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Mini chocolate chips, mini marshmallows and cornflake crunch are mixed into a buttery dough loaded with brown sugar, granulated sugar and milk powder, which results in one decadent cookie. Or rather, several, depending how large you decide to make the cookies.
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Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow cookies--there's much to love about this famous chewy with crispy edges cookie created by Milk Bar owner and Chef Christina Tosi.
You're going to adore the cookies--that is if you don't screw them up
Legions of people have tried and failed to successfully make this recipe. But I'm going to give you several tips, which should help you create perfect cookies.
These are a drop cookie and similar to but more work than Toffee Doodle Cookies, Easy Chocolate Toffee Cookies and my absolute fave Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies. You might also want to check out Cookie Monster Cookies (Om nom nom nom).
Cornflake cookies would also make a mean Best Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches.
Milk Bar Cornflake Marshmallow Cookie Tips:
I just went through Tosi's virtual baking workshop, which consists of lots and lots and lots of videos of her instructing to an invisible audience.
It was way too many videos for this girl and I was watching them at two times the speed to get through them.
This workshop is held through an outfit called Monthly.
They'll tell you that Tosi herself may pop into the group message boards to offer suggestions or comments. That's a marketing ploy.
She does not. In fact, her profile on Monthly hasn't even been filled out.
Tosi's name may be familiar to you because she also created the Crack Pie recipe and the Compost Cookie recipe maybe ten years ago.
Essential Tips for Making Cornflake Cookies:
- Mix the dough on high speed (butter, sugars, vanilla and egg) for 10 minutes. Yes, ten minutes. Once done, the cookie dough will be pale and light and fluffy.
- Don't forget to scrape the sides of the bowl at least two or three times. You'll use the paddle attachment in the bowl of a stand mixer. I don't recommend using a hand mixer for this recipe unless you have a really strong mixer. Once you get all the ingredients in the dough, it's pretty thick.
- You must chill the dough for at least two hours, preferably overnight.
- Bake these cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Don’t use a silicone mat, the cookies will spread and be more prone to burning than they already are.
- Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for five minutes before moving them with a spatula to a wire rack. For best results, the cookies will look slightly underdone when you pull them from the oven. Give them time on the baking sheet to finish baking--without burning--and cool off.
Recipe Notes:
The original recipe calls for 1 and a half cups of all purpose flour. I increased the flour to two cups to help manage all the butter and sugar in the dough along with providing a slightly sturdier base for the mix-ins or "inclusions" as Tosi calls the chocolate chips, marshmallows and crunchy cornflakes.
One common complaint with this cookie is that it spreads. They will spread a bit but if you chill the dough thoroughly and use parchment paper, you should have success.
Milkbar Cookie Ingredients:
- Nonfat Dry Milk Powder
- Miniature Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- Cornflakes
- Miniature Marshmallows
- Vanilla Extract
- Flour
- Butter
- Brown Sugar
- Granulated Sugar
- Eggs
- Sea Salt
- Baking Soda
You can get milk powder on Amazon or in the baking aisle of your grocery store.
Miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips are another ingredient you may not have.
You can substitute regular sized- semi sweet chocolate morsels if you like.
I thought the semi-sweet chocolate was a bit harsh with the milky/vanilly dough so I may try milk chocolate shards or toffee bits the next time I make them.
As you can see in this photo, particularly in the bottom left and middle right, these cookies can look a bit rough around the edges but rest assured, they taste Amazing.
Is Milk Powder the Same as Dried Milk?
Yes, in fact, this "milk powder" reference leads to a lot of confusion for people in this cookie recipe. Get a box of nonfat dry milk--that's the same thing as milk powder.
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Recipe
Christina Tosi's Cornflake Cookies
Christina Tosi's Cornflake Cookies feature miniature chocolate chips, mini marshmallows and cornflake crunch mixed into a buttery dough loaded with brown sugar, granulated sugar and milk powder, which results in one decadent cookie.
Ingredients
- Cornflake Crunch
- 120 g cornflakes (3 cups)
- 30 g milk powder (¼ cup)
- 30 g granulated sugar (¼ cup)
- 3 g kosher salt (½ tsp)
- 100 g butter, melted (½ cup or one stick)
- Cookie Dough
- 225 g unsalted butter, room temperature (1 cup or two sticks)
- 250 g granulated sugar (1 cup)
- 150 g light brown sugar (¾ cup)
- 1 egg
- 2g vanilla extract (½ tsp)
- 240 g all purpose flour (2 cups)
- 1.5 g baking soda (¼ tsp)
- 5 g kosher salt (1.5 tsp)
- Cornflake Crunch (all the crunch you made earlier minus the handful you sampled when no one was looking)
- 125 g miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 cup)
- 65 g mini marshmallows (â…“ cup)
Instructions
Make the crunch (You can do this a day ahead if you like. Store in an airtight container.)
Pour the cornflakes into a medium bowl.
Break up the cornflakes with your hands until they’re about half the size.
Mix them together with the milk powder, sugar, salt and melted butter.
Pour onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 275 F for 20 minutes or until the crunch turns a golden brown.
Let cool.
Make the cookie dough while the crunch is in the oven.
Cream butter and sugars for three minutes. Your mixer speed at should be on high.
Add egg and vanilla and beat for an additional 7 minutes on high.
----Total mixing time for wet ingredients is 10 minutes-----
Add dry ingredients and beat at a low speed until just combined.
Add mix-ins and all of the cornflake crunch until combined.
Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours, preferably overnight.
To bake: you have choices. Either scoop the chilled dough using a third of a cup measuring cup to make giant cookies or use a regular cookie scoop to make regular sized cookies.
If you go big, you’ll want to put no more than five scoops of dough on a baking sheet. (I used a half sheet pan (18x13) and fit two scoops on either end and one in the middle).
If you use a regular cookie scoop, you’ll be able to bake 12 on a baking sheet--if you’re using a half sheet pan, which is 18 x 13 and has rolled edges.
If you’re using a smaller cookie sheet, you may need to reduce the number of cookies you bake to eight or nine.
Notes
Milk Bar owner Christina Tosi would have you scoop large amounts of dough--a third of a cup per cookie--and bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Also, 375 was too hot of an oven for these cookies. I baked a tray at 350 for 15 minutes and they turned out better.
The large cookies were just way too big in my opinion. It took the people in my house a couple of days to eat one cookie.
In the next batch, I used medium 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop and baked at 350 for 12 minutes. We much preferred the smaller cookies.
Either way, small or large cookies, you’ll want to let them rest on the baking sheet for at least five minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. They will continue baking for a couple minutes before they cool. Because of the butter and marshmallow and cornflake crunch, they will be on the fragile side until they cool completely.
Some people pat the tops of the cookie domes before putting them in the oven. I only did that with one batch and didn't think it necessary.
Nutrition Information
Yield 24 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 264Total Fat 13gSaturated Fat 8gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 37mgSodium 223mgCarbohydrates 36gFiber 1gSugar 23gProtein 2g
Cookie Baking Advice
You may find these baking posts helpful, from Room Temperature Butter for Baking to Salted or Unsalted Butter for Cookies? to Do I Need A Cookie Scoop?, Cookie Size Chart to What Should a Beginner Bake? to Where Can I Buy Sprinkles?, Why is my sugar cookie dough too sticky? and Cookie Holidays.
Elizabeth
Thanks so much for the through explainer ! Wondering if you think this variation would work: caramelized white chocolate shards instead of marshmallows and chopped milk chocolate covered honeycomb candy (think: toffee chunks alternative)….do you think it would be too different from the marshmallow texture ? I’m gonna try it …