Thursday, May 20, 2010

That's right, there's cereal in my cookies.

When you're moving cities it's important to eat all the things you are going to miss when you're gone. 

Wings from the Dugout... 

Ice Cream and Chicken from the Big Dipper...

It's important to go with friends... 

It's important to use up all the stray baking ingredients hiding in your kitchen...

It's important to do so by making absolutely delicious compost cookies... 
I'm a little late jumping on the compost cookie bandwagon but better late than never, right? I threw in chocolate, white chocolate, dried fruit, and cereal. That's right, there's cereal in my cookies. I also threw in cornmeal in place of some of the flour just because I could. Basically, if a cowboy cookie and a Momofuku Milk Bar Compost Cookie had a child, it would turn out like this. I called them compostin' cowboy cookies because of their mixed breed but really, all that matters is how they taste.
I actually wasn't expecting such a delicious result, because I usually like my cookies simpler, but I was pleasantly surprised. The crispy brown rice cereal gives an unexpected chewy crunch and you really can't go wrong with both dark and white chocolate. The raisins and dried cherries are good but you could easily replace them with nuts if dried fruit isn't your thing. 

Compostin' Cowboy Cookies 
Typically compost cookies have potato chips in them but I don't think potato chips really have much place in this world outside bars, BBQs and football games - plus I didn't have any at home. Pretzels on the other hand would definitely go over well because salty and sweet might just be the best combination out there. Feel free to throw in whatever you have on hand, salty, sweet, crunchy, chewy, whatever. I listed a few variations at the bottom. 
Makes about 27 large cookies 

225 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
250g turbinado sugar 
180g sucanat 
1 tbsp honey 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
2 eggs 
300g whole wheat pastry flour 
115g stone ground cornmeal 
2 tsp kosher salt 
1 tsk baking soda 
2 tsp baking powder 
200g dark chocolate chips 
200g white chocolate chips 
150g crispy brown rice cereal 
200g mixed raisins and dried cherries 

Stand mixer or electric hand mixer is must for these cookies. 

Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and syrup for three minutes until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs and beat for ten minutes. It will be very thick, and fluffy. 
Mix flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder in a separate bowl, and add this to the cookie batter. 
Stir as little as possible to combine them. 
Add your mix-ins and stir just to combine. 
Shape large balls -I used my 3 tablespoon cookie scoop - and place on greased baking sheets, leaving a lot of room in between. I fit five cookies per sheet. 
Bake immediately or refrigerate until ready to use. 
Bake at 350°F for 9-11 minutes. 
Important note: Let them cool completely on the sheet or they will fall apart. 

Other Variations: 
-Replace the cornmeal with additional whole wheat pastry flour 
-Replace the cornmeal with rye flour 
-Replace the sucanat with dark or light brown sugar (cookies will be sweeter with dark) 
-Replace the sucanat with dark or light muscovado sugar (cookies will be sweeter with dark) 
-Replace the turbinado sugar with white sugar or another refined or unrefined sugar 
-Replace the chocolate, white chocolate, cereal and dried fruit with 500-600g of whatever mix-ins you have on hand. Traditional Momofuku Compost cookies have some combination of potato chips, pretzels, and chocolate. Pecans, walnuts and/or mac nuts would be good. 
-Add 100-200g of shredded unsweetened coconut 
-More mix-in suggestions: Peanut butter chips, heath bar bits, m&m's, peanut m&m's, butterscotch chips, mini Rolos, mini peanut butter cups

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