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Friday, March 8, 2013

Blueberry Corn Cookies

I have made two of Christina Tosi's recipes prior to this one, crack pie and caramelized cornflake cookies. There were a few common denominators between the two recipes. The first thing I have noticed is that Christina loves her salt. This sweet and salty combo leads to a highly addictive quality to her baked goods. Finally, I vowed never to make either of the two previous recipes again for the fact that I could not be trusted alone with an entire recipe for either of them. They were both too good and yet oh so very bad. The good thing about those two recipes is that you needed to commit a fair amount of time to each of them, therefore discouraging repeat offenses into the world of the very unhealthy.
These corn cookies, while not too difficult to make do involve sourcing some specialty ingredients. I would imagine that corn flour may be difficult for a lot of people to find, but the freeze dried corn is going to be difficult for just about everyone. I ordered both of these ingredients online from a company called "nuts.com". They do sell more than nuts by the way.
As with the other recipes I mentioned, these cookies were oddly addictive. Possibly more odd than the others. On first bite these cookies reminded me of the Cheetos they used to sell without the cheese on them. I don't think they sell them anymore. Do you know what I am talking about? As a kid I remember these, they were weird, salty corn puffs. Some people would make caramel corn out of them.
When I was getting ready to make the recipe I couldn't decide if I should make them as is, or change things up a bit. The regular corn cookies have been posted 100 times over on other sites, so I wouldn't exactly be introducing anything new. I couldn't help thinking about a blueberry cobbler I had last summer with a cornmeal crust. That blueberry and corn flavor was amazing. So, I decided to go for it and add blueberries. I'm so glad I did. I loved the contrast of the sweet dried blueberries and the salty corn flavor. This is the first Christina Tosi recipe I could see myself making again. I mean, with blueberries they are almost healthy. The best part is that they turn out a pretty impressive looking cookie. When David came home that night he asked, "Where did you buy the cookies"? They did look like real bakery cookies.
Have you tried any of Christina Tosi's recipes from her Milk bar cookbook? What did you think?

Amazon.com
Blueberry Corn Cookies
adapted from Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook

1 cup freeze-dried corn
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 cups flour
1/4 cup corn flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried blueberries (regular dried, not freeze-dried)

Place freeze-dried corn in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until corn becomes a powder. Measure out 2/3 cup and set aside. Save remaining powder in an airtight container for a later time. Because I am not going to use my freeze-dried corn for anything else, I went ahead and turned the entire package (minus a few kernals that I saved for photos) to corn powder.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the
paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg, and beat for 7 to 8 minutes.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, corn flour, 2/3 cup freeze-dried corn powder,
baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together,
no longer than 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Gently stir in the dried blueberries until well incorporated.

Using a 2 3/4-ounce ice cream scoop (or a 1/3-cup measure), portion out the
dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Pat the tops of the cookie dough
domes flat (I used a glass to press them down a bit). Wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 1 week. Do not bake your cookies from room temperature--they will not bake properly.

Heat the oven to 350°F. Arrange the chilled dough a minimum of 4 inches apart on parchment- or
Silpat-lined sheet pans. Bake for 18 minutes, they should be faintly browned on the edges yet
still bright yellow in the center; give them an extra minute if not.

Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before transferring to a plate or to an airtight container for storage. At room temp, the cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month.

3 comments:

  1. These certainly are unique. I probably wouldn't have given the recipe a second look in the book, but the way you describe them makes me want to give them a try. I made Crack Pie a while back, and I have to say it was darned good !

    ReplyDelete
  2. These look fantastic! I am a big fan of salty-sweet, so these are right up my alley.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is such a unique cookie! I have a bag of Bob's Red Mill corn flour and have been anxious to use it in a cookie recipe, so I'm so happy to have found your blog! These cookies will be snapped up lickety split once they're out of the oven!

    ReplyDelete

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