Momofuku Milk Bar
Page 17
4. Once the first sugar measurement reaches 115°C (239°F), remove it from the heat and very carefully pour it into the whipping egg white, being careful to avoid the whisk: turn the mixer down to a very low speed before you do this, unless you want some interesting burn marks on your face. Once all of the sugar is successfully added to the egg white, turn the mixer speed back up, and turn the heat way up under the second sugar measurement. Once this sugar reaches 120°C (248°F), remove it from the heat and pour it into the whipping egg white, taking the same precautions as with the first sugar measurement. Let the egg white whip until cool.
5. While the white is whipping, mix the peanut butter, peanut brittle, and salt in a large bowl until well blended.
6. Once the white has cooled to room temperature, turn the mixer off, remove the bowl, and, using a spatula, fold the white into the peanut butter mixture. Use immediately in the candy bar pie assembly. Once it cools, the nougat is only acceptable as a ridiculously delicious snack, sure to steal any peanut butter lover’s heart.
Elsewhere in this book: The nougat is also used in the PB & J Pie.
blondie pie
MAKES 1 (10-INCH) PIE; SERVES 8 TO 10
If nut brittle is my muse, blondie pie is our love child. It is, to date, my favorite pie we’ve ever created. Dense, sweet, salty, nutty, chock-full of textures large and small, it’s perfect to grab a piece of on the go and crush as if it were a slice of pizza.
¾ recipe Graham Crust
[255 g (1½ cups)]
1 recipe Blondie Pie Filling (recipe follows)
1 recipe Cashew Praline (recipe follows)
Any other nut (brittle and praline) will do in this pie, but cashews balance the white chocolate so well without overwhelming the other ingredients. With a stronger nut, this will most likely become a peanut butter blondie pie, or a hazelnut blondie pie, etc.
Warm the graham crust slightly in the microwave to make it easy to mold.
1. Heat the oven to 325°F.
2. Dump the graham crust into a 10-inch pie tin. With your fingers and the palms of your hands, press the crust firmly into the pie tin, covering the bottom and sides evenly. Set aside while you make the filling. Wrapped in plastic, the crust can be refrigerated or frozen for up to 2 weeks.
3. Put the pie tin on a sheet pan and pour in the blondie pie filling. Bake the pie for 30 minutes. It will set slightly in the center and darken in color. Add 3 to 5 minutes if that’s not the case. Let cool to room temperature.
4. Just before serving, cover the top of the pie with the cashew praline.
blondie pie filling
MAKES ABOUT 540 G (2¼ CUPS)
160 g white chocolate
[5½ ounces]
55 g butter
[4 tablespoons (½ stick)]
2 egg yolks
40 g sugar
[3 tablespoons]
105 g heavy cream
[½ cup]
52 g flour
[⅓ cup]
½ recipe Cashew Brittle
4 g kosher salt
[1 teaspoon]
Elsewhere in this book: Blondie pie is great as a fall pie when garnished with Pumpkin Ganache.
1. Combine the white chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl and gently melt them on medium, in 30-second increments, stirring between blasts. Once melted, whisk the mixture until smooth.
2. Put the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk together until smooth. Pour in the white chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Slowly drizzle in the heavy cream and whisk to combine.
3. Stir the flour, cashew brittle, and salt together in a small bowl, then carefully fold them into the filling. Use immediately, or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
cashew praline
MAKES ABOUT 180 G (½ CUP)
½ recipe Cashew Brittle
20 g grapeseed oil
[2 tablespoons]
Grind the brittle with the oil in a food processor until it has completely broken down and almost liquefied. Boom: it’s praline. Look at how easy that was. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 month or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
hazelnut praline
MAKES ABOUT 120 G (½ CUP)
Mix hazelnut praline with Fudge Sauce for your own makeshift Nutella with little bits of texture in every bite.
Follow the recipe for cashew praline, substituting hazelnut brittle for the cashew brittle.
The origin of the nut crunch in our kitchen is a funny one. It was more like the invasion of the feuilletine in the basement of Ssäm Bar. At the time, I had two desserts on the menu at Ssäm Bar and a small soft-serve program going at Noodle Bar. I knew I’d have to step it up for Ko’s opening, and I still wasn’t too steady on my identity as a pastry person who created things. I figured I’d start by filling the pastry shelf with more than just eggs, flour, salt, sugar, milk powder, and chocolate.
So I turned to old notebooks from restaurants where I had worked in the past. Any good cook keeps a notebook of recipes, thoughts, ideas, prep lists, and so on. I flipped through the pages to remember what ingredients pastry chefs of my past liked to use. Nuts! That’s right! Nut pastes! Nut flours! Nut oils! All good pastry chefs use one or more of those for flavor, texture, and nuance—and because they’re available year-round. Vanilla beans, pass. Rose water, pass. Coconut flakes, meh. Cocoa nibs, maybe. Feuilletine! That’s right. I’d mixed feuilletine, hazelnut paste, and chocolate to make a bar of crunchy crust for a parfait. And I’d tossed feuilletine in hazelnut paste and white chocolate to make clusters of candy for a parting gift to present to a table with the check.
I put on blinders while looking through my old recipes, searching only for ones that used feuilletine. I springboarded into a brainstorm of possibilities. What if I changed the nut paste flavor? Used a higher ratio of nut paste or a higher ratio of feuilletine? Tossed in some nuts to really showcase the nut itself—or, better yet, some nut brittle for an off-the-charts texture? The “nut crunch” came to life.
Not to be confused with “the crunch,” “nut crunch” is a crunch based on a nut paste, seasoned with confectioners’ sugar (because it dissolves quickly in the mixing process) and salt. We fold in lightly toasted nuts or nut brittles for depth and texture, in addition to the feuilletine, of course, which started it all.
peanut butter crunch
MAKES ABOUT 515 G (3½ CUPS)
195 g Skippy peanut butter
[¾ cup]
⅓ recipe Peanut Brittle
[80 g (½ cup)]
120 g feuilletine
[1½ cups]
120 g confectioners’ sugar
[¾ cup]
2 g kosher salt
[½ teaspoon]
Combine the peanut butter, brittle, feuilletine, confectioners’ sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and paddle on medium-low speed for about 1 minute, until homogenous. The crunch can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days or in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
If you want to make this nut crunch gluten-free, substitute ½ recipe peanut brittle for the feuilletine.
hazelnut crunch
MAKES ABOUT 280 G (2 CUPS)
100 g hazelnut paste
[⅓ cup]
⅓ recipe Hazelnut Brittle
[80 g (½ cup)]
80 g feuilletine
[1 cup]
20 g confectioners’ sugar
[2 tablespoons]
3 g kosher salt
[¾ teaspoon]
If you want to make this nut crunch gluten-free, substitute ½ recipe hazelnut brittle for the feuilletine.
Follow the procedure for the peanut butter crunch, substituting the hazelnut paste and brittle for the peanut butter and brittle.
pistachio crunch
MAKES ABOUT 330 G (2 CUPS)
75 g pistachios, raw, unsalted
[½ cup]
155 g pistachio paste
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[½ cup]
60 g feuilletine
[¾ cup]
40 g confectioners’ sugar
[¼ cup]
4 g kosher salt
[1 teaspoon]
1. Heat the oven to 325°F.
2. Put the pistachios on a sheet pan and toast in the oven for 15 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
3. Put the toasted pistachios in a clean kitchen towel and, with a sauté pan or a rolling pin, bash them into smaller pieces, ideally halving the pistachios, or breaking them down to no smaller than one-eighth their original size.
4. Combine the broken pistachios with the pistachio paste, feuilletine, confectioners’ sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and paddle on medium-low speed for about 1 minute, until homogenous. The crunch can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days or in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
If you want to make this nut crunch gluten-free, substitute 75 g (½ cup) additional toasted ground pistachios for the feuilletine; used as the replacement for the milk crumbs, this makes the amazing almond flour Pistachio Layer Cake entirely gluten-free.
Elsewhere in this book: Pistachio crunch is used in the Chèvre Frozen Yogurt dessert.
thai tea crunch
MAKES ABOUT 140 G (1 CUP)
15 g slivered almonds
[2 tablespoons]
55 g almond butter
[¼ cup]
40 g feuilletine
[½ cup]
30 g confectioners’ sugar
[3 tablespoons]
2 g kosher salt
[½ teaspoon]
8 g Thai black tea leaves
[1½ tablespoons]
0.25 g citric acid
[scant pinch]
Omit the tea leaves for an “almond crunch” to use in your own dessert concoction.
Follow the procedure for the pistachio nut crunch, substituting the almonds for the pistachios and the almond butter for the pistachio paste, adding the tea leaves and citric acid with the dry ingredients.
pb & j
saltine panna cotta, concord grape jelly, peanut butter crunch
SERVES 4
In the fall of 2008, Ssäm Bar needed a seasonal dessert, and Concord grapes were on the brain. Best man I know suggested I do a take on a pb & j, but my way, using techniques and perhaps a flavor that made sense but was unexpected. I chose the path of a panna cotta, made with milk steeped with the flavor of a saltine cracker: salty and soda-y—a poor man’s pb & j. People were going to love it or hate it. And that was perfectly fine with me, because I loved it, though the saltine milk is not for wussies.
½ recipe Concord Grape Jelly (recipe follows)
½ recipe Peanut Butter Crunch
1 recipe Saltine Panna Cotta (recipe follows)
For an upscale option, garnish the panna cottas with any leftover saltine crackers. We crumble a small amount between thumb and index finger just before serving.
1. Divide the jelly evenly among 4 serving bowls.
2. Put a 1-inch circular cookie cutter or ring mold on a small plate and use a spoon to firmly press one-quarter of the peanut butter crunch into the circle, making a ½-inch-high round. Transfer the round of crunch to the first bowl, popping it out of the mold onto the jelly. Repeat for the remaining 3 bowls.
3. With an offset spatula, carefully transfer 1 panna cotta to the top of each peanut butter crunch round. Serve immediately.
concord grape jelly
MAKES ABOUT 315 G (1¼ CUPS)
50 g sugar
[¼ cup]
3 g pectin NH
[1½ teaspoons]
0.5 g kosher salt
[⅛ teaspoon]
½ recipe Concord Grape Juice
1. Whisk together the sugar, pectin, and salt in a medium pot or saucepan. Slowly whisk in the grape juice and bring to a full, rolling boil. Reduce the heat and cook at a low boil for 2 minutes to activate the pectin and turn the juice into a beautiful jelly. Your kitchen will begin to smell like grape-flavored bubble gum. This is a good sign.
2. Once the pectin has been activated and coats the back of a spoon, remove the jelly from the heat. The jelly can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
saltine panna cotta
SERVES 4
55 g saltine crackers
[½ sleeve]
220 g milk
[1 cup]
160 g heavy cream
[¾ cup]
150 g sugar
[¾ cup]
12 g kosher salt
[1 tablespoon]
6 g baking soda
[1 teaspoon]
1½ gelatin sheets
Pam or other nonstick cooking spray
Toasting the saltines deepens the flavor of the steeped milk.
Powdered gelatin can be substituted for the sheet gelatin: use ¾ teaspoon.
1. Heat the oven to 250°F.
2. Put the saltines on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Bake for 20 minutes to toast them lightly. Cool completely.
3. Transfer the saltines to a blender, pour in the milk, and blend on high for about 20 seconds. Immediately strain the saltine milk through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl, using your hand or the back of a ladle to wring all the milk out of the saltines. Do not force any mushy saltines through the sieve. (We compost the mush.)
4. Whisk in the heavy cream, sugar, salt, and baking soda until fully dissolved.
5. Bloom the gelatin.
6. Pour the saltine mixture into a medium saucepan and heat until warm to the touch. Remove from the heat, add the bloomed gelatin, and whisk until dissolved.
7. Lightly Pam-spray 4 (2-ounce) circular molds. We use silicone molds for ease of removal once the panna cottas are set. Put the molds on a flat, transportable surface. Pour the saltine panna cotta base into the molds and transfer to the freezer to set for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
8. Remove the panna cottas from their molds by gently popping them out or by plunging the bases of the molds into warm water for 3 seconds, then tapping them upside down on the counter. Stored in an airtight container, the panna cottas will keep in the freezer for 1 month. Thaw before serving, either overnight in the fridge or for 3 hours at room temperature.
banana layer cake
MAKES 1 (6-INCH) LAYER CAKE, 5 TO 6 INCHES TALL; SERVES 6 TO 8
Like the candy bar pie, this banana cake is a doozy to make, but it’s here because it’s a bestseller at Milk Bar—so much so, that in two years, it is the only cake that has never been rotated out, based on season or popularity. It is Oprah’s favorite cake, and it will be yours too.
1 recipe Banana Cake
55 g milk
[¼ cup]
1 recipe Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache, warmed
½ recipe Hazelnut Crunch
½ recipe Banana Cream
1 recipe Hazelnut Frosting
special equipment
1 (6-inch) cake ring
2 strips acetate, each 3 inches wide and 20 inches long
Save a perfectly ripe banana or leftover hazelnut brittle to garnish this cake in addition to the hazelnut crunch clusters.
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 cake scraps together into a flat even layer.
4. Dunk a pastry brush in the milk and give the layer of cake a good, healthy bath of half of the milk.
5. Use the back of a spoon to spread half of the ganache in an ev
en layer over the cake.
6. Sprinkle one-third of the hazelnut crunch evenly over the ganache. Use the back of your hand to anchor it in place.
7. Use the back of a spoon to spread half of the banana cream as evenly as possible over the crunch.
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 banana cream 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 banana cream. Cover the top of the cake with all the hazelnut frosting. Give it volume and swirls, or do as we do and opt for a perfectly flat top. Garnish the frosting with the remaining clusters of hazelnut crunch.