Momofuku Milk Bar
Page 20
mother dough
MAKES ABOUT 850 G (2 POUNDS)
The cakes, cookies, or pies may have lured you into this book, but you are about to meet your favorite recipe. This bread dough is always tasty, very forgiving, and can be fashioned into nearly any style or variety of bready item. It takes a very “don’t take yourself so seriously!” approach to bread baking and is the easiest, most versatile recipe in the book—your resulting bagel bombs, volcanoes, brioche, focaccia, and croissants will be proof of that.
Make this dough one day, refrigerate it, and use it the second, third, or fourth day, if need be. Or freeze it for up to 1 week; just make sure to let it come to room temperature before using.
550 g flour
[3½ cups]
12 g kosher salt
[1 tablespoon]
3.5 g active dry yeast
[½ packet or 1⅛ teaspoons]
370 g water, at room temperature
[1¾ cups]
grapeseed oil
Elsewhere in this book: Mother dough is used in Cinnamon Bun Pie.
1. Stir together the flour, salt, and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer—do it by hand, using the dough hook like a spoon. Continue stirring by hand as you add the water, mixing for 1 minute, until the mixture has come together into a shaggy mass.
2. Engage the bowl and hook and have the machine mix the dough on the lowest speed for 3 minutes, or until the ball of dough is smoother and more cohesive. Then knead for 4 more minutes on the lowest speed. The dough should look like a wet ball and should bounce back softly when prodded.
3. Brush a large bowl with oil and dump the dough into it. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough proof at room temperature for 45 minutes.
4. The dough is ready to be used as directed in the following recipes. If you do not plan to use your mother dough the day you make it, you can store it in an airtight container at least twice its size in the fridge for up to 3 days. Take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature 30 to 45 minutes before using.
bagel bombs
MAKES 8 BOMBS
½ recipe Mother Dough (opposite), proofed
1 recipe Bacon, Scallion, Cream Cheese Plugs (recipe follows), frozen
1 egg
4 g water
[½ teaspoon]
1 recipe Everything Bagel Mix (recipe follows)
1. Heat the oven to 325°F.
2. Punch down and flatten the dough on a smooth, dry countertop. Use a dough cutter to divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Use your fingers to gently stretch each piece of dough out into a mini pizza between 2 and 3 inches wide.
3. Put a cream cheese plug in the center of each dough circle. Bring up the edges of each round and pinch to seal so that the cream cheese plug is completely contained, then gently roll the ball between the palms of your hands to ensure the bomb has a nice, round, dinner roll–y shape. Arrange the bombs 4 inches apart on a parchment- or Silpat-lined baking sheet.
4. Whisk the egg and water together and brush a generous coat of egg wash on the buns. Sprinkle a heavy even coating of the bagel mix all over the bagel bombs—every possible inch, except for the bottoms, should be coated.
5. Bake the bagel bombs for 20 to 30 minutes. While in the oven, the bombs will become a deep golden brown and a few may have cream cheese explosions. Continue baking until you see this happen! Not to worry—serve them as is or use your fingers to tuck the cream cheese back inside the bagel bomb. Bagel bombs are best served warm out of the oven—or flashed in the oven later to warm and serve. If you can’t finish them all right away, once they are cool, wrap them well in plastic and store them in the fridge for up to 3 days.
bacon, scallion, cream cheese plugs
MAKES ENOUGH FOR 1 RECIPE BAGEL BOMBS
We use Benton’s bacon, the meatiest, smokiest bacon around, in our plugs. If you have the Momofuku cookbook, you know the wonders and glories of Allan Benton, the man behind the smoky cured pork down in Madisonville, Tennessee. His product reigns supreme in punch-you-in-the-face bacon flavor. When he answers the phone himself to take your order, you know you are getting a handmade, superior product from a man who loves his art and keeps it simple—even though he has orders from all over the country to fill that day, many from big-name chefs and restaurants in NYC and beyond. I have been known to swap cookies for moonshine with this adorable man—both of us feeling like we’ve made out like bandits.
50 g bacon, the smokier the better
[1¾ ounces]
200 g cream cheese
[7 ounces]
2 g scallion greens, thinly sliced
5 g sugar
[1 teaspoon]
2 g kosher salt
[½ teaspoon]
Make a meat-free cream cheese plug with your favorite bagel fixin’s. We make a veggie plug with dill and cucumber, too!
1. Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat until it’s auburn brown and crunchy. Remove it from the pan and chop it into small pieces; reserve it and, separately, the bacon fat in the pan.
2. Put the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream it on medium speed. Pour in the reserved bacon fat and paddle to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the chopped bacon, scallions, sugar, and salt and paddle briefly to incorporate.
3. Scoop the cream cheese mixture onto a quarter sheet pan in 8 even lumps. Freeze until rock hard, 1 to 3 hours.
4. Once the plugs are frozen solid, they are ready to be used, or they can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 1 month.
everything bagel mix
MAKES ENOUGH FOR 1 RECIPE BAGEL BOMBS
3 g kosher salt
[¾ teaspoon]
6 g white sesame seeds
[1 tablespoon]
4 g black sesame seeds
[2 teaspoons]
4 g poppy seeds
[2 teaspoons]
4 g dried onions
[1 tablespoon]
2 g onion powder
[½ teaspoon]
1 g garlic powder
[¼ teaspoon]
Mix together the salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onions, onion powder, and garlic powder in an airtight container. The mix keeps forever in the pantry, but it is best used within 6 months.
volcanoes
MAKES 4 VOLCANOES
In February 2008, I traveled with Dave to Deauville, France, for the third annual Omnivore Food Festival. The two of us were like fish out of water in this off-season beach town. Straight off the plane from New York and jet-lagged, we were left to our own devices in the tiny, remote town to gather Asian ingredients for a kimchi demo.
We agreed to wake up at 6 a.m. the next day to get breakfast and get going. We met drowsy and confused in the empty hotel lobby and proceeded to sleepwalk through the ghost town until we could smell fresh-baked bread and saw a light on in the only bakery in town. Dave took charge and pointed at nearly everything in the joint, as that’s how we eat when we’re abroad. “I’m full” is not a phrase you’re allowed to use—such is the price of traveling with chef Dave Chang.
We found a bench outside and unwrapped this mound of bread that looked like it had some sort of creamy gravy inside. Still half-asleep, we wrestled the filled bread ball out of the bag and bit in. When you are having a food moment, it’s like tasting food for the first time. Your eyes open wide and then close, as if in slow motion. You chew as if no food with flavor has ever touched your tongue before and what you are eating at that very moment is what will shape all future food opinions you will ever have. That was our 6:05 a.m. February morning in Deauville. Neither of us speaks French, so we decided to call it what it was, a volcano—an explosion of potato, lardons, and cheese like no other. We raced each other to the bakery every subsequent morning that week. And on the plane ride home, we agreed that if and when we opened a bakery, it must serve our very own volcano.
½ recipe Mother Dough, proofed
1 recipe Carame
lized Onions
1 recipe Scalloped Potatoes
1 egg
4 g water
[½ teaspoon]
100 g shredded Gruyère cheese
[3.5 ounces (1 cup)]
1. Heat the oven to 375°F.
2. Punch down and flatten the dough on a smooth, dry countertop. Use a dough cutter to divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Use your fingers to gently stretch each piece of dough out into a mini pizza about 6 inches wide.
3. Divide the onions equally among the rounds, plopping them in the center. Grab the scalloped potatoes from the fridge and cut into four 3-inch squares. Use an offset spatula to wrestle each square of potato gratin out of the baking pan and onto a dough round, directly on top of the onions.
4. Take the edges of each dough round and pinch together to seal so that there is no speck of onion or potato in sight, then gently roll the ball between the palms of your hands to ensure the volcano has a nice, round, dinner roll–y shape. Arrange the volcanoes, seam side down, 5 inches apart on a parchment- or Silpat-lined baking sheet.
5. Whisk the egg and water together and brush a generous coat of egg wash on the buns. Use a paring knife to cut a 1-inch-long X in the top of each volcano. Divide the Gruyère evenly among the volcanoes, stuffing it into the X in each one.
6. Bake the volcanoes for 25 minutes, or until the dough is a deep, golden brown and the Gruyère cheese on top is caramelized. They are best served warm; allow them to cool for at least 10 minutes before digging in. If you’re saving a couple of volcanoes for later, let them cool, wrap them well in plastic, and store them in the fridge for up to 3 days; warm them in the oven before eating.
caramelized onions
MAKES ENOUGH FOR 1 RECIPE VOLCANOES
I love caramelized onions. I make them constantly at home and put them in everything from sandwiches to nachos piled high to scrambled eggs. They add a roasted depth of flavor and an unbelievable sweetness.
20 g grapeseed oil
[2 tablespoons]
2 medium Spanish onions, halved and thinly sliced
6 g kosher salt
[1½ teaspoons]
1. Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan or skillet over medium-high heat for 1 minute, or until it’s very hot but not smoking. Add the onions and let them cook for 2 to 3 minutes without stirring.
2. Toss the onions with a large spoon or spatula while seasoning them with the salt. Lower the heat to medium-low. The rest of the caramelization process happens slowly over medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Work on another subrecipe, pay some bills, kill some time productively—but don’t go too far from the onions. Toss the onions over on themselves every 3 to 4 minutes so they all get their time on the bottom of the pan. The onions will weep and then slowly take on color as they release their liquid. When your onions are the color of a brown paper bag, they are done. Cool completely before using in the volcanoes, or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
scalloped potatoes
MAKES ENOUGH FOR 1 RECIPE VOLCANOES
1 garlic clove
105 g heavy cream
[½ cup]
85 g milk
[⅓ cup]
½ bay leaf
¼ rosemary sprig
2 g kosher salt
[½ teaspoon]
0.5 g freshly ground black pepper
[pinch]
80 g pancetta
[3 ounces]
2 russet (baking) potatoes
1. Smash the garlic clove with the palm of your hand and remove the skin. Put the garlic in a small saucepan with the cream, milk, bay leaf, rosemary, salt, and pepper and bring to a simmer over low heat, then take the saucepan off the heat, cover, and let steep for 30 minutes. The cream mixture will seem strong and overseasoned, but it will eventually season all of the scalloped potatoes, so don’t freak out.
2. Meanwhile, cut the pancetta into ½-inch cubes. Brown it in a small saucepan over medium heat. You want to caramelize and cook the pancetta slightly, to increase its presence later in the scalloped potatoes. Set aside.
3. Peel the potatoes and slice just thicker than paper-thin slices, about ⅛ inch thick. Submerge them in a bowl of cold water.
4. Heat the oven to 350°F. Pull out a 6-inch square baking pan (if you don’t have one, you can buy a disposable one at the grocery).
5. Layer the potatoes in the pan like shingles, putting bits of browned pancetta between each layer of potato shingles, until you are out of both potatoes and pancetta. Fish out the herbs and garlic clove from the steeped cream mixture with a slotted or regular spoon, and pour it over the potatoes.
6. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the potatoes on top are golden brown and have a milky translucence but have not burned or turned into potato chips.
7. Cool and chill the scalloped potatoes in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours, covered with plastic and with a bowl of leftovers weighting them down and keeping every shingle tight and condensed in the pan.
8. Use in the volcano once cool. To store for later use, take the weights off, wrap the scalloped potatoes especially well in plastic, and return to the fridge for up to 5 days.
kimchi & blue cheese croissants
MAKES 5 CROISSANTS
This is the first croissant we ever made and sold at Milk Bar. Deeply stinky and pungent in all the right ways, it is not for the faint of heart. It is a true marriage of funky, barnyardy, stringent kimchi and blue cheese, of our Korean roots to our Italian ones. It is for our soul sisters and brothers.
Making croissants is one of the coolest bread techniques around. You spend time making many layers of bread dough and butter, folding and turning the dough all along. When baked, the croissants get their flakiness and volume from the steam that the layers of butter give off as the dough heats. The steam separates each dough layer ever so slightly, resulting in this massively puffy, impossibly flaky creation. And when you make them with a flavored butter, they’re even cooler!
Though we have simplified the technique somewhat at Milk Bar, in terms of speed and precision, this recipe is still not for softbodies. It takes more time with the dough, more flour, more time with the rolling pin. But it will make you feel like a true pro when the oven timer goes off and you pull these bad boys out.
½ recipe Mother Dough, proofed
105 g flour, for dusting
[¼ cup]
1 recipe Kimchi Butter
200 g blue cheese, crumbled
[7 ounces (1 cup)]
1 egg
4 g water
[½ teaspoon]
1. Punch down and flatten the dough on a smooth, dry countertop. Dust the counter, the dough, and a rolling pin with flour, and roll out the dough to a rectangle about 8 × 12 inches and even in thickness. Grab the butter pad from the fridge and place it on one half of the dough rectangle. Fold the other half of the dough rectangle over the butter pad and pinch the edges shut around it. Drape with plastic wrap and let rest for 10 minutes at room temperature.
2. To make the croissants, you will need to put 3 “double book” turns into the dough to create enough alternating layers of flour and butter to make the croissants rise and puff in the oven. To make your first double book turn, dust your counter surface, your rolling pin, and the dough with flour, remembering to dust under the dough as well. Roll the dough out again to a rectangle 8 × 12 inches and even in thickness. Be gentle with the rolling pin, making sure not to break into any part of the butter bundle or roll so hard that the butter rolls right out of the dough. (If this happens, push it back in and pull a little dough over the escape hole to patch it up.) Make sure there is not an excessive amount of flour left on or underneath your dough—dust off any excess with your hands.
3. Visually divide your dough lengthwise into quarters. Fold the two outer quarters over to the center axis, or spine, of the rectangle of dough, so they meet in the center. Then close the book, bringing one edge to meet the other with the spine now to one side. (When I’m showing someone how to
make a double book turn, I stretch my monkey arms out wide like I’m going in for a big hug, then I fold my arms at the elbow, so my fingers are touching my armpits, and fold my elbows in to touch one another. That is what your dough should look like. Book turn complete.) Wrap it loosely in plastic and transfer it to the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 twice more to make a total of 3 turns,. Each time you start a turn, make sure to have the open edges, or seam, of your dough facing away from you. Sometimes we write 1, 2, or 3 on the plastic we use to wrap the dough as we are putting the turns into it so we don’t lose count. If you put in one too many turns, it will not hurt your dough; if you skip one, you will end up very disappointed in your softbody croissants.