Good Try

Whoa...I almost got swept away for a minute.  I have recovered from a ridiculously busy week and I am back on track.  Lots of good stuff coming up.  I just wanted to quickly fill you in on that office cookie competition I told you about last week.
On the days leading up to the competition everyone around the office was saying things like "we shouldn't even bother" and "should we just give you the prize now?".  And I guess deep down I thought they were probably right.  I just have more experience with these kinds of things than most of my co-workers.  But the day of the competition there was a major upset!  My cookies didn't even place!  Not first place, not second, not even third place.  The winning spot was earned by a woman who said she had NEVER baked a cookie in her life.  Hmphf.
The cookie I submitted was a fabulous, famous, coveted, talked about, written about, original, cookie from the world renowned NYC bakery called Momofuku Milk Bar.  Chef Christina Tosi's "Compost Cookies" have been in newspapers, magazines and on TV with Regis and Kelly and on the Martha Stewart Show.  These cookies have a basic chocolate chip cookie base but along with the chocolate, they include really special add-ins, such as potato chips, pretzels, coffee grounds and toffee bits.  I thought this cookie would be the perfect entry to steal the show...to one-up even myself...and secure the win. This is what they should have looked like...

Photo Credit: Momofuku Milk Bar

They didn't look like that, they were ugly...but they tasted good.  I wasn't able to label my cookies to let the judges know what was in them, and could you imagine biting into an ugly cookie that contained potato chips and coffee grounds, not knowing exactly what you were eating?  I understood the loss.  I could take it.
BUT!  Redemption came the next day, when I entered an office with 4 people crowded around my EMPTY cookie tin that previously had held at least 4 dozen Compost Cookies.  They all had full mouths and with cookie crumbs falling everywhere, they were all saying how good the cookies were, asking for the recipe and one of the judges said, "you must have picked a burnt one for your submission yesterday, cause these would have changed the results!". 
Here is a link to the recipe.  This particular version of the recipe does not contain coffee grounds, but as far as I know the authentic cookies from Milk Bar contain them as seen here.  You add 2 tablespoons of dried, used coffee grinds and cream them with the butter and sugars.  I think that was the unidentified "burnt" taste the judges were talking about.  Oh well, I'm over it.  And I firmly believe these are some good (ugly) cookies.