A couple of Sundays ago, I spent all day in the kitchen with my new Momofuku Milk Bar book. I had been looking forward to a whole day of cooking and baking for a long time. I felt ambitious that day and decided to tackle 2 recipes out of the book. Now you may not think 2 recipes is ambitious but in this case it is because in order to make these 2 recipes, I actually had to make 6 of them. Two separate recipes go into making the chocolate cookies and 4 went into making the pistachio cake. You see the Milk Bar desserts are really delicious but they are multi-layered and not a spare-of-the-moment kind of baking, which is what makes them so good. You need to be prepared, make some crumbs, crumbles and crusts in order to be ready to bake most of the recipes. I can definitely say though that it is all worth it! And once you have made those crumbs, crumbles and crusts, you can keep some in your freezer for the next time you’re craving a Milk Bar cookie or cake.

I didn’t need to be sold on the whole Milk Bar phenomenon since I’ve been a fan for years and it is always on my itinerary whenever I visit New York. The compost cookie, crack pie, cakes and cereal milk soft serve ice cream have all earned their well deserved reputations but my favourite Milk Bar dessert is the cake truffles. The first time I bit into one, I was so pleasantly surprised and instantly hooked. The texture is like none other and feels like you’re biting into raw cookie dough – and really, who doesn’t love raw cookie dough? So you can imagine my disappointment when I didn’t see a recipe for them upon my first glance at the book. Rest assured though, if you look closely enough, there’s one cake truffle recipe hiding in there.

I’d had the book on pre-order for weeks and was so happy to finally receive it. It reminded me a little of David Chang’s Momofuku cookbook, and I found myself reading it from cover to cover like a great fiction book. I found it to be even more inspiring, not only in terms of recipes but also in terms of Christina Tosi’s journey and how she got to where she is today. I’ve always thought her flavour combinations were genius and after having gone through making some of her recipes, I am even more convinced now. I was so happy to meet her at the Chocolate show in New York this past weekend. She is as sweet as her desserts and great to talk to, and she brought cookies to the signing! If you love baking and have a sweet tooth, this book should definitely be on your wishlist.

I am sharing the recipe for the chocolate-chocolate cookies with you today. The pistachio cake was magnificent and all its different components – the cake, pistachio frosting, lemon curd and milk crumb – absolutely delicious. All of them can be made ahead of time and assembled at the last minute, which really helps since it is time-consuming. The whole cake put together is beautiful and I will be making it again because I do love pistachios but sharing the recipe would take up a lot of space here and since pistachio paste is hard to source in Montreal, I believe the chocolate-chocolate cookies are a safer bet. They are chewy and moist and so chocolatey that they will surely become some of your favourites. You will have to get yourself a copy of the book so you can make all the other delicious recipes in it.

Milk Bar’s chocolate-chocolate cookies (makes 10 to 15 cookies)
Recipe taken from Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi

Ingredients:

• 225g (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
• 300g (1 1/2 cups) sugar
• 100g (1/4 cup) glucose (or 35 g corn syrup)

• 1 egg
• 1g vanilla extract
• 60g (2 oz) 55% chocolate, melted

• 200g (1 1/4 cups) flour
• 100g (3/4 cup) cocoa powder
• 3g (3/4 tsp) baking powder
• 1.5g (1/4 tsp) baking soda
• 7g ( 1 3/4 tsp) kosher salt

• 1/2 recipe chocolate crumbs (recipe follows)

Method:

1. Cream the butter, sugar and glucose together for 2 to 3 minutes then add the egg, vanilla and melted sugar. Mix well for 7 to 8 minutes on medium high.
2. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt on low speed until just mixed.
3. Add the chocolate crumb and mix for a few seconds.
4. Shape the cookies with an ice cream scoop and place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Flatten the tops of the cookies then wrap the trays well and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour or up to a week.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 375º
6. Place the cookies 4″ apart and bake for about 18 minutes (don’t over-bake them!)
7. The cookies will keep for 5 days at room temperature or you can freeze them for up to a month.

Chocolate crumb recipe
Recipe taken from Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi

Ingredients:

• 105g (2/3 cup) flour
• 4g (1 tsp) cornstarch
• 100g (1/2 cup) sugar
• 65g (2/3 cup) cocoa powder
• 4g (1 tsp) kosher salt

• 85g butter, melted

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 300º F
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in your cake mixer
3. Add the butter and mix until small crumbs start forming
4. Spread the mixture on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes
5. Let it cool then use half of the crumbs in the chocolate cookie recipe and keep the rest for up to a month in your freezer.

Notes:

1. I put half the amount of salt in and you could still taste the salt in the cookies. The full amount would have been too much for my taste.
2. It is easy to over-bake these cookies so be careful!
3. I got a lot more than 10 to 15 cookies using this recipe and they were all very large in size. Good thing cookie-loving friends are never hard to find!