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Okay, I promise this is my last Anderson Cooper post for the month. You guys are probably sick of it, but I promised I’d talk about the cookies I brought him and the production crew!
Well, here they are! These compost cookies are Christina Tosi’s creations. She’s the pastry chef at Momofuku’s Milk Bar in NYC. She has the most insane creations and they all are like crack, I mean, she has a pie that’s called “crack pie.”
It’s definitely all in her process. You’d think it’s crazy but beating the wet ingredients for 7 minutes is really necessary. If you’re pressed for time or you have no patience, these cookies probably aren’t for you. However, I do think you should spare some time for these babies. They’re the most ridiculous yet most well-made cookies I’ve ever tasted.
When I was deciding what cookie to bring Anderson Cooper, I decided to use my trusty friend, Google, and figure out what his favorite cookie was. He’s the world’s pickiest eater. In fact, he eats the same thing every day, and on the show when I was there, he admitted to just ordering off the children’s menu whenever he’s at a hotel or restaurant because it’s simpler. I don’t really blame him – I mean, chicken tenders and french fries are total comfort foods for me, haha
Anyway, so after searching Google, it was said that when Anderson was filling in on Regis & Kelly, he brought the audience his favorite cookies, which were Christina Tosi’s compost cookies.
Anderson, for being a picky eater, you have great taste, my friend.
These cookies have EVERYTHING in them.
Pretzels, potato chips, oatmeal, coffee grounds, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, graham cracker crumbs…
I feel like I should be saying, “and then I threw in gummy worms and skittles!” haha
Again, the recipe has ingredients that you probably aren’t used to in regular baking but don’t omit them. You’ll ruin the cookie. Milk powder? Go get it. Beating the batter for 7-8 minutes? Do it. Chilling them before baking? Do it. Following the directions to a T? You better believe it!
Ok, so I’m going to now photobomb you with how I packaged these cookies for Anderson Cooper. If you want the recipe, it’s below the cut. And yes, you’re gonna WANT the recipe. You HAVE to make these and see for yourself why everyone raves about them!
I individually wrapped each cookie & stuck my business card in each one.
Then to protect these precious babies, I placed them in two bubble wrappers and sealed them with my personalized stickers.
They fit perfectly in this box.
And the box fit perfectly in this brown kraft bag I bought at the craft store. Stuck more of my stickers on there and of course, I didn’t forget the twine ;)
Anderson Cooper’s Favorite Cookies: Compost Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup (147 g) tightly packed dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cups (167 g) bread flour, you may use AP flour instead if you don’t have it on hand
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup (135 g) mini chocolate chips
- 1 cup (170 g) butterscotch chips
- ½ cup (118 g) of graham crust, see below
- ⅓ cup (27 g) old-fashioned rolled oats
- 2 ½ teaspoon ground coffee
- 2 cups (170 g) plain potato chips
- 1 cup (80 g) mini pretzels
For the graham crust:
- 1 ½ cups (126 g) graham cracker crumbs
- ¼ cup (32 g) dry milk powder
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup (59 ml) heavy cream
Instructions
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugars, and corn syrup on medium-high for 2-3 minutes then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat for 7-8 minutes.
- Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until everything is just about coming together, no longer than 1 minute.
- Still on low speed, add the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, graham crust, oats, and ground coffee, and mix for 30 seconds.
- Then add the potato chips and pretzels until just incorporated.
- Using a medium sized cookie scoop, portion out dough onto your prepared baking sheets. Pat the top domes of the cookies flat. Wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator to chill for up to one hour. Do NOT bake your cookies at room temperature. They will not bake correctly.
- Heat oven to 375 °F (191 °C). Take the cookie sheets out of the refrigerator and place inside oven. Bake for 18 minutes. They should be faintly brown on the edges but still yellow in the center. Give them an extra minute or two if that's not the case. The idea is to have the outside edge a bit crispy with the insides chewy and soft.
- Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week or up to 1 month in a freezer.
For the graham crust:
- Toss the graham crumbs, milk powder, sugar and salt with your hands in a medium bowl to evenly distribute your dry ingredients.
- Whisk the melted butter and cream together and pour over your dry ingredients. The mixture should hold its shape if you squeeze it in the palm of your hands. If it doesn't, it's not moist enough, so add another 1 tbsp. (14g) or so of melted butter.
- Use required amount in compost cookie recipe and store the rest in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 month.
I don’t understand how the graham crust is incorporated?
It’s added in in step #5
You do not mention what to do with it the “crust”. Do you crumble the mixture and incorporate it into the dough? You call it a crust so, is it baked? They look great but I don’t understand.
In step 5, it says: Still on low speed, add the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, graham crust, oats, and ground coffee, and mix for 30 seconds.
I’m confused to when & where do you put the graham cracker crusted mixture????
You add it in step #5. The instructions from step 11 and beyond are for the graham cracker crust that you add into step #5.
How many cookies do you get in this batch? It says yield 2…
sorry, I converted recipe plugins and I guess it didn’t convert correctly. It should be 2 dozen :)
These look like such yummy cookies. First off the oven should be at 325 not 375. The first batch sound like a stone, they were so hard. There is way to much sugar in total. The cookies should have a savoriness to them. All you get is sweet upon sweet. I will be making these again with a few tweaking, I love the idea of potato chips and pretzels in a cookie.
This is an update to my comments of a few days ago. My family loved these cookies. They do usually like things a little sweeter than I do, so the amount of butterscotch chips didn’t bother them as much as it did me. It sounds like I’ll be expected to make these again! Will definitely cut back the butterscotch and reduce banking temp to 350.
I’ve been looking forward to making these for days, but am disappointed in the results. The butterscotch chips overwhelmed almost the other flavors. I looked at Christina Tosi’s recipe on another site, and there should have been only 1/2 cup of butterscotch chips (and they’re supposed to be minis). The recipe also called for 2 T glucose. I don’t know how much difference that would have made.
The other problem was that, when I checked these after only 15 minutes, most of them were already burned. I ended up having to throw away most of them.
There used to be a restaurant in town that made these, and they were wonderful. I’m not sure if I’d make these again, but they’d probably be fine with a couple of little adjustments.
I lowered the oven to 325 with better results. I agree way too much butterscotch chips. That’s all you taste and smell.
For the ground coffee, do you use instant coffee, or just regular coffee grounds ? Please respond asap, I’m dying to make these. They look awesome. Thanks :)
I just used regular coffee grounds.
Coffee grounds as in what you have after your morning cuppa?
No, as in the dried coffee grounds that you scoop out from a bag for your morning cuppa :)
Question, if you don’t have a refrigerator big enough to handle numerous cookie sheets, what do you do with remaining dough between batches?
First time trying these. Does chilling the dough in refrig count if not out on cookie sheet?
Hi Sue, I highly recommend portioning out the dough into balls and then putting them in the fridge because if you just put the entire bowl of dough in the fridge to chill, it becomes SO hard that it’s impossible to scoop (while I was testing this recipe, I did that the first time – not fun!). If you don’t have a fridge big enough to handle cookie sheets, you can always line a plate with parchment paper and place dough balls onto them that way to chill and then transfer to a baking sheet when ready. Hope this helps!
I am so excited to make these this weekend for my husband’s 35th birthday! With that said I’m a little worried as I recently sold my kitchenaide stand mixer, do you think I will be able to accomplish this dish with just a hand-held? Next do you crush up the pretzels at all or just mix them in whole? I can’t wait to comment on how they turned out.
Hi Jayde – I’m not sure if the hand-held will work too well with this particular recipe because it doesn’t have as much motor power as the stand mixer or a big enough blade to whip much air into the butter mixture. You can certainly try, though! You mix the pretzels in whole.
i’m so excited to make these! looking to bake something special for a very special aunt that always makes unique dishes. she will LOVE these! quick question – regular coffee grounds or instant?