Help me make the most epic cookies ever for my boyfriend!
March 14, 2013 6:47 PM   Subscribe

I've been dating this guy for about 2 months, and he is absolutely wonderful. I want to bake him cookies to show my appreciation for him a) in general, and b) for being especially wonderful during a current shitty time in my life due to family issues.

Normal cookies are not good enough. I want epic! Something like... sriracha oatmeal, or bacon dark chocolate, or something decorated as a retro video game. I'm up for making a couple different kinds, within reason. Say, 2-3 dozen or so cookies.

Restrictions: none. He eats everything, loves stuff like bacon, is pretty geeky, and well travelled (with a taste for odd foreign flavors). He doesn't like cake (what?!? nope. weird), and I don't think he's crazy about candy, but that's about it.

I'm willing to buy fancy and/or unique ingredients, but nothing outrageously expensive. I'm a slightly above average cook/baker, with a slightly under-equipped kitchen (no mixer, but an oven and bowls and cookies sheets, etc.). I'm in Montreal, and so have access to a reasonable variety of ethnic/specialty stores. I have around half a day (tomorrow!) to devote to the task.

So, any recipes, links, or ideas would be appreciated! Thanks!! :)
posted by hasna to Food & Drink (35 answers total) 125 users marked this as a favorite
 
Momofuku's cornflake cookies are famous. I haven't tried this recipe myself.
posted by fingersandtoes at 6:53 PM on March 14, 2013 [11 favorites]


All I'm going to say is pecans. Pecans will enhance nearly any cookie recipe.

(Some people think they don't like nuts in cookies. This is because they're thinking of walnuts.)
posted by baf at 6:58 PM on March 14, 2013 [4 favorites]


Try this.
No bacon, not like cake, maybe somewhat geeky, but what do I know. They're wonderful and pretty easy and inexpensive and out of the norm.
posted by uncaken at 6:59 PM on March 14, 2013


Nobody has ever been disappointed by fresh Toll House cookies. Pecans take them from good to great.
posted by LonnieK at 7:03 PM on March 14, 2013


Check yer memail.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:07 PM on March 14, 2013 [1 favorite]




I don't know anybody in their right mind who would be against Chocolate Nutella Caramel Filled Cookies.

I've never made them. And I saw a version somewhere that was dark chocolate with sea salt Nutella filled cookies. Can't recall though.
posted by discopolo at 7:10 PM on March 14, 2013


Macaroons are unusual - and epic in my world. You can do just a quarter of this recipe drop cookie style.
posted by meinvt at 7:14 PM on March 14, 2013


I haven't tried these myself, but Sriracha Peanut Butter Cookies look pretty amazing.

I swap out the pumpkin for sweet potato to make these cookies and drizzle them with the bourbon glaze in this recipe.

I have made these Rooibos tea cookies in September and everyone at my work still talks about them.

Cream cheese cookies sound delicious.
posted by zoomorphic at 7:17 PM on March 14, 2013 [2 favorites]


Cowboy cookies. Make the add ins better quality for extra goodness (nice chocolate cut into chunks vs chocolate chips for eg), and you could totally candy some bacon and stick that in too: but these cookies are just so great and huge and delicious, all the males in my family go bananas for them.
posted by thylacinthine at 7:18 PM on March 14, 2013 [1 favorite]


The headline for this one is correct - it is the best chocolate chip cookie ever.

And these are my favorite cookies of all time.
posted by theuninvitedguest at 7:21 PM on March 14, 2013 [1 favorite]


Early grey shortbread!

World Peace Cookies-- add in espresso; sprinkle with Maldon sea salt

I have not tried these, but these pink peppercorn shortbreads look incredible

Something along the lines of these Milk Chocolate Chip Maple Syrup Glazed Bacon Cookies ?
posted by jetlagaddict at 7:22 PM on March 14, 2013 [3 favorites]


Peanut Blossoms
posted by Michele in California at 7:32 PM on March 14, 2013 [1 favorite]


The Cookie

Mix together well:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbls quality chocolate grated

Add and beat in:

1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Fold in just until mixed:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup instant rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Stir in:
1 cup good quality chips
1/2 cup (optional) broken pretzels or nuts

Spread into a pan with an offset spatula and bake at 325º or
Drop by tablespoons onto two cookie sheets. Chill cookie sheets while oven preheats to 350º

posted by myselfasme at 8:03 PM on March 14, 2013 [3 favorites]


Nthing World Peace Cookies - they are delicious.

For a truly epic cookie-related dessert - this one is time-sensitive, you have to assemble it while he's there and ready to eat. Take regular Toll House cookie batter and make a BIG cookie - maybe 5 inches in diameter. When it's done (err on the side of gooey) take it out of the oven, put it on a plate, and top with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. Serve immediately while the cookie is still warm and the ice cream hasn't melted. This is the best thing ever.
posted by Daily Alice at 8:25 PM on March 14, 2013 [2 favorites]


Behold the pillow cookie. Brownie within! Chocolate chip cookie without! Slightly smaller than your face, assuming you have an average-sized face!
posted by Iridic at 8:32 PM on March 14, 2013 [5 favorites]


The best cookies in the entire world are Cappuccino Flats. They have a great texture, a nice coffee flavor that isn't overpowering, are fun to make, and are different without being too weird. They also disappear like that. Bonus: their name sounds like a bad '80s soap opera.
posted by k8lin at 8:43 PM on March 14, 2013 [1 favorite]


Not exactly a cookie, but... Oreo and peanut butter brownie cupcakes look like pure heaven to me.
posted by southern_sky at 9:03 PM on March 14, 2013


Momofuku's compost cookies are really good. I like them much, much better than the cornflake cookies.

Here's a recipe for Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies.

Frosted candy bar stuffed cookie cups. SUGAR RUSH.

Coconut lavender cookie balls. Really delicate and nice.

Hot chocolate chili cookies. I'm pretty sure that when I made these, I used ground chipotle.
posted by houseofdanie at 9:04 PM on March 14, 2013 [2 favorites]


World Peace Cookies won our cookie exchange this year and the plate full of WP cookies disappeared at work. AMAZING!
posted by jennstra at 9:24 PM on March 14, 2013


I love these oatmeal cookies, but I've never made the icing.
I made these a while ago, and they were a bit out of the ordinary, and very good.
posted by Karmeliet at 12:02 AM on March 15, 2013


Pierre Hermé's recipe for chocolate chip cookies is extremely dangerous. Addiction is just a bite away. Seriously. One bite is all it takes.
posted by ouke at 12:04 AM on March 15, 2013


I was going to suggest Cook's Illustrated fudge chocolate chip cookies, but the World Peace looks to be roughly the same recipe. (I added Skor bits and won a cookie bake off once.)

Instead, let me suggest alfajores,
an Argentinian cookie sandwich of a really light shortbread with dulce de leche in the middle. Fancy, exotic, crazy good.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 12:41 AM on March 15, 2013 [3 favorites]


Bacon Chocolate Crunch Bar from "Animal", in Los Angeles. DO NOT sub-out the feuillitine for corn flakes. It's like using bologna for the bacon. There is no substitute for feuillitine.
The recipe site is called "The Bacon Show," so peruse the other gems (right side) as you scroll-down. Cheers!
posted by JABof72 at 1:16 AM on March 15, 2013


Black sesame shortbread cookies: add 1/2c ground black sesame and about a teaspoon of water to this basic shortbread recipe

Spicy chocolate chip cookies (my favorite cookie recipe): add 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ancho powder, and 1 teaspoon chipotle powder to the Smitten Kitchen chocolate chip recipe

I find the Momofuku cornflake cookies way, way too sweet, even more than other Momofuku recipes which are typically on the sweet side.
posted by asphericalcow at 1:20 AM on March 15, 2013


I love oatmeal raisin cookies, and the best I've ever had came straight from the recipe inside the lid of the Quaker Oats container. Numerous people have asked for the recipe! I have to demurely decline, of course...
posted by Dolley at 6:01 AM on March 15, 2013


Coat some nice thick bacon in brown sugar and bake on a cookie sheet until deliciously crispy/chewy. Then chop up that bacon and put it into your favorite chocolate-chip cookie recipe with semisweet or dark chocolate chips. Also works beautifully with oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
posted by specialagentwebb at 6:14 AM on March 15, 2013


Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter + Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

It is THE BEST COOKIE. Ever. In the history of cookies.
posted by sephira at 7:01 AM on March 15, 2013 [2 favorites]


The World Peace Cookies are really really good, and also very easy to make. Just know that they get really crumbly, you just have to push them together a bit after cutting. But honestly, by themselves they are not really in the realm of "beyond a cookie" that the OP asked for. BUT! Putting two of them together, with homemade vanilla-flavored marshmallow fluff between them, now THAT is an uber-cookie!
posted by gemmy at 7:24 AM on March 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


I've tried the Momofuku recipe twice and both times it was not so good.
posted by bq at 8:14 AM on March 15, 2013


A friend of mine brings dozens of these to nearly every gathering and they are gone (gone!) in five minutes or less. Originally called "Monster Cookies," they have since been renamed "Magic Rainbow Unicorn Cookies" by someone who knew what she was talking about.

Here is her recipe:

Magic Rainbow Unicorn Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (not margarine) - room temperature/softened
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. pancake syrup
12 oz. peanut butter (you can use natural or Jiffy, as long as it's full fat peanut butter)
2 tsp. baking soda
4.5 cups oatmeal
6 oz. M&Ms
6 oz. chocolate chips

(I've also tried adding Reese's peanut butter chips and some sweetened coconut flakes, and both work well in addition to the M&Ms and chocolate - just reduce the other ingredients to add additional ones)

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Cream sugars and butter. Add eggs - one at a time. Add vanilla, pancake syrup. Add peanut butter - mix completely before adding dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients (baking soda, oatmeal) and mix. Fold in chocolate chips and M&Ms. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Store in closed tupperware or ziplock bag with a piece of bread to keep them moist.
posted by whitewall at 9:01 AM on March 15, 2013 [4 favorites]


I came here to recommend the Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter + Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies but sephira beat me to it. I made them for a recent group camping trip and people lost their minds.

If you do choose to go with that recipe, my three tips would be:

1. Really brown the butter. It imparts a flavor that's pretty unique and instantly advertises to the mouth, "Wake up and take notice! This cookies is for reals."

2. Don't be shy salting the cookies. Makes the flavors pop.

3. Pre-cool the Nutella and then pre-spoon it on a plate and then re-cool it. I found by the time I was half way through the batch the Nutella had already warmed and it's much harder to work with when it's gooey. I think if you get all your little cookie balls ready and then add the Nutella it'd be much easier.
posted by funkiwan at 8:40 PM on March 15, 2013


My husband's favorite cookies are indeed Momofuku's Compost Cookies. And I took them to a party once, years ago (!), and I STILL get people who were there hounding me to make them again. They're ugly as sin and the mixing steps are a bit unusual/counterintuitive. I used pretzels, potato chips, and chopped dark chocolate if I recall correctly.

My favorite are Orangette's Pistachio-Apricot Oatmeal ones. I nearly ate them all in a single day, on my own; the only thing that kept me from it was the social shame I'd have felt not saving any for my husband. I counted the hours he'd be home from work, egads.

Mexican Icebox Cookies are really good too; I get requests for those a lot.
posted by ifjuly at 11:17 AM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


And the two best chocolate chip cookies are Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies (don't be scared off by the whole wheat; these don't taste like health food at all but like Molly says, the wheat gives them a magical digestive biscuit dimension that gets better the longer they sit) and the infamous NYT 36-hour Sea Salt Cookie.
posted by ifjuly at 2:15 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh, I forgot my other favorite. 101 Cookbooks' version of ANZAC biscuits. They may not sound or look like much, but they are wonderful--the smell when you make them will drive you crazy, all that fresh orange zest and floral fragrance from the orange blossom water, and the nuttiness of the coconut, mm. And you don't need to do them in shaped pans like she did.
posted by ifjuly at 4:20 PM on March 16, 2013


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