Name: Gluten Free Milk Bar Inspired Compost Cookies
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 165 min
Ingredients: 1 ¼ cup oat flour (make your own to save $$); 8 tbsp softened butter (vegan butter for dairy free); ½ cup sugar; ½ cup brown sugar (packed); 1 egg; 1 tsp vanilla; ¾ tsp baking soda; ¼ tsp salt; ¼ tsp xantham gum (optional, adds chewiness ); ¼ cup almond flour; 2 tbsp sugar; 1 tbsp melted coconut oil (scant tablespoon ); ½ cup tortilla or potato chips (coarsely crushed); ½ cup mixed nuts (coarsely chopped); ¼ cup chocolate chips; ¼ cup white chocolate chips; 1 ½ tsp fresh coffee grounds (not instant coffee)

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Have you ever found it hard to choose your favorite cookie? Is a classic chocolate chip always the winner? Maybe it’s oatmeal, or peanut butter chocolate chip, in your opinion. Really, the possibilities are endless! If you’re classically indecisive, maybe a ‘Compost Cookie’ is the way to go!

side shot of a stack of four gluten free compost cookies

I ran this “which cookie is the best cookie” question by my friends on Instagram a couple weeks ago. I was inspired by a comment that said “I believe in cookies where you can put everything you love all together.” This comment made me remember a recipe – the famous Milk Bar Compost Cookie.

Also called garbage cookies or kitchen sink cookies, Compost Cookies have been made famous by Christina Tosi at her New York bakery Momofuko Milk Bar. Considering I’ve never been to Milk Bar or New York City, I simply recognized her as one of the sweetest judges on Master Chef Junior. Either way, I was really excited to try them!

Why Gluten Free?

While I’m sure the original recipe is ahh-mazing and so delicious, I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of gluten/processed flours I munch on. I’m not celiac, but I have noticed I feel better overall if I eat less gluten. Plus, I had just made some super yummy GF Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, and it sounded like a fun challenge to combine the two recipes into one wonderful mash up! So we’re swapping all purpose flour for oat flour here, and graham crackers for almond flour.

Christina’s original Momofuku Milk Bar recipe can be found here: Milk Bar’s Compost Cookies Recipe
Or, if you don’t want to sign up to a (free) milk bar account, you can also do a quick google search and find tons of recipes. (I get it, we have too many accounts to keep up with already!) I used one I found from Fresh April Flours to build my perfect cookie mash up!

Other ingredient notes:

I tried to keep this as simple as possible, so I cut out some ingredients I saw in other recipes that didn’t seem necessary, such as:
Light corn syrup
Unsalted butter or melted butter (I use Country Crock Plant Butter for literally everything, so I was not making a special trip to the store. It softens to room temperature very quickly, and that works perfect to cream together with the sugars)
Heavy cream and milk powder (I use vegan butter to make these dairy free, so I didn’t want to add dairy back in.)

Step by Step:

Again, these are simple cookies, but the prep might take a couple extra minutes the first time you make them. You’ve gotta gather up a pretty big hodgepodge of your favorite baking ingredients, but don’t let that deter you!

1) Make your oat flour if you don’t have any. I provide detailed instructions for that in the recipe card below, but it’s basically: put oats in your blender and buzz until they are a rough flour-like consistency. (If you are highly allergic to gluten or you have Celiac Disease, make sure you get oats labeled ‘gluten free’) Toss your other dry ingredients (baking soda, salt, xantham gum) into the flour and set aside.

2) Grab a medium bowl and make your graham cracker crust, and once that’s combined, add in all your other snack foods and set aside.

3) In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, combine butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Cream butter and sugars together on medium-high speed until fluffy and a pale white color. Add in your egg and vanilla and mix again, turning to a lower speed and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

4) Add flour mixture and combine, and then remove from mixer and fold in your bowl of mix-ins with a large spoon or spatula. Portion cookie dough out with a 1-2 tablespoon size ice cream or cookie scoop, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

5) Bake and enjoy!

On refrigeration and bake times:

From my researching, it seemed like all the compost cookies needed refrigeration before the baking process to prevent spreading. This was not an issue at all with the GF Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe I was also working with, but I was curious what difference the mix-ins would make, so I did some testing! You can see my results in the photo below.

The cookie on the far right was baked immediately, and it spread out and ended up rather thin and a little crispy around the edges. The center and right cookies were both refrigerated for a couple hours, and they held their shape much better. The one on the left baked for 15 minutes, and in the center, 20 minutes. It’s of course a matter of preference, but I thought the 15 minute bake time was perfect! Don’t be afraid to take these out a little before they look ‘done.’ That will leave you with a soft + chewy center! Of course, all ovens perform a little bit differently, so if you need a couple additional minutes in there, don’t be worried.

Oh, and shaping them into little cookie dough balls before you refrigerate is important too. You really don’t want to be trying to scoop this once it’s chilled! If you’re going to refrigerate them overnight or longer than a couple hours, snug them all up on one big sheet pan and cover with plastic wrap. Or, place in a big, airtight container and use plastic wrap or parchment paper to separate layers.

More mix-in details

Finally, we must talk mix-ins! The original New York compost cookie features a beautiful hodgepodge of mix-ins; potato chips, pretzels, graham cracker crumbs, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, oatmeal, and coffee grounds. Yes, actual coffee grounds. Not used, soggy ones, and not instant coffee. Right out of the canister, fresh coffee grounds.

However, the recipe is so great because it’s literally designed to use up whatever ‘garbage’ you might have lying around! I went with tortilla chips and mixed nuts for my salty and crunchy factor. Dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, shredded coconut, and almond flour graham crumbs cover the sweets. Again, though, the beauty is in the flexibility! Some other fan favorite mix in’s include:

Cape Cod Potato Chips (something about the thickness on this specific brand seems to get rave reviews in the cookies)
Whole pretzels
Bittersweet chocolate
Coconut flakes

I’ll probably mix it up with whatever I have on hand next time. So please, try different flavor combinations of your own favorite snacks and see what you like best. Oh, and then come back and tell me what they were so I can try them!