If you’ve never thought to put cereal or marshmallows into cookies, you may wish to rethink that.
I’ve made plenty of Rice Krispies Bars and Chocolate Candy Cereal Bars with with cereal and marshmallows, but have never put them into cookies.
Why not? I have no idea. But there was no time like the present to start.
Here are my candid thoughts and notes about the cookies and recipe, which is from Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook. I am posting it as part of the Milk Bar Mondays group I’m part of and a half dozen of us all made this recipe this week. Unfortunately, many of had some baking fails, ranging from mild to severe.
I wrote Tosi’s recipe (below) as it is written in her book. However, I halved the recipe because I didn’t need 15 to 20 large bakery style cookies just layin’ around. I yielded 9 large cookies, which was plenty. These things are about the size of soccer balls.
I followed her recipe to the T. I never follow recipes exactly, but I did in this case because I know what a stickler she is for directions and implies that if you don’t follow her recipes exactly, there’s no telling if it will work or not.
As long as I was going to put the time and energy into making these cookies, and all that butter and sugar too, I wanted the recipe to work.
I didn’t use measuring cups and exclusively used my food scale, weighing each and every ingredient down to the gram. It was literally an exact science.
You must chill the dough for at least one hour, or up to one week. I chilled my dough for approximately 44 hours. Almost two days.
I slightly patted down the domed tops of my cookie dough balls before chilling them, but didn’t make them as flat as hockey pucks which was a good call as these cookies needed all the help they could get in terms of staying puffy. They spread and flattened, dramatically. This was very disappointing as I watched them splooge and spread while they were baking. I wanted to beat on the door of my oven and scream, No, Don’t You Dare Spread! But they did anyway.
She suggests baking these cookies for 18 minutes, but when I made Compost Cookies using her recipe, I thought those cookies were on the cusp of being too overdone for my liking and she suggests a similar baking time in that recipe.
With that knowledge, I decided to start watching these cookies closely at about 13 minutes and I’m glad I did. My cookies were done and crispy at 13 1/2 to 14 minutes and at 18 minutes I would have had set off the smoke alarm. Butter burns in a hurry.
I love the addition of the Cornflake Crunch (you make a batch of that before you actually make the cookies) but don’t feel it’s worth the extra step. I will use crushed Frosted Flakes straight from the box next time if I feel the need for flaky sweet cereal in cookies.
I thought the cereal and marshmallows were great in combination, especially with the chocolate chips (I used regular-sized chocolate chips, not mini). Sort of like having smores within cookies. Look at those toasty marshmallows. A perfect gooeyfest.
The dough, like all her doughs, is heavy on the butter. The cookies are very buttery and rich, but I couldn’t get over their lack of puffiness.
A puffy, chewy cookie, with less crispiness and more softness is as important to me as taste and these weren’t as puffy or soft ‘n chewy as I had hoped.
And I honestly have no idea what I could have done differently. It’s interesting because when I googled this recipe, every blog post I came across for these cookies shows paper thin cookies that are of the less-than-perfectly-photogenic variety so I know I am not alone.
I researched online to find out the causes of flat or spreading cookies and the general issues contributing to the problem include:
dough too warm (mine was chilled for two days, not my problem)
high butter content cookies spread more easily (yes, that’s these)
large cookies don’t have as good of a chance at puffing compared to smaller cookies because of their sheer mass and size (check again, these are cookies are little bowling balls at 1/3 cup of raw dough, each)
Overall, I loved the combination of crunchy cereal that stayed fairly crunchy, the gooey melty marshmallows, and it’s fun to try new cookie recipes.
However, I have my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe (that rolls chocolate chip, subtle peanut butter, and oatmeal cookies all into one) and will probably add some fun add-in’s like cereal or marshmallows to that dough base in the future because I know it gives me the puff and chewiness I want. Not that these were awful or anything.
Pin This Recipe
Cornflake-Chocolate-Chip-Marshmallow Cookies
Smores-inspired cookies the size of your head with crunchy Cornflake clusters baked in! It’s the famous Momofuku Milkbar recipe and so good. Make sure to read over the blog post for tips and tricks to ensure cookie success.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 225 g butter, room temperature (16 tablespoons, 2 sticks)
- 250 g granulated sugar (1 1/4 cups)
- 150 g light brown sugar (2/3 cup tightly packed)
- 1 egg
- 2 g vanilla extract (1/2 teaspoon)
- 240 g flour (1 1/2 cups)
- 2 g baking powder (1/2 teaspoon)
- 1.5 g baking soda (1/2 teaspoon)
- 5 g kosher salt (1 1/4 teaspoons)
- 3/4 recipe Cornflake Crunch which is 270 g (3 cups), see below
- 125 g mini chocolate chips (2/3 cup)
- 65 g mini marshmallows (1 1/4 cups)
Cornflake Crunch
- 170 g cornflakes (haf of 12-ounce box, 5 cups)
- 40 g milk powder (1/2 cup)
- 40 g sugar (3 tablespoons)
- 4 g kosher salt (1 teaspoon)
- 130 g butter, melted (9 tablespoons)
Instructions
Cornflake Crunch
- Heat oven to 275F. Pour the cornflakes in a medium bowl and crush them with your hands to one-quarter of their original size. Add milk powder, sugar, salt, and toss to mix. Add butter and toss to coat; butter will act as the glue binding the dry ingredients to the cereal creating small clusters.
- Spread the clusters on a parchment- or Silpat-lined sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes, at which point they should look toasted, smell buttery, and crunch gently when slightly cooled and chewed. Cool the cornflake crunch completely before storing or using in a recipe. Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the crunch will keep fresh for 1 week; in the fridge or freezer, it wil keep for 1 month.
Making the Cookies
- Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl, add the egg and vanilla, and beat for 7 to 8 minutes.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute (do not walk away from mixer or overmix). Scrape down sides of bowl.
- Still on low speed, paddle in the cornflake crunch and chocolate chips until just incorporated, no more than 30 to 45 seconds. Paddle in marshmallows until just incorporated.
- Using a 2 3/4-ounce ice cream scoop or a 1/3 cup measure, portion out the dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Pat the tops of the dough domes flat. Wrap sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 1 week. Do not bake your cookies at room temperature – they will not hold their shape.
- Heat oven to 375F. Arrange the chilled dough a minimum of 4 inches apart on parchment- or Silpat-lined sheet pans. Bake for 18 minutes. The cookies will puff, crackle, and spread, At the 18-minute mark, the cookies should be browned on the edges and just beginning to brown toward the enter. Leave them in the oven for an additional minute or so if they aren’t and still seem pale and doughy on the surface.
- Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before transferring to an airtight container for storage. At room temperature, the cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month.
Notes
Recipe from Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
16Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 414Total Fat: 21gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 60mgSodium: 490mgCarbohydrates: 56gFiber: 1gSugar: 35gProtein: 3g
Other Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook-Inspired Recipes
Cinnamon Bun Pie – I made a 10 minute cheater’s version and highly recommend it. Best way to doctor up a can of cinnamon rolls, ever.
Crack Pie – as addictive, decadent and fabulous as the name sounds. Labor-intensive, but worth it.
Buttery Toasted Cap’n Crunchies – I used her Cornflake Crunch idea as inspiration and the result is buttery, toasted cereal that tastes like one big bowl of buttered toast pieces. If you like buttered toast, this is your recipe. I prefer Cap’n Crunchies to the Cornflake Crunch as I think these have more flavor and more texture.
Compost Cookies – Potato chips in cookies, with the salty ‘n sweet combination, really is so good. Don’t knock it til you try it.
You seem to have some frustration with Tosi. I can understand that. I have both of her cookbooks and the cookies I’ve made haven’t turned out the same as the recipes. I will say a couple things that justify to me why they haven’t been working as well:
She uses European style butter which has a higher milk fat content
She uses convection ovens
So when she makes substitutions or says things aren’t important (like bread flour), I think they might be important…which I realize can be frustrating for the home baker. Most recreations of her recipes that I’ve seen do not look the same (google search the bagel bombs lol).
We are installing a convection oven in the next couple of months so I’m curious to retry some of the recipes and see if it helps at all. She has a lot of cooking tutorials on youtube that i’ve watched and tried to follow.Â
Cake looks delicious, I will try that recipe next year
Wow18 minutes is WAY too long to cook these cookies, more like 10 minutes
18 minutes is what C. Tosi writes in her cookbook – I agree, it’s too long and I baked mine less and noted that. She also calls for dough mounds that are about 1/3 cup each…they are seriously like small bowling balls. They are HUGE. The biggest cookies I’ve ever made which is why 18 mins more sense, but I found 15-16 to me about right (from memory – this post is 9+ mos old now)
I put my timer on for 18 minutes as well and by 16 they were burnt to tar, trying my next batch at 12 minutes and I turned the temp down to 360.
Your experience is what mine would have been if I would have baked for as long as she recommends. I personally don’t have great luck with her cookie recipes – too much butter, prone to spreading, baking thin and crispy, and burning. Sigh. I think her recipes are written for commercial kitchens. Lots of people have the same issues with her cookie recipes baking thin and crispy and like your burnt. If you google it and look at google images, MOST people’s cookies are thin and not thick and puffy.
Oh, and I underbake her recipes, as well.
Not sure if I missed this in the comments, but did you use bread flour? I think that is the key to most, if not all, of her cookie recipes.
I made a version of these using frosted mini wheats crunch (I hate throwing away the leftover crumbs on the bottom of the bag) and those mini marshmallow bits that you can get at Target. I also made them smaller, using a #30 scooper, which is still pretty big. I didn’t have any problems with the recipe.
I didn’t use bread flour on these; she doesn’t make that a ‘mandatory’ in her recipes and she advises it but I wish she’d just come out and say – If you don’t use bread flour these are going to be thin; or be more absolute! As she isn’t shy about calling for every other specialty ingredient known to man! Ha! So no, I didn’t, just A-P flour but in the future will only attempt her cookies with bread flour!
It did take me four tries to get it to where I liked it. I guess I had enough fun, and not enough back up recipes, to keep going. But I can see where all manner of problems showed up. I will say that the corn cookies I made at altitude turned out nicely for me (From the Lucky Peach recipe). Crisp, like a corn shortbread around the edges, and soft in the middle like cornbread. But nowhere near as flat as greasy as hers turned out. I am probably doing something very wrong and getting very lucky. Thank you for blogging and sharing your desserts.
I have been making these at altitude in Boulder, CO. All manner of confusion has shown up. In searching recipes today I even found I have been using more sugar than called for. (1.5 cups instead of 1.25). But my recipe is working nicely now. That creaming adds too much air so I had to cut down on soda and powder by about half. I also added more flour than called for in cups. I also noticed an error in the recipe I think. If you pretend flour has 5 ounces per cup, 1.5 cups gives 7.5 ounces. Multiply by 28 grams and I get 210 grams of flour instead of 240. My recollection from hunting up the book recipe was that there was another conversion error. I make mine based on 4.5 ounces per cup, an average of what I have seen. (Leads to 189 grams. I use 200 at 5340 feet elevation to reduce spreading somewhat.)
I have seen the actual cookie. Much denser and moister, and not at all like most pictures in web recipes. Many people liked mine better. (9/10 votes)
This cookie was almost IMPOSSIBLE for anyone in our baking group to get right and we are all pretty decent cooks and blog about food every day and so for 6 people to ALL have trouble with it says something about the recipe and google searches turn up the same issues.
Overall, I have come to the conclusion that the Tosi cookie recipes ALL have too much butter in them for the amt of other dry ingredients, especially flour. She underestimates flour and basically all that butter and all that creaming makes for a cookie that tries to stay thick but it deflates and then gets a bit too crispy for my taste b/c it’s so butter-heavy, ratio-wise, compared to other things. I also personally do not like baking powder in cookies; just my thing. And I would rather make normal sized cookies than 1/3-cup size cookies. I’d rather bake at 350F, normal sizes, than those huge cookies she calls for. I have the utmost respect for her but our baking styles and preferences differ and I prefer other recipes better, i.e. the Cooks Illustrated recipe as my go-to dough base. Glad you hit upon something that’s working!
I just made these with my sister over the weekend and we had so many issues with the recipe! I was relieved to see that someone else is having issues with these receipes, and now I don’t have to put my baking skills into question. I blogged about it too: http://culinary-cool.blogspot.ca/2012/06/cornflake-chocolate-chip-marshmallow.html
As I was reading your post, I kept thinking “omg, I had these exact same issues!” I ended up altering the recipe to my liking, as I really didnt like how flat they got. Baking is all about making a recipe your own, right? I think I’ll just use my standby chocolate chip recipe next time and add cornflakes, and marshmallows. Probably have a better result.
Just left a long comment on your site but yes adding more flour (and/or reduce the sugar and/or butter slightly – Tosi loves all that butter and I do too but the science of home-baking and not commercial baking…it’s hard to get it to work for so many of us as is what happened with our cooking group)
I would also make my cookies half her recommended size (which is my usual size or still even a bit bigger than my usual size) which helps control baking results & I reduce the baking time, too. All that butter burns fast!
“I think I’ll just use my standby chocolate chip recipe next time and add cornflakes, and marshmallows. Probably have a better result.” <--- Amen. Me too. The Cooks Illustrated Recipe, i.e. adapted here into apricot butterscotch. Can use it with anything http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/06/apricot-butterscotch-peanut-butter-filled-sandwich-cookies.html
The flavor combination in these cookies sounds just perfect, but I too would’ve been bummed with the lack of puffiness!
Great recipe! Love them here in Seattle!
http://theseattlecook.com/2012/05/24/cornflake-chocolate-chip-marshmallow-cookies/
PS for some reason I seem to find it very difficult to type cornflakes correctly. I frequently miss the f.
I thank Christina Tosi for getting us all to put cornflakes into more things. I just finished making a milk and cornlakes bread, and cookies is definitely next on the list.
Wow now it an interesting sounding way to put corn flakes to use!
Oh my gosh…YUM!
I am still wowed by how good these cookies look. In a way it’s probably a good thing that I accidentally missed this round because with the week I’ve had (nerves) I would have eaten the ENTIRE NINE HUGE COOKIES!!!!
Thanks for the tips, as always. Would love to hear what Tosi has to say about this recipe since everyone found it so rough. For some reason my gluten-free cookies seem to keep their shape more with her recipes…hmmm….
I would love to hear her feedback, too. There are reports that she didnt really “give up” all her trade secrets in the book. These cookies may be one of them. Just a guess :)
Wow! These look great ;)
Please check out my new blog:
Sharingshmiles.blogspot.com
Yours look great!!! Definitely not as flat as mine. Still SO happy you chose this recipe, my favorite tasting cookie yet!
I’m glad you like these so much. They’re not my fave cookie of all time but glad they hit the spot for you!
No matter how flat the cookie look wonderful! It seems everyone is having issues making these bad boys! But I bet they taste wonderful! I made some ugly cookies before, but love the taste!!
I suspect the recipe is just not suited to home kitchens or the ratios are off…I dunno. But all six of us had issues with them!
Wow, what an interesting blend of ingredients! Awesome! And, of course, I LOVE that you included CHOCOLATE CHIPS! XD
I am all about chocolate :)
You are fabulous; LOVE this post and love the pics! So beautiful and I can’t wait to try ’em out!
My favourite cookie add ins are chocolate chips, white chocolate, and macadamia nuts.
I love white chocolate too….so much :)
My guess is the ratio of butter to flour is off. Looks aside, these sound delicious with the cornflake crunch and marshmallows!
These cookies look beautiful and chewy and they have all the ingredients that I love!
Love it! Especially your use of the term ‘splooge’ and spread… (is ‘splooge’ a technical term? :)). Seriously, I really like that you provided a link to Baking911 because that’s what I wanted to dial as I watched these cookies puddle out in batch after batch. It even ocurred to me to bake the dough inside little cake rings but that felt too much like cheating. They did taste great, though, and I credit this recipe for getting me to think about baking with cornflakes. Anyway, lovely pics as always, Averie! Your cookies sure don’t look like you had anything other than smooth sailing with this recipe!! :)
Baking inside a cake ring…well, I almost baked inside a whoopie pie pan but that’s “cheating”, you’re right. Plus I only made a half batch so it was one-try and I was done. I put 4 on one sheet, 5 on another, and waited and hoped for the best…and was having a heart attack when I saw them turning puddle-ey in the oven. UGH!
I read your email and think you should write more about your experiences :)
Oh yum! I don’t think I have ever wanted a cookie (or a plate of cookies….) as much as I do right now.
I appreciate your honest opinion of these. The addition of cornflakes is fun though!
Yes girl I hate to be “negative” at all, but just wanted to be honest. I do like the taste but the dough…some ratio is off there, unfortunately.
These look delicious. After I made the compost cookies a few weeks ago, I’m game to try anything from this book…as long as I have the time and will to do it :)
Ok the compost had a MUCH higher degree of success for everyone in our group vs. the cornflake. Night and day. LMK if you try this recipe and what becomes of it all for you!!
I hate it when you follow instructions and it doesn’t work out! But if they taste good, that is all that matters! What an interesting combination, love the sound of the cornflake crunch.
But if they taste good, that is all that matters! <-- I wish it was so easy. After spending all that TIME and energy into something and $10 bucks worth of ingredients (butter...LOL), I realllllllly like it if they are pretty enough that you could serve to a friend. These are "pass-able", but not my prettiest cookies ever or anything. I wish they were but sigh, nope. I didn't even want to give any to my daughter's teachers b/c I was embarrassed they were ugly!
These cookies may have been not-so-easy to photograph, but you did a stand out job on the photos, Averie! The cookies look good too, though maybe a little too labor intensive for my taste. Thanks for sharing. Also, I’m having a ChicWrap giveaway today that you should enter!
Thanks on the photo compliments, Georgia. You have gorg pics, always, and you know what a challenge, ahem…that certain foods can pose :)
I have that cookbook too, and have visited the actual store in NYC multiple times. My favorites are the crack pie and blueberries and cream cookie, but this cornflake and marshmallow one makes my list too. I was planning on making them and I’m glad to see your review re: flatness. I’ll see if I can tweak it, or I might choose a different recipe instead!
Ok please keep me posted if you make it, the results, and any tweaks used. I am really looking forward to seeing it if you post about it!
I made both cookies for a office bake sale and the Compost cookies fared so much better in the not-spreading-too- much area. I like the addition of the coffee grinds, but would prefer a softer chewier cookie. These were very crisp. If I pulled them a few minutes earlier, do you think this would give me my chewy cookie? Or is it just the nature of the recipe (they’re both the same cookie base)?
Everyone in our baking group had great luck with the Compost and not great luck with the Cornflake. I think that it’s an issue of the dough base itself re the chewy issue. Sure, they will be chewier if you underbake them but I think the dough has too much butter (makes things crisp) based on the amount of egg, sugar, and flour. I need to compare dough bases but I swear they are slightly different. Make this dough base or this one, either are super chewy! And customize to your liking :) I derived them from the Cooks Illustrated Choc Chip recipe which is great.
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/10/chocolate-chip-peanut-butter-oatmeal-cookies.html
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/10/peanut-butter-oatmeal-white-chocolate-cookies.html
Oh my gosh, you are not kidding when you say these are loaded with butter! 2 sticks for 9 cookies, plus another stick (slightly more, actually) in the add-in cornflake crunch! Goodness!
They are really thin, as you say. They look great, but I am surprised that they could spread THAT thinly. I’m with you: I like more more ‘oomph’ to my cookies – something with more substance to bite into.
Yeah it was such a heartbreak watching them turn into thin puddles after ALL That work! (and butter) :)
your photos make my sweet tooth sing! thanks for all the cookie tips, what you said about the man on the moon is so true! I find my cookies tend toward cakiness. Not enough butter is my guess from what you had to say, though I am always trying to make a cookie more healthy- as if…
I can never eat just one. oh well. i’ll accept the extra cushion one of these days. until then maybe i’ll try this recipe ;)
too much flour, too little butter, baking too long, too much baking soda/powder. Those would be my hunches.
Perfectly chewy & not a ridic amount of butter, by any means:
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/10/chocolate-chip-peanut-butter-oatmeal-cookies.html
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/10/peanut-butter-oatmeal-white-chocolate-cookies.html
oh my gosh—amazing as always:) i live about 5 avenues (10 minute walk) away from the Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC — Unfortunately I was only able to gobble up 2 of their treats before going gluten-free…..*sigh* Thanks for the fabulous recipe!!
Wow…what temptation living SO close to it in NYC!
Well, yours look WORLDS better than the first time I tried to make them! Honestly, I think Tosi has some great recipes and some that just aren’t to my taste at all. These cookies SOUND awesome, but even when I’ve bought them at Milk Bar, they’re just too buttery and sweet for me.
Also, when I tried Tosi’s recipe I used homemade marshmallows, and most of them just completely disintegrated. I’ve used homemade marshmallows in different cookies since without that happening, so I think it had more to do with the texture of the cookies and the way they spread.
So, I have since made similar cookies, but just adding chocolate, marshmallows, and cornflakes (not even frosted flakes or her “crunch”… just plain corn flakes) to a more traditional chocolate chip cookie base. You can select a recipe with a fairly high amount of butter, but not SO high (really, she calls for twice as much, proportionally speaking, as most other recipes I’ve got).
However! What sort of flour did you use? I’ve read that there is a note in her book – not in the recipe itself, but in the intro or something – that she prefers bread flour for cookies with a high butter content. This would probably have a lot to do with the integrity of the cookies (but I didn’t know this until after the first time I tried it, myself).
homemade marshmallows I would suspect would have some issues with the baking..not always, but maybe in conjunction with all that butter, they just melted really easily.
she calls for twice as much, proportionally speaking, as most other recipes I’ve got = YES, I know, me too. I will just use either of these two bases as I love them both
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/10/chocolate-chip-peanut-butter-oatmeal-cookies.html
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/10/peanut-butter-oatmeal-white-chocolate-cookies.html
And I used King Arthur white/bleached all-purpose flour. I didnt use “bread” flour; just regular flour but she says at one point in the book that it’s “okay”; yes she uses bread flour as her AP but doesnt tell others they have to as well. Ugh. So frustrating! LMK if you try any more of her recipes & results!
I’m not a big baker but I always enjoy seeing the beautiful photos of your treats and how you put a healthy spin on them
xo
not sure these are healthy but they were fun to make :)
Oh my goodness. You have one lucky family :) and also I really love your photography style! I must say, your blog is definitely on my top 3.. I love reading what you have to share and seeing your awesome photos!! Have a great week Averie!
-Tia
sewcalmama.blogspot.com
Thanks for the super sweet comment and your support, Tia! Such a nice comment to read..thank you!
These cookies look awesome. I cannot wait to get a free night so I can try making them! I never thought to include cereal!
Please LMK if you make them…the dough needs to be chilled for awhile just remember that step!
You did an amazing job of photographing these, you make them look good! One recipe I tried recently that was huge like these but stayed super puffy and soft were these Brown Butter and Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies – yum! http://hiddenponies.com/?p=3370
those cookies look so puffy & chewy..wow, delicious!
I’ve seen a few of this MBM post today so far and while I know everyone is upset about the spreading, they still look fabulous to me! It’s probably a case of that “I didn’t make them so they’re instantly 100x better” thing. :)
they were good, but after ALL that work (none of these Tosi recipes are just “throw together” recipes) I so wanted total success. They’re “fine”, just not what I was hoping for :(
I really enjoyed eading this post and getting your two cents on Tosi’s original recipe, Averie! It’s interesting… I honestly do not know what could make these cookies puffy. They look fabulous, nonetheless… but I too prefer puffy, fluffy, chewy cookies. I figure you could get a similiar cookie by using the Cooks Illustrated chewy cookie recipe and adding frosted flakes as a shortcut (like you suggest), choc chips, and marshmallows. And while this recipe calls for softened butter, I’d brown the butter to maybe get the “buttery-ness” her original cookie has.
My favorite cookie add ins are butterscotch chips, pretzels (loooooooove salty sweet), anything peanut buttery, and white chocolate. My favorite cookie of all time though… are oatmeal raisin cookies. :)
Both of these are inspired by the C.I. recipe
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/10/chocolate-chip-peanut-butter-oatmeal-cookies.html
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/10/peanut-butter-oatmeal-white-chocolate-cookies.html
Glad you like my baking thoughts. I went into lots of detail about dough…but for anyone who actually *Reads* this type of post, it’s a fairly serious baker and I like getting a discussion going about the cookie nitty-gritty!
Ask anyone around me… cookies and the art of baking them is my favorite conversation topic… I think my family and friends want to kill me lol. Sooooo I LOVE reading your thoughts on dough, baking, etc all the time Averie!! :)
Your cookies look like they turned out great! I had almost all the same experiences as you but I need to weigh my ingredients next time I make these (and there will be a next time!) I think this was one of my favorite recipes we’ve made so far…the gooey, sweet, crunchy, buttery cookies were hard to resist!!
I’ll take more cinnamon bun pie! And anything was better for you than your last week’s recipe with the pistachio paste situation and the blown Vita! I am still getting over that one, FOR you!
Wow, this recipe sounds amazing, so creative adding cereal! I’ve done that for savory recipes in the past and have made vegan rice crispy treats, so rice crispy’s are my fave cereal to cook with. And your cookies look perfect, not flat at all. I tend to like a variety of textures, flatter cookies have their place too.
rice krispies will ALWAYS be a fave of mine, too :)
Yesss!!! This is such a fun recipe!
Averie- what are you talking about? Your cookies look pretty perfect to me! It seems like all of ours spread a ton, but yours still look great. I didn’t weigh my ingredients and probably creamed the batter a little less than I should have- but they still are a tasty cookie.
And I have to agree with you, I think the cornflake crunch only added more sugar and butter. Next time I’ll just add crushed cornflakes and maybe a little milk powder. :)
I did everything to the letter of the law, and still am less than thrilled with them. They’re “fine”, but not the amazing-ness I was hoping for but it seems we ALL had issues..that tells me something is awry with the recipe :(
This is ALL KINDS of perfect Averie!!! Wow! I’m hopping on a plane :)
ever since you started this project I’ve had an urge to overnight ship you some momofuku milk bar treats.
I’d love to try the real thing one day so I know just how good it is AND how close I can get to what it’s supposed to taste like. One day I’ll get to NY!
I love mixing in coconut, marshmallow and chocolate.
That sucks that they didnt come out the way you wanted, but I’m sure they won’t go to waste! They are huge though ha ha!
Yes HUGE, soccer balls I called them!
Even though these didn’t turn out thick and puffy like you wanted, they sure do look good to me! Divine, actually. I really need to make these!
Please LMK if you do make them and your results!
My Mom used to make me cornflake cookies all the time when I was younger. The texture is amazing!
I’d love to hear her recipe or if you ever post about them on your site, LMK!
I have become more of a bar baking lady since reading your blog, but several years ago (when I did more actual cookie baking), I recall having thinner cookies most any time I used butter instead of shortening. My old stand by is a basic Tollhouse recipe with additions of oats, coconut, maybe some PB or different kind of chip.
bar baking is SO much easier than cookies I think :)
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/10/chocolate-chip-peanut-butter-oatmeal-cookies.html
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/10/peanut-butter-oatmeal-white-chocolate-cookies.html
Both are fabulously chewy, touch of PB, oats, and derived from the Cooks Illustrated recipe which is even softer/chewier than the Tollhouse recipe. I am all about soft ‘n chewy! You’re right about shortening cookies being puffy!
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/03/puffy-vanilla-and-peanut-butter-chip-cookies.html
The texture of yours looks much better than mine still, but they are so stinking thin. Glad they tasted good! :-)
So disappointing though…ALL that work. I just was hoping for cookies like in her book. But if we all had the same issue, to varying degrees, that tells me something is wrong with the recipe (at least for home-cooks)
Looks like the ratio of butter to flour is much too high in this recipe. I read that book, Ratio, a while back and for drop cookies, it should be closer to 1:1. How did you like using the food scale though? That’s how I always do things. No extra dishes to wash. ;)
I need to buy that book. I would love it. And would then obsess nonstop about ratios!
Food scale for this recipe was great b/c there were many things which I had to halve 3/4 of a cup. Much easier to just halve a number in grams than try to halve a strange fraction that doesn’t divide easily.
And I JUST ordered some books on Amazon. Should have put that one in my cart,too!
They do look really thin and I imagine that is because of all the butter. They still look really tasty though!
Hey Averie! I have heard that a lot of bakeries with cookbooks don’t give out exact recipes, make changes for the cookbook version or have to alter the recipe because they would normally make such huge quantities in the kitchen! Maybe that’s why the cookies didn’t work out?
I remember baking from the Babycakes cookbook that there was one version of her chocolate chip cookie recipe in the book, another on her website and another one on a video she filmed. And most of her recipes didn’t work for me at all!
Sounds like these have too much butter in them, hence the spreading. They still look good though!
Natasha
Oh I am relieved to hear your story; I have heard/read this before that some recipes in cookbooks from famous restaurants are either not the same recipe OR that due to quantity/scale issues, there is just no way to duplicate in a home kitchen what is made in mass scale in a commercial kitchen. I am sorry about your Babycakes failures..ugh. And can’t believe there are 3+ recipes for the choc chip cookies! Crazy!
I know!! I hate it when recipes fail :-( especially when they’re straight out of a book! The cookies turned out really good for vegan/gluten free ones though, only after I cut down the coconut oil waaay down to stop them spreading like pancakes!
I happened to go to a Milk Bar this weekend and I bought one of every single cookie (okay, TWO compost cookies), a slice of crack pie, slice of candy bar pie, and a couple of savory things. The cookies from the bakery are NOT as big as the cookbook claims they will be, nor are they as flat, and definitely not as crispy. They are soft and chewy (and delicious – at least the compost cookies, I froze the rest). I asked the girl working and she didn’t know the secret, but did say that she was pretty sure Tosi didn’t give up all her secrets. The flatness is definitely my biggest bummer about these recipes too, especially considering the originals don’t resemble what we come up with after cooking out of the book.
Wow, so informative, thank you! The Compost were easier to make for everyone in my cooking group. None of us really had issue with them. It’s the Cornflake cookies that just were a slippery slope, literally. I am pretty sure she didnt give up all her secrets, either. AND/Or sometimes making things at home just isnt possible compared to in huge restaurant commercial-grade kitchens. There is just a scale & equipment & batch size differential that can’t be corrected for..sad but true…
Very true. But there’s a secret to chewy cookies, and I’ve found that underbaking Tosi’s cookies doesn’t really correct the problem. It helps a bit though.Also, her ovens must burn cooler, because I always pull stuff out earlier (except for the liquid cheesecake, that took longer). Someone said don’t cream the butter and sugar for so long to help with flatness, but I haven’t tried that. Also, check out these pictures, kind of interesting! http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2012/02/are-momofuku-milk-bar-cookie-mixes-better-than-milk-bar-bakery-compost-cookies-williams-sonoma-mix.html
interesting post and product (those mixes!) – wow!
and yes, her ovens MUST run cooler..I have recently tested mine & I know mine is where it needs to be but I pull things out about 20-25% before she recommends…both for chewy factor and just not wanting to burn it!
I’ve found that underbaking Tosi’s cookies doesn’t really correct the problem. <--- agreed b/c there is still issue with the base of the dough. It's not "bad"; it's just not my preference I have come to learn, which has been fun to realize that I like certain doughs, she likes another; and hey, to each her own :)
damn thats way frustrating….especially since you really did follow it precisely. like you – i often go awol with recipes – which gives me a cause to failed results. but if i do follow something as it’s written, a highly famed author no less, i expect a damn near perfect outcome!! at least they tasted good, and you only have 9 not double that!!
yeah 99% of the time, I NEVER follow a recipe…and the one time I do, down to the letter, it wasn’t perfect. I like my wing-it approach :)
I wish I was part or Milk Bar Mondays!!!
Even though others’ cookies may not have worked out, yours look soft and delicous! Mallows are always good and I don’t know why I don’t put them in more of my cookies!
I need to do more ‘mallows in cookies, too. Not just in bars!