Corn bread. Corn cakes. Corn on the cob. Polenta. Grits. Canned corn. Creamed corn. Frozen corn. I feel like Forrest Gump’s friend Bubba, talking about all the ways I love corn. 

On a couple of our trips “to the city” where we could shop at Trader Joe’s, we’ve bought TJ’s corn cookie mix. It’s really easy - add butter and an egg and bake them up. They are pretty much our perfect cookie. A bit sweet, nicely corny, lovely texture. 

The thing is, it’s 100 miles to Trader Joe’s and we don’t get there often enough. Also, the dough always seems too dry. Full disclosure: I sneak in a tiny bit of water. Then the dough is sticky but at least it holds together. 

The recipe below make a lovely, soft dough that holds its shape beautifully out of the scoop and when mashed down.

I like to be able to bake on a whim. Sometimes at the last minute, I’ll decide I really do have time to bake some cookies for an upcoming camping trip. I don’t have what it takes to plan ahead for such moments. So, I started looking for recipes to make my own corn cookies. 

My research led me to a lot of stories about corn cookies from Christina Tosi. There was a copycat TJ recipe. One recipe called for a can of creamed corn. Tony suggested using that one because that’s easy to find in stores and has a long shelf life. However, that recipe required straining the cream from the corn and cooking it with heavy cream… I didn’t think that sounded like StressLess Camping cookie baking. Ms. Tosi’s recipe calls for freeze-dried corn, crushed. There happens to be freeze-dried corn at Savory Spice shop, where we buy all our spices, so I found that ingredient easy to procure. If you have trouble finding freeze-dried corn, I think cornmeal will be a fine substitute. That’s pretty much what I had after I crushed it anyway! 

The recipe I based mine on also called for 1.5 cups granulated sugar but I really like the caramel-ish flavor and chewy texture from using brown sugar so I subbed some in. 

Next time I attempt this, I’m going to see what happens if I use half butter-flavored Crisco instead of all butter. I use that in a lot of my cookies and usually like the substitution a lot. 

Also, I read that if you don’t have corn flour, you can grind up some corn meal. 

Isn’t is funny how differently all-purpose flour and corn flour behave? That’s the corn flour that held the shape of the measuring cup.

These cookies freeze perfectly as well. So, bake up a batch, take half camping this weekend, and save the rest for next week!

In a separate bowl from the mixing bowl, sift together the flour, corn flour, crushed corn (or corn meal), baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

1 cup butter, at room temperature 

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup baker’s sugar

1 large egg

1 1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup corn flour

2/3 cup crushed, freeze-dried corn

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1. Cream the butter and sugars together then add the egg and cream it five or so minutes longer.

2. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients until it’s all mixed but don’t over-do it.

3. Scoop out the cookies onto parchment paper.

4. Smoosh them down a bit with your fingers.

5. Put them in the refrigerator and go do something else for an hour.

6. Heat the oven to 350°F.

7. Spread the cookies out a bit - they are going to flatten and grow. Bake them for about 18 minutes. P

8. Wait for them to cool! You don’t want to burn your tongue, do you? (I did)