Last month I bought a new cookbook, The Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook by Christina Tosi. The cookbook is written by the head chef of the popular Momofuku Milk Bar in New York. The desserts at the Milk Bar incorporate tastes from different kinds of junk food like potato chips, pretzels and cereal. They are famous for their cereal milk which is basically milk that tastes like the leftovers at the bottom of your cereal bowl. I was excited to try some of the cookies in this book including the famous Compost Cookies which are full of interesting flavors like butterscotch chips, coffee, chocolate, pretzels, potato chips, and anything else that you want to throw in there.

The first recipe I tried out of the book was the Compost Cookies. They were good but not amazing though I will probably try them again anyway. This weekend I made Cornflake Chocolate Marshmallow cookies and they were AMAZING! (And a huge hit at work!)

A note on the recipes, Ms. Tosi gives both weight measurements and volumetric measurements. As these recipes were made for a professional bakery, I think the weight measurements are more trustworthy than the volumetric ones. I have included both here but I can’t vouch for the volumetric measurements. Also, Ms. Tosi notes in the book that she only uses bread flour because it has higher protein content. I have followed these instructions and I still find the cookies spread during baking. Finally, the salt used is kosher salt. This is important to note because the volumetric measurement of table salt may be too salty due to the difference in crystal structure of the two salts. Table salt is more densely packed than kosher or sea salt resulting in finer crystals, so measuring the same volume will not result in the same amount of salt. (This is why some people use sea salt to reduce sodium: sea salt has less sodium then an equivalent volume of table salt.) Measuring the salt by weight removes the problem of crystal size so you could use whatever kind of salt you prefer.

Most of the recipes in this book require several steps and this one is no different. Before you make the cookies, first you need to make to cornflake crunch.

Cornflake Crunch

170 g (5 cups) cornflakes

40 g (1/2 cup) milk powder

40 g (3 tbsp) sugar

4 g (1 tsp) kosher salt

1 stick melted butter

Pre-heat oven to 275*F

In a bowl crush cornflakes with your hands until they are 1/4 of their original size. Mix cornflakes with the milk powder, sugar and salt. Add the butter and toss to coat. The result should be clusters of coated cornflakes.

Spread the clusters on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat. (For me, the clusters filled the entire cookie sheet in a fairly thick layer.) Bake for 20 minutes. The clusters should look toasted, smell buttery and crunch when you chew them.

Cool completely. Store in an air tight container for up to 1 week or in the refrigerator or freezer for 1 month.

I know these look like cornflakes, but they are coated in sugar, salt, and milk powder!

Now onto the actual cookies!

Cornflake-Chocolate-chip-Marchmallow Cookies

2 sticks (16 tbsp) butter

250 g (1 1/4 cup) sugar

150 g (2/3 cup tightly packed) light brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

240 g (1 1/2 cups) flour

2 g (1/2 tsp) baking powder

1.5 g (1/4 tsp) baking soda

5 g (1 1/4 tsp) kosher salt

270 g (3 cups) Cornflake Crunch (about 3/4 of the recipe)

125 g (2/3 cup) mini chocolate chips

65 g (1 1/4 cups) mini marshmallows

Mix sugars together and remove any lumps. Cream butter with the sugars until smooth and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. (Christina Tosi has a 10 minute creaming procedure using a stand mixer. I only cook by hand, so I clearly do not do this. She creams the butter and sugars on high for 2-3 minutes with the paddle attachment.) Add the egg and vanilla and incorporate, mixing until light and fluffy, 2-3 more minutes. (She suggests scraping down the sides of the bowl and then beating an additional 7-8 minutes, until the mixture has nearly doubled in size and is homogeneous.)

Add the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Mix until the dough just comes together. (In a stand mixer, mix on low and make sure you don’t over mix the dough.)

Add in the Cornflake Crunch and chocolate chips and stir to combine. Fold in the mini marshmallows.

The next step is integral for the cookies to come out correctly. Using a medium cookie scoop or two tablespoons, drop rounded tablespoons onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. These can be close together as they will not be baked immediately. Pat the tops of the domes flat, wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to 1 week. The cookies must be refrigerated for at least an hour or they will spread too much when you bake them. (Ms. Tosi uses a large cookie scoop and only gets 12-18 cookies. I think that will make cookies that are just too big. It is possible that my cookies spread so much because they are too small but I like the smaller serving size.)

Heat the oven to 375*F.

Arrange the cookie dough disks on a parchment- or Silpat-lined cookie sheet and bake 8-10 minutes. The cookies should be browned on the edges and slightly brown on the top of the cookie. Cook for a few additional minutes if they are too pale and doughy on the surface.

Cool cookies on the sheet pans before moving to a cooling rack. Store in an air tight container. These cookies will keep 5 days at room temperature and 1-2 months in the freezer.

Adapted from Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook