Momofuku Corn Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Momofuku calls this a sleeper cookie, that is, one that they did not expect would be that popular but has become a favorite. Rich, buttery, sweet but a bit salty, these Momofuku corn cookies are chewy and completely more-ish.

One of the beautiful things about having children is the intelligent discourse that becomes possible as they grow and become more articulate. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than spending time with my girls and learning from them. This past week I was in Baltimore visiting our elder daughter and I had the best time exploring her neighborhood and talking with her late into the night.

We ate lump crab cakes at Faidley’s in the world famous Lexington Market, bought pasta puttanesca supplies and chianti at a little Italian grocery for dinner on Friday night and enjoyed a beautiful meal – with house brewed beer, of course – at The Brewer’s Art. We even got to cheer on the runners in the Baltimore Marathon which ran right through her neighborhood Saturday.

On my final night, we brought home boiled crabs for dinner from Lexington Market. And if it sounds like all we did was eat, eat, eat, well, I cannot deny that. But we also managed to get our work done and we talked a lot.

I mentioned to her that I wasn’t going to take part in this cookie event because time had gotten away from me in Houston and I hadn’t had time to bake. Her eyes lit up at a good reason to introduce me to these Momofuku corn cookies, which she had already made twice in as many weeks. She extolled their virtues at length and, best of all, had the ingredients in the cupboard already. How could I resist?

I need to introduce the recipe by saying that we got it off the Lucky Peach website and it supposedly comes from the Momofuku cookbook. I say supposedly because I have never held that volume in my hands. I can tell you the measurements online are off so I hope that they are correct in the book. Since my daughter had already made these corn cookies twice, she said to ignore the volume amounts and use the weight measurements. I followed her instructions and give you below the corrected volume measurements for those who don’t have a digital kitchen scale.

Ingredients for 2 dozen cookies
1 cup or 226g room-temperature butter
1 1/2 cups or 300g sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cups or 220g all-purpose flour
1/2 cup or 65g freeze-dried corn powder *See note below
1/4 cup or 45g corn flour (corn masa flour, like you’d use to make tortillas, not corn starch)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt or flakey sea salt

*Note: I used Karen’s Freeze Dried Corn (<affiliate link) in this recipe, weighing out 65g and then blitzing it into powder with a food processor. The resulting powder measured about 1/2 cup by volume.

Method
Use a stand or handheld electric beaters to cream the butter and sugar together on medium high until they are fluffy and pale yellow, about 2-3 minutes.

Add in the egg and mix it in with the beaters on low.

Increase the speed to medium high again and beat for eight minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula. Here the original recipe says that at the end of eight minutes, the sugar will be dissolved completely and the volume would double. Neither was true of mine but, honestly, it did not matter. The butter, sugar and egg were very pale and fluffy and I called it good.

With your mixer or beaters on low, mix in all of the dry ingredients, just until they come together as a dough.

Use a scoop or two spoons to divide the dough into 24 relatively equal portions. If you are a scale-using person, mine were about 40g each.

Using clean hands, roll the dough into balls and place on two cookie sheet lines with baking parchment or silicone liners.

Chill in the refrigerator for one hour. You can chill these for longer, even overnight, but in that case, cover them with cling film so they don’t dry out. The chilling time is a must for cookies with this much butter. If you bake them without chilling, the butter will melt out.

As you come to the end of the chilling time, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Bake the cookies one pan at a time on the middle shelf of your preheated oven, leaving the second pan in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake it.

Bake for 10 minutes and then turn the pan around to make sure the cookies bake evenly. Bake for a further 5-6 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden and the cookies are a bit puffy looking. They will sink when they start cooling but that’s okay.

Leave the cookies to cool on the pans for a few minutes then cool them completely on a wire rack.

I wish I could adequately describe to you the buttery, chewiness of these sweet and salty corn cookies. Let me just say that you should try them, and as soon as possible. As you can see, when they are just turning brown on the edges, they are lovely and golden on the bottom.

Enjoy!

This month my Creative Cookie Exchange group is baking with the tastes of autumn. Check out the lovely list of cookies we have for you today.

• Apple and Oat Cookies from Flours and Frostings
• Apple Cider Cookies with Maple Frosting from 2 Cookin Mamas
• Apple Cranberry Crumble Bars from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Caramel Apple Shortbread Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Caramelized Apple Oatmeal Cookies from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Maple Cookies from A Baker's House
• Momofuku Corn Cookies from Food Lust People Love
• Pecan Butter Cookies from Basic N Delicious
• Pecan Pie Thumbprints from Oven Delights
• Pumpkin Date Bars from What Smells So Good?
• Spiked Oatmeal Apple Cookies from The Spiced Life

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life. We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

Pin it! 

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Grilled Corn Ravioli Caprese Salad

Nothing shouts summer like a Caprese salad with lovely deep red, vine-ripened tomatoes, except perhaps a grilled corn ravioli Caprese salad. The smokey sweet corn adds more summer sunshine and the ravioli make this tasty dish more filling.

I love corn on the cob cooked anyhow you’d like to cook it. Boiled, steamed, grilled, roasted - love them all. I could cook a pot of fresh corn on the cob and eat the whole thing and call it a meal, no other dishes necessary. But for this week’s Sunday Supper theme of summer corn, that hardly sounded like a recipe worth sharing.

Cook corn on the cob.
Slather with butter.
Sprinkle with salt.
Eat.
Repeat.

So I had to get creative. Inspiration struck when I came across a package of fresh Italian ravioli called Girasole or sunflowers. They were shaped like flowers, the outside pasta cut like tiny petals, and were filled with tomato, mozzarella and olives. They would be perfect for adding to a Caprese salad, topped with grilled sweet corn! You can certainly use whatever ravioli you have available, though I'd avoid ones with meat or seafood if you are serving this at room temperature and need to leave it unrefrigerated for a while.

Grilled Corn Ravioli Caprese Salad

Recipe Type: Salad

Author: Stacy Rushton

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 16 mins

Total time: 31 mins

Serves: 6

Vine-ripened tomatoes layered with ravioli, fresh mozzarella and basil, then topped with grilled sweet corn. Like summer should always be.

Ingredients

• 1 package - about 9 oz or 250g fresh ravioli
• 4-5 ripe summer tomatoes
• 2 small ears sweet corn on the cob
• 9 oz or 250g fresh mozzarella
• small bunch fresh basil
• sea salt for salad plus more for water to boil ravioli
• black pepper
• good extra virgin olive oil

Method
Boil the ravioli according to package instructions, in salted water. Drain and cover with a damp cloth to keep the ravioli from drying out. If you are a perfectionist - as I can be sometimes - count the ravioli. Now you know how many slices to cut the tomatoes and mozzarella into to make it all come out even.

Grill the corn on grill pan over a medium high heat until it has lovely grill marks all over. Turn every couple of minutes till done. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. When the cobs are cool enough to handle, cut the niblets off with a sharp knife.

Slice your tomatoes and your mozzarella. (See comment on ravioli above.)

Pick the leaves off of the basil and discard the stalks. Set aside the smallest ones for garnish and cut any large ones in two.

On a large platter, start arranging your salad: ravioli, mozzarella, tomato, basil. Repeat until you have used up all of your ingredients.

Sprinkle on the corn and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Give the whole salad a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil then sprinkle on the remaining basil.

Enjoy! 

3.5.3208

If you love sweet summer corn, you are going to love the line up my Sunday Supper family has for you today! Many thanks to Ellen from Family Around the Table who is our host this week, and our event manager, Renee of Renee's Kitchen Adventures.

Appetizers

• Bacon and Corn Chowder by Latin Meet Lagniappe
• Cajun Baked Shrimp and Corn Dip by The Weekend Gourmet
• Cheesy Corn Tomato Tartlets by Sunday Supper Movement
• Cheesy Grilled Corn Dip by Helpful Homemade
• Crab & Jalapeño Hush Puppies by Simply Healthy Family
• Grilled Corn Salsa by A Mind “Full” Mom
• Indian Cheese Corn Toast: Popular Vegetarian Recipe by Easy Cooking with Molly
• Roasted Corn and Tomato Bruschetta by Monica's Table

Breakfast and Salads

• Blueberry Masa Harina Pancakes by Magnolia Days
• Grilled Corn Ravioli Caprese Salad by Food Lust People Love
• Grilled Corn and Avocado Salad by Garden Matter
• Grilled Tri Tip and Roasted Corn Salad by The Freshman Cook
• Healthy Corn, Edamame & Avocado Salad by Food Done Light
• Summer Vegetable Salad by That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Side Dishes

• A-maize-ing Maple Cornbread by Family Around The Table
• Blueberry and Corn Skillet Bread by Wholistic Woman
• Corn Pudding by Bottom Left of the Mitten
• Corn Pudding with Jalapeños and Chiles by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
• Easy Addictive Corn by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes
• Galey iyo Qumbo (Somali Corn in Coconut Sauce) by Tara’s Multicultural Table
• Honey Cornbread Muffins by Life Tastes Good
• Mealie Bread (South African Sweetcorn Bread) by Curious Cuisiniere
• Jalapeño Popper Cornbread Muffins by The Crumby Cupcake
• Peruvian Grilled Street Corn by Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Skillet Corn with Bacon by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Skillet Fried Corn by New South Charm
• Skillet Jalapeño Cornbread by Grumpy's Honeybunch

Main Dishes

• Black Bean Corn Casserole by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Cornbread Waffles with Pulled Pork by Renee’s Kitchen Adventures
• Fresh Corn Fettuccine by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Fresh Corn Polenta with Summer Vegetables by Caroline's Cooking
• Pasta with Creamy Corn Sauce and Summer Vegetables by Delaware Girl Eats
• Polenta Stuffed Peppers by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Shrimp Corn Chowder by Feeding Big and More

Desserts

• Blackberry Cornbread Buckle by Pies and Plots
• Brazilian Corn Cookies by What Smells So Good?
• Easy Cornmeal Budino with Blueberry Marmellata by Cooking With Carlee
• Mais Con Hielo-Corn on Ice by Asian In America
• Margarita Popcorn by The Redhead Baker
• Sweet Corn Ice Cream by Baking Sense

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Cheddar Mielie Bread with Sun-Dried Tomatoes #BreadBakers

Celebrate the bounty of summer with sweet corn and sun-dried tomatoes in a cheddar loaf with a hit of spicy chilies. This rich bread is fabulous toasted until crunchy, bringing out its extra cheesiness. 

You’ve heard me wax lyrical about summer cherries when we were living in France and how they are my favorite treat when in the States each summer, but I’ve been holding out on you about my love affair with sweet corn, the cobs of early summer, their tender pale yellow kernels bursting with milk and sugar, cooked ever so briefly and delicious just as is. They don't even need butter or salt. I could eat my not inconsiderable weight in those as well.

As I searched online for inspiration for this month’s BreadBakers challenge to use summer’s bounty in bread, I was looking for something that would celebrate my love of sweet corn. But I didn’t want cornbread. I wanted corn bread, that is to say, bread with corn, if you know what I mean. It was quite a challenge to make The Google separate the two.

Corn. Maize. Maíz. Jagung. Maïs. Milho. These I knew from living in various countries but mielie, pronounced mealy, was new to me. (Even better: Suikermielies which means sweet corn, or literally, sugar corn.). I kept coming across recipes for mielie bread or mealy bread, both of which intrigued me. The first because I was unfamiliar with the Afrikaans word for corn and the second because my immediate thought was, Who the heck wants to bake mealy bread? It didn’t sound like a nice thing. Mealy is not a desirable quality. It also put me in mind of mealy bugs. Shudder. Turns out that mielie bread and mealy bread are one and the same and there is no actual mealiness or bugs involved. Some have cornmeal as well as corn, others are quick bread with corn kernels. Exactly what I was looking for!

My lovely cheesy loaf was adapted from this recipe on Simply Delicious Food.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups or 315g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1/3 cup or 75g butter, melted and cooled
1 cup or 240ml buttermilk
 1 large fresh corn on the cob
1 small can (8 .5 oz or 241g) cream style sweet corn
8 oz or 227g cheddar cheese, grated
1 oz or 30g sun-dried tomatoes (store bought or make your own!) http://www.foodlustpeoplelove.com/2014/05/sun-dried-tomatoes-how-to.html
2 hot red chili peppers

Method
Boil your corn on the cob for about 3-5 minutes in lightly salted water. Drain and rinse with cool water. Leave until cool enough to handle and then slice the golden kernels off the cob with a sharp knife.

I cut the cob in two to make it easier to hold.

Meanwhile, pour some boiling water over your sun-dried tomatoes and leave them to rehydrate.

Once plumped, drain the water and squeeze any excess out. If you are using tomatoes packed in oil, dry them off thoroughly between some paper towels.

Chop the tomatoes roughly with a sharp knife and mince your red chilies.

Divide your grated cheddar into two relatively even piles and add a small handful of the chopped tomatoes to one of them. Mix thoroughly.

Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease a standard size loaf pan.

Meanwhile, sift all of your dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and then add the fresh corn kernels and the tomato-less pile of cheddar to the bowl and mix well to make sure all the kernels are coated with flour. This will help ensure they stay suspended in the bread batter, rather than sinking to the bottom.

In another mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, butter, buttermilk and creamed corn. Add in the minced chilies and the chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Whisk again.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold until just combined.

Pour the thick batter into your greased loaf pan.

Cover the top of the batter with the cheddar/sun-dried tomato mixture and place the pan in your preheated oven.

Bake for 55-65 minutes or until the loaf is golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean. If the loaf is browning too fast, cover the top with aluminum foil.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool down for 10 minutes before removing the loaf from the bread pan.

Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing to serve.

Enjoy!

Have you ever baked bread with corn that wasn’t cornbread? What’s your favorite summer fruit or vegetable? Here to encourage you to bake some bread with the bounty of summer is our talented host Pavani of Cook's Hideout and the rest of my Bread Bakers group.

• Almond and Carrot Biscuits from Basic N Delicious
• Cheddar Mielie Bread with Sun-Dried Tomatoes from Food Lust People Love
• Cherry Bread Pudding from Bakers and Best
• Eggless Rosemary Garlic Dinner Rolls from Spill the Spices
• Garden Herb Focaccia from My Catholic Kitchen
• Herb and Cheese Biscuits from Gayathri's Cook Spot
• Herb and Cheese Grissini from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Herbed Butterflaps from Sneha's Recipe
• Herbs, Spinach and Cheese Bourekas from Cooking Club
• Jalapeño Summer Squash Quick Bread from Magnolia Days
• Mango Kolache from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Peach & Blueberry Meringue Pull Apart Bread from Passion Kneaded
• Peach Pull-Apart Bread from Recipes, Food and Cooking
• Peaches and Cream Bread from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Pizza Cipolla - Onion Pizza from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Rosemary and Garlic Fougasse from Spice Roots
• Rosemary Breadsticks from A Baker's House
• Spinach Semolina Bread from The Schizo Chef
• Studded Zucchini Yeast Bread from What Smells So Good?
• Sundried Tomato Focaccia with Sauteed Summer Veggies & Garden Salad from Sizzling Tastebuds
• Tomato, Onion, Parmesan Focaccia from Noshing With The Nolands
• Walnut Oat Crumble Courgette Bread from Baking in Pyjamas
• Wholewheat Onion, Spinach & Red Pepper Bread from Hostess At Heart
• Wholewheat Zucchini Bread from Cook's Hideout
• Zucchini Oatmeal Bread from Cali's Cuisine
• Zucchini/Jalapeño/Cheese Corn Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme.

Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send me an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

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