ok, ok, ok, this is my second recipe (in as many weeks?) from milk bar. but what can i say? i see a kindred spirit in christina tosi. i mean, it's like she's gotten inside my head and taken all of my guilty sweet pleasures and turned them into some kind of mind blowing reality. and for one of the best cookie recipes ever here we go :
CORN COOKIES
a few notes to start
1. tosi highly recommends using plugrá butter and i gotta say i don't disagree. i first made these with the butter i had in my fridge, and then went to the store, bought the plugrá and decided it would always and forever be the butter we used for our cookies.
2. if you don't have corn flour (or can't find it) you can substitute it with 40 g (1/4 c) of regular flour and 8 g (4t) of freeze dried corn powder. i've done it both ways, and the corn flour is most definitely the way to go. try to find it, it is absolutely worth it.
3. freeze dried corn. ok so you go to whole foods and buy this. i put the whole bag into my food processor and grind it all up at once, you won't use it all, but you'll be ahead of the game for the next time you make these cookies, and trust me there will be a next time.
4. grams vs. cups i wasn't exactly a kitchen scale kind of person until i started obsessing over the tosi recipes. and now i'm pretty die hard. i use my scale at least three times a day (coffee, baking, etc) so if you don't have one and can't justify the expense, send me an email, we can chat. i've included the non-weight measurements as well, just in case.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED!
225 g (2 sticks) room-temperature butter
300 g (1 1/2 c) sugar
1 egg
225 g (1 1/3 c) all-purpose flour
65 g (2/3 c) freeze-dried corn powder
45 g (1/4 c) corn flour
3 g (3/4 t) baking powder
1.5 g (1/4 t) baking soda
6 g (1 1/2 t) kosher salt
WHAT YOU WILL DO!
combine butter and sugar in a mixer with the paddle attached and cream them on medium-high for 2-3 minutes. they should turn fluffy and pale yellow. scrape down the sides of the bowl.
with the mixer at a lower speed, add the egg. increase the speed to medium-high again and start a timer for 8 minutes. mix and mix and mix. the mixture will become pale, almost white, and the will almost double in volume.
after you timer goes off, turn the speed down to low and add the dry ingredients. i'm pretty bad at adding while mixing so i tend not to do it. i turn the mixer off, add a third, turn the mixer on for about 5 seconds and repeat until all ingredients are just combined. you must be careful to not over mix. it will really change this cookie. i know it sounds silly, but it is perhaps the most important thing to remember ... do not over mix!
take a big bowl, something that will be able to hole 18 - 24 round balls, and put it on the counter.
start balling your dough. i use a bigger spoon, like a soup spoon to aid the process, but technically you are supposed to us a 2 3/4 oz ice cream scoop. the choice is yours.
after you make your first dough ball, place it in that big bowl. then repeat until all of your dough is resting quietly in said bowl. (i will sometimes just throw these into a freezer safe storage container, mostly because i like to always have corn cookies in the freezer, but also because if i cook off the entire batch i will eat the entire batch. that is no good. so i save about half of the dough balls, maybe more and eat them throughout the month)
place the bowl/storage container in the freezer for at least and hour. i've never skipped this step, but apparently if you do you will get giant melt balls instead of cookies. something about the amount of butter ... it needs to be cold going into the oven in order for the cookies to maintain their shape.
wait an hour ..... it's hard, i know.
pre-heat your oven to 350
place cookies on cookie sheet, just like any other, they will spread as they flatten, so don't have them touching.
cook for 18 minutes -OR- until their edges start to brown. i cook mine for 15 minutes, because i like them a touch underdone and my oven runs a tad hot. the brown edges are the key, you don't want any other brown other than the edges.
eat. and eat again. these cookies are so beyond delicious it's ridiculous.
recipe by christina tosi from the second issue of lucky peach, but it's also in the milk bar cookbook and i'm sure around the internets.
