recipe 02: red corn cookies
with a hint of cayenne pepper and a crack of black pepper for good measure!
If you live in Los Angeles, enjoy food and have never been to Surfas culinary district- can i just ask, what are you waiting for? It’s a great place full of pantry staples and some things you’d never even think you’d need. I stopped in the other day for parchment rounds but naturally you have to peruse every aisle to see if they’ve got anything new and exciting in stock. This trip they did (!!), a new chocolate, white chocolate with roasted corn powder(!!!!). Immediately, interests are piqued, cogs are turning and I’m thinking of all the ways I want to use this. I land on the most obvious- corn cookie with corn chocolate?! Yeah, that’s it. (Ultimately, it wasn’t).
This cookie features mayo- I opted for kewpie, it’s smoother, creamier and a little sweet, perfect for a cookie. And even though the cookie doesn’t have an inherent mayo flavor- it’s there. It made the cookie feel a bit more savory to me, that and the hefty amount of salt we’ve got going on. That savory feel led me to add a dash of cayenne, evocative of eating a tamale. And at the last minute- as I pulled the dough from the fridge I notice a tub of shaved parm and think “why the fuck not” and go full send into elote inspired cookies. With the crack of fresh pepper to bring it home.
The cheese was a big fight with this cookie and I ultimately left it out. I wanted this lacy crisp parmesan crust. I tried rolling it in shitty (in the good way) kraft shelf stable grated parm, it browned and borderline burned, making it bitter. Shaved parm was nice, I put a base layer and baked the cookies on top which ultimately got lost among the cookie. I grated a parm hunk over the cookies and under the cookies, but the lacy was too thin for my liking . I added cheese before the bake and half way through. I folded in parm cheese crisps, which soaked up moisture from the dough and sogged up. ew. Every iteration was just okay and the cheese gets lost. Actually now that i sit here writing this… brush the cookie with butter, a squirt of mayo and dusted with cheese?? Is that the answer to my cheesy questions? Maybe not. In the end the cookie doesn’t need the cheese- it’s perfect as is.
The final version of this cookie… doesn’t even have the chocolate that first inspired it. I ditched it after the first round of testing. It didn’t melt how I wanted it to and made this now savory cookie too sweet. So, I’ll save that for another project. I’ll probably throw it into a Kassie’s Choice cake with a similar flavor profile to the cookies. It also- isn’t accessible to everyone. Yeah, you can easily order it online sure. But, at Surfas it was $15 for a pound of chocolate- which actually isn’t that much chocolate. I want people to actually make the recipes if I’m gonna put the work into creating and sharing them!!
Things you *could* change about the cookies(but I don’t think you should until you’ve tried them as is first):
So you don’t want mayo in your cookies, I guess that’s fine: sub the mayo for butter gram for gram. 55 grams of mayo? Sub for 55 grams of butter :/
Don’t like the idea of a spiced cookie? Leave out the cayenne. Spices are there for flavor and not structure so it’s fine to fully omit. Same goes for the black pepper on top. But you’ll be missing out on crucial components of what makes this cookie great.
The thing you shouldn’t change about the cookies- the amount of salt. I mean that in reference to this notion of doubling the amount of salt in a recipe since they’re never salty enough. Don’t do that here- trust when I say I’ve already doubled it for you. You could do less if you want but trust me these cookies can take it. Also, I’m camp Diamond Crystal over Morton’s- if Morton’s is all you’ve got then half the amount of salt in the recipe.
I do use a stand mixer for this recipe, mostly because I’m lazy and have weak wrists. It can easily come together by hand or with an electric hand mixer.
Don’t want to make the cookies yourself? LA you can try them out in this weekends pastry box (4/16) order here. OC/San Diego you can get them in next week’s box delivery on Sunday 4/23. Order for OC/SD here.
Without further adieu, the corn cookie recipe (as always recipes come in grams and I will not convert them for you- but google can):
Actually, one more adieu… can’t bake without a playlist!