The Corn Cookie

Delaying gratification is an exercise few food lovers can comprehend. We nibble the hors d'oeuvres before the guests arrive, we gobble up the bread basket before the waiter puts pad to pen, we're ready for seconds while most people are still on their firsts. Which is why I deserve some credit for not devouring the Corn Cookie from Momofuku Milk Bar on my walk home from the East Village last week.

I saved it, partly to delay the gratification of eating it, but also I wanted to take these pictures (here it is before I unwrapped it):

People, we need to talk about this cookie. Holy cow, this cookie!

If you took the freshest, sweetest summer corn and scraped it into a bowl of butter, added sugar and shaped it into a cookie, you might have what I had on my plate when I got home. This cookie positively screamed summer, which was an odd thing because we're still on the cusp of spring.

How could this be? The answer became clearer when I studied the package: the two main ingredients are corn powder (from dehydrated corn) and corn flour (from whole grain corn.) We're so used to processed corn products in our cookies, what a revelation to have the real thing play such a prominent role.

And so though I delayed gratification when I brought the cookie home instead of eating it on the spot, I failed to delay gratification when it came to eating it once I started eating: it was gone in 33 seconds.

And gratified I was.