6 on the sheet and into the freezer.

Freezing the dough is crucial, because if you don't, the cookie will spread thin and probably burn.  My first sheet came out quite well.

                                        1 1/2 oz.                                 6 oz.

Curiosity got the best of me, and I weighed my ice cream scoop-sized ones; they came in at 1 1/2 oz.  I then decided to make one 6 oz. one just to see how large it would be.

It was HUGE.  The cookie took 18 minutes to bake (rather than 10 minutes for the others) and came in with a whopping 6-inch diameter.  You wonder if ice cream manufacturers have a weird sizing for their scoops.  I'll have to look into that, because my ice cream scoop did the job in sizing it for the right amount of bake time.  (The little guy in the back right was a kid-friendly size.  I couldn't make them all gargantuan, though my favorite size is the medium sized one.)

The cookie is a wonderful combination of sweet, salty, crunchy and chewy. (The popcorn added extra chew.)  I had a 2:1 ratio of sweet to salty and it'd definitely be better with 1:1, as the recipe suggests.  The cookie is fantastic and next time I make it, I will try potato chips with the pretzels.