Momofuku Milk Bar
Page 10
8. Take the cake out of the oven and cool on a wire rack or, in a pinch, in the fridge or freezer (don’t worry, it’s not cheating). The cooled cake can be stored in the fridge, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 5 days.
lemon curd
MAKES ABOUT 460 G (2 CUPS)
3 lemons
100 g sugar
[½ cup]
4 eggs
1 gelatin sheet
115 g butter, very cold
[8 tablespoons (1 stick)]
2 g kosher salt
[½ teaspoon]
Powdered gelatin can be substituted for the sheet gelatin: use ½ teaspoon.
Elsewhere in this book: Lemon curd is used in the Lemon Mascarpone for the Thai Tea Parfait dessert and in the Lemon Meringue–Pistachio Pie.
1. Using a Microplane or the finest-toothed side of a box grater, zest the lemons. Do your best to grate only as far down as the yellow part of the skin; the white pith has less lemon flavor and can be bitter. Squeeze 80 g (⅓ cup) juice from the lemons.
2. Put the sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a blender and blend until the sugar granules have dissolved. Add the eggs and blend on low until you have a bright-yellow mixture. Transfer the contents of the blender to a medium pot or saucepan. Clean the blender canister.
3. Bloom the gelatin.
4. Heat the lemon mixture over low heat, whisking regularly. As it heats up, it will begin to thicken; keep a close eye on it. Once it 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.
5. Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a heatproof container, and put in the fridge until the lemon curd has cooled completely, at least 30 minutes. The curd can be refrigerated for up to 1 week; do not freeze.
pistachio frosting
MAKES ABOUT 350 G (1¾ CUPS)
115 g butter, at room temperature
[8 tablespoons (1 stick)]
40 g confectioners’ sugar
[¼ cup]
230 g pistachio paste
[¾ cup]
2 g kosher salt
[½ teaspoon]
1. Combine the butter and confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes, until fluffy and pale yellow.
2. Add the pistachio paste and salt and mix on low speed for half a minute, then kick up the speed to medium-high and let her rip for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. If the mixture is not all the same pale green color, give it another minute on high speed, and scrape down again.
3. Use the frosting immediately, or store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
chocolate-chocolate cookies
MAKES 10 TO 15 COOKIES
An ode to my favorite baked good of all time, the fudgy brownie, this cookie has a healthy salt content and, to me, is perfection. I freeze a few of these in the dense heat of a New York summer for my lunch or afternoon snack.
225 g butter, at room temperature
[16 tablespoons (2 sticks)]
300 g sugar
[1½ cups]
100 g glucose
[¼ cup]
1 egg
1 g vanilla extract
[¼ teaspoon]
60 g 55% chocolate, melted
[2 ounces]
200 g flour
[1¼ cups]
100 g cocoa powder, preferably Valrhona
[¾ cup]
3 g baking powder
[¾ teaspoon]
1.5 g baking soda
[¼ teaspoon]
7 g kosher salt
[1¾ teaspoons]
½ recipe Chocolate Crumb
In a pinch, substitute 35 g (2 tablespoons) corn syrup for the glucose.
1. Combine the butter, sugar, and glucose in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg, vanilla, and melted chocolate, and beat for 7 to 8 minutes. (See notes on this process.)
2. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. (Do not walk away from the machine during this step, or you will risk overmixing the dough.) Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
3. Still on low speed, add the chocolate crumbs and mix just until incorporated, about 30 seconds.
4. Using a 2¾-ounce ice cream scoop (or a ⅓-cup measure), portion out the dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Pat the tops of the cookie dough domes flat. Wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 1 week. Do not bake your cookies from room temperature—they will not bake properly.
5. Heat the oven to 375°F.
6. Arrange the chilled dough a minimum of 4 inches apart on parchment- or Silpat-lined sheet pans. Bake for 18 minutes. The cookies will puff, crackle, and spread. It’s tough (kind of impossible) to gauge if a cookie that is this dark with chocolate is done. If after 18 minutes, the cookies still seem doughy in the center, give them another 1 minute in the oven, but not more.
7. Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before transferring to a plate or an airtight container for storage. At room temp, the cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month.
banana cream pie
MAKES 1 (10-INCH) PIE; SERVES 8 TO 10
1 recipe Banana Cream
1 recipe Chocolate Crust
1 banana, just ripe, sliced
Pour half of the banana cream into the pie shell. Cover it with a layer of sliced bananas, then cover the bananas with the remaining banana cream. The pie should be stored in the fridge and eaten within a day of when you make it.
banana cream
MAKES ABOUT 775 G (3 CUPS)
You have to plan ahead for this one. Buy bananas that are ripe and then let them get nearly black/brown before accepting them as the rrrrrripe bananas needed for this recipe. Another great option: at the bakery, we peel just ripe bananas, freeze them, and let them finish developing flavor in the freezer for 2 days or up to 2 weeks. Said rrrrrripe bananas are the difference between having your banana pie tasting like banana Laffy Taffy and the most delicious, deep banana cream pie ever.
225 g rrrrrripe bananas
[about 2]
75 g heavy cream
[⅓ cup]
55 g milk
[¼ cup]
100 g sugar
[½ cup]
25 g cornstarch
[2 tablespoons]
2 g kosher salt
[½ teaspoon]
3 egg yolks
2 gelatin sheets
40 g butter
[3 tablespoons]
25 drops yellow food coloring
[½ teaspoon]
160 g heavy cream
[¾ cup]
160 g confectioners’ sugar
[1 cup]
Powdered gelatin can be substituted for the sheet gelatin: use 1 teaspoon.
Elsewhere in this book: Banana cream is used in the Banana Layer Cake. The cream also tastes great when layered with Cereal Milk Panna Cotta.
1. Combine the bananas, cream, and milk in a blender and puree until totally smooth.
2. Add the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and yolks and continue to blend until homogenous. Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan. Clean the blender canister.
3. Bloom the gelatin.
4. Whisk the contents of the pan and heat over medium-low heat. As the banana mixture heats up, it will thicken. Bring to a boil and then continue to whisk vigorously for 2 minutes to fully cook out the starch. The mixture will resemble thick glue, bordering on cement, with a color to match.
5. Dump the contents of the pan into the blender. Add the bloomed gelatin and the butter and blend until the mixture is smooth and even. Color th
e mixture with yellow food coloring until it is a bright cartoon-banana yellow. (It’s a ton of coloring, I know, but banana creams don’t get that brilliant yellow color on their own. Womp.)
6. Transfer the banana mixture to a heatsafe container, and put in the fridge for 30 to 60 minutes—as long as it takes to cool completely.
7. Using a whisk or a mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the cream and confectioners’ sugar to medium-soft peaks. (When you pull the whisk away from the whipped cream, the mounds of cream hold their shape softly.) Add the cold banana mixture to the whipped cream and slowly whisk until evenly colored and homogenous. Stored in an airtight container, banana cream keeps fresh for up to 5 days in the fridge.
chocolate crust
MAKES 1 (10-INCH) PIE CRUST
Making this pie shell is the perfect opportunity to use some of those disposable kitchen gloves we recommend to keep your hands from looking like a mechanic’s that just changed someone’s oil.
¾ recipe Chocolate Crumb
[260 g (1¾ cups)]
8 g sugar
[2 teaspoons]
0.5 g kosher salt
[⅛ teaspoon]
14 g butter, melted, or as needed
[1 tablespoon]
Elsewhere in this book: The chocolate crust is used in Candy Bar Pie.
1. Pulse the chocolate crumbs in a food processor until they are sandy and no sizeable clusters remain.
2. Transfer the sand to a bowl and, with your hands, toss with the sugar and salt. Add the melted butter and knead it into the sand until it is moist enough to knead into a ball. If it is not moist enough to do so, melt an additional 14 g (1 tablespoon) butter and knead it in.
3. Transfer the mixture to a 10-inch pie tin. With your fingers and the palms of your hands, press the chocolate crust firmly into the tin, making sure the bottom and sides of the pie tin are evenly covered. Wrapped in plastic wrap, the crust can be stored at room temp for up to 5 days or in the fridge for 2 weeks.
chocolate chip layer cake
MAKES 1 (6-INCH) LAYER CAKE, 5 TO 6 INCHES TALL; SERVES 6 TO 8
Passion fruit, chocolate, and coffee is one of my favorite flavor trios. Though the combo sounds a little out there, it’s actually beloved in lots of pastry kitchens. I wanted a way to feature it in a mainstream dessert. Turns out a deep vanilla chocolate chip layer cake is the perfect fit.
1 recipe Chocolate Chip Cake
60 g passion fruit puree
[⅓ cup]
1 recipe Passion Fruit Curd
½ recipe Chocolate Crumb
1 recipe Coffee Frosting
40 g mini chocolate chips
[¼ cup]
special equipment
1 (6-inch) cake ring
2 strips acetate, each 3 inches wide and 20 inches long
1. Put a piece of parchment or a Silpat on the counter. Invert the cake onto it and peel off the parchment or Silpat from the bottom of the cake. Use the cake ring to stamp out 2 circles from the cake. These are your top 2 cake layers. The remaining cake “scrap” will come together to make the bottom layer of the cake.
layer 1, the bottom
2. Clean the cake ring and place it in the center of a sheet pan lined with clean parchment or a Silpat. Use 1 strip of acetate to line the inside of the cake ring.
3. Put the cake scraps inside the ring and use the back of your hand to tamp the scraps together into a flat even layer.
4. Dunk a pastry brush in the passion fruit puree and give the layer of cake a good, healthy bath of half of the puree.
5. Use the back of a spoon to spread half of the passion fruit curd in an even layer over the cake.
6. Sprinkle half of the chocolate crumbs evenly over the passion fruit curd. Use the back of your hand to anchor them in place.
7. Use the back of a spoon to spread one-third of the coffee frosting as evenly as possible over the chocolate crumbs.
layer 2, the middle
8. With your index finger, gently tuck the second strip of acetate between the cake ring and the top ¼ inch of the first strip of acetate, so that you have a clear ring of acetate 5 to 6 inches tall—high enough to support the height of the finished cake. Set a cake round on top of the frosting, and repeat the process for layer 1 (if 1 of your 2 cake rounds is jankier than the other, use it here in the middle and save the prettier one for the top).
layer 3, the top
9. Nestle the remaining cake round into the frosting. Cover the top of the cake with the remaining frosting. Give it volume and swirls, or do as we do and opt for a perfectly flat top. Garnish the frosting with the mini chocolate chips.
10. Transfer the sheet pan to the freezer and freeze for a minimum of 12 hours to set the cake and filling. The cake will keep in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.
11. At least 3 hours before you are ready to serve the cake, pull the sheet pan out of the freezer and, using your fingers and thumbs, pop the cake out of the cake ring. Gently peel off the acetate, and transfer the cake to a platter or cake stand. Let it defrost in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours (wrapped well in plastic, it can be refrigerated for up to 5 days).
12. Slice the cake into wedges and serve.
chocolate chip cake
MAKES 1 QUARTER SHEET PAN CAKE
Happy birthday, Dave Chang! That’s what the kitchen screamed when we first made this cake. Marian was in charge of making boss man a birthday cake. She told me she channeled her innermost version of me, sprinkled chocolate chips into a vanilla cake batter we were going to use as a coconut cake, and layered it with liquid cheesecake and anything else she could find in the fridge; in other words, she followed to a tee our standard operating procedure for any birthday cake in our kitchen. Now even the Momofuku savory cooks know this cake by heart. It is a snack attack waiting to happen, so you may want to consider making a double batch of batter and baking the cake in a half sheet pan.
115 g butter, at room temperature
[8 tablespoons (1 stick)]
250 g granulated sugar
[1¼ cups]
60 g light brown sugar
[¼ cup tightly packed]
3 eggs
110 g buttermilk
[½ cup]
75 g grapeseed oil
[½ cup]
12 g vanilla extract
[1 tablespoon]
185 g cake flour
[1½ cups]
4 g baking powder
[1 teaspoon]
4 g kosher salt
[1 teaspoon]
Pam or other nonstick cooking spray (optional)
150 g mini chocolate chips
[¾ cup]
There is a ton of liquid and fat in this amazing cake! If you do not do your due diligence to make sure that the batter is homogenous at each step (no streaks, discolorations, or other signs of separation/unincorporation), you’ll be sorry when your cake bakes out of its pan and all over the bottom of your oven.
1. Heat the oven to 350°F.
2. Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the eggs, and mix on medium-high again for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once more.
3. On low speed, stream in the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and paddle for 4 to 6 minutes, until the mixture is practically white, twice the size of your original fluffy butter-and-sugar mixture, and completely homogenous. Don’t rush the process. You’re basically forcing too much liquid into an already fatty mixture that doesn’t want to make room for the liquid. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. On very low speed, add the cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix for 45 to 60 seconds, just until your batter comes together and any remnants of dry ingredients have been incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. If you see any lumps of cake flour in there while you’re scraping, mix for another 45 seconds.
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bsp; 5. Pam-spray a quarter sheet pan and line it with parchment, or just line the pan with a Silpat. Using a spatula, spread the cake batter in an even layer in the pan. Give the bottom of your sheet pan a tap on the countertop to even out the layer. Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the cake batter.
6. Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes. The cake will rise and puff, doubling in size, but will remain slightly buttery and dense. At 30 minutes, gently poke the edge of the cake with your finger: the cake should bounce back slightly and the center should no longer be jiggly. Leave the cake in the oven for an extra 3 to 5 minutes if it doesn’t pass these tests.