Browned Butter Trash Cookies

What are “Trash Cookies”? Well, it’s my version of Compost Cookies that my friends endearingly call Trash Cookies. Most people are very familiar with the Milk Bar version so this recipe is adapted from Malka’s adaptation of the original Milk Bar’s recipe. Is everyone following?

Portland is known for food carts, one of my favorite food carts was Carte Blanche. They produced really flavorful food and this amazing cookie! Honestly, I thought their version of Compost Cookies was better than Milk Bar’s (yeah, I went there). About 3-4 years ago, they decided to close down the cart and work on building a brick and mortar location on Division. Recently, it finally opened and is called Malka. In the process of raising money for the storefront, I donated money and got a copy of their cookie recipe. If following the recipe to the tee, it’s a pretty darn good cookie, however, not as good as I remembered it to be. When something is not as good as I want it to be then I made it better.

Everyone has a preference to how they like their cookies, my perfect cookie: chewy in the middle, thin, crispy on the bottom and around the edges. I recently came across a recipe that I love for Chocolate Chip Cookies and it has been the base recipe for my Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies and M’Ms Cookies. I just change up the add-in/fillings.

Ingredients

Cookie Dough Recipe

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cake flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup milk chocolate toffee bits

2 1/2 tsp ground espresso

1/2 cup potato chips

1/4 cup pretzels

1/4 cup coconut graham crust

Coconut Graham Crust (Malka Recipe)

1 1/2 cups graham crackers

1/4 cup coconut milk powder

2 Tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

4 Tbsp butter, melted

1/4 cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Break graham crackers into pieces, and pulse in a food processor until fine crumbs are achieved. Toss graham cracker crumbs, coconut milk powder, sugar, cinnamon and salt i a medium bowl until all are evenly distributed.

2. Whisk the butter and heavy cream together. Add to the dry ingredients and toss again to evenly distribute. Mixture should begin to clump, and will hold its shape if squeezed. If it is still too dry, melt more butter and add, about 1/2 Tbsp at a time, just until mixture comes together. If it’s too wet, add graham cracker crumbs.

3. Reserve about 1/3 cup of this final mixture for the cookies. The rest may be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a month, or in the freezer until you’re ready to use it.

I start by melting butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat until it becomes an amber color, looking for browned butter not burnt butter. Pour the butter into a mixing bowl and let it cool in the refrigerator for 15 minutes (do not let the butter solidify). Once the butter cooled, mixed in both the brown and white sugar until incorporated. I add the wet ingredients next, egg and vanilla extract. Stir in the dry ingredients: flour, cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and ground espresso. Mix until it is combined. Gently mix in the add-ins, I use semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate toffee bits, potato chips, pretzels, and the coconut graham cracker crust.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Using a standard ice cream scoop (1/4 cup), scoop the dough onto a baking sheet. This recipe should yield about 12 large cookies. Depending on your oven, bake for about 11-13 minutes until the edges are slightly golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool on a rack for about 5 minutes before eating.