Copycat Milk Bar Compost Cookies
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Crispy, buttery cookies filled with butterscotch and chocolate chips, graham crackers, oats, coffee grounds, pretzels, and potato chips. The perfect cookie for indecisive dessert lovers!
THESE MOMOFUKU MILK BAR COMPOST COOKIES ARE SO LOVED, EVEN A CELEBRITY MAKES THEM
Yes, an actual, real celebrity (we’ll get there in a second).
These cookies have lived on my site since 2015 when I originally published them during my first annual 12 Days of Cookies. They are ridiculous, and we have Christina Tosi, chef and owner at Milk Bar bakery (an extension of the Momofuku restaurant) in NYC to thank for them.
Years ago, my husband and I were watching the Food Network, and we were introduced to this famous Milk Bar cookie recipe called a compost cookie, comprised of everything you can imagine and then some, and we vowed we would one day taste one for ourselves.
Thanks to a friend who brought one home from a trip to NYC for us to try not long after that, we actually did get to try one for ourselves, and I fell in love with one bite because they.were.amazeballs (ridiculous categorization V necessary).
These cookies are buttery, crisp, full of so many goodies, and keep you coming back for more bites just because you want to taste what’s next.
Thankfully for us and for you, Milk Bar shares their Momofuku Milk Bar compost cookie recipe right on their website! Score! A little adapting and BAM! this incredible, wondrously tasty cookie was published on my site in no time and we’ve made them approximately a bajillion times since.
REAL REVIEWS FROM REAL PEOPLE (AND THAT CELEBRITY)
“These were so good!! They were extremely easy to make and came together quickly.”
“Hands down my new favorite cookie recipe!”
“Been looking for a simplified recipe for these ever since my visit to Milk Bar in 2018 but one that was still as good as the original… Bingo!”
“Coffee grounds in cookies? Who the heck does that? Christina does and you know what? It’s amazing… Great instructions. Super cookies!!!”
Oh yeah, and that celebrity? During the pandemic, I discovered thousands of people viewing this one single recipe at one time on a random weeknight. It turns out Alison Brie had made them from my website and then shared a link to them on her Instagram. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that and I’ll never forget it! They are now lovingly called “Alison Brie cookies” in our house forever more. You can call them that, too, if you want.
INGREDIENTS FOR MILK BAR’S COMPOST COOKIES
I know, compost, right? Kinda gross when we’re thinking of eating it. But don’t worry– these cookies aren’t full of anything gross, they’re simply a hodgepodge of several ingredients that come together so wonderfully that you’ll wonder why you never ate all of them together in a handful before making these cookies.
You’ll sometimes see these cookies referred to as “kitchen sink cookies,” as in “they have everything but the kitchen sink,” but when I think of those, I think of a soft and chewy cookie. These compost cookies are uniquely and purposefully crisp, which is something I surprisingly love about them.
For these compost cookies, you will need:
• flour
• baking powder
• baking soda
• salt
• chocolate chips
• butterscotch chips
• graham crackers
• oats
• coffee grounds* (!!! my personal favorite part!)
• potato chips
• pretzels
• unsalted butter
• granulated and brown sugars
• egg
• vanilla extract
*Yes, coffee grounds. I know. It sounds odd, but see recipe notes for more information and ingredient swap ideas if you aren’t totally sold on them or any of the listed add-ins.
HOW TO MAKE COMPOST COOKIES
The instructions for these cookies are very straightforward. To be honest, the hardest part is stirring together the add-ins because there are so many of them. I always wind up with bits and pieces jumping from the bowl.
STEP #1: Prepare the add-ins and stir them together until evenly dispersed.
STEP #2: Mix the dry ingredients.
STEP #3: Cream the butter and sugar, then add the egg and vanilla extract.
STEP #4: Add the dry ingredients, then mix in the add-ins.
STEP #5: Roll into balls, chill, bake!
Making these cookies over the years myself and hearing from readers, I know that these compost cookies spread too much. Combat this with my roll then chill + parchment + reshape tricks.
ROLL THE DOUGH AND THEN CHILL IT
Because the dough has so many bits and chunks in it, rolling them before the dough is hard is much easier. And less painful. Have you ever been injured rolling cookie dough?
Food blogger life. It’s tough.
I recommend rolling the cookie dough into balls and placing them onto a baking sheet or a large platter to chill. The cookie dough isn’t very sticky, so it’s fine if the dough balls are touching a bit while they chill.
Once they’ve been covered and chilled for at least 1 hour, they’re ready to go!
DO NOT USE SILICONE BAKING MATS: PARCHMENT ONLY
Read that and read it again: do not use silicone baking mats for these cookies. I wish I could tell you the exact reason these compost cookies spread way too much on silicone but often hardly at all on parchment, but I can’t. I just know from experience that silicone = way too much spread and parchment = a little.
Here is an example of what a compost cookie baked on a silicone baking mat looks like. The ones on parchment will spread, too, but the edges won’t burn quite like the silicone mat ones do.
RESHAPE COOKIES USING A ROUND COOKIE CUTTER
Please read this and read it again, too, though: these cookies do spread out quite a bit, as they are intentionally a thinner, crisp cookie, so use a cookie cutter (I like a 4″ diameter one) or the rim of a mug or glass to reshape hot cookies right from the oven ( I do this with my gooey, oozy peanut butter Rolo cookies, too).
Compost cookies, garbage cookies, kitchen sink cookies… Whatever you want to call these cookies, they’re a must make, because they truly have it all.
Chocolate + salty + sweet + oaty + grahamy + coffeey. I’m getting delirious.
A simple and tasty yet complicated and confusing cookie all rolled into one. These easy compost cookies are the bomb. I promise to stop using ridiculous phrases if you promise to try them for yourself to understand.
Just invite me over to help taste test, please? I simply can’t get enough of them!!
More Favorites from Fresh April Flours
Compost Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 and ⅓ cups (160g) all-purpose flour be sure to measure properly
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (40g) coarsely crushed potato chips1
- 1 cup (80g) coarsely crushed pretzels2
- 4 full graham cracker rectangles3 coarsely crushed (approximately 1 cup)
- ½ cup (85g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup (85g) butterscotch chips
- ⅓ cup (27g) quick or rolled oats
- 1 Tablespoon (5g) coffee grounds4
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup (133g) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a medium size bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.1 and ⅓ cups (160g) all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt
- In another medium size bowl, toss together the crushed potato chips, crushed pretzels, crushed graham crackers, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, oats, and coffee grounds.1 cup (40g) coarsely crushed potato chips1, 1 cup (80g) coarsely crushed pretzels2, 4 full graham cracker rectangles3, ½ cup (85g) semi-sweet chocolate chips, ½ cup (85g) butterscotch chips, ⅓ cup (27g) quick or rolled oats, 1 Tablespoon (5g) coffee grounds4
- In a large bowl with a handheld mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream to gather the butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes). Add the egg and vanilla extract, then beat again on medium speed until completely combined, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar, ⅔ cup (133g) firmly packed light brown sugar, 1 large egg, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing until the dough just comes together.
- With the mixer still on low speed, add the bowl of mix-ins, then mix for only about 10 seconds, being careful not to over mix the dough or break too many of the chips or pretzels. Continue mixing with a spatula, stirring carefully until everything is thoroughly combined.
- Using a cookie scoop (I use this #50 cookie scoop for all of my standard size cookies), roll the dough into balls. You can also combine two cookie dough balls to make large cookies. Place them on a couple large plates then cover cookie dough balls and chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
- When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 375°F (191ºC). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper (not silicone baking mats5), and place chilled dough balls on them (no more than 8 small or 6 large dough balls on a sheet at a time).
- Bake small cookies for 12-13 and large cookies for 15-16 minutes until cookies just begin to brown on the edges. The centers will look under-baked. Some cookies may have spread more than others. While they are still hot, I like to use a 4" round cookie cutter or a spoon to tuck in the edges and reshape the cookies. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days. Cookies freeze well, up to 2 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well, up to 3 months. Bake from frozen and add 1-2 minutes to the baking time depending on the size of your cookie dough ball.
Video
Notes
- Potato chips: I like to use wavy/ruffled chips because they tend to be stronger and crunchier than the thinner ones.
- Pretzels: I prefer to use itty bitty or mini size. Aim for each pretzel to be chopped into 2-3 pieces, though I keep some of them whole if i’m using mini.
- Graham crackers: use any flavor you like. I usually just get whatever is on sale or available.
- Coffee grounds: yes, actual coffee grounds. Do not use instant coffee or espresso powder.
- Parchment paper: I find that this particular cookie recipe does not like silicone baking mats, no matter how many times I have tried. I’m not sure why, but I advise against using one for these cookies. The cookies will spread much more and thus bake faster. If you decide to use one, bake at your own risk!
- Other ingredients to consider adding: peanut butter chips, cinnamon chips, white chocolate chips, crushed Oreos, Chex cereal, raisins, chopped candy bars, Rice Krispies, Ritz crackers, Goldfish crackers, or tortilla chips (to name a few)! If using mini chips of any kind, reduce amount to ¼ cup.
Nutrition Disclosure
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
WHAT THE WHAT?! These sound incredible. You had me from the first sentence, but then I saw that COFFEE is included, and then it was GAME OVER. You KNOW these will be tested in our kitchen soon. And I think you need to come over to make sure I’m making them right 😉
Haha, forreal! The coffee makes them just THE BEST! Baby A will be there in a flash if you just tell us when! 😉
Wow! This is amazing, Lynn. All those interesting thing together! And coffee grounds……
I KNOW. The coffee grounds are my fav part!!
Ooo!!!!!! These sound incredible!! Definitely one crazy cookie. But how delicious with all those flavors in it!
One of my magical food moments from my most recent trip to the US was visiting Momo Milk Bar! We immediately bought their cookbook and have been recreating their magical treats at home. I didn’t get to try one of their compost cookies but they look and sound incredible. Seriously incredible! I loved reading your story too about Matt and his love for sweets! I’m glad I’m not the only one who can eat 5 cupcakes in a sitting 😉 Well done you two!! xx
Oh I’m SO jealous, Jess! We have a bucket list to visit all 50 states before we die, and can you believe we’ve never been to NYC together?! We’ve been there separately, but that’s not the rules of our list! When we do get to NYC, you better believe we are heading right to Milk Bar!
I made these this week! You are a genius! Other versions of this recipe look to flat and crunchy. YOUR recipe was absolutely perfect. My family loved them. Thank you so much! This will definitely be a staple recipe for all types of holidays!
I’m so glad you liked them, Alaina!
These were wonderful…I only made 1/2 recipe as two sticks of butter makes my butter go too fast in my house. I also just used graham cracker crumbs and added 1/4 C. Oatmeal flour so they weren’t so runny. I used instant coffee and it was fine as well. I smashed my chips and pretzels for better baking consistency. I chopped my butterscotch chips and next time will probably used less as it had too strong of a butterscotch flavor. My kids love coconut so I will add that. I used some canned milk. These actually turned out very nice. Much nicer looking than the ones on your video (sorry). I will pass this recipe on to family and friends. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks for sharing your subs, Sally! Glad you enjoyed them!
Been looking for a simplified recipe for these ever since my visit to Milk Bar in 2018 but one that was still as good as the original.. bingo! Just made a version of these – I didn’t have much in the house so I used a mix of sweet and salty popcorn, digestive biscuits, oats, butterscotch chips, coffee and shreddies cereal in mine and I have to say they were absolutely brilliant. Thanks for the recipe! ❤️
Love your choices, Alison! SO glad you liked the cookies!
I make these at the firehouse with whatever I can find around the kitchen that are as close to the original mix-ins as I can get. Always a crowd pleaser!
Awesome, Molly! A fav cookie of mine, for sure.
2nd yearly attempt and these cookies always spread despite cooling and parchment. Added marshmallows and toffee chips and it isn’t pretty but is delicious. Looks more wafery than cookiey.
What a bummer– because I just remade these cookies for this year and they’re perfect. My guess is your oven is either too hot or your baking sheets are too close to the heat source. Do you have gas or electric, and do you use convection?
Coffee grounds or ground coffee? In my mind coffee grounds are used…. ones that are left over from brewing a pot of coffee. Is that right? Ground coffee would be straight out of the coffee can. Looks like I am the only one that is confused by this. Please help.
Ground coffee.
Thank you!!
i came to the comments looking to see if this question had been asked. So you weren’t alone! I was about to use the ones from my coffee this morning. 🙂
I’m SO glad you asked this because I agree. I hear coffee grounds and think of spent, wet used grounds (ESPECIALLY in a recipe called Compost Cookies!) I think of the ones out of the can as ground coffee. So glad this was answered 🙂
I want to make this recipe but I’m not a coffee drinker (I know!) so what’s the difference btwn ground coffee and instant coffee? I have the Nescafe Riche but it does say it’s instant coffee on the container. It looks like coffee grounds to me though. How will I know which one to buy?
Also, what type of potato chips do you use? Can I use Lays or will it be too thin? The Milkbar store website recipe says not to use potato chips that are too thin but doesn’t really specify mass market brands (I don’t have access to Cape Cod potato chips here in Canada).
Thank you!
Hey, Grace! If you’re not a coffee drinker and would rather leave it out, that’s fine. But if you want to use coffee, coffee grounds will stay intact in these cookies whereas instant coffee will dissolve, just like it does when mixed with water. You’d know as soon as you put it in water. Coffee grounds won’t really take on much water at first, and instant will quite literally instantly turn into coffee.
And I use super thin, generic brand chips. I’ve never used anything else. Let me know how you like them!
thanks for the quick reply! I will look into the coffee grounds! =)
I find these cookies don’t hold their shape in my non-convection oven. I tried reducing temp to 325⁰F on parchment paper after allowing the dough to cool for 2 hours and reducing the baking time, but to no avail. I’ve tried these twice now but both times the cookies went melty.
So I’m intrigued by Christina Tosi and what she considers wonderful. The woman has a amazing pallet and that’s the truth. She’s pretty much a sweets genius. Compost cookies sounded a little weird but you must respect the process. Coffee grounds in cookies? Who the heck does that? Christina does and you know what? It’s amazing, my husband loved it and he doesn’t like coffee, lol. When I bake I always use the Irish butter because it totally rocks! I also use salted butter and cut the salt back as a add in. Love, love love Aldi and used their pretzels, chips, butter scotch chips, coffee and it saved me a ton! And it was great! So two batches of these cookies. some go to my husbands work and some goes to Bible study (I’m the baker) and these are beautiful and unique. I used parchment paper and I chilled the dough and still I got pretty big cookies. Yes they spread. 6 cookies to my extra large sheet pan, do crowd them. Thanks for this site. Great instructions. Super cookies!!!
Thank you so much, Jennifer!
Finally got around to trying these! Mine didn’t turn out too pretty but super flavorful. Butterscotch kinda took over on some cookies that had smaller chunks of everything else, but good nonetheless.
So happy to hear that, Christina! Thanks!
I made these and they turned out super! I used parchment per your instructions, but I’ve also made her chocolate chip, cornflake marshmallow cookie and used silicone and had no negative results with a runny cookie. When I make her cookies I start using the fridge method just to form up the dough. Then what I’ll do is leave a few out to bake and I freeze the rest of the cookies. I like to do this because then when guests come I always have a treat to share with some coffee! I thank you for sharing this recipe and will also experiment with other German treats like Lebkuchen or maybe some Milka chocolate!
Thanks so much for your review, Nikki! I’m so glad you enjoy the cookies and share the love 🙂
I haven’t tried these yet (maybe this weekend) but I was wondering if maple syrup would work instead of corn syrup?
Hey, Joanne– I’m not sure you put this comment on the right recipe. There is no corn syrup in these cookies.
i made these on the weekend and they are so good. Everyone loved them and wanted the recipe Thank you!
Thank you so much, Carolyn!
Subbed some sugar alternatives and mostly whole wheat flour to make “healthy.” Even with these mods they were amazing! Thanks for throwing down this version of compost cookies that didn’t include corn syrup.
Thanks so much, Rebecca! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
My cookies spread a lot in the oven and while it wasn’t that bad, like you can still pick them up, it still had a lot of small holes and the edges were very flat. To be fair, I only chilled for a little over an hour but there was just too much butter to flour ratio. I think I would probably either add more flour or less butter next time. Wonder if I did anything wrong because it seemed like it worked for other people. As for flavor, they taste good but the flavor of all the mix-ins gets kinda lost in the flavor of coffee. Kinda disappointed overall but I’ll still eat and enjoy them 🤷♀️
Hey, Elly– bummer to hear you were a bit disappointed! I have heard some folks here and there have a big issue with spreading, but I personally never have, and I make these pretty often, so it’s hard for me to troubleshoot. If you try them again and adjust anything, I’d love to hear that! Thanks for your review 🙂
This was a super fun recipe to bake – well written and easy to follow for a novice baker! Thanks 🙂 Taste wise they are deliciously rich and sweet. I didn’t have pretzels so I used saltines and wish I had held out for crunchier pretzels. I found the butterscotch chips to be pretty dominant so next time I will maybe try PB chips instead! I also found the coffee a bit much but I also did not measure so it is quite possible that I went a bit heavy hahah. Would you recommend a fine or coarse grind for the coffee grounds?
Hi, Nadine– that’s a great question– I usually use a fine ground. You only need 1 Tablespoon and any more than that will definitely be over-powering! Hope that helps! Thanks for your review 🙂