Field Trip: Momofuku Milk Bar

Today I went to one of New York's better known sweet spots - Momofuku Milk Bar.  For a place devoted to sweet delights, I was surprised (in a pleasant way) at how much salt I was tasting in the treats.  I personally love a little saltiness in my desserts.  It enhances the other flavors and is a nice surprise to your palette.  Christina Tosi (the pastry chef and genius behind Milk Bar's success) pairs salty and sweet to brilliant effect.  Below are some of the goodies I sampled.

Compost Cookie

I prefer my cookies soft and chewy, so the crunchy bits in this cookie weren't really floating my boat.  But I can see why this cookie is popular.  It's all your favorite junk foods (pretzels, potato chips, Rice Krispies and chocolate) rolled into one cookie!


Corn Flake, Marshmallow, Chocolate Chip Cookie (aka the-cookie-my-boyfriend-has-been-bugging-me-to-make-for-months!)

A great crunchy-gooey cookie, though not my favorite (again, I think this is just a textural preference I have).

Blueberry and Cream Cookie

My friend perfectly described this cookie as "the top part of a blueberry muffin," and we all know the muffin top is our favorite part!  I can't wait to try my hand at these cookies!


Soft Serve Sampler
This is where the interplay between salty and sweet is most notable.

1. Ants on a Log soft serve.  The green soft serve is a celery and peanut butter ice cream, which is topped with raisins to perfectly recreate the flavors of "ants on a log."  After taking the first bite, my reaction was simply "huh" - my mouth didn't quite know what to make of the flavors.  But once my brain caught up to my tastebuds, the "huh" was quickly followed by an "mmmmmmmm."   This was definitely the highlight for me.

2. Potato Chip soft serve.  I'm amazed at Chef Tosi's ability to perfectly recreate flavors with her soft serve.  I could have sworn I was eating a bag of Lays!  On it's own, it was a little too far on the salty side for me, but I imagine it would be divine topped with fudge sauce.

3. Cereal Milk soft serve.   Yup, it tastes just like the stuff leftover after eating a big bowl of cereal!

4. Chocolate Milk soft serve paired with Cornflake Crunch topping.  This is salty and sweet at it's best!  Even though the Ants on a Log was the most interesting thing I ate at Milk Bar, the Chocolate Milk with Cornflake Crunch is what I'll be ordering on my next visit.

Overall, I was really impressed with the whimsy and creativity captured in each delicious little package!