Corn Cookies

I take back anything the slightest bit catty I might have said about Momofuku Milk Bar. Christina Tosi is a genius, and her corn cookies are amazing.

My kids asked for cookies and I was out of chocolate chips (gasp!). The corn cookies from Milk Bar have interested me for a while; I made them but warned my husband that he might not like them (he's conservative about flavors).

The recipe is posted in full at The Kitchn. I try not to post recipes that aren't my own, so I'll just refer you to the article for specifics.

The first step, as for a lot of baking, is to set the butter on the counter to soften. In this recipe, you use 2 sticks of unsalted butter.

I weighed 65 grams freeze dried corn into my food processor,

then processed it until fine. My freeze-dried corn is from Thrive, a great product, but mail-order only. A similar product from Just Tomatoes, conventional and organic, is available in many natural food stores.

A scale that can measure in grams is VERY helpful for these recipes, thought Christina Tosi does give volume equivalents.

I mixed 300 grams sugar and the two sticks butter on medium-high for 3 minutes. Christian Tosi takes creaming very seriously, so I followed her times.

I then added 1 egg and mixed on medium-high a full 8 minutes.

While the mixer was running I measured and whisked together the dry ingredients: 225 grams flour, 45 grams corn flour, ¾ teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, and 1½ teaspoons kosher salt.

I used Maseca instant masa or corn flour. I included the affiliate link only for the picture—it's available very cheaply at almost any North American supermarket. As an aside, I use Maseca to make very easy corn tortillas for tacos; the ATK blog has a great tutorial.

After the 8 minutes of creaming, I mixed in the dry ingredients for just a minute on the lowest speed. Isn't that the most beautiful cookie dough?

The original recipe makes 13 cookies with ⅓ cup dough each. Considering that ¼ dough makes huge cookie-shop-at-the-mall-sized cookies, ⅓ seems large for home baking. I used my fabulous #40 (tablespoon) cookie scoop from King Arthur Flour, and got approximately 3 dozen nicely-sized cookies. I refrigerated them, covered, for 1 hour.

After the dough was cooled, I preheated the oven to 350. I arranged 12 cookies on a lined sheet and smooshed them with a glass measuring cup.

As I changed the cookie size, I watched them carefully in the oven. At 12 minutes the edges were just starting to brown. I was able to transfer them to a cooling rack immediately, losing only one to carelessness and fragility.

Everyone loved these cookies. My husband said "I thought you were going to make cookies I wouldn't like," and stated that they tasted like regular sugar cookies to him. Also, he said that they look healthy but don't taste healthy. The extended creaming really contributes to the texture.

My only caveat is that the cookies are a little salty; I probably will cut back on the salt by one third the next time I make these—and I will make them again.

 

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