Momofuku Milk Bar Cookie Recipe

February 23, 2010 3:47 PM

I'm trying to replicate Momofuku Milk Bar's cornflake, marshmallow, and chocolate chip cookies. The only problem is I've never had one. Can you help me?

These are for someone who absolutely loves them, so I want them to be as close to the original as possible (also I'm a baking nerd and a perfectionist). So far, I've found two recipes: Recipe A and Recipe B. The main difference is that A uses all butter and 2 eggs, while B uses 1/2 butter, 1/2 vegetable oil and less than 1 egg. Some of the online reviews have described the cookies as "Crispy cookies that the marshmallow makes chewy", "overwhelmingly buttery", and "heavy and greasy in a good way". The first two descriptions make me lean towards A, the second, B. What do you guys think?

Some other thoughts:

What kind of chocolate do they use? Semi-sweet? Bitter-sweet? Dark?

Since everyone emphasizes how buttery they are, I'm thinking about taking a few tablespoons of butter and toasting the cornflakes in it on the stovetop before they go into the batter. Will this mess up or improve the texture?

I'm going to make my own mini-marshmallows. These tend to be a bit sweeter than storebought ones since the powdery coating on them is just powdered sugar. Should I try to balance this by using a less-sweet chocolate? Or maybe I should just use store-bought minis if it seems like that's what they're using.

Any and all suggestions and/or further descriptions of the cookies are welcome!

posted by Thin Lizzy to food & drink (13 answers total)

OK, I have a Momofuku cookbook (Momofuku, inf act), and, while there is no recipe for cookies, there is a recipe for caramelized cornflakes (used as a topping in another dessert). Maybe they would help...

3/4 cup cornflakes

3 Tbs nonfat milk powder
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp kosher salt

3 1/2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted

*Preheat oven to 275F
*Crush the cornflakes to a crumbly texture
*Mix the rest of the dry ingredients
*Add the butter to the cornflake crumbles, sprinkle the dry stuff over the mixture, and toss to combine.
* Spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, bake for 20 minutes or until the milk powder and sugar have turned golden and caramelized. Let cool.

If you used this instead of raw cornflakes, it might have some of the characteristics you describe. The cookbook makes me giddy every time I look at it, but I have yet to cook anything from it (lots of traveling since I got it, sorry).
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:33 PM on February 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

I LOVE those cookies. My god. They melt in your damn mouth. ::drools::

Anyway... I believe they use semi-sweet chocolate. And they are definitely greasy, but not necessarily heavy. It's a butter-grease, not an oil-grease. I'd go with the lotsa-butter recipe and skip the oil. They taste more buttery than oily, to me anyway. They also fall apart easily. They're gooey and they flop.

I can also tell you that the pictures accompanying the recipes you posted don't really resemble the actual cookie. The cookie is thin, a little wafery, but with a crumbly texture.

Good luck!
posted by blackcatcuriouser at 6:40 PM on February 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the input! I think I'm gonna wing it later this week and just whip up a test batch. I'm going to go with recipe A as a base, but cut down on both types of sugar (I'm thinking 1c brown sugar and 1/4c granulated sugar), caramelize the cornflakes, make my own marshmallows (and freeze them beforehand) and do chopped bittersweet chocolate. I'll pass them around and if I nail it, I'll come back and share the final recipe.
posted by Thin Lizzy at 10:39 PM on February 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

Can someone clarify as to the type of oatmeal involved in "Recipe A"? (I'm assuming it's uncooked rolled oats?)
posted by StarmanDXE at 9:52 AM on February 24, 2010

I live down the street from there. I can pick up a couple and ship them out to you if you like to dissect the real deal. It should be like $10 for two cookies and shipping. Send me so MeFi Mail if you're interested.
posted by AaRdVarK at 10:14 AM on February 24, 2010

Wow, missing words and spelling errors: if you would like and Send me some MeFi Mail.
posted by AaRdVarK at 10:15 AM on February 24, 2010

And speak of the devil... it was just announced that Christina Tosi is writing the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook.
posted by AaRdVarK at 10:17 AM on February 24, 2010

Milk Bar actually ships cookies and pies now, so you can order some directly. (And get a couple of each kind. They're ALL good.)
posted by Remy at 12:12 PM on February 24, 2010

Is this the same thing as Momofuku's compost cookie? If yes, there's an online recipe here. (I've neither tried the recipe nor eaten a Momofuku cookie, so I can't vouch for authenticity)
posted by iona at 1:15 PM on February 24, 2010

Thanks AaRdVarK and Remy, but I don't have time to get them delivered out here. It's for an occasion next week. Plus, this is fun, right? Can't wait for the Christina Tosi cookbook though. StarmanDXE- just uncooked rolled oats, I assume. I'm going to toast mine a little (with a smidge of butter, naturally) before they go in. And Iona- it's not the same cookie, but that recipe was helpful nonetheless- the actual cookie part was very similar to recipe A- leading me to believe that it's the correct recipe to start with.
posted by Thin Lizzy at 3:25 PM on February 24, 2010

This is a bit after the fact, but here's a post that turned up in my RSS reader Momofuku Milk Bar's Compost Cookie Recipe, which appears to be closer to recipe A than B. I've never had one of these cookies, and this question was my first introduction to them, but I figured another data point wouldn't hurt. I'd be interested in hearing how they turn out! I'm trying to invent an excuse to bake a batch.
posted by fontophilic at 2:01 PM on March 1, 2010

Oh, crud. I just saw the link that iona posted. Well never mind, ignore the duplicate.
posted by fontophilic at 2:02 PM on March 1, 2010

Hi guys, here's what I did. According to the people who had them, they were pretty darn close. I tried the caramelized cornflakes in my test batch, but they didn't have enough crunch. I thought the raw cornflakes actually worked better.

First I made marshmallows using Alton Brown's recipe. You'll need to make 1/3 of the recipe (or be prepared to eat marshmallows for a while):

- 1 package unflavored gelatin
- 1/3 c ice cold water, divided in half
- 4 oz granulated sugar
- 1/3 c corn syrup
- pinch of Kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4 c powdered sugar
- 1/4 c corn starch
- Non stick spray

Cut up the marshmallows to mini marshmallow size and stick them in the freezer (or pipe them and cut them up like Alton). Then mix up the cookie dough:

- 2 sticks plus 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
- 3/4 c granulated sugar
- 3/4 c brown sugar
- 1 tbsp. corn syrup
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1 3/4 c flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. Kosher salt
- 2/3 c rolled oats
- 1 1/4 c lightly crushed corn flakes
- 3/4 c good quality bittersweet chopped chocolate or chips

Note: You have to use stand mixer with a paddle attachment for this. I tried the first batch with a hand mixer and the cookies just didn't work out- they spread too much, didn't puff up, and the texture was uniform- not crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside

Cream together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, 2 sticks of butter, and corn syrup until light and fluffy.

Add eggs and vanilla. Mix on low speed to incorporate. Once incorporated, beat on high for 10 minutes. The sugar crystals will dissolve, it will become a very pale cream color, and double in size.

Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir by hand until just incorporated. Do not overstir.

Cover with plastic wrap and stick in the fridge for a day (this is one of my favorite cookie dough tricks- it allows the egg to be absorbed into the flour)

The next day, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Melt the additional 2 tbsp. of butter in a small saucepan. Add the oats and stir over medium-high heat until they start to brown and toast. Dump them out onto a cookie sheet and spread out to cool.

Lightly crush the cornflakes (measure after they've been crushed). Stir the cooled oats and crushed cornflakes into the dough. Measure out ice cream scoops of cookie dough and put them on parchment lined cookie sheets. Don't crowd them at all- maybe 5 or 6 per sheet. Wrap with plastic wrap and stick them back in the fridge for a few hours.

When the dough is cold, take out one sheet at a time and right before it goes in the oven, quickly stick 3 or 4 frozen marshmallows in each cookie- I found it was easiest to make little holes in the dough with the handle of a spoon.

Bake for 9-11 minutes. Be sure that the centers of each cookie start to brown in the oven. Cool completely on the cookie sheet. Makes about 18 cookies.
posted by Thin Lizzy at 10:00 AM on March 7, 2010 [1 favorite]