Friday 3 June 2011

Making a great thing even better: Momofuku-esque Chocolate Cherry Cookies

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There are times when you think a recipe just can't get any better.  It's gone beyond 'tried and true' to be a real favorite, not just a go-to but something people talk about for days after the product of said recipe is gone.  The ingenious combination of chocolate chips, oats, and dried cherries in a cookie is one of those recipes for me.  People never expect it, and they always rave about it once they've tried it.

But then.  I tried something new with it.  I know, blasphemy, but I was curious!  For months, I've been watching other bloggers try the Momofuku Milk Bar Compost Cookie recipe, and I keep wanting to try it but we never have the required snack foods lying around (mostly because on the rare occasions that we do, I eat them all before I can think of doing anything else with them).  But last week, I really wanted to bake something special for my porter – who'd saved me in a really horrible, ambulance-requiring moment – and I decided on my awesome cherry chocolate cookies, with a Momofuku twist.


Of course, for this recipe you will almost definitely need a stand mixer, because the trick to making the cookies taste so unusual and amazing, apparently, is whipping the butter, sugars, and eggs for ten minutes on medium-high speed.  Which I guess you could do with a hand mixer, but you'd have to have strong arms and endless patience.  I wouldn't have managed it.
 

It's worth the effort, though (especially if your Kitchenaid is the one working hard), because the end result is this glossy, fluffy, whipped amazingness, which tastes like heaven and makes for one chewy, flavorful cookie.


The dough is actually good enough to eat all on its own.  I had to be physically restrained by the bf from making myself ridiculously ill on the stuff.  (Sidebar: sorry for the blurry pic.  For some reason I really liked it anyway, so I felt the need to include it.)


The cookies come out perfectly brown, crispy along the edges and chewy/soft in the center, with a wonderful saltiness that complements the sweet chocolate and a delicious tang from the tart dried cherries.



Needless to say, this will be my preferred method of cookie dough mixing from here on out.  It does require some serious chilling before baking, to keep the cookies from melting into nothingness in the hot oven, so it takes a good bit of extra time, but the dough lasts up to a week in the fridge so you can always throw some together and bake on demand for a week.  In fact, I think I might go do that now...I suspect we'll be needing more cherries soon...



Cherry Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies, Revised:
     inspired in part by The Amateur Gourmet

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream until fluffy:
     1 c (225g) unsalted butter, softened
     1 c sugar
     3/4 c brown sugar

Add, mixing on low speed until combined:
     2 eggs
     1 tsp vanilla
  
Turn mixer to med-high speed and set a timer for ten minutes.  Walk away.  Have a cup of tea or chop up that mass of chocolate that was the result of your 4lb bag of chocolate chips melting together.  

When the timer goes off, turn the mixer off, then add in and mix on low speed, just until incorporated:
     1 3/4 c flour
     2 tsp salt
     2 tsp baking powder
     1 tsp baking soda

On low speed again, mix in:
     1 c oats
     1 c dried cherries
     1 1/2 c chocolate chips 

Portion with a cookie scoop or two tablespoons onto parchment-lined cookies sheets, 2" apart, cover with cling film, and chill at least one hour.

When you're ready to bake the cookies, set the oven to 400F/200C.  Bake, one tray at a time, until browned at the edges, with the golden color moving toward the center, and slightly cracked on top, 8-11 minutes.  Let cool completely on sheet before eating (yeah, right).

7 comments:

  1. Lovely looking cookies, can't wait to make a batch of these.

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  2. Your cookies look lovely but this recipe did not turn out for me, despite following the directions to a T.

    I tried to take all the usual precautions against cookie spread (chilled the dough overnight, cooled the silpat and cookie sheet before baking, checked my oven thermometer for calibration) but these things spread incredibly thin and burned at the edges before 8 min was up. Knocking the temp down to 325 kept spread down but they still browned severely around the edge while the center was still under-baked.

    After a quick search it appears that lots of people around the web have had trouble with Momofuku compost cookie-derived recipes. The general consensus seems to be that this recipe needs more flour (1/3-1/2 cup) and should be baked at a lower temp (375 max). I'd be interested to know how much flour you typically pack into a cup. I suspect it's probably more than 125 g, which is the standard I use.

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  3. Hi B,

    I'm so sorry the recipe was a flop for you! There's nothing worse than cookies melting into a mess in the oven, especially cookies with such delicious/spendy ingredients and a long chill time!

    I'm rather slapdash with my measurements, which I know is blasphemous to most bakers; I use the scoop and sweep method (I keep flour/sugar/b. sug in jars), and sometimes I'm afraid I don't even sweep.

    But in my experience, sometimes a recipe works perfectly for half the world and is a flop for the rest (usually me!), for no visible reason. Still, if you found tips from other people online about how to make this recipe work, I recommend trying it again – it's too delicious to miss out on.

    I'm truly sorry you had such a stressful time with this recipe. I hope your next attempt is more successful!

    ~A

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  4. I followed the recipe and the cookies turned out for me. They were tasty! I added 2 tsp. table salt and the cookies were a bit salty, next time I will add kosher salt instead or reduce the salt a bit.

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  5. Hi Anon,
    I'm really glad the recipe turned out for you! My cookies were a bit salty too, but I loved that. You could def reduce the salt to 1.5 tsp if you want the flavor enhancement without the salty tinge, though.
    ~A

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  6. Hi Anne - I couldn't find an e-mail to contact you...I hope you don't mind the comment here.

    CookieHound.com is a curator of blogger-submitted photos, solely devoted to cookies. Fun, right?

    We love all of your beautiful cookie photos and would be so thrilled if you submitted them to our site. Archived posts are welcome!

    Cheers and thank you!
    Amy @CookieHound

    http://www.cookiehound.com/
    http://www.cookiehound.com/register/

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    Replies
    1. Hi Amy,

      Thanks for getting in touch! Your site looks fab, and I'd be happy to be a part of your cookie-loving community. I'll submit a few posts when I get a chance.

      Cheers,
      Anne

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