My Recipe Collection

A short while back Adam over at amateurgourmet.com posted the recipe for Momofuku Milk Bar’s Compost Cookie which reminded me that I had been meaning to make another recipe from among the small handful of Milk Bar’s publicly available recipes. As of yet the guys over at the mini empire of Momofuku in NYC have only published a handful of their sweet recipes. There are a few in the book but nothing from Milk Bar itself, there are also those that have been featured on Martha Stewart, the recipe for the fawned over Crack Pie recently published in the LA Times, and most recently Regis and Kelly featured the Compost Cookies mentioned above (oops sorry for all the links). The good news for fellow fans of their baked treats is that a cookbook is currently in the works, written by Christina Tosi the Milk Bar pastry chef, supposedly due for publication in…autumn 2011, yeah way too far away for my liking too. So until the book is published i’ll have to be satisfied with playing around with the available recipes and if they turn out like these did, i’ll be one very happy baker. The reason I wanted to make these cookies was twofold. Firstly I like to try and recreate food I have eaten in the past, partly to enjoy eating something I enjoyed previously (especially when I cant easily obtain it, what with there being the matter of a rather large ocean in my way) and partly because I like the memories food can rekindle. Eating these cookies took me right back to my last night in NYC last year when I ate these whilst packing for an early flight the morning after. The second reason I wanted to make these was the new technique it used that I was intrigued by. The recipe uses something that Tosi has called Milk Crumbs. Basically just a mix of milk powder, white chocolate, corn starch, flour and butter formed into little crumbs that get mixed into the cookies like chocolate chips but which really lend a creamy flavour to the cookie. They might seem faffy and rather involved but they are actually very straight forward and I think they added something extra.

Blueberries and Cream Cookies – Momofuku Milk Bar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

8 ounces / 226g unsalted butter

1/2 cup plus 2 tblsp granulated sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tblsp light-brown sugar

1/4 cup glucose

1 recipe of milk crumbs

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

2. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment fitted cream the butter, sugars and glucose together until well combined. Add the egg and beat until well combined.

3. Add in the flour mixture and mix until well combined. Add in the blueberries and milk crumbs and mix to combine. Using an ice cream scoop (about 2 1/8 inches in diameter) scoop out balls of dough and set on the lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart.

4. Preheat the oven to 375F / 190C. Place your cookie lined baking sheets in the fridge for about 15 mins whilst you oven heats up and the cookies are cool to the touch. Bake the cookies, rotating the baking sheets half way through, until the cookies are golden brown and the tops begin to crackle, about 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on a wire rack.

Milk Crumbs

1/4 cup plus 1 tblsp nonfat milk powder

2 tblsp all-purpose flour

1 tblsp cornstarch

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/2 tblsp unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup white chocolate, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 225F / 105C. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl whisk together 2 tblsp plus 1 1/2 tsp milk powder, flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt. Stir in the melted butter and mix until combined. Spread the mixture out on the prepared baking sheet and transfer to the oven for 8-10 mins until dried and crumbly. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Double Amount

3. Put the mixture into a medium bowl and mix in the remaining milk powder and white chocolate. Use immediately or store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Adaption

The third, as yet unmentioned, reason I wanted to try these cookies is that a possible adaption sprung straight to mind when reading through the recipe. When I thought about a cookie with milk powder in my mind intuitively sprung to cookies with a glass of milk and what better cookie for this than oatmeal raisin. I played around with the recipe a couple of times and came up with a killer oatmeal raisin variation of the original. I tried just adding oats and swapping out the fruit and well the cookies just didnt spread at all. In hindsight  I should have realised this wouldn’t work but I persevered and my final recipe is the same as the original but with the following changes:

reduce the flour to 2 cups

add a scant 1 cup of rolled oats, added at same time as the flour

switch the fruit to a scant 1 cup raisins, rehydrated in boiling water for a couple of minutes, dried with kitchen paper

cook for 12 minutes

The resulting cookie is my oatmeal raisin ideal. Soft plump raisins with plenty of oats, soft and chewy but still with lightly crisped edges. I unfortunately ended up having to donate these wherever I could. I made 50+ cookies this weekend and ended up giving most of them away to family and friends because there is no way these would be safe here and I probably ate too many as it is. But I now have my new favourite cookie recipe/s but I still cant wait for the cookbook to be published to try more interesting and different recipes.

Filed under: cookies

A short while back Adam over at amateurgourmet.com posted the recipe for Momofuku Milk Bar’s Compost Cookie which reminded me that I had been meaning to make another recipe from among the small handful of Milk Bar’s publicly available recipes. As of yet the guys over at the mini empire of Momofuku in NYC have only published a handful of their sweet recipes. There are a few in the book but nothing from Milk Bar itself, there are also those that have been featured on Martha Stewart, the recipe for the fawned over Crack Pie recently published in the LA Times, and most recently Regis and Kelly featured the Compost Cookies mentioned above (oops sorry for all the links). The good news for fellow fans of their baked treats is that a cookbook is currently in the works, written by Christina Tosi the Milk Bar pastry chef, supposedly due for publication in…autumn 2011, yeah way too far away for my liking too. So until the book is published i’ll have to be satisfied with playing around with the available recipes and if they turn out like these did, i’ll be one very happy baker. The reason I wanted to make these cookies was twofold. Firstly I like to try and recreate food I have eaten in the past, partly to enjoy eating something I enjoyed previously (especially when I cant easily obtain it, what with there being the matter of a rather large ocean in my way) and partly because I like the memories food can rekindle. Eating these cookies took me right back to my last night in NYC last year when I ate these whilst packing for an early flight the morning after. The second reason I wanted to make these was the new technique it used that I was intrigued by. The recipe uses something that Tosi has called Milk Crumbs. Basically just a mix of milk powder, white chocolate, corn starch, flour and butter formed into little crumbs that get mixed into the cookies like chocolate chips but which really lend a creamy flavour to the cookie. They might seem faffy and rather involved but they are actually very straight forward and I think they added something extra.

Blueberries and Cream Cookies – Momofuku Milk Bar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

8 ounces / 226g unsalted butter

1/2 cup plus 2 tblsp granulated sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tblsp light-brown sugar

1/4 cup glucose

1 recipe of milk crumbs

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

2. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment fitted cream the butter, sugars and glucose together until well combined. Add the egg and beat until well combined.

3. Add in the flour mixture and mix until well combined. Add in the blueberries and milk crumbs and mix to combine. Using an ice cream scoop (about 2 1/8 inches in diameter) scoop out balls of dough and set on the lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart.

4. Preheat the oven to 375F / 190C. Place your cookie lined baking sheets in the fridge for about 15 mins whilst you oven heats up and the cookies are cool to the touch. Bake the cookies, rotating the baking sheets half way through, until the cookies are golden brown and the tops begin to crackle, about 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on a wire rack.

Milk Crumbs

1/4 cup plus 1 tblsp nonfat milk powder

2 tblsp all-purpose flour

1 tblsp cornstarch

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/2 tblsp unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup white chocolate, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 225F / 105C. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl whisk together 2 tblsp plus 1 1/2 tsp milk powder, flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt. Stir in the melted butter and mix until combined. Spread the mixture out on the prepared baking sheet and transfer to the oven for 8-10 mins until dried and crumbly. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Double Amount

3. Put the mixture into a medium bowl and mix in the remaining milk powder and white chocolate. Use immediately or store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Adaption

The third, as yet unmentioned, reason I wanted to try these cookies is that a possible adaption sprung straight to mind when reading through the recipe. When I thought about a cookie with milk powder in my mind intuitively sprung to cookies with a glass of milk and what better cookie for this than oatmeal raisin. I played around with the recipe a couple of times and came up with a killer oatmeal raisin variation of the original. I tried just adding oats and swapping out the fruit and well the cookies just didnt spread at all. In hindsight  I should have realised this wouldn’t work but I persevered and my final recipe is the same as the original but with the following changes:

reduce the flour to 2 cups

add a scant 1 cup of rolled oats, added at same time as the flour

switch the fruit to a scant 1 cup raisins, rehydrated in boiling water for a couple of minutes, dried with kitchen paper

cook for 12 minutes

The resulting cookie is my oatmeal raisin ideal. Soft plump raisins with plenty of oats, soft and chewy but still with lightly crisped edges. I unfortunately ended up having to donate these wherever I could. I made 50+ cookies this weekend and ended up giving most of them away to family and friends because there is no way these would be safe here and I probably ate too many as it is. But I now have my new favourite cookie recipe/s but I still cant wait for the cookbook to be published to try more interesting and different recipes.

Filed under: cookies

What do you do when you have bought the wrong sort of coconut for a birthday cake? You make that old school favourite coconut ice of course. Normally it is just a mixture of desiccated coconut, condensed milk, icing sugar and a bit of food colouring, and yes it is good but we can do better than just good cant we? I was looking through some cookbooks when I spotted this recipe in, the so far underused, “Nutmeg and Custard” by Marcus Wareing. Along with the usual suspects Wareing’s recipe also includes white chocolate and raspberry jam, now doesn’t that sound even better the original? Yes its sweet, yes its not exactly healthy but sometimes you just need a little treat but beware these are quite addictive, you may want others around to prevent you eating the lot. Making this recipe wasn’t without incident though. My mixture seemed stuck at a certain temperature and no matter how long I continued to cook it just wouldn’t  get to the soft ball stage. When I eventually gave up and poured out the mixture I found a nice layer of burnt sugar which I guess should teach me that cheap cookware really isn’t great for candy making.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Coconut Ice

“Nutmeg and Custard” – Marcus Wareing

600g icing sugar

1 x 397g tin condensed milk

100ml milk

25g unsalted butter

pinch of salt

200g desiccated coconut

100g white chocolate, melted

4 tblsp raspberry jam

1. Place the icing sugar, condensed milk, milk, butter and salt into a medium saucepan. Heat gently stirring until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a gentle boil and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 235F-240F (soft boil stage) on a candy thermometer.

2. Take off the heat and stir in the coconut. Divide the mixture into 2 bowls and let cool slightly. Mix the white chocolate into one portion and beat together until thickened. Pour the mixture into a greased 30cm x 15cm (I used an 8-inch sq pan) tin and level out with spatula. Chill in the fridge until slightly firmed.

3. Beat the jam into the second portion of coconut and pour this onto the chilled white chocolate layer. Level with a spatula and refrigerate a further 30-40 minutes, then cut into squares.

Filed under: candy, Chocolate