Seaweed, dried longan, lotus seed – Inspired by Vietnamese che sam bo luong
Earlier this year, I went on somewhat of a cookbook shopping spree. White Heat, The Fat Duck Cookbook, Heston Blumenthal at Home, The Flavor Bible, Ideas in Food, and Momofuku were all purchased in the same week. One book that stood head and shoulders above the rest, however, was Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi. Momofuku Milk Bar is bakery with a handful of locations in New York City and are known for their quirky pastries like the compost cookie: chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, graham crumbs, pretzels, potato chips, oats, and coffee grounds.
Oatmeal, pandan, raisins – Inspired by the groats I made one time
What really got me hooked on the book was Tosi’s electric personality that comes through in the stories and anecdotes she tells as well as in the recipes. On top of that, the recipes are some of the most well thought out and detailed recipes I’ve come across. It’s one of the only cookbooks I’ve read cover to cover and it’s probably my favorite cookbook.
Peanut butter, celery seed, olives – Inspired by ants on a log and a dessert I had at DiverXO
Once I finished reading the book, I made it a goal to bake all the cookie recipes minus the holiday cookie since Christmas had passed and minus the oat cookie because I was planning on using it for crack pie. That amounted to one cookie recipe per week for 8 weeks. After 8 consecutive weeks, I met my goal, learning a lot of things on the way through trial and error and via Tweet with Tosi Fridays. I couldn’t just stop at 8, though.
Black sesame, white sesame crunch, miso – Inspired by a course I had at Next: elBulli
On week 9, I started making my own cookies based on the ratios found in the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook but with ingredients and flavors that were near and dear to my heart. It’s now week 18 and I’ve managed to come up with the 10 cookies you see here. The tentative plan for the week 19 cookie is an homage to Schwa, where I recently had the best meal of my life: dried shrimp and Fruity Pebbles or celery root, celery seed, and green apple.
Vietnamese dried banana, coconut, chocolate crumb – Inspired by Vietnamese banh chuoi
Chocolate, preserved kumquat
Chocolate, milk crumb
Corn, coconut, sesame seed – Inspired by Vietnamese che bap
Dried mango, milk crumb
Dried persimmon, milk crumb
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hiii... i love this post... would you mind posting the recipes to some of these delicious, uber-intentive cookie creations?
ReplyDeletei am obsessed with ms. tosi's cooking philosophy and POV and i am currently riffing on some of her cookie recipes.
i made my own version of her 'gold gilt gangster cookie' she did at band of thieves 2012 show... pretzel crunch cookie crumb cookies... today i am making her blueberry & cream cookies but instead of milk crumbs, i am using coconut milk powder to make coconut milk crumbs, using those in the blueberry n cream cookie instead of milk crumbs, plus i am adding 1/2 recipe of pie crumb, and 1/2 c flaked unsweetened coconut to make a 'coconut cream pie' cookie. YOUM!!!
i am inspired. please post a few recipes! love this post!! :-)
Thanks for the kind words!
DeleteI just finished up making a new batch of cookies every week for 52 weeks (plus a "bonus track"). I'm working on a post about all the cookies and I'll highlight my favorites. I'll be sure to post recipes too, but for the most part I tried sticking to the ratios found in the Milk Bar book.
Also, I really like your idea of coconut milk crumbs! I think I'll try incorporating that into a cookie.