Unfortunately, cookie dough is not my only vice. Sour cream and onion potato chips (the whole bag, in one sitting), sugary cereal by the handful, Cool Ranch Doritos (again, the whole bag, destroyed), crackers dipped in frosting, pretzels dipped in chocolate—you name the snack food—chances are it’s gone if I’m standing in the same room with it.
When building a dessert program, I knew part of my voice as a pastry chef, part of what would be lying around the kitchen, and part of what I’d naturally draw inspiration from, would be snack food. Everyone loves snack food. (Or at least everyone who works at Milk Bar.)
The crunch is all about filtering our snacking spells through our formal educations, making crunchy, textural elements all our own. Never too far from the familiar cornflake, pretzel, or cracker, we’ll make crunch out of almost anything the supermarket sells and then use it in something as fancy as a plated dessert or as simple as a cookie dough.
Each crunch recipe has a balance of salt and sugar as well as melted butter—the glue for the dry ingredients—and milk powder, which seasons and helps bind the mixture together once baked. The beauty of the crunch, besides the obvious sugar, butter, and snack-attack allure, is the way it’s baked. Slow and low in the oven yields the most amazing tender caramelization in every crunchy, snack-ridden handful, cookie, pie crust, or garnish.
MAKES ABOUT 360 G (4 CUPS)
This recipe was originally created to accompany the Cereal Milk Panna Cotta. It was one of those first-swing, home-run hits. It is incredibly simple to make and equally as versatile in its uses. Put some in a plastic bag and take it on the go as the best snack ever, or use it as an ingredient in the recipes that follow.
170 g cornflakes
[½ (12-ounce) box (5 cups)]
40 g milk powder
[½ cup]
40 g sugar
[3 tablespoons]
4 g kosher salt
[1 teaspoon]
130 g butter, melted
[9 tablespoons]
Elsewhere in this book: Cornflake crunch is also used in the Pumpkin Ganache dessert.
1. Heat the oven to 275°F.
2. Pour the cornflakes in a medium bowl and crush them with your hands to one-quarter of their original size. Add the milk powder, sugar, and salt and toss to mix. Add the butter and toss to coat. As you toss, the butter will act as glue, binding the dry ingredients to the cereal and creating small clusters.
3. Spread the clusters on a parchment- or Silpat-lined sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes, at which point they should look toasted, smell buttery, and crunch gently when cooled slightly and chewed.
4. Cool the cornflake crunch completely before storing or using in a recipe. Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the crunch will keep fresh for 1 week; in the fridge or freezer, it will keep for 1 month.
MAKES ABOUT 225 G (3 CUPS)
Any cereal will yield a delicious crunch. This recipe is a great example of different salt and sugar ratios from the cornflake crunch recipe, because Fruity Pebbles are sweeter. Knowing the sweetness and salt level of the cereal will help you adjust your sugar and salt amounts accordingly when making a crunch out of it.
120 g Fruity Pebbles
[¼ (17-ounce) box (2½ cups)]
20 g milk powder
[¼ cup]
12 g sugar
[1 tablespoon]
1 g kosher salt
[¼ teaspoon]
85 g butter, melted
[6 tablespoons]
Follow the procedure for the cornflake crunch, substituting the Fruity Pebbles for the cornflakes.
MAKES ABOUT 250 G (2 CUPS)
Because so many of our desserts for the restaurants are plated and served by a surly kitchen of 99.9 percent men, we wanted to come up with a deep, malted, surly crunch. This pretzel crunch straddles the line between savory and sweet. Toss this into some Chex Mix on Super Bowl Sunday, or serve it solo in a bowl at your next cocktail party.
100 g mini pretzels
[about ¼ (16-ounce) bag (2 cups)]
60 g light brown sugar
[¼ cup tightly packed]
25 g sugar
[2 tablespoons]
20 g milk powder
[¼ cup]
10 g malt powder
[1 tablespoon]
100 g butter, melted
[7 tablespoons]
In a pinch, substitute flour for malt powder, but part of the malty depth will be lost.
Follow the procedure for the cornflake crunch, substituting the pretzels for the cornflakes and adding the malt powder along with the sugar and milk powder.
MAKES ABOUT 275 G (2 CUPS)
Any sort of cracker will work here if you adjust the sugar and salt slightly (like for the cereal crunch recipes), but Ritz crackers are the epitome of rich and amazing in my cracker repertoire.
110 g Ritz crackers
[1 sleeve]
100 g sugar
[½ cup]
20 g milk powder
[¼ cup]
2 g kosher salt
[½ teaspoon]
100 g butter, melted
[7 tablespoons]
Elsewhere in this book: Ritz crunch is used in the Celery Root Ganache dessert.
Follow the procedure for the cornflake crunch, substituting the crackers for the cornflakes.
MAKES ABOUT 250 G (2 CUPS)
The cereal of the same name is excellent stuff, but this recipe is an homage to the cinnamon toast my grandma and ma made me as an after-school snack in my younger years. It is impossibly crunchy, and it plays into one of my most comforting flavor pairings: butter and cinnamon sugar. The one-minute butter-soaking step makes for a much different crunch than the others in this book.
100 g white sandwich bread
[¼ (1-pound) loaf]
115 g brown butter, just warm
[⅓ cup]
100 g sugar
[½ cup]
2 g kosher salt
[½ teaspoon]
2 g ground cinnamon
[1 teaspoon]
1. Heat the oven to 325°F.
2. Tear the bread into ½-inch pieces. Put it in a bowl, then douse and toss it with the brown butter. Let the bread soak for 1 minute.
3. Add the sugar, salt, and cinnamon to the bread and toss well. Spread the mixture on a parchment- or Silpat-lined sheet pan and bake for 25 minutes.
4. Pull the sheet pan slightly out of the oven and, using a spatula, a spoon, or whatever you’ve got, break up the cinnamon toast crunch a bit and toss it around, to make sure it is caramelizing and drying out. Bake for an additional 5 minutes or more, until you have dry, caramelized clusters.
5. Cool the cinnamon toast crunch completely before storing or using in a recipe. Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, it will keep fresh for 1 week; in the fridge or freezer, it will keep for 1 month.
MAKES 15 TO 20 COOKIES
I am neither brave nor bold enough to make just a chocolate chip cookie. Everyone’s mom or grandma makes “the best” chocolate chip cookie. And every one of those chocolate chip cookie recipes is different. So, out of respect, we dared not compete. Instead, we made a delicious chocolate chip tribute cookie—one of our most popular cookies—by accident.
In the Ko basement one day, Mar overtoasted the cornflake crunch for the cereal milk panna cotta. She was pissed. I was pissed. But we refused to let it go to waste. I was already well versed in making a cookie out of anything left in the pantry, and we needed a dessert for family meal anyway. So we made cookies with the cornflake crunch, and we threw in some mini chocolate chips, just to make them appealing to the cooks in case the overtoasted cornflakes were a bust, and some mini marshmallows, because we were eating them as a snack, and why the hell not. It was just family meal.
The cooks freaked. They requested the cookies for family meal every day after that. And so the cornflake-chocolate-chip-marshmallow cookie was born—love at first bite and a shoo-in on Milk Bar’s opening menu.
225 g butter, at room temperature
[16 tablespoons (2 sticks)]
250 g granulated sugar
[1¼ cups]
150 g light brown sugar
[¼ cup tightly packed]
1 egg
2 g vanilla extract
[½ teaspoon]
240 g flour
[1½ cups]
2 g baking powder
[½ teaspoon]
1.5 g baking soda
[¼ teaspoon]
5 g kosher salt
[1¼ teaspoons]
¾ recipe Cornflake Crunch
[270 g (3 cups)]
125 g mini chocolate chips
[¼ cup]
65 g mini marshmallows
[1¼ cups]
1. 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 egg and vanilla, and beat for 7 to 8 minutes. (See notes on this process.)
2. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, 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, paddle in the cornflake crunch and mini chocolate chips just until they’re incorporated, no more than 30 to 45 seconds. Paddle in the mini marshmallows just until incorporated.
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 hold their shape.
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. At the 18-minute mark, the cookies should be browned on the edges and just beginning to brown toward the center. Leave them in the oven for an additional minute or so if they aren’t and they still seem pale and doughy on the surface.
7. Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before transferring to a plate or to an airtight container for storage. At room temperature, the cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month.
MAKES 18 TO 22 COOKIES
We’re awfully fond of celebrating the holidays with annoying decorative knickknacks. Or, rather, my mother loves to buy annoying decorative knickknacks and send them to us, and we love to make it look like a holiday just threw up in our kitchen.
We like our cookies to celebrate the holidays too—that’s how we came up with our winter “holiday” cookie, a cornflake-marshmallow cookie with crushed candy canes in it.
200 g peppermints or candy canes
[40 peppermints or 18 candy canes]
Unwrap the candy and transfer it to a medium zip-top plastic bag. With the end of a rolling pin, break the candy up into medium to small pieces, at least one quarter in size, no smaller than a Nerd, being careful not to make candy powder. Follow the recipe for cornflake-chocolate-chip-marshmallow cookies, adding the candy pieces with the mini marshmallows.
MAKES 12 TO 17 COOKIES
Follow the recipe for the cornflake-chocolate-chip-marshmallow cookies, substituting Fruity Pebble Crunch for the cornflake crunch and omitting the chocolate chips.
MAKES 1 (10-INCH) PIE; SERVES 8 TO 10
This was the template, the training-wheels version, for many tasty and elaborate frozen pies that came after it. It’s also the easiest, most crowd-pleasing dessert you can make in a jiffy with some cornflakes and mother recipes you have on hand in your kitchen. Decorate the pie with any fruit you like to put in your breakfast cereal (bananas! strawberries! blueberries!).
½ recipe Cornflake Crunch
[180 g (2 cups)]
25 g butter, melted
[2 tablespoons]
1 recipe Cereal Milk Ice Cream
1. Using your hands (or a food processor if you prefer), crumble the cornflake crunch clusters to half their size. (The smaller size will make for better distribution of the moisture and fat, creating a nice crunchy crust.)
2. Toss the melted butter into the crumbled cornflake crunch, mixing well. Using your fingers and the palms of your hands, press the mixture firmly into a 10-inch pie tin, making sure the bottom and sides of the pie tin are evenly covered. Wrapped in plastic, the crust can be frozen for up to 2 weeks.
3. Use a spatula to spread the ice cream into the pie shell. Freeze the pie for at least 3 hours, or until the ice cream is frozen hard enough so the pie is easy to cut and serve. Wrapped in plastic wrap, the pie will keep for 2 weeks in the freezer.
MAKES 1 (10-INCH) PIE; SERVES 8 TO 10
A deeper, darker, saltier version of the cereal milk ice cream pie—try this one for the salty but sweet fans.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
MAKES ABOUT 475 G (1 PINT)
1 gelatin sheet
½ recipe Concord Grape Juice
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.
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.
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.
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. Grapefruit 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.
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.
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.
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.
