More Gift Ideas: Books about Food and Drink

More and more I read books on my Kindle or iPad, but I still buy cookbooks in paper form. There's just something to said about leafing through a cookbook or cocktail book--pausing to look at the photos, dog-earing the pages you want to return to--that's not replicated on an e-reader. Any of these eight books, would make an excellent gift for someone who loves to cook or make cocktails.

The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock. Classic cocktails are back, and this is a classic among classics when it comes to cocktail recipe books. Harry Craddock, an American bartender who worked at London's Savoy Hotel, wrote this book first published in 1930, which is considered one of the best (if not the best) collections of prohibition-era cocktails. Given its age, there are many editions kicking around, some of which include a new section at the front with "new" cocktails that I don't really care for. Go for a facsimile of the original 1930 edition.

American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye: A Guide to the Nation's Favorite Spirit by Clay Risen. I read that whiskey recently surpassed sales of vodka (in dollars, not volume) in the United States, fueled by a resurgence in popularity of bourbons and ryes, our homegrown “brown” spirits. For any American-whiskey lover, Risen’s guide is essential. The user-friendly format has full-color photos, tasting notes and price information for each whiskey, organized in alphabetical order by brand-name. The new 2015 edition includes 300 bottles, up 50 percent from the 200 in the 2013 version.

Tasty by John McQuaid. Pulitzer Prize-winner Maryland-based author John McQuaid published this fascinating look at how taste works earlier this year. A wonderful read for those who enjoy the scientific side of the eating experience.

The Cocktail Chronicles by Paul Clarke. This was my favorite new cocktail recipe book this year (which I reviewed in July), a wonderful look at the modern cocktail renaissance's love of classic and contemporary drinks.

Chesapeake Bay Cooking by John Shields. Regional cookbooks are a wonderful way to immerse yourself in recipes that are beloved because they represent the ingredients and traditions of a particular place. When it comes to honoring the Chesapeake Bay region, John Shields clearly knows his stuff. The chef of Baltimore's Gertrude's released the 25th anniversary edition of this book this year, a collection that, naturally, has a lot of seafood, but much more as well. Of course there are recipes for Maryland crab cakes, including variations, but have you heard of St. Mary's County Stuffed Ham? It's a southern Maryland tradition, and it appears in Shield's book as well.

Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi. This book came out in 2011, but I suspect is getting more attention in D.C. these days since pastry chef Christina Tosi and her Momofuku business partner/cherfDavid Chang opened their first D.C. restaurant and bakery, Momofuku CCDC and Milk Bar. Lines for Milk Bar have been rather long since it's opening last month, so skip the line and make your own crack pie and blueberry & cream cookies at home with this cookbook.

Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes by Peter Meehan and the editors of Lucky Peach. I've been a fan of Lucky Peach magazine for years. The publication was created by Momofuku restaurant titan David Chang and Peter Chang, the latter serving as its editor. The book does a good job adhering to its "easy" promise--the most difficult thing might be finding some of the ingredients, which aren't necessary staples of the mainstream grocery store (but worth seeking out).

Mi Comida Latina: Vibrant, Fresh, Simple, Authentic by Marcella Kriebel. I came across this gorgeous book at the downtown D.C. holiday arts fair this year. Kriebel, a D.C. local, assembled the recipes in this book from her notes traveling through Latin America. The book itself is entirely hand-written and illustrated by her, making it not just a wonderful collection of recipes, but a piece of art unto itself.

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Still need more ideas? Check out today's other holiday gift ideas story.

Momofuku Milk Bar Blueberry & Cream Cookies

When we visited Momofuku CCDC for dinner recently, we left the restaurant with a rather large bag full of assorted cookies from Milk Bar, the restaurant's attached bakery. Since opening about a month ago, the bakery has maintained a rather long line of devoted sugaristas seeking cookies, soft-serve and crack (pie, that is).

Momofuku Milk Bar's five varieties of cookies. Note that the commercial version of Blueberry & Cream Cookies contains brown rice syrup and all-natural egg substitute.

I'm not one for long lines, so it's nice that if you're eating in Momofuku CCDC, you can order as much as you want from Milk Bar and take it to-go. So we sprang for two of each of the bakery's five varieties of cookies: the corn cookies and compost cookies that we already knew and love, chocolate-chocolate (as chocolatey as you'd expect), cornflake-marshmallow-chocolate-chip (a chocolate chip cookie with added crunch and goo), and--what turned out to be real revelation--blueberry and cream cookies.

Milk crumbs (just before adding the white chocolate)

In the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook, Momofuku pastry chef Christina Tosi explains that the cookie came about as a showcase for milk-crumb, a buttery baked crumble of flour, sugar and powdered milk (Tosi calls it "milk powder") coated with white chocolate. Tosi says she doesn't drink milk straight--surprising for someone who's made a name for herself from a brand called "Milk Bar"--but said the crumb was inspired by her idea of what the flavor of milk should be.

From there, Tosi thought of using the crumb in a cookie with a fruit flavor. Peaches were considered ("momofuku" is Japanese for "lucky peach"--not coincidentally the name of the restaurant brand's magazine), but in the end, she went with dried blueberries, which she found at Whole Foods (as did I, in size that conveniently is twice the amount Tosi's recipe calls for--perfect for making a double-batch as I did below).

So this is basically a sugar cookie with the aforementioned milk-crumb and dried blueberries mixed in. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to make this. The milk-crumb needs to be baked and cooled, and the dough needs to chill for at least 1 hour. I promise you'll be happy with the results, which are buttery, creamy, fruity and sweet.

Blueberry & Cream Cookies
Adapted from a recipe from Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi

Makes about 75 cookies

Notes: I have doubled the ingredients for the cookies to make a double-batch. The amount of ingredients for the milk-crumb is the same as in the cookbook. Tosi's original cookie recipe calls for using a 1/2 recipe of milk-crumb. Tosi smartly includes weight (in grams) and volume measurements for her cookies. I used the weight measurements for dry ingredients measured by the cup or cup-portion (but I've included her volumetric conversions for those measurements below) and volume measurements for liquid ingredients and ingredients measured by teaspoon. Tosi's recipe calls for glucose instead of corn-syrup, but she notes that corn-syrup in half the amount of glucose may be substituted. Her recipe also calls for white chocolate, but I used white-chocolate chips, as the bar variety was not available at Giant or Whole Foods the day I baked the cookies.

Milk crumb:

40g (1/2 cup) plus 20g (1/4 cup) powdered milk
40g (1/4 cup) all-purpose flour
12g (2 tbsp.) cornstarch
25g (2 tbsp.) sugar
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
4 tbsp. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
90g (3 oz.) white chocolate chips

Cookies:

450g (2 cups or 4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
300g (1 1/2 cups) sugar
300g (1 1/3 cups) light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup light corn syrup
4 large eggs
640g all-purpose flour (4 cups)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. kosher salt
260g (1 1/2 cups) dried blueberries

Make the milk crumb:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 F.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the first 40g (1/2 cup) of powdered milk, flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt. Add the melted butter and toss with a spatula until the mixture comes together in small clusters.

3. Spread the crumbs on a baking sheet lined with a silicon baking mat or parchment. Bake for 20 minutes until the crumbs are fragrant and look "sandy." Remove the crumbs from the oven and allow them to cool.

4. Transfer the crumbs to a medium bowl and break up any clusters larger than about 1/2 inch. Add the remaining 20g (1/4) of powdered milk and toss to distribute it evenly. Melt the white chocolate (I did this in the microwave using the package directions) and pour it over the crumb mixture. Toss the clusters with a spatula to coat with white chocolate. Allow the white chocolate to cool (takes about 15-20 minutes), tossing the clusters every 5 minutes.

Make the cookies:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, sugar, brown sugar and corn syrup and beat on medium-high until creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, add the eggs and beat on medium-high for another 7-8 minutes (I recommend scraping down the sides of the bowl every so often while doing this).

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add the butter mixture and combine at low speed until the dough just comes together, no longer than a minute. Add the baked milk crumbs and dried blueberries and blend on low-speed until incorporated, about 30 seconds.

3. Portion the dough onto sheet pans lined with silicon baking mats or parchment (you'll need at least 4 standard-size baking sheets) in balls about the size of golf balls, 2-3 inches apart. Flatten the tops slightly. Wrap the sheet pans with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, up to 1 week.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F with two racks evenly spaced apart.

5. Remove and discard the plastic wrap. Bake for 16-18 minutes, rotating the cookies top-to-bottom and front-to-back after the first 8 minutes (note: this is a little shorter than Tosi's original baking time, but I also made the cookies a little smaller). The cookies should be lightly browned on the edges and light yellow in the middle--continue baking another 1-2 minutes until they reach this point. Cool the cookies completely on the baking sheets, then transfer to an air-tight storage container.


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Restaurant: Momofuku CCDC (Washington, D.C.)

Corn Cookies

Compost Cookies

Restaurant: Momofuku CCDC (Washington, D.C.)

The arrival of Momofuku CCDC and its accompanying bakery, Milk Bar, has been the most hotly anticipated restaurant opening in D.C. this year. Once it became known that famed New York restauranteur David Chang was moving into downtown's boutique-laced CityCenterDC development, the watch began for when he would open. Although late summer was rumored, Milk Bar finally flung its doors open first on Friday, October 23, followed the next day by Momofuku CCDC.

How did Washingtonians react? Chaos is one word to describe the mad-rush to be among the first to sample Milk Bar's crack pie and slurp Momofuku's ramen. Hours-long down-the-block lines formed for Milk Bar. Available reservations for Momofuku CCDC quickly disappeared (as I'm writing this on the morning of November 8, I see there are three either very early or very late times available on Open Table for Monday, December 7. That's it). What's behind this madness?

Like the most successful restauranteurs, Chang, a Northern Virginia native, hasn't just built a chain but a brand, one with a dedicated following of food-minded individuals. It all started in 2004 with the first Momofuku restaurant, the Noodle Bar in New York. Today the Momofuku empire encompasses 11 restaurants in 4 cities, 7 Milk Bar bakeries, 2 cocktail bars, a magazine and several cookbooks. Chang and Milk Bar pastry chef Christina Tosi have both won multiple James Beard Awards and have appeared as judges on cooking shows like Top Chef and MasterChef. They are clearly among the American foodie elite.

Momofuku and its offshoots employ a similar strategy that I believe is what makes them so popular: a winning and refreshing formula of clashing high-and-low brow styles. Inspiration for Momofuku cooking runs the gamut from street-food to high-end tasting menus. Similarly, Milk Bar features original confections made from exacting recipes but featuring kitschy ingredients like highly processed children's cereals. This makes Momofuku cuisine immediately familiar but also exciting and different.

Spicy Cucumber

I'm no stranger to the brand. I first got into Momofuku through its magazine, Lucky Peach, which I started reading soon after it began publishing. It was there I came across the recipe for Corn Cookies, which I absolutely fell in love with. I got the Milk Bar Cookbook and made Crack Pie and Compost Cookies, plus I adapted Tosi's cereal milk concept to create an ice cream pie and a baked Alaska. Chris and I had a wonderful dinner at Momofuku's Ma Peche a few years ago, and have been known to stop in for cookies at New York Milk Bars. So my expectations for Momofuku's DC debut aren't formed from just the hype but my own experience.

Walking into Momofuku CCDC at 7 p.m. on Saturday, I was instantly grateful that I had pounced on the opportunity to make reservations, as I overheard the host tell walk-ins that the wait was 2 1/2 hours. Incredible. Even more incredible, the "okay" responses, as said parties gave their names and settled in for the long wait while we were seated after just a few minutes passed to clear our table. Sorry guys, I just don't do long waits for restaurants.

Brisket Buns

Although Chang told Washingtonian's Todd Kliman that CCDC is not a Noodle Bar, the restaurant's menu does most closely resemble Noodle Bar's, with its prominent selection of noodles and buns. Other menu items appear sourced from other Momofuku restaurants as well: there's the "country hams" you can find on the Ssam Bar menu, and the Kimchi Apple Salad, "Wedgeless" Wedge Salad and Pork Bun look borrowed from the current Ma Peche menu. But who really cares if parts of the menu are duplicated, since it's not like we can go elsewhere in D.C. for these dishes. The menu is divided into snacks, buns, salads, noodles & rice, meat & fish, vegetables and "etc.," a category that includes meat and fish dishes but that read more like appetizers such as Shrimp Louie served with lettuce wraps, Russian dressing and jalapeño.

Momofuku Ramen

Of course, we began the evening with a round of drinks. The bar serves all of the cocktails in rocks glasses, even "up" drinks normally served in a cocktail glass. This meant that my Juniper #3, a bitter-sweet and sour concoction of barrel-aged gin, apricot, Campari and lemon, looked kinda puny taking up the bottom fourth of a tumbler, but it was a decent drink. I was more impressed with CCDC's take on the classic Vieux Carré, which, served on the rocks as they do, actually takes up the full glass. They mix their rye and bitters with armagnac brandy instead of the traditional cognac, for a drink that's sweet and sophisticated.

On the advice of a coworker who'd already eaten at CCDC, we started with one of the snacks, the Spicy Cucumber, which effectively blends the cooling powers of cold cucumber chunks with a spicy sesame-scallion sauce and arrives topped with chopped toasted almonds. Our other starter was the brisket buns. Each bun order comes with two tortillas-like buns wrapped around a filling, in this case flavorful tender brisket with (mild) horseradish sauce, cucumber and pickled onion. These items have other more interesting ingredients than just what's printed on the menu, which the runners bringing them will tell you about. However, they rattle them off so fast--and the restaurant is so loud--that it's unlikely you'll actually catch what they'll telling you.

Beef Noodle Soup

For our mains, we split two of the noodle dishes. Both came in large bowls and I appreciated that they provided small bowls so we could share both of them. Given Momofuku's origins as noodle restaurant, you would hope they would excel here, and they didn't disappoint. The namesake dish--the Momofuku Ramen--was very good. The noodles had a chewy texture that rivals (but does not surpass) the ramen at Daikaya. It features two kinds of pork--pork belly and pork shoulder, both of which were flavorful and in sufficient quantity. In a nice change of pace, the ramen broth was not too salty, something that sometimes bothers me at Daikaya.

Our other bowl was the Beef Noodle Soup, which was also delicious. The noodles were a little thinner than the ramen but were just as chewy. The broth was intensely beefy and like the pork in their ramen, the brisket came prepared two ways: sliced and shredded.  As big as these bowls were, we polished them both off.

Milk Bar Crack Pie

When it comes to dessert, it's important to manage some expectations. CCDC doesn't have a proper dessert menu. Rather, they allow you to order anything from the attached Milk Bar bakery. Depending on what you're expecting, this could be a plus or minus.

On the plus side, this is a fantastic way to experience Milk Bar without having to stand in the bakery's ridiculously long (and from what I hear slow) line. That line wouldn't be forming if the items weren't tasty. I'm a particularly big fan of the cookies. We ordered two of each to to go and couldn't resist biting into the Bluberry and Cream Cookie as soon we got home. It is an exquisitely good combination of dried cranberries and "milk crumbs," which are made from white chocolate, milk powder, butter and sugar.

On the minus side, instead of a properly plated dessert with warm and cold elements, sauces and other toppings like you'd usually get at a restaurant, you're getting a dessert from the fridge with a plastic or paper wrapper. The pie, I think, in particular suffers from this presentation. I've made Crack Pie  and it's really good. Served like this it's still tasty, but rather cold and hard. It might be worth Tosi's time to consider upscaling the presentation of some of the bakery's delicious items for presentation in the dining room.

I liked the minimalist, materials-oriented design of the restaurant, which reminded me a bit of the look of José André's Beefsteak. The boxy geometric interior is largely devoid of color, constructed of beige wood,  gray concrete, and black metal, plus huge plate glass windows. The service was also good. As busy as they were, I was afraid there could be problems, but the only real snafu was when our noodle arrived without any utensils for eating them. Otherwise, service was prompt and attentive, with water and cocktail refills arriving just-in-time.

Would I stand in line for 2 1/2 hours for this? No, I wouldn't, but as I said earlier, I'm just not into that. This also wasn't the best Momofuku meal we've ever had--that honor still goes to our wonderfully memorable dinner at Ma Peche. That said, my high expectations were pretty much met by our first visit. All of the food was really good and I would certainly consider going back. This is the second outpost in the CityCenterDC development to open from a major New York-based chef (the other being Daniel Boulud's DBGB). Further proof that D.C.'s restaurant scene has really moved into the big leagues recently.

Momofuku CCDC, 1090 I St. NW (at 11th Street), Washington, D.C. (in the CityCenterDC development). (202) 602-1832. Reservations: Open Table.

Related

Restaurant: Ma Peche (New York, N.Y)

Corn Cookies

Compost Cookies

Crack Pie

Blackberry-Vanilla Ice Cream Pie with Corn Cookie Crust

Cereal Milk Ice Cream Pie with Compost Cookie Crust

Cereal Milk Baked Alaska with Brown Butter Cake

Cereal Milk Ice Cream Pie with Compost Cookie Crust

Yesterday I wrote about Compost Cookies and teased an even more epic dessert they were to be incorporated into. Here it is: Lucky Charms Ice Cream Pie with Compost Cookie Crust. Enough sweetness for you?

Separate the marshmallows from the oat shapes, then pulse the oats a bit in a food processor.

Like Compost Cookies, Cereal Milk Ice Cream is the creation of Momofuku pastry chef Christina Tosi. The basic principle is to saturate milk with the flavor of cereal--like the dregs in your bowl--then use that to make ice cream. For a baked Alaska last summer, I used Cinnamon Toast Crunch. For this pie, I decided to give Lucky Charms a try.

Because the marshmallow colors tend to run together and form a greenish-gray color, I picked the marshmallows out first, with the intention of stirring them back into the ice cream at the end. The remaining oat cereal pieces are surprisingly (or perhaps not, depending on your outlook of the cereal industry) sweet on their own, giving the ice cream a nice oat-sweet flavor.

Four Compost Cookies were exactly the amount I needed to make this pie crust.

For the Compost Cookie crust, I first baked the cookies and then pulverized them with a little more added butter to form a cookie crust for the pie. In making the cookies, I deviated from Tosi's recipe by using graham cracker crumbs instead of her custom graham crust, which is a separate preparation of its own. Given all the flavors already going on in this dessert, I didn't miss it. The recipe from yesterday makes more than enough cookies for crust recipe; count yourself lucky that by making this you'll also get to enjoy a few compost cookies. They are amazing.

Perhaps the best part of making this dessert was that I got to showcase it alongside a group of coworkers' delicious creations in a Momofuku Milk Bar-themed afternoon dessert extravaganza. We all had sugar highs (and subsequent crashes) after that, but it was worth it.

Momofuku-themed desserts.

Cereal Milk Ice Cream Pie with Compost Cookie Crust
Inspired by and incorporating adapted recipes from Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar

250 grams (i.e. about 8 ounces or 1/2 pound) of Compost Cookies, about 3-4 large cookies
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 recipe cereal milk ice cream (see below), softened a bit if frozen hard

1. Process cookies in food processor until ground to a fine crumb. Combine crumb in bowl with melted butter. Press evenly on bottom and sides of a standard pie plate. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Transfer the ice cream into the pie shell in an even layer.

3. Freeze pie. Let set out about 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Cereal Milk Ice Cream
Inspired by Cereal Milk Ice Cream, Momofuku Milk Bar

4 cups Lucky Charms cereal
4 cups whole milk
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
5 egg yolks

1. Separate Lucky Charms' marshmallows and oat shapes. Set the marshmallows aside. Pulse oat shapes a few times in a food processor to break them up a bit. In a large (4 qt.) saucepan, heat milk and cereal over medium heat until the mixture starts to bubble. Remove from heat and allow to "steep" for about 30 minutes. Strain cereal mixture, pressing with a spatula to get out as much milk as possible, to yield about 2 cups (add extra whole milk if you end up with less than 2 cups).

2. Add cereal milk, heavy cream, sugar and salt to a large (4 qt.) saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture reaches a temperature of 165 F.

3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks. Whisk in about 1/2 cup of the warm cream mixture to temper the eggs, then whisk the egg mixture into the warm mixture in the saucepan. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture reaches 180 F.  Transfer mixture to a large (1 gallon) resealable bag. Submerge in an ice water bath for about 10 minutes then chill in the refrigerator until cold.

4. Process in an ice cream maker following maker's instructions. Once finished, transfer ice cream to a container and carefully stir in the marshmallows (don't over-stir or their color will run). Put in freezer and freeze until ready to use for the pie.

Compost Cookies

Who's up for a week of sweet treats? About this time of year, after weeks of lots and lots of wonderful, fresh seasonal vegetables, I'm usually in the mood for a gear-shift. I've got three great dessert recipes to share with you this week.

First up: compost cookies, one of the famous sweet concoctions from the New York pastry shop chain Momofuku Milk Bar, an offshoot of David Chang's restaurant empire overseen by pastry chef Christina Tosi, one of my personal dessert icons.

Pretzels are one of the salty mix-ins in Compost Cookies.

Compost cookies are a fun idea: mix together a bunch of snacks and sweet bits into one delicious cookie. There are lots of possibilities. I followed Tosi's recipe, which includes pretzels, potato chips and chocolate and butterscotch chips. It's a sweet-and-salty combination that works wonderfully.

While these cookies are magnificent on their own, I actually made them to incorporate as an ingredient in a rather epic dessert. Curious? Come back tomorrow to find out what it is.

Compost Cookies
Adapted from a recipe by Christina Tosi for Momofuku Milk Bar

Note: Tosi's recipe in the link above helpfully includes weight and volume measures for the ingredients. I include the weight measures for larger-quantity ingredients below but not the smaller ones, as I find my kitchen scale too imprecise to make weight measure below tablespoon or so.

2 sticks (16 tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (200 g) sugar
2⁄3 cup (150 g) tightly packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp. corn syrup
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1⁄3 cups (225 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 cup (150 g) mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup (100 g) mini butterscotch chips (unable to find mini chips, I used regular size, which worked fine)
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1⁄3 cup (40 g) old-fashioned rolled oats
2 1/2 tsp. ground coffee (I used Peet's Major Dickason blend, which is our usual morning coffee)
2 cups (50 g) potato chips (per Tosi's suggestion, I used Cape Cod chips
1 cup (50 g) pretzel sticks, pulsed in a food processor a few times to break up

1. Combine the butter, sugars, and corn syrup in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes. scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg and vanilla, and beat for 7 to 8 minutes.

2. Reduce speed to low, then add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. mix until the dough just comes together, no longer than a minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

3. Add the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, graham cracker crumbs, oats, and coffee and mix on low speed until just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add the potato chips and pretzels and mix on low speed until just incorporated.

4. Portion out the dough in 1/3 cup rounds onto a parchment- or silpat-lined baking sheets, leaving about 2-3 inches between cookies. Pat the tops of the cookie dough domes flat. wrap the baking sheets in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, up to 1 week. (Cookies must be chilled to bake properly).

5. Preheat oven to 375 F. Bake cookies for 18 minutes, at which time they should be spread and puffed, cracked on top and be faintly brown around the edges. Bake longer if necessary. Remove from oven and cool cookies completely on baking sheets before transferring to a plate or air-tight container. Store in the refrigerator, but allow them to warm to room temperature before serving.

Ma Peche (New York)

[Update: Ma Pache closed.]

Last year, I became a Momofuku devotee. I followed news of David Chang’s expanding restaurant empire. I read Lucky Peach. I cooked Christina Tosi recipes (time for another batch of Corn Cookies).

But I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of actually dining in one of the restaurants. I have a coworker who raves about Noodle Bar. Another who dazzled me with stories of dinner at Ssam Bar. Feeling left out, it was time I rectified the situation.

So I selected Ma Peche, which is sort of the secret Momofuku restaurant. It doesn’t have “Momofuku” in the name. It’s underground, hidden behind and below a Momofuku Milk Bar store front. Last summer, when I went in to buy some cookies, I figured the space in the back was where you could go eat your Crack Pie if you wanted to sit for a bit. I had no idea it was a separate restaurant.

I wasn’t disappointed. On a trip that included hot spots The Nomad and The Library at the Public, our favorite meal was what we had at Ma Peche.

After a rather harried walk up a ridiculously crowded 6th Avenue, we were more than ready for some drinks. I had the Bruno, made with Nolet, Cynar and Punt e Mes, which I selected mostly because I didn’t know what two of those three things were (Nolet is a type of gin; Punt e Mes is Italian vermouth). Chris was particularly happy with his drink, the Drunken Pun’kin, a warm pumpkin cocktail with dark rum and walnut liqueur.

Moving on to starters, we selected a couple that promised fresh flavors. An apple salad served with celery shavings, date slivers, chopped peanuts and peanut sauce hit the spot. But the broccoli salad was even more intriguing, served with mayonnaise and smoked raisins, one of the more unusual smoked ingredients I’ve had.

The highlight was the pork chop for two with stuffing, which rivals the roasted pork dinner for two at Mintwood Place. I’d heard Ma Peche’s portions could be small, but there’s nothing small about this massive pork chop. You could probably split this three ways and still be quite sated. The bread and celery stuffing is really quite good too, but what brings it all together is the drizzle of sweet potato puree. Such a simple thing, but it’s such a great idea with stuffing and pork.

Ma Peche didn’t used to serve dessert, but now there are a few options. White chocolate with popcorn and caramel may not sound like an exciting dessert, but it was really quite tasty with just the right amount of salt to heighten the sweet.

Ma Pache, 15 West 56th Street (Between 5th and 6th Avenues in the Chambers Hotel; enter through Momofuku Milk Bar), New York City (Midtown). (212) 757-5878. Reservations: City Eats.

Best of 2012: Dessert

This year, my dessert-making was guided by two principal influences: the creativity of Momofuku Milk Bar pastry chef Christina Tosi and the ice cream wizardry of Jeni Britton Bauer. Whether I was faithfully re-creating their recipes or inspired by their techniques to whip up an original creation, the results always hit the sweet spot.

From Tosi, I found a cookie so delicious it rivals my all-time favorite (peanut butter), the Corn Cookie, which is like the sweetest corn bread transformed into a cookie. I also enjoyed making her Crack Pie just the other week.

After making a few of Bauer’s ice creams last year, I felt free to apply her technique to come up with flavors of my own. A favorite from early in the year to coincide with my week of olive oil themed content was, naturally, Olive Oil Ice Cream with a dark chocolate sauce.

Then I mashed up ideas from both of these chefs for two recipes: A Blackberry-Vanilla Ice Cream Pie with Corn Cookie Crust, which combined a Bauer ice cream recipe with Tosi’s idea to grind up corn cookies and use them as ice cream pie crust. Even more adventurous was the Cereal Milk Baked Alaska, which used Tosi’s idea of using sugary kids’ cereal as flavoring in ice cream but made with Bauer’s technique, encased in an oven-browned meringue over brown butter cake.

A couple of my desserts got special recognition this year, which was very nice to experience. In the summer, my Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting won my office dessert contest. And in the run-up to Thanksgiving, the New York Times Diner’s Journal included a mention of my Apple Pie with Vodka Crust, based on a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen.

I went a little cookie crazy a few weeks ago. Besides the Corn Cookies, I featured my long-time favorite, Peanut Butter, and the holidays wouldn’t be complete without these Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies from an old Mary Engelbreit recipe.

Crack Pie

“Because you can’t stop eating it,” is why Momofuku Pastry Chef Christina Tosi named this dish Crack Pie, a riff on the classic southern Chess Pie. In her Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook, she tells the story of how she created the pie for “family meal” (the meal chefs prepare for their staff). It was the result of having few ingredients on hand, but everyone loved it and kept coming back to her for more until the pie was polished off.

The crust comes from baking and then crumbling a giant oatmeal cookie.

According to Tosi, Chess Pie was what cooks made when they didn’t have the ingredients to make anything more complex. Since it requires no seasonal ingredients, it’s perfect for winter.

Because Tosi’s work has been such an inspiration for my dessert-making this year, I wanted to try one last recipe from her as my entry in this year’s winter office dessert contest (you’ll recall for our summer contest I entered this Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting).

I made the pie from the recipe that appeared in Bon Appetit, which is slightly modified from Tosi’s recipe in the Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook, most notably because it lacks corn powder, the ground freeze-dried corn that is an essential ingredient in the Corn Cookies. This is a very rich pie, but the oatmeal cookie crust gives it some body so it’s not just sickly sweet but really quite pleasant. I made some minor modifications, one of out necessity, as I forget to stock up on light brown sugar, so I substituted equal parts dark brown sugar and white sugar (light brown sugar is the same thing as dark brown sugar, just with less molasses). I also reduced the butter and brown sugar just a tad.

The surface appearance might be another reason for calling this "crack" pie.

Since I decided to make two pies (one for the office party and one for Chris and me to enjoy at home), I experimented a bit just to see if it made any difference. Although I whipped the filling with the stand mixer for both pies, I whipped one batch quite a bit longer, so much so that the filling was thick enough that it needed to spread in the crust with a spatula (the filling for the other pie leveled off by itself after pouring). After baking, this didn’t make a noticeable difference in texture except that the pie with the overwhipped filling had more of a “crust” on the top part of the filling, but there wasn’t a difference in taste.

Crack Pie
Adapted from Crack Pie, Bon Appetit

Oatmeal cookie crust:
Vegetable oil
8 tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tbsp. (packed) light brown sugar
2 tbsp. white sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/8 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. (generous) salt

Pie filling:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 tbsp. nonfat dry milk powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
6 1/2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream (This is a little shy of half a cup)
4 large egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Powdered sugar (for dusting)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Make the cookie crust. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and brush lightly with vegetable oil. Combine 6 tbsp. butter, 4 tbsp. brown sugar and 2 tbsp. sugar and beat on medium-high to high with a stand or hand mixer until light and fluffy, scraping down the side of the bowl with a spatula as needed, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and beat on medium-high until pale and fluffy (this is where I experimented, beating one mixture about 2 minutes and the other about 5, which made it noticeably thicker). Add oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and beat on low to combine, about 1 minute. Transfer dough to the prepared baking sheet and spread evenly with a spatula until the cookie is about 9 x 13 inches. Bake until golden on top, about 18 minutes. Cool baking sheet about 5 minutes then transfer cookie to rack to cool completely.

3. Put cookie in a large bowl and crumble with your hands. Add the 2 tbsp. of butter and rub the mixture with your fingertips until the butter is evenly mixed in and the mixture starts to stick together. Transfer the oat cookie crumbles to a pie plate and use your fingers to press it evenly onto the bottom and side of the plate.

4. While the cookie bakes, make the filling. Whisk (or whip, if using a stand mixer) sugars, milk powder and salt in a medium bowl. Add the melted butter and blend in. Then blend in the cream, then the egg yolks and vanilla. Whisk until well blended. Pour filling into prepared crust. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 F, the reduce the oven temperature to 325 F and bake another 20 minutes until the filling is lightly browned and set around the edges but still jiggly in the center if the pie dish is gently shaken. Cool pie for 2 hours on rack, then refrigerate overnight to chill. Serve cold. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Blackberry-Vanilla Ice Cream Pie with Corn Cookie Crust

Ever since I made the first batch a few months ago, I've wanted to make corn cookies again. They were just amazingly good, perhaps the best cookie I've ever had.

I was also curious about trying the cookies as the crust for a pie. In the second issue of Lucky Peach, in addition to sharing the recipe for the cookies, Momofuku Milk Bar Pastry Chef Christina Tosi suggested a couple other uses for them, including crumbling them into a crust for ice cream pie. Sounds like a great idea if you can manage to squirrel away enough cookies to make a crust before they get eaten.

So what ice cream to use? Tosi suggested strawberry, but strawberries are no longer in season, and I wanted to make something really fresh. I turned to my favorite ice cream chef, Jeni Britton Bauer, whose Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home cookbook includes a recipe for Sweet Corn and Black Raspberry Ice Cream (check out this great story about it). I like the idea of using a different berry, although I didn't want more corn competing with the corn cookie crust. I opted to make a basic vanilla ice cream swirled with blackberry sauce.

The pie turned out great, with the corn, blackberry and vanilla flavors harmonizing quite nicely. The crust is a bit hard to cut, so I always leave it out 15-20 minutes before cutting a slice (or two or...).

Blackberry-Vanilla Ice Cream Pie with Corn Cookie Crust

5-6 corn cookies (about 225-250 grams worth, see recipe)
3 tbsp. butter, melted
1 recipe blackberry sauce (see below), cooled
1 recipe vanilla ice cream (see below), freshly made but not frozen hard (if made in advance, leave out to soften about 20 minutes)

1. Process corn cookies in food processor until ground to a fine crumb. Combine crumb in bowl with melted butter. Press evenly on bottom and sides of a standard pie plate. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Fill the pie crust by layering in the vanilla ice cream and blackberry sauce (I poured in about a third of the ice cream, then spooned in about a third of the sauce, repeating).

3. Freeze pie. Let set out about 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Blackberry Sauce
Adapted from Raspberry, Black Raspberry, or Blackberry Sauce, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer

2 cups blackberries
1 cup sugar

1. Combine berries and sugar in a medium saucepan and boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture reaches 220 F, about 5 to 8 minutes. (Note: my mixture topped out at about 210 F, after which the temperature started to drop from the moisture loss. In the end, it turned out just fine, but be careful you don't continue to cook this too long and burn it just because the mercury doesn't get up as far as you like. It still turned out great). While cooking, use the side of a spatula to break up the berries.

2. Cool the sauce then pour it through a sieve to remove the seeds. Push on the mixture with a spatula to force it through the sieve. Refrigerate sauce until ready to use. Reheat gentry in a microwave (about 30 seconds on 50 percent power) if it is too stiff to layer with the ice cream.

Vanilla Ice Cream
Adapted from Ugandan Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer

2 cups whole milk
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 vanilla bean

1. In a small bowl, preferably a liquid measuring cup, whisk together 2 tbsp. milk with the cornstarch. In a large bowl, preferably something with a pour spout (like an 8-cup liquid measuring cup), combine the salt and softened cream cheese. Also, have a large bowl with ice water and a 1-gallon sealable plastic bag ready. Have all these things ready to use before you start cooking the ice cream mixture.

2. Add the remaining milk, cream, sugar and corn syrup to a large (4-quart) saucepan. Split the vanilla bean in half the long way and scrape the seeds into the cream mixture. Add the vanilla bean halves as well. Bring the mixture to boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and slowly whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Return to heat and boil an additional minute, stirring constantly as it thickens. Remove from heat.

3. Slowly whisk the hot cream mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Pour the mixture into the sealable bag, seal the bag and submerge it in ice water. Chill for 30 minutes, adding more ice as necessary. If not processing right away, put in the refrigerator. Process in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Freeze in the freezer until ready to use for the pie, if not ready to use immediately (if you freeze it hard, it will need to soften considerably before it can be spooned into the pie crust).

Cereal Milk Baked Alaska with Brown Butter Cake

All these summer farm-fresh vegetables. They are so wonderful, providing an almost endless muse of cooking inspirations. But...enough already! I'm getting a little tired of it, frankly. So this week, I'm turning my back on locally raised vegetables and indulging my sweet tooth instead.

This baked Alaska recipe is the first of two I'll share this week that combine concepts from my current two favorite dessert-makers: Christina Tosi, executive pastry chef of Momofuku Milk Bar (and winner of this year's James Beard Award for Rising Star Chef), and Jeni Britton Bauer, purveyor of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.

Chris is from Southern Maryland, so we occasionally go there to visit his family. Most of the restaurants in that area are national chains, but there is one local place that we really love, Casey Jones. Their menu is pub fare done really well: pizza, sandwiches, salads, etc., with an attached fine dining restaurant, The Crossing, which has a more upscale menu.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal steeping in milk

The first time Chris took me to the Crossing was my first exposure to baked Alaska and I loved it. I thought it was the coolest dessert: a piece of chocolate cake sitting under coffee-chocolate chip ice cream surrounded by a spiky toasted meringue. I was instantly taken with it and worked to replicate it at  home.

Brown butter cake batter; notice the little brown butter flecks

My first attempt was a disaster. I didn't follow the instructions to freeze the dessert at every step. Plus, I'd never made a meringue before, so I had no concept of "stiff peaks" and stopped well short of that. The oozy mess I served (with company no less) was tasty, but not what I was going for.

Brown butter cake before cutting for baked Alaska base

Over the years I've had more practice and eventually made good baked Alaska, but it has been years since I've done it. A recent dinner party for a friend who grew up in Alaska seemed like a good opportunity to try my hand at it again.

Individual baked Alaska cake bases topped with Cinnamon Toast Crunch ice cream

For the flavors, I wanted to do a "breakfast at dessert" sort of theme and was intrigued by the "cereal milk" ice cream made by Momofuku Milk Bar. The idea to churn out an ice cream inspired by the tasty milk dregs from a bowl of kids' cereal is genius. For mine, I went with one of the most potently sugary kids' cereals: Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It just screams breakfast, combining cereal and toast into one delicious treat. To drive the point home, I wanted a brown butter cake for the base (since that's kind of like toast, right?) and a hint of coffee in my meringue.

Using a spoon to create little spikes in the meringue adds a decorative touch

In making the ice cream, I went with the tried-and-true formula of Jeni Britton Bauer. No, she doesn't have a "cereal milk" recipe, but her formula is so versatile that it's easily adapted to whatever flavors you're interested in. Hoping to impart an optimal amount of flavor, I ground the cereal a bit and then heated the milk before steeping it. This has the added benefit of breaking the cereal down quite a bit, making the milk really thick. Straining it is a bit of work then; be sure to use a spatula to press and stir the milk-cereal mixture to get out as much milk as possible. I used 4 cups of milk and worked really hard to get 2 cups of cereal milk, since the cereal "sludge" absorbs a lot of milk.

I used the meringue recipe I had originally turned to years ago from Epicurious, which produces just the right amount of meringue to coat all four ice cream cakes. The cake I just found online from the Honey & Jam blog, as I was seeking a simple brown butter cake recipe.

Cereal Milk Baked Alaska with Brown Butter Cake

1 9 x 9 inch brown butter cake (recipe below)
4 servings of Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ice Cream (recipe below)
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. Kahlúa (or other coffee liqueur)
1/3 cup sugar

1. Make a brown butter cake (recipe below). Using a 4-inch round cookie cutter, cut cake into four rounds. Eat cake scraps immediately. Place cake rounds evenly spaced apart (4-6 inches apart) on a greased baking sheet. Put in the freezer until cake is frozen.

2. Make Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ice Cream (recipe below). When ice cream is frozen, scoop 1 even scoop on top of each frozen cake round (if the ice cream is too hard, let it sit out for a few minutes, but make sure it doesn't get too soft). Put back in freezer until ice cream is frozen hard.

3. Using a stand and hand mixer, beat egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form (dip a spoon into the meringue and a short peak will form that folds back down). Beat in the Kahlúa and then gradually beat in the sugar. Continue beating until stiff peaks form (the meringue will appear glossy, dip a spoon through it and a peak will form that does not fold back down). Be careful not to overbeat.

4. Remove the frozen ice cream cakes from the freezer and use a spatula to spread meringue evenly over the ice cream, sealing the meringue against the cake. If desired, use a spoon to make decorative spikes. Put back in the freezer until well frozen (not sure how long is needed--I froze mine for 5 hours and it was fine but Epicurious recommends overnight).

5. Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 500 F. Bake desserts until meringue is set an lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Serve immediately.


Brown Butter Cake
Adapted from Browned Butter Cake with Cinnamon Chocolate Frosting, Honey & Jam

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/8 tsp baking powder

1. Heat a small saucepan over medium heat, add butter and cook until it turns a fragrant, nutty brown. Remove from heat.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter, line with parchment and flour a 9 x 9 inch cake pan. Beat eggs and sugar together until slightly thickened. Add milk, vanilla and brown butter, beating until combined. Add flour and baking powder and combine with a spoon until just mixed (some lumps are okay). Pour batter into prepared baking pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 25-35 minutes. All cake to cool completely. Run a knife around the edge and invert the cake to remove it from the pan. Discard the parchment.


Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ice Cream
Inspired by Momofuku Milk Bar and Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

4 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch
4 cups whole milk
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. cornstarch
1 1/2 oz. cream cheese, softened (I used one of those single-serving Philadelphia brand cream cheese tubs, which is slightly less than what this recipe calls for, but it worked fine)
1/8 tsp. salt

1. Pulse cereal a few times in a food processor to break it up a bit. In a large (4 qt.) saucepan, heat milk and cereal over medium heat until it starts to bubble, remove from heat and allow to "steep" for about 30 minutes. Strain cereal mixture, pressing with a spatula to get out as much milk as possible, to yield about 2 cups (add extra whole milk if you end up with less than 2 cups).

2. Whisk together cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of the cereal milk in a small bowl. Whisk together softened cream cheese and salt in a large mixing bowl. Have a large bowl with ice water and a large (gallon) freezer bag ready.

3. Add cereal milk, cream, sugar and corn syrup to saucepan. Bring to boil and cook at boiling for 4 minutes, watching carefully to avoid boiling over. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch and milk. Return to heat and boil for about a minute, whisking constantly as the mixture thickens. Remove from heat.

4. Slowly pour the hot milk/cream mixture into the large mixing bowl while whisking it to combine with the cream cheese. Set the freezer bag in the ice water and pour the mixture into the bag. Let it cool for 30 minutes and then put it in the refrigerator to completely cool. Process in an ice cream maker following maker's instructions (may not need as much time, given that it's pretty thick). Put in freezer and freeze until hard.