Some people call them garbage cookies or kitchen sink cookies. While you’re baking up a storm at home, throw in whatever sweet and savory snacks that are near the bottom of the bag into this sinfully delicious dessert recipe.

It seems surreal now, as we move into the third month of our coronavirus quarantine. But back in early February, before the world screeched to a halt, I was in New York on a business trip and walked past one of Milk Bar’s locations, the sister bakery to the Momofuku restaurant group. It was around 9 p.m. and it was still hopping, so I decided not to go in. 

Since we won’t be going to NYC any time soon, I decided to make their famous compost cookies at home. You may wonder why they’re called compost cookies, or, alternately, garbage or kitchen sink cookies. Whatever you want to call them, there’s no denying how addictive and delicious they are. They’re the perfect marriage between satisfying my sweet tooth (with dark chocolate chunks and toffee bits) and Wally’s savory cravings (featuring one of his favorite snacks, potato chips). Although there are a lot of ingredients that go into these, what’s great about them is that you can easily incorporate and use up whatever you have on hand.

It’s a great recipe for someone like my mom who’s known to throw random ingredients into her recipes. Compost cookies are easy and comforting to make — an ideal recipe to add to your rotation, during, say, a global pandemic, especially if you’ve grown tired of making banana bread.

Luckily for us, Christina Tosi, the award-winning chef, creative force and owner of Milk Bar, has graciously shared her recipes for their baked goods on their website. It seemed downright serendipitous when Tosi showed up as a guest judge on Nailed It! on Netflix as we were munching on the compost cookies I had baked.

I’ve made a couple of minor tweaks. The first batch I tried at the suggested temperature of 375°F came out more flat and crispy than I would like — Wally didn’t mind, but I can admittedly be a bit neurotic about these things. I don’t know if our oven is simply too hot, but I reduced the temperature to 350°F, and the baking time from 18 minutes to 12, with better results. 

The dough has so many bits and chunks in it — it’s seriously bonkers how many different things are in these cookies! For the best results, I recommend scooping out your dough with a 1½-inch-diameter cookie scoop and placing the balls in a resealable container in the freezer overnight. But if you can’t wait that long, a couple of hours will suffice. –Duke

Servings: 24 cookies

Active Time: 30 minutes 

Total Time: 2 hours, plus an optional overnight chill

INGREDIENTS

• 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature 

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• ⅔ cup light brown sugar, tightly packed 

• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

• 1 egg

• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1⅓ cups flour

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• ¼ teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• ¾ cup chocolate chunks 

• ½ cup Heath toffee bits 

• ⅓ cup old-fashioned rolled oats

• 2½ teaspoons ground coffee

• 2 cups potato chips

• 1 cup mini pretzels 

GRAHAM CRACKER “CRUST”

• 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs

• ¼ cup milk powder

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt 

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature 

• ¼ cup heavy cream

PREPARATION

Start with what Tosi calls a graham crust. I’m looking forward to trying this on the next Key lime pie I make, but here it’s used as a textural component in the cookies. Toss the graham cracker crumbs, milk powder, sugar and salt with your hands in a medium bowl to evenly distribute your dry ingredients.

Add the butter to the dry ingredients and toss again to evenly distribute. Then add the heavy cream. The butter and cream will act as a glue, adhering to the dry ingredients and turning the mixture into small pea-sized clusters. The crust should hold its shape if squeezed tightly in the palm of your hand. If it isn’t moist enough, mix in an additional 1 to 1½ tablespoons of butter.

Next, move onto the cookie dough. Combine the butter, sugars and corn syrup in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. I swear by my KitchenAid stand mixer, but an old-school hand mixer will work, too. Cream together the ingredients on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes. Using a spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg and vanilla, and beat for 7 to 8 minutes more. 

Reduce the speed to low and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. I usually add this in batches to prevent the flour from flying out of the bowl. Mix until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. (Do not walk away from the appliance during this step, or you will risk over-mixing the dough.) Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

Still on low speed, add the chocolate chunks, toffee bits, graham cracker crust, oats and coffee, and mix until just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add the potato chips and pretzels, still on low speed, until just incorporated. When you’re adding the potato chips and mini pretzels, it’s best not to mix them too much; you want to retain irregular bits and pieces. That way you can taste the salty-sweetness of the cookie.

Using a 1½-inch-diameter cookie scoop, portion out the dough equally. I make a dome shape that’s flat on the bottom. Don’t bake your cookies at room temperature — they will end up flat like a pancake. Mine still came out pretty flat, but the longer I froze the dough, the more shape they kept. Place inside a resealable container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or freeze overnight. 

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Arrange pre-scooped cookie dough a minimum of 4 inches apart on parchment or silpat-lined sheet pans.

Bake for 12 minutes. The cookies will puff, crackle and spread. After 12 minutes, they should be golden-brown. Give them an extra minute or so if that’s not the case.

Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before transferring to a plate or an airtight container for storage. Wally learned this the hard way — he wanted to have these right out of the oven, but the cookies didn’t have enough time to solidify. At room temp, cookies will keep fresh for five days; in the freezer, they will keep for one month.