What’s Old is New Again: Mini Meta Cookies

I love leftovers.

Cold pizza, extra Indian food, noodle surplus, you name it, I want it. With leftovers, you have the essence of good food that you are lucky enough to have a round 2 nom sesh with.  When the flavors have a chance to bask in their glory longer, they meld together into a product that is better than before; I’m sure that anyone who has eaten pizza for breakfast will attest to this.

Here’s the biggest secret of leftovers: All restaurants serve them.

Nearly all restaurants revel in the fact that good food takes time, which means allowing everything to simmer/refrigerate/infuse/marinate/freeze for later use. What is the fundamental principle behind any of these things? Leftovers.

Crumbly deliciousness

In an earlier pastry experiment gone awry, I found myself with an aforementioned excess of crumbly cookies that looked terrible but tasted delicious. My solution was to bake a new batch of cookies and mix into them….wait for it…

MOAR COOKIES. 

Clearly, the success of these moist, round discs of cookie greatness could not have materialized without leftovers. Delicious and unique, such residuals whether in food or in life offer a opportunity to resurrect the old. Call it crazy or call it fusion; to me, it’s merely inception.

Leggo my leftovers.

Leftover cookies packed and ready to nom on at a moment’s notice

Mini Meta Cookies

Cookie #1: Anything you want! I did a banana-walnut cookie. Try out variations here and here.

Cookie #2:
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups of cookie #1 pieces
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in honey, vanilla, and egg and mix together.
• In a separate bowl, combine four, baking soda, and salt. Add all at once to the butter mixture and mix by hand for a few strokes. At this point, you should have a lot of flour remaining.
• Add the cookie #1 pieces and continue to mix by hand until JUST combined. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight.
• Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or cover with parchment paper. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto baking sheet. You can place the balls pretty close as they barely spread. Bake for 11 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through baking. Let cool on a wire rack.

Makes 3 dozen small cookies.