Blueberries and cream cookies
This is my 200th post and I have officially kept this blog for just over two years now! I can’t believe that I’ve been able to keep up blogging for this long and to be honest, with my impending move to London and the craziness of starting business school, I’m not sure that I will be able to keep up this blog with the regularity that I’d like. I may go down to one post a week or less but I’d certainly at least like to keep posting a few things as they inspire me. After all, one can never have too many cookie, brownie, or quinoa recipes, right?
I wanted my 200th post to be something quite special so I chose this truly incredible cookie which may as well have been sent down straight from heaven. I’ve posted some recipes from Christina Tosi before but this is an original and to be frank I’ve modified it so I think it’s actually way better than the one you can get from Milk Bar in NYC. Yes I know this is arrogant sounding but try a blueberries and cream cookie from there and try mine and then get back to me. Tosi’s issue is honestly that she just uses too much damn butter. Like, butter is a great thing for baking, sure – but the amounts she uses for her recipes are frankly obscene. I’ve halved the butter called for, gotten rid of the corn syrup, diminished the amount of sugar, and increased the amount of the sinfully delicious milk crumbs. One recipe of the below should be enough for two batches of cookies, but I dump the entire thing into one recipe because why not. You certainly don’t have to but I just love those things.
Yes, this recipe is a bit more involved than the typical cookie recipe, but it pays back for that in spades with how melt in your mouth utterly delicious they are. Trust me, you will not regret giving this one a try.
One note for non Americans – good luck finding dried blueberries. I was never able to find them in Australia but I’m sure they can be found. Dried cranberries would probably be delicious too, or maybe even raisins, but honestly the dried blueberries are the way to go if at all possible.
Blueberries and cream cookies (adapted from the genius Christina Tosi, recipe online can be found at this Bon Appetit website)
Ingredients
Milk crumbs:
- 3/4 cup nonfat dry milk powder
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Cookies:
- 1 stick + remaining 2 tablespoons (8 tbsp or 115 g) unsalted butter, room temperature – I just like to use up the remaining part of the stick that I used in the milk crumbs
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1+ cups Milk Crumbs (up to your discretion but I go super heavy on the milk crumbs)
- 3/4 cup dried blueberries
First, make the milk crumbs, which can be done up to 1 week ahead and stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Preheat oven to 275°F / 135 C. Line large rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Combine milk powder, flour, sugar, and coarse salt in medium bowl; toss to mix evenly. Add butter; stir with fork until clusters form. Spread mixture evenly on prepared sheet. Bake until crumbs are dry and crumbly but still a bit pale, about 15 minutes. Cool completely on sheet. Trust me, not all of these will make it into the cookie dough because they are oddly addictive.
To make the cookies: cream the butter and both sugars. Add the egg and mix until the mixture is pale and everything is thoroughly mixed. Add baking powder, baking soda, salt, and most of the flour, and mix in gently until just blended. Add the milk crumbs and mix in and if the dough is still super sticky add the remainder of the flour. (I tend to use more milk crumbs and less flour than the original recipe calls for.) Finally, stir in the dried blueberries until they are evenly distributed.
Since the dough is fairly sticky it’s best to pop it in the fridge for at least a few hours and preferably overnight to let the flavors set and the dough become more manageable. When you’re ready to bake, let it soften from the fridge a bit and break off small pieces, forming them into balls. Preheat the oven to 375 F / 190 C and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. (If you don’t have it, don’t bother to spray the sheet because the cookies are plenty buttery and won’t stick to it.) The cookies will spread a fair bit so I made mine fairly small balls and spaced them apart. Start checking the cookies at about 10 minutes – depending on size they will take from 12 to 20 minutes. Let cookies cool completely before storing but only cool for a bit before sampling of course. Although really the flavors settle in delightfully after a day or so and then taste even better…
Creaming butter and sugar, the usual. No one would suspect at this point that this dough will become spectacular.
Adding egg
After adding some flour, adding a WHOLE LOT of milk crumbs. This is the magical ingredient people. Seriously, it just takes the dough to the next level.
Adding more flour and all the dried blueberries
Mixing it all up into a sticky dough
Placed in balls on the cookie sheet and ready to become even more amazing
Golden brown finished product. SO. GOOD.
This cookie is truly remarkable. The dough, the baked cookie, just everything. It is as good a non chocolate dessert as I have ever made, and most certainly worthy of 200th post honors. These cookies are playful and seductive and other words that you would not think of to describe cookies at all. Really, they are that good. I cannot recommend them highly enough!
One year ago: Curried lentil burgers
Two years ago: Carrot cake with candied carrot curls
merrifood 