MAKES 15 TO 20 COOKIES
What, might you ask, is a cookie dough cookie? It’s a confection made in a very hot oven, so that it looks like a perfectly baked cookie on the outside, but on the inside you have a gooey, unbaked cookie dough center. My. Dream. Come. True. The weakest of weak nights requires a minimum of one cookie dough cookie.
For the graham crust:
1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup milk powder
2 tablespoons sugar
¾ tablespoon kosher salt
4 to 5½ tablespoons butter, melted
¼ cup heavy cream
For the cookie dough:
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
⅔ cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
2 tablespoons glucose or 1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1⅓ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup mini chocolate chips
½ cup mini butterscotch chips
⅓ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2½ teaspoons ground coffee (see Note)
2 cups potato chips (see Note)
1 cup mini pretzels
For the graham crust: in a medium bowl toss the graham crumbs, milk powder, sugar, and salt with your hands to evenly distribute your dry ingredients.
Whisk 4 tablespoons of the butter and heavy cream together. Add to the dry ingredients and toss again to evenly distribute. The butter will act as a glue, adhering to the dry ingredients and turning the mixture into a bunch of small clusters. The mixture should hold its shape if squeezed tightly in the palm of your hand. If it is not moist enough to do so, melt an additional 1 to 1½ tablespoons of butter and mix it in. Stored in an airtight container, graham crust will keep fresh for 1 week at room temperature or for 1 month in the fridge or freezer.
For the compost cookie dough: combine the butter, sugars, and glucose or corn syrup in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg and vanilla extract, and beat for another 7 to 8 minutes.
Reduce the speed to low and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
Still on low speed, add the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, graham crust, oats, and coffee and mix just until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add the potato chips and pretzels and paddle, still on low speed, until just incorporated. Be careful not to overmix or break too many of the pretzels or potato chips.
Using a 2¾-ounce ice cream scoop (or a ⅓ cup measure), portion out the dough onto two parchment-lined sheet pans. Pat the tops of the cookie dough domes flat. Wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for 1 hour or until fully frozen.
Preheat oven to 500°F. Put individual frozen rounds on a greased or lined baking sheet and bake just until the cookies begin to spread and the thinnest of golden-brown skins forms on the surface but before the bottom of the cookies begin to burn, 4 to 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven and immediately refrigerate until cool and set, about 15 minutes.
Note: Don’t use instant coffee; it will dissolve in the baking process and ruin the cookies. And never use wet, sogalicious grounds that have already brewed a pot of coffee. We use Cape Cod potato chips because they aren’t paper-thin, and so they do not break down too much in the mixing process.