Milk Bar

Ok, I know I am a bit late to the game! I was out shopping the other day when I came across the Milk Bar book by Christina Tosi and David Chang. The book came out in 2011, and here we are in 2020. It looked like an interesting read, so I bought it. I have to say I very much enjoyed the first portion of the book; to hear about how Milk Bar came to be, where everyone came from and their experience and history and how Milk Bar came to be. I was able to relate to a lot of what she shared and some of her experiences. Not exactly of course, but within my own personal experiences. I have nowhere near the experience of her and her team, but some of what she preaches in her kitchen, is a norm for me as well. These are a few of my take aways, including some of my experiences or history mixed in.

Mise en Place

One of the most important things you learn when it comes to cooking or baking is Mise en Place. Basically have all your ingredients and supplies/tools ready, so you aren’t looking for something at the worst possible time. I’ll be honest, there have been times, I’ve started to make something and I did not have everything ready. I mean it was ready in my head, and I had an idea of where everything was in my kitchen, but ready at a moment’s notice, nope. And quite honestly, it ends up reflecting in the final product.

Maybe not a defined part of Mise en Place but for me extremely important, is getting to know the recipe you are working with. Sure, I have my ingredients in place, weighed them out, portioned them as necessary, all at the proper temperature. But to know this you must know and understand the recipe. The ingredients and the instructions. Even if it’s a recipe I have made before, as a home baker, I will still review the recipe a couple of times, and I still follow along as I go. But having read it a few times, my brain has an idea of what comes next.

Ingredients

When it comes down to it, ingredients are the integral part of your creation. For instance, while there may be few instances when margarine is necessary, for the most part I always use butter. Do you want flavor? Use butter. And use unsalted butter, that way you can control the amount of salt in your bake. I keep my butter in the freezer and take it out as needed. I like to ensure I always have butter on hand.

I have what I believe to be a kitchen full of the necessary goods, but after reading this book, there are some additional ones that I am likely to invest in, just to have on hand. In the book, Christina doesn’t just provide a list of ingredients, there is a full explanation of what they use and why. Do they opt for the most expensive product out there, or the best bang for their buck. Having read thru their lists, they go with what is both a great product, but also not something that doesn’t breaks the bank. Just because it’s not the most expensive item out there, doesn’t mean it’s not good. Take chocolate for example. There are so many varieties of chocolate out there! Don’t take my word for it, go online and check it out. The team at Milk Bar use Valrhona. As a homebaker, I vary my options depending on what I am making. But as I spend more time in the kitchen, and more time on Instagram sharing my product and looking to provide a great product, my ingredients will change. For now, I stick to using Ghiradelli or Guittard. These are good chocolates with a good taste, and easily found. Moving on to another ingredient, we have eggs! When it comes to eggs, use Large, although I have some recipes that provide for me in grams how much yolk or white I need, at which point, I could use any egg. However you’ll notice, for the most part recipes just tell you how many eggs. So large eggs it is. And if I had access to farm fresh eggs on the daily and or weekly I most definitely would use them. Have you ever had a sunny side up egg or soft boil egg from a farm?? If not, you NEED to give it a try! Thank me later. I don’t have easy access to farm fresh eggs, so I go with store bought and cage free. As it is noted in the book, but you’d know by a peek in my fridge, that not all recipes call for whole eggs. You’ll find some just need yolks or some just need whites, or an uneven combo of each. Never throw out leftovers; save them in separate containers in the fridge. There are also ways to save them by freezing them. I have not yet gone that route though.

Next up, flavorings! Including extracts and colors. I have these on hand for sure! I love making homemade marshmallows, but typically I like added flavors, not just plain marshmallows. I recently made some using honey instead of corn syrup. So amazing! But I have made lavender, rose, peppermint and some others along the way. For those I would use a little color just to help define the flavor someone is about to enjoy; but not so much that you can taste the color, just a hint. The only other reason I have used coloring is to color fondant and that’s pretty much it. At least for now.

The book provides a number of other ingredients from nuts, to nut flours, to flour. It goes on, and best of all, most of what is listed can be easily found online. Specifically Amazon. Definitely good to know, given some ingredients found in stores can end up costing you so much because they are sold in small amounts and may be labeled as gourmet. I learned a long time ago, even before heading off to take my first pastry class, the best place to find some ingredients, is to head to your local restaurant supply store. You don’t need to be a member, they have memberships, but you can walk off the street and still take advantage. This is the place I go for flour and sugar. Here, I am able to buy staple ingredients in bulk and pay very little compared to what I would pay at the grocery store. This helps me to keep my costs of baking down. I had actually visited the restaurant supply about two weeks prior to going on temporary lay off at the beginning of this pandemic. I was baking to my heart’s desire and everyone else was wondering how I was able to find flour when it was sold out at every grocery.

Equipment

Well, it’s no surprise equipment follows ingredients. And yet again, not just a list of what would be good to have on hand, but why, and what they use, but what you at home can use instead of some of the restaurant grade equipment they may have on hand. Something else I picked up along the way; this from my first pastry class experience at L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg Maryland, one doesn’t need to spend an arm and a leg to get equipment/tools for the trade. I literally just looked online at Sur la Table to see the cost of a pastry brush. It’s listed at $10-$12 each. Note that I can go to art supply stores or hardware store and can find myself a brush for around $2-$3 each. I like to have one for wet ingredients, and one for dry. One for baking and one for cooking. Walk thru the aisles of Lowes sometime and realize how you could use some of these items in the kitchen instead of emptying your wallet to get the best gadget in town. My pastry instructor even used the wire portion of an air filter to stencil pate a cornet . Of course if you are looking for a specific stencil you may have to go to the source, but for simplicity you can look no further than your local hardware store.

What I’ve picked up from the book that I will add to my kitchen, and I’ve used before, but I guess I never thought about it for the home kitchen, painters tape. And of course this can be found at a hardware store as well! Stick it anywhere and it comes off with ease and you can write on it to label containers. And when it comes to containers, they use the plastic soup containers, just like ones you may otherwise see being used in a Chinese take out. For now, I have a thing for mason jars. Plastic wrap is very important to your kitchen if you are baking a lot, and need to store items that may not have traditional size containers. Currently I have Glad in my household, and am trying to finish it, because quite frankly, the best stuff out there is found either at Costco or a restaurant supply store. I had one in my small studio apartment in San Francisco. It lasted just about 8 years. It clings well, and cuts easily. I cringe every time I have to use the store bought brand, it quite frankly gives me anxiety. They promise you the best cling, but it’s lies, all lies.

I feel like I could go down a rabbit hole talking about equipment! But reviewing what is listed in the book, are items I have grown to inherit along the way. You can’t have too many sheet pans, I have quarter sheet and half sheet pans. I have plenty of spatulas, rubber ones, flat ones for smoothing cake batter, and a couple hand whisks, you know one for wet ingredients and one for dry, of course! Most importantly, I have a digital scale! While most American recipes are by cup measurements, I prefer to weigh out my ingredients. Why can’t everyone just adopt the metric system? Life would be so much easier! Lastly, I found it fun and interesting that one of the items on her list was a good sound system. Because why not! When I am baking, I love to have music on, it helps to keep things moving along. Depending on what I am baking , I have different genres of music I listen to. For example, if I am baking Greek sweets, then it is very likely that there is Greek radio on!

Techniques

The final reading before getting into all the wonderful treats you can make at home, that you find at Milk Bar is techniques! I look forward to trying some of these out, like the need to not temper your eggs, but to just blend all ingredients together and heat together you should come up with the same result. It works for them, that doesn’t mean it will work for you or me. But it’s definitely worth trying. Ah, then there is sifting, and I couldn’t agree more, it is a waste of time! At least when you are sifting a large amount for sure. What I learned along the way; take a whisk, and run it thru your dry ingredients, breaking up any large clumps. Voila, your dry ingredients are ready to go. Another thing I have been doing that is mentioned, is saving leftovers. Why throw away food that is not ruined, when you can use it for something different? Freeze it, or store it in the fridge if you plan to use it soon. I have several containers of leftover frosting, that I know I can use in a pinch if I need to. I have a ziplock of leftover dried out pumpernickel bread. I had made something and did not need the end pieces, so I baked them and dried them completely, and then I put them in my blender to create bread crumbs. It doesn’t stop here at all, it goes on, with several other techniques, some of which I have heard of, and others I look forward to trying.

Final Note

If you like to bake, and you are working on bettering your techniques, I highly suggest reading this book. Not skimming it and getting highlights! Sit down and read each and every page. Even the recipes have great information or stories included. I literally wanted to go online and buy things I don’t have in my kitchen yet and get started on trying out some of these recipes or incorporating these techniques in my bakes. Alas, I will be away from home for the next 8 weeks, so my bakes will be very limited. In any case, I have something to look forward to upon my return. We’ll be closer to the holidays, and boy do I love holiday baking. If anyone knows me, they know that I give the gift that makes your belly happy!

Click here to check out the book via amazon.com!

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