Compost Cookies (to Satisfy Every Craving!)

Compost Cookies® are loaded with all kinds of sweet and salty snacks. Adapted from Milk Bar’s famous recipe, this version has peanut-ty flavor.

Compost Cookies. I think we can all agree that it’s not the most tempting name. But don’t let that fool you! These cookies are buttery rounds of YUM. Filled with plenty of mix-ins that include chocolate chips, peanut butter morsels, pretzels, graham crackers, oats, honey-roasted peanuts, and coffee grounds. Yes! You read that right. Not used coffee grounds, but fresh ground coffee. Each bite offers something unique for the ultimate snacking experience.

The story goes that these cookies were born of necessity due to an ingredients shortage. And sweets chef Christina Tosi of fame made something special from what was on hand. They’ve been called Kitchen Sink Cookies and Garbage Cookies due to their impressive amount of add-ins. “Call them what you want, and make them as we make them at Milk Bar, or add your own favorite snacks to the cookie base in place of ours”. Which is exactly what I did.

One special ingredient I added to the base dough is plain yellow cornmeal. This gives the cookie even more creaveable texture. I’ve made these a few times now – with and without – and I love the cornmeal addition. However, if you don’t have cornmeal on hand, it can be replaced with an equal amount of flour. No big deal!

Get all the dry dough ingredients into a big bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside. Next, it’s time to raid your snack pantry!

Compost Cookie mix-ins.

The Milk Bar cookie recipe encourages experimentation, which makes me happy. Who doesn’t love a variable recipe where almost anything goes? However, my peanut-ty take was so well-received that I keep repeating the same ingredients. And that was the reason I decided to post the recipe here.

Gather the recipe’s mix-in ingredients, or whatever mixture of snack foods that inhabits your pantry, and stir them together in a bowl. Set aside to make the base dough.

Make the base dough

In the bowl of an electric mixer (preferably a stand mixer) cream together butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Add an egg and vanilla extract; blend those together well.

Add the dry mixture and beat until just combined. Don’t over mix!

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Finally, get all those bits and bobs in the bowl and mix briefly. Beat together for 10-15 on low speed. This should distribute the mix-ins throughout without beating them up too much.

Look at that gorgeous dough chock full of – everything! All of those additions seem to be held together with a whisper of cookie dough. But in the end, the cookies bake up with a nice balanced ratio of dough to mix-ins.

The right measure.

Portion these by the level 1/4 cup measures. Use a standard size ice cream scoop if you have one. Because it’s approximately 1/4 cup capacity. Space the cookies far apart. They will spread a little. If you find they’re spreading a little unevenly, you can gently push the cookie edges into a round shape using a butter knife while they are still hot.

Add some extras on top! This gives the finished cookies bakery-made appeal. I used broken pretzel sticks on some of the unbaked cookies, and tiny twists on others. Bake the cookies. They should be well browned on the edges and barely set in the centers. About 13 minutes was just right in my oven, but no two ovens are alike. So keep an eye on them as they bake.

I’m tempted to call these ‘Midnight Snack Cookies’ instead of ‘Compost Cookies’ because they sweet, salty, crunchy, chewy, chocolaty, and peanut-buttery all at once. They satisfy every craving!

This recipe makes about 2 dozen (I got 21 in my kitchen), so there’s plenty to share. Although, no judgment here if you decide to keep them all to yourself!

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Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SprinkleBakes