It was almost exactly 2 years ago that I had my first packet of that sweet salty popcorn. I can’t remember the brand name, but you all know the one, you know the one in the green packet, yeah you do. I know a lot of you out there have had that experience of opening that sweet sweet…and salty packet and shoving handfuls of that popcorn into your mouth until BAM – the whole packet has magically vanished. By magically vanished, I mean you’ve shovelled the entire contents of that packet down your gob.
Since that day, I have been obsessed with the sweet/salty combination. Chocolate with flakes of salt, salted caramel – anything with that flavour combo, I’m instantly hooked.
Enter my new favourite salty sweet recipe. Momofuku’s compost cookies. Now a quick lecture for those of you who have been living under a rock… I will explain that Momofuku’s line of restaurants in New York headed up by David Chang has caused as much excitement in the food world as One Direction has amongst 14-year-old girls. Much to the excitement of Aussies (well Sydneysiders), Chang has now opened a restaurant in Sydney, Seiobo (this apparently was only because Sydney asked first, bit slow on the uptake Melbourne – not happy!). Part of Momofuku’s line in NY includes a bakery/milkbar and this is where this morsel of heaven is sold.
These cookies include a combination of sweet and salty snacks such as pretzels, choc chips, salted chips, ground coffee and oats. The point of this cookie and the reason why it’s called the Compost Cookie is that you can use whatever snacks you have lying around or you enjoy the most. But to get that sweet salty combination, select a combination of both sweet and savoury snacks.
Just a little heads up…Anyone you serve this cookie to will instantly become your best friend.
Momofuku milkbar’s compost cookies
Makes 15-20 cookies
What you need:
- 225g (16 tbsp) butter, at room temperature
- 100g (1 cup) caster sugar
- 150g (2/3 cup, tightly packed) light brown sugar
- 50g (2 tbsp) glucose or 25g (1tbsp) light corn syrup - can be found at the supermarket
- 1 egg
- 2g (1/2 tsp) vanilla extract
- 225g plain flour
- 2g (1/2 tsp) baking powder
- 1 1/2g (1/4 tsp) baking soda/bicarb soda
- 4g (1 tsp) flaked sea salt
- 250g (1 1/4 cup) chocolate chips
- 40g (1/3 cup) rolled oats
- 5g (2 1/2 tsp) ground coffee – don’t skip this, gives a really great depth of flavour
- 50g (2 cups) potato chips
- 50g (1 cup) mini pretzels (break some and keep some whole)
Pop the softened butter, sugars and corn syrup in a bowl and with a stand mixer using the beater attachment (or handheld mixer), beat on medium-high for a couple of minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat for 7 to 8 minutes.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and then add to the butter/sugar mixture and beat on low-speed until just combined. No more than 1 minute as this will overmix the dough.
Keep the mixer on low-speed and then add chocolate chips, oats, ground coffee, chips and pretzels and mix until just incorporated. Again you don’t want to overmix as you don’t want to break up the pretzels and chips too much.
Using an ice-cream scoop or 1/3 measuring cup, place portions of dough on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Pat the top of the dough down so the domes are flat. Cover tightly with cling film and put in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour (or up to 1 week). Please don’t be tempted to bake them straight away as they won’t work properly.
Pre-heat oven to 190C/375F
Arrange the dough on a baking sheet about 6 to a baking a sheet ( I used two baking sheets and alternated with one in the oven and then one cooling and then I swapped until all the cookies were baked). Make sure you leave enough space between them as they spread ALOT! And keep the ones that you aren’t cooking at the time in the fridge. Bake the cookies for 15-18 mins. Keep an eye on them and take them out when they are a faint golden brown on the edges and still yellow in the middle. Take them out and let them cool on the baking sheet.
Cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days at room temp or 1 month in the freezer.
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