Momofuku Milk Bar
Page 8
1 recipe Pretzel Crunch
25 g butter, melted
[2 tablespoons]
1 recipe Pretzel Ice Cream (recipe follows)
Follow the procedure for the cereal milk ice cream pie, substituting the pretzel crunch for the cornflake crunch and pretzel ice cream for the cereal milk ice cream.
pretzel ice cream
MAKES ABOUT 700 G (1 QUART)
300 g mini pretzels
[about ¾ (16-ounce) bag (6 cups)]
440 g milk
[2 cups]
1½ gelatin sheets
200 g glucose
[½ cup]
30 g light brown sugar
[2 tablespoons tightly packed]
45 g cream cheese
[1½ ounces]
2 g kosher salt
[½ teaspoon]
0.75 g baking soda
[⅛ teaspoon]
Powdered gelatin can be substituted for the sheet gelatin: use ¾ teaspoon. In a pinch, substitute 75 g (¼ cup) corn syrup for the glucose.
This recipe uses cream cheese to give an even creamier texture and mouth feel to the ice cream; it works well because the malty pretzel flavor overpowers the flavor of the cream cheese.
1. Heat the oven to 300°F.
2. Spread the pretzels on a sheet pan and toast for 15 minutes, until the pretzels have slightly darkened in color and your kitchen smells pretzely. Cool completely.
3. Put the pretzels in a large bowl, pour the milk over them, and stir while steeping for 2 minutes.
4. Strain the milk mixture through a fine-mesh sieve and discard the soggy pieces of pretzel.
5. Bloom the gelatin.
6. Warm a little bit of the pretzel milk and whisk in the gelatin to dissolve. Add the remaining pretzel milk, glucose, brown sugar, cream cheese, salt, and baking soda and whisk until all of the ingredients are fully dissolved and incorporated.
7. Pour the mixture into your ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The ice cream is best spun just before serving or using, but it will keep in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.
Instead of a whisk, use a hand blender to mix the ice cream base.
pb & j pie
MAKES 1 (10-INCH) PIE; SERVES 8 TO 10
One of the first fall desserts ever put on the menu at Ssäm Bar was a riff on the poor man’s pb & j: peanut butter, Concord grape jelly, and a saltine panna cotta. We loved the Ritz crunch crust so much that the following fall, we presented the pb & j in a more straightforward pie, showcasing Concord grapes in another light, with Ritz crust bringing the same salty, starchy component as the saltine panna cotta.
1 recipe unbaked Ritz Crunch
1 recipe Peanut Butter Nougat
1 recipe Concord Grape Sorbet
½ recipe Concord Grape Sauce
1. Heat the oven to 275°F.
2. Press the Ritz crunch into a 10-inch pie tin. Using your fingers and the palms of your hands, press the crunch in firmly, making sure to cover the bottom and sides evenly and completely.
3. Put the tin on a sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes. The Ritz crust should be slightly more golden brown and slightly deeper in buttery goodness than the crunch you started with. Cool the Ritz crunch crust completely; wrapped in plastic, the crust can be frozen for up to 2 weeks.
4. Scatter the peanut butter nougat over the bottom of the pie crust and then gently press it down to form a flat layer. Freeze this layer for 30 minutes or until cold and firm. Scoop the sorbet onto the nougat and spread it into an even layer. Put the pie in the freezer until the sorbet firms up, 30 minutes to 1 hour.
5. Spoon the Concord grape sauce onto the top of the pie and, working quickly, spread it evenly over the sorbet. Pop the pie back into the freezer until ready to slice and serve. Wrapped (gently) in plastic, the pie can be frozen for up to 1 month.
concord grape juice
MAKES ABOUT 675 G (2½ CUPS)
Concord grapes are one of the greatest things on God’s green earth. There really is no substitute for their fresh grapey flavor. Make this juice when the grapes are in season and then freeze it so you never have to live without it.
675 g Concord grapes, stems left on
[2 quarts]
220 g water
[1 cup]
65 g sugar
[⅓ cup]
Elsewhere in this book: Concord grape juice is used in Concord Grape Jelly.
1. Combine the grapes, water, and sugar in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a slow boil, then simmer until the grapes have broken down, about 1 hour. As they cook, gently mash the grapes with a slotted spoon to help them release their juices. Your kitchen will begin to smell like grape-flavored bubble gum: this is a good sign.
2. Once the grapes have surrendered most of their juices and begun to look more like raisins, remove from the heat. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, remove the grape carcasses and transfer to a fine-mesh sieve set over a large bowl. Pour the juice over the grapes and press down on them to get every last bit of juice out of them. (We compost the remaining skins, seeds, and stems.)
3. Use the grape juice right away, or store it in an airtight container in your fridge for up to 1 week or in your freezer for up to 1 year.
concord grape sorbet
MAKES ABOUT 475 G (1 PINT)
1 gelatin sheet
½ recipe Concord Grape Juice
200 g glucose
[½ cup]
2 g citric acid
[½ teaspoon]
1 g kosher salt
[¼ teaspoon]
With all things fresh and seasonal, it’s always important to taste, taste, taste. Make the sorbet base to your liking with more glucose, salt, or citric acid.
Powdered gelatin can be substituted for the sheet gelatin: use ½ teaspoon. In a pinch, substitute 75 g (¼ cup) corn syrup for the glucose.
Instead of a whisk, use a hand blender to mix the sorbet base.
1. Bloom the gelatin.
2. Warm a little bit of the grape juice and whisk in the gelatin to dissolve. Whisk in the remaining grape juice, the glucose, citric acid, and salt until everything is fully dissolved and incorporated.
3. Pour the mixture into your ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The sorbet is best spun just before serving or using, but it will keep in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.
concord grape sauce
MAKES ABOUT 360 G (1¼ CUPS)
½ recipe Concord Grape Juice
14 g sherry vinegar
[1 tablespoon]
50 g sugar
[¼ cup]
1 g kosher salt
[¼ teaspoon]
2 gelatin sheets
Powdered gelatin can be substituted for the sheet gelatin: use 1 teaspoon.
1. Heat half of the grape juice with the vinegar, sugar, and salt in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, stirring occasionally, until the sugar and salt dissolve. Remove from the heat.
2. Bloom the gelatin. Add it to the hot grape juice mixture, whisking to dissolve, then add the remaining grape juice. Cool the sauce partially in the fridge for 30 minutes, so it is still fluid enough to spread atop the pie, or put the sauce in an airtight container and store it in your fridge for up to 2 weeks.
grapefruit pie
MAKES 1 (10-INCH) PIE; SERVES 8 TO 10
We fell so in love with the Ritz crunch that we decided to start recipe testing a few pie options using it as a crust. As we delved deeper into the world of pies, we became obsessed with both the concept and the technique of Ohio Shaker pie (a traditional Americana pie, where thinly sliced lemons are tenderized without heat in sugar and a little salt) and key lime pie (the South’s best use of sweetened condensed milk, which naturally thickens with the acidity of the key lime juice). We tried as many different citrus fruits as possible, thinly sliced and layered with sugar into a pie shell, or juiced and stirred into sweetened condensed milk. Grapefr
uit was the clear winner, and it turns out that combining the two pie methods made for our favorite recipe—though instead of thinly slicing the grapefruit and candying it, we make grapefruit threads so you get the same tangy grapefruit pop in every bite of pie.
This recipe is a little more involved than others in this chapter, but it’s delicious and worth a few more minutes of your time.
1 recipe unbaked Ritz Crunch
1 recipe Grapefruit Passion Curd
1 recipe Sweetened Condensed Grapefruit
1. Heat the oven to 275°F.
2. Press the Ritz crunch into a 10-inch pie tin. Using your fingers and the palms of your hands, press the crunch in firmly, making sure to cover the bottom and sides evenly and completely.
3. Put the tin on a sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes. The Ritz crust should be slightly more golden brown and slightly deeper in buttery goodness than the crunch you started with. Cool the crust completely; wrapped in plastic, the crust can be frozen for up to 2 weeks.
4. Using a spoon or an offset spatula, spread the grapefruit passion curd evenly over the bottom of the Ritz crust. Put the pie in the freezer to set the curd until firm, about 30 minutes.
5. Using a spoon or an offset spatula, spread the sweetened condensed grapefruit on top of the curd, being careful not to mix the two layers and making sure the curd is entirely covered. Return to the freezer until ready to slice and serve. Wrapped (gently) in plastic, the pie can be frozen for up to 1 month.
grapefruit passion curd
MAKES ABOUT 350 G (1¼ CUPS)
Passion fruit puree can be found in Latin grocery stores and online at amazon.com.
50 g passion fruit puree
[¼ cup]
40 g sugar
[3 tablespoons]
1 egg
½ gelatin sheet
85 g very cold butter
[6 tablespoons]
1 g kosher salt
[¼ teaspoon]
1 large grapefruit
3 g grapeseed oil
[1 teaspoon]
Powdered gelatin can be substituted for the sheet gelatin: use ¼ teaspoon.
1. Put the passion fruit puree and sugar in a blender and blend until the sugar granules have dissolved. Add the egg and blend on low until you have a bright orange-yellow mixture. Transfer the contents of the blender to a medium pot or saucepan. Clean the blender canister.
2. Bloom the gelatin.
3. Heat the passion fruit mixture over low heat, whisking regularly. As it heats up, it will begin to thicken; keep a close eye on it. Once the mixture boils, remove it from the stove and transfer it to the blender. Add the bloomed gelatin, butter, and salt and blend until the mixture is thick, shiny, and super-smooth.
4. Transfer the mixture to a heatproof container, and put in the fridge for 30 to 60 minutes, until the passion fruit curd has cooled completely.
5. While the passion fruit curd is cooling, use a paring knife to carefully remove the rind from the grapefruit. Remove every last bit of it—leave no white pith behind! Then carefully remove each segment of grapefruit from its membranes by slicing down both sides of each segment, along the membrane, to the center of the fruit; the segments should come right out. (The technical term for this process is “suprêming” the fruit.)
6. Put the grapefruit segments in a small saucepan with the grapeseed oil and warm over low heat, stirring occasionally and gently with a spoon. After about 2 minutes, the warm oil will help separate and encapsulate the individual grapefruit “threads.” Remove from the heat and let the threads cool slightly before proceeding.
7. Using a spoon or rubber spatula, gently stir the grapefruit threads into the cooled passion fruit curd. Use immediately, or transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 1 week.
sweetened condensed grapefruit
MAKES ABOUT 275 G (1 CUP)
The acid from the grapefruit juice and citric acid will naturally thicken the sweetened condensed milk, which is one of the coolest things to watch happen right before your very eyes.
225 g sweetened condensed milk
[¾ cup]
30 g Tropicana Ruby Red grapefruit juice
[2 tablespoons]
2 g kosher salt
[½ teaspoon]
2 g citric acid
[½ teaspoon]
1 drop red food coloring
Combine the sweetened condensed milk, grapefruit juice, salt, citric acid, and food coloring in a medium bowl and mix with a rubber spatula by stirring and folding over the mixture until it is homogenous. Use immediately, or transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
“The crumb” is our name for clumpy, crunchy, yet sandy little bits of flavor. I started using the crumb in the fancier plated desserts I made for Ssäm Bar and Ko: put some crumbs under a scoop of ice cream, and it won’t slide across the plate before it gets to the guest. Soon enough, leftover crumb made its way into the cookies I baked for family meal, then into birthday cakes, and then it was open season. As a result, almost all of our pie crusts at Milk Bar are based on a crumb that we grind with butter and salt before pressing into a pie tin.
My first face-to-face with the crumb was when I was a pastry cook at wd~50—Sam Mason, the pastry chef, called his crumbs “soils.” (Nearly every pastry chef I know has at least one crumb or soil on his or her menu these days.) At wd~50, we made chocolate soil, coffee soil (my favorite), cherry soil, onion soil, pea soil, and on and on. I was so enamored with the soils that I knew I wanted to have my own recipes, flavors, and uses for the technique for the day when I would be in charge of my own kitchen.
The basic technique to make the crumb is this: dehydrate and/or pulverize your flavor base (or use a flavorful dry substance, like cocoa powder or ground coffee); toss it with flour, sugar, and salt to balance the flavor base; bind it together with butter; and bake.
Years later at Milk Bar, I wanted to blow the lid off the crumb world by making crumbs in quirky flavors that no one else had. But I needed to change my approach to the makeup of ingredients and the major flavor bases. See, we’d used blanched almond flour (along with a small amount of regular flour) as the binder at wd~50, but with all the nut allergies we see at the restaurants, I knew the almond flour had to go—which sucked, because it really adds a nice flavor and richness.
I went to my favorite 24-hour bodega down Second Avenue late one night and cleared out the dried and powdered goods selection (a regular routine of mine). I bought a world of powdered everything: honey powder, iced tea powder, Nesquik Strawberry Milk Powder, mustard powder. I walked back into the kitchen and stacked my finds on the dry goods shelf. But though I was sure they would all make interesting crumbs—at least I thought that they all could be really delicious—none struck me with the accessible yet subtle cleverness I wanted to convey. Then, down the kitchen, I spied the milk powder I use to make soft-serve ice cream. I looked at it sideways, wondered, “What if …?” I went for it. I tossed it with flour, sugar, salt, cornstarch (the binder I decided to use in place of almond flour), and melted butter.
Straight out of the oven, it wasn’t exactly the milky flavor I wanted it to be, but it was headed somewhere good. It needed more milkiness. I settled on melted white chocolate as the solution. In addition to elevating the creamy milkiness, white chocolate improved the texture—binding and moistening it, as well as sweetening it further—moving it away from a milk “soil” and toward a milk “crumb.”
I know it seems funny for me to say, but I don’t drink straight milk and haven’t since childhood, when my mom made me. Still, I am in love with the idea of the flavor I think milk should have—and these milk crumbs were the first perfect embodiment of that idealized milk flavor. They have a richness, butteriness, and sweetness (from that enrobing with white chocolate) that makes any hater want to love the flavor of milk.
I’ve come to love the milk crumb because it is an unobvious use for an obvious ingredient. Milk powder is on hand in
nearly every professional pastry kitchen and plenty of home cupboards, but nobody takes advantage of its versatility. Our milk crumbs go in cookies, cakes, and pie crusts, and that’s just the beginning. With the addition of malt powder, they turn into malted milk crumbs; with instant tea, they take on the flavor of a really milky cup of black tea. Add a little freeze-dried peach powder, and suddenly they’re peaches-and-cream-flavored crumbs—and on and on.
There was no push to put “milky” things on the menu; like most successful Momofuku things, it just kind of happened. Milk Bar was already going to be Milk Bar before the milk crumb came into being, but I soon discovered my obsession with exploiting milk, milk crumbs, and cereal milk in a million different ways.
It’s the conversation I always have with Dave: the basis of our best dishes is making something out of nothing. I had a bunch of powdered goodness from the deli, but it was the milk powder already sitting in the kitchen that ended up as the catalyst that really sparked me. It’s a good challenge to keep in mind: make yourself see the unobvious in things you already have. Find a new use for the same products you use daily. You just have to look at them sideways and wonder, “What if …?”