The Mr.Holmes Cornflake Toffee Cookie Recipe

reworked for the home kitchen

hey hey hello!

So, a few months ago I accidentally opened the numbers app on my laptop (ew). Thank god I did because in doing so I unearthed so many of the recipes I had been working on in early 2020 for Mr. Holmes. Recipes for things like gluten free raspberry milk chocolate muffins with an earl grey glaze, jalapeno limeaid curd, pumpkin pecan cheesecake donuts, cajeta pastry cream and among the lost recipes *the* brown butter, cornflake and toffee cookie. Which is, like, actually my kryptonite. At 2:30 in the morning I would intentionally break a corner off of a cookie to land it in the fail pile, so that at 6AM when my break rolled around I could have it for breakfast. Even then, there were times I couldn’t wait for 6AM and I’d eat the cookies still warm and barely set from the oven. It’s maybe the only thing that got me through grueling bake shifts.

via mrholmesbakehouse on Instagram

After all this time, almost 5 years of craving this cookie and making versions that never quite lived up to what I remembered, I was elated to find it tucked away, lost in the forgotten files. So, I immediately got every ingredient i’d need to make them and prepped a batch. Baked one (actually, like four) off and well, mmm this isn’t hitting the same. I’d go on to make it a handful more times, each slightly lacking a little *something*. But, never quite sure what it was.

That’s the thing about recipes— sometimes they don’t always scale up and down from massive 500 cookie batches down to a batch size of 12. Sometimes you need to tweak a few things. Like, a lot of the cook books from your favorite bakeries don’t yield the exact product you have when you go into the bakery. I found the cake I would get at Milk Bar was different from the cakes I baked from the Milk Bar books. Which, is why I don’t outright share old recipes from kitchens I’ve worked in, because it’s never the same. ****Things that factor into this equation are things like ingredients used in the bakery vs the cookbook written for a home baker. I staged at Tartine, so I know they use (at least back then) pretty freshly stone ground flour, not milled in house but still pretty fresh. So soft it almost felt wet to the touch. But, the recipe for croissants in their book is written around using conventional bread flour. They also use a commercial mixer, fridge and sheeter for their croissants. The timing and temperature change from a 60QT mixer down to a 5QT kitchen aid. The 60QT has a lot more power to it, while the kitchen aid has much more variable in speed. Dough tends to get to window pane fast in a mixer with more horsepower. A dough that takes 8 minutes on speed 2 of jumbo tumbo mixer, could take up to 25 minutes at home in your kitchen aid on speed 4. So the recipes are redeveloped to work in a home kitchen while being as close to the original product as the developers can get with what they have. The short and sweet is— recipes from a large scale production kitchen won’t always work in a home kitchen, even when scaled down exactly. Even if it is, just cookie dough.

So, I set out to redevelop this cookie to yield the same results in a home kitchen. The original cookie used both browned and plain unsalted butter. I switch things for all the butter to be browned with extra milk powder for extra toasted flavor. I also make a point to add water back into the dough to account for the moisture lost during the browning process. I lower the amount of sugar for a little less of a crispy edge. I also played around with adjust the amount of baking powder and soda in the recipe to also get the right amount of spread and puff. So, the cookie is much closer to the original, but different. Same same but different, ya know. A big part of why it’s different is just the size of the cookie. The OGs came in at a whopping 150 grams each, which like that’s kinda too much cookie. I think even in this recipe- it’s a decent sized cookie! The cookies also had frosted flakes inside and corn flakes outside- and asking you to get two types of cereal for this just felt silly.

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Mr. Holmes Brown Butter Toffee Frosted Flake Cookie DUUUUPE (a mouthful)

This batch size makes 16 decently sized cookies

The cookie starts out with making toffee, you know, toffee cookie and all. Which is quick and easy to do, I know that candy making can seem daunting, but I promise it’s ez-pz. But, like, if skipping this step is your vibe— finely chopped Werther’s Originals will do the trick. The recipe below will make a little more toffee than you’ll need for the cookie, but, out of necessity. Because you will definitely snack on a decent amount of it before it ever makes it to the cookie dough.

As is the case with any drop cookie, this dough chills down and stores well in the freezer, up to 3 months. I typically chill the dough in the fridge until the balls are firm enough to handle and move to freezer safe bags. Then just label, date and store until you’re in need of a cookie or two. You can bake from frozen for a cookie that spreads a little less and maintains a little bit of height. Just add about 5-6 extra minutes to the bake time. Or, place the frozen dough on a sheet pan and let it come down closer to room temp while the oven preheats.

Oh, yeah and like most any cookie worth eating, you’ll need to rest the dough for at least an hour AT LEAST. Just, letting you know, don’t want it to be a surprise later.

Tools:

• Digital Scale

• Medium saucepan

• Instant read thermometer

• 1/2 Sheet pan(s)

• Parchment paper/Silpat

• Pastry brush

• Whisk

• Rubber Spatula

• Mixing Bowls

• Hand mixer or Stand mixer

• 2 oz disher/cookie scoop

Ingredients:

Toffee:

• 40 grams water

• 115 grams unsalted butter

• 100 grams granulated sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt

Cookie Dough:

• 280 grams unsalted butter

• 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon non-fat milk powder

• 55 grams water

• 200 grams granulated sugar

• 215 grams dark brown sugar

• 100 grams egg (approx 2 large eggs)

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract or paste

• 400 grams all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons diamond crystal kosher salt (use half if using Morton’s!!)

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 100 grams toffee

• 125 grams Frosted Flakes + more for rolling

Directions:

For the toffee:

1. Start off by lining a sheet pan with parchment paper.

2. Place the 40 grams water, 115 grams unsalted butter, 100 grams granulated sugar and 1/4 teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt in a heavy bottomed saucepan in that order! Water first—this helps to ensure the sugar fully dissolves into the water and helps to avoid crystallization. Place over medium heat.

3. Stir the mixture until the butter completely melts. Then you’re just gonna leave it alone until the mixture reaches 240F. If you notice any sugar crystals around the sides of the pan, use a damp pastry brush to wipe down the edges and help dissolve any of that sugar.

4. Once it reaches 240F you’ll begin to stir constantly with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until the mixture reaches 305F. The candy will go through some visual changes. It starts off looking like a pot of melted bubbling butter, eventually it will emulsify into a mixture that looks like melted marshmallow, which the longer it cooks and the hotter it gets will deep in color until it’s a nice amber brown.

5. When the mixture hits 305F CAREFULLY pour it out on the the parchment lined sheet pan.

6. Let set completely before breaking into pieces. By the time you’ve done the rest of the prep + mise for the cookie the toffee should be good to go.

7. Be sure to store any extra in an air-tight container. Use some silica packets (if you’d like) to absorb any moisture and keep your toffee crisp.

For the cookie dough:

1. Add the 280 grams unsalted butter to a light colored saucepan. Place over medium heat and melt.

2. Once the butter is melted add the 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of milk powder to the saucepan. Whisking to evenly disperse.

3. Continue to cook the butter over medium heat, whisking frequently to keep the milk solids movin. The butter will start to foam, sizzle and steam. Keep whisking as the milk solids begin to brown. The butter will begin to smell nutty and caramelized. The browned butter is ready when the milk solids are a deep umber color teetering on dark brown and the steaming has stopped, this means all the water has boiled off from the butter. Quickly and carefully, pour the browned butter into a heat proof bowl to cool.

4. While your brown butter cools weigh out the rest of your ingredients. In a medium bowl combine the 400 grams all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons diamond crystal kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon baking soda. Whisk to combine the leavening agents throughout the flour.

5. Finely chop the 100 grams of toffee into bits about 1/4 of an inch in size. Add to a separate bowl with the 125 grams of frosted flakes.

6. Once the browned butter has cooled but not resolidified, add the 55 grams of water, 200 grams granulated sugar, 215 grams dark brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. Using a hand mixer whisk until everything is evenly combined.

7. To the sugar mixture, add the 2 large eggs. Whisk on medium speed for about a minutes until the mixture is homogenous and lightly aerated.

8. Add the dry ingredients (the flour + leavenings) from earlier and fold into the wet ingredients with a rubber spatula. Fold just until a few dry pockets remain before adding in the toffee and frosted flakes and folding those in just until evenly dispersed.

9. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes before portioning, this’ll give the flour a chance to hydrate and the butter a chance to firm up making portioning the dough a little easier.

10. Add more frosted flakes to a bowl for coating the cookies

11. Scoop the cookie dough with a 2 oz cookie scoop or portion into 75 grams balls. Drop the dough into the frosted flake bowl and press some of the cereal into the dough until it sticks.

12. Place the dough on a parchment lined tray and store in the fridge for a minimum of one hour before baking- preferably overnight. If giving an overnight rest, be sure to securely wrap the tray or transfer the firm balls to a ziploc bag for storage.

13. Preheat the oven to 350F.

14. Arrange the cookies 5 to a tray, with one in each corner and a single baby in the center (the star), these cookies get a decent amount of spread to them. But, also, like you don’t have to bake five at a time, don’t let that part of the instruction feel like a rule, you can bake less if you want.

15. Bake for 13 minutes before rotating and baking for an additional 4-5 minutes. Until the edges of the cookie are brown, the frosted flakes also will have taken on some golden color and the centers of the cookie are just set.

16. Allow to cool just enough so that the cookie doesn’t burn the roof of your mouth.

17. Enjoy!