Wilde Week #10

1. This week I have eaten a ridiculous amount of European-style butter.  I blame Milk bar.  Boyfriend and I went to a third baking class (technically class #2 - the crunch) in Brooklyn.  There we made more delicious cookies with a half pound of butter in them.  Then we took them home and I ate them for breakfast.  Cookies for breakfast is totally okay, especially cornflake-marshmallow-chocolate chip cookies.

2. BF and I emptied out our piggy bank this past week.  It weighed over thirty pounds!  Now someone won't let me take it to the coinstar because he likes looking at the jars of money. 

3. There was a Girls marathon on Sunday night.  I tried so hard to enjoy it.  It just didn't happen, maybe I'm too uncool.  Am I the only one who just doesn't get it?

4. I got new running shoes!  After spending time with a nice girl at Fleet Feet, I learned you should buy running shoes a half size larger than you usually wear.  Huh, who knew.  Now I'm going to be so much faster, can't wait.  Just wish they were in a more obnoxious color.

5. I totally kicked butt at my Crossfit workout this Thursday!  Finished first!  Mostly due to my awesome jump roping ability coupled with everyone else's inability to jump rope.  I jump rope like a rock star.

6. Ever have one of those weeks at work when nothing went right?  Yeah, that was my week.  Chemistry was plotting against me all week long.  I can't wait for next week, I have to redeem myself.

7. Easter is tomorrow!  What does that mean?  Easter candy is on sale on Monday!  Yeah half price Reese's peanut butter eggs.  It also means that everyone who gave up chocolate for Lent can stop being crazy and have some chocolate bunny!

8. For some reason my Crossfit gym is closed on Easter Sunday!  I had to sign up for the 7am class this morning.  Someone isn't happy about my alarm going off at 6:45 on a Saturday morning.  Okay, it's more than one person who isn't jazzed about getting up at that time.  Class better be awesome!

Coconut Key Lime Squares

I've never been so happy to see Thursday than I have this week!  Not that it has felt like a very long week, it's just been a very tiring one!  Coupled with the fact that I spent a long weekend in Buffalo, eating totally healthy food (aka - hot dogs, Buffalo wings and Perry's ice cream), I'm exhausted.  I even missed one of my scheduled runs for my half marathon training plan!  I'd make it up, but I'm tired.

This past weekend I headed to Buffalo for a few reasons.  1. It was my dad's birthday!  We enjoyed local hibachi at Shogun (ONION VOLCANO!) and ate Dessert Deli cake that was more chocolatey than just pouring chocolate syrup in your mouth.  2. Perry's Ice cream invited me to come visit them and eat ice cream!  And they told me I could bring someone.  I brought my dad, because it was his birthday and he loves their ice cream.  I'll talk more about our ice cream factory tour next week, what I want to talk about today is - my long run in Buffalo.

If you have been reading along, you'll know that I'm only three weeks out from my half marathon!  Each weekend I've been making longer and longer runs to help train for my eventual 13.1 miles in central park.  I've run 10K races in the past and never really trained for them.  BF and I ran a Spartan Super last year that wound up being 11 miles, we trained one day for that race and ate crossant sandwiches the morning of the race.  I decided that neither of these tactics would be a good idea for my upcoming half marathon, I wanted to do it right.

Knowing that it was still a little cold in Buffalo, I packed my new running hat and gloves and fuzzy running jacket.  The only thing I wasn't prepared for was snow.  Which it did on Friday, four inches worth of the white stuff.  I headed to my brothers house and used his treadmill for my 4 mile run.  But there was no way I was going to run 8 miles on a treadmill.  It's so boring!

Instead, I mapped my run online, trying to find the right route from my parents house that would give me an 8 mile loop.  It also had to avoid running up the highway overpass near their house.  I decided upon a route that was just longer than 8 miles and crossed only one 4-lane highway.  It was also on a series of roads that I grew up driving down.  I'm very familiar with the roads of my hometown and I know exactly when each road intersects.  This proved an amazing bonus when running.

Saturday morning, around 9:00am, I worked up the energy to go running.  I put on my layers, showed my mom how to track me with her phone, laced up my shoes and hit the road!  I ran past my High school best friends house, my first house that we moved out of when I was 5, my high school and first middle school.  At mile seven I ran past my brothers house and was on the home stretch!  I crossed the highway and my mile tracker called out the completion of my eighth mile.  Unfortunately, I was still a half mile from home.

After running 8.47 miles in 82 minutes and burning almost nine hundred calories, I had no qualms with eating a big slice of cake for dads birthday that night.

Momofuku Confetti Cookies

A few weeks ago, you may have read that Boyfriend and I spent the evening at Momofuku Milk bar making Crack pie and cereal milk.  Well, BF went out of town for a business trip the other day and I went back to the bakery for more!  And this time we were making crumbs.

I was so excited to be able to make it to this particular class because I have had no luck making Milk bar cookies yet.  I've made them twice before and I have come out with vastly different results.  First, I made the blueberries and cream cookies and wound up with thin, crispy, non-delicious cookies.  The second time, I made the compost cookies and wound up with high mounds of baked dough.  I was determined to make this work!

At the crumb class, Tosi and her team showed us how to take ordinary ingredients, like powdered skim milk, and turn them into tasty inclusions for our baked goods.  We made a white chocolate-coated milk crumb and a sprinkle-filled birthday cake crumb.  The reason I signed up for the class though is what we did with the crumbs - we made cookies.  Those blueberries and cream cookies that I originally had no luck with.  Second try is the charm?

I learned exactly what I ws doing wrong with the cookies.  It was a series of problems.  1. I wasn't using the correct ingredients.  2. I wasn't beating the butter high enough or long enough.  3. I was mixing the flour into the cookies for too long.  4. I had the wrong size cookie dough scoop.  After learning the correct tricks for each of these problems, you might be wondering if my blueberries and cream cookies came out all right.  Well, my bakery partner and I ate them too fast and I completely forgot to take a picture.  Yeah, they were perfect.  Let me pass on the secrets.

Let's start with the ingredients.  I labeled you a nice picture above and hit on the key ingredients.  Bread Flour - I used all-purpose flour the first time.  Because of the higher percentage of butter in these cookies, you want a higher protein flour that can support all that fat.  European butter - Tosi mentioned that regular unsalted butter would work fine, European butter is made with cultures and tastes richer.

Glucose syrup - I originally used corn syrup, as the cookbook said it would be fine.  I can say that the glucose lead to a crunchy/chewy cookie that was amazing.  If you can find it, use glucose.  Powdered milk - Okay, I did use this in the original recipe, but you might not know where to find it.  I bought private label powdered skim milk and it works just fine.  You will either find it in the baby or baking aisle.

Once you have the proper ingredients at hand, it's all about timing.  The Breville stand mixers that we used actually had a timer on the side of the machine.  I totally wanted to take that mixer home with me, it was awesome.  When combining the butter, sugar and eggs, you need to beat and beat until you see no more streaks of sugar crystals.  In the first image above, you'll see exactly how far you have to take the mixture.  It's just before the mixture turns into butter soup.  We started with fridge temperature butter and in ten minutes, on the highest setting, it turned into that fluffy buttery cream.

Adding the dry ingredients to the butter mixture is done quickly.  After pouring all of the dry ingredients into the bowl, you turn on the mixer to medium low and mix for less than 30 seconds.  The final inclusions (crumbs, dried fruits, chocolate chips) are added and mixed in for less than 15 seconds.

The final step is measuring out the dough.  I went to Amazon and bought the same measuring scoop that they use at Milk bar.  It's that blue handled cookie dough scoop you see resting on the baking sheet.  By portioning out the cookie dough with this scoop, the cookies bake perfectly in 18 minutes.

I spent a few hours with the Milk bar team and have finally mastered these amazing cookies.  It's a combination of the high butter to flour ratio, addition of glucose and secret powdered milk ingredient, that make these cookies chewy, crunchy and amazing.  They are also huge and a meal of their own.

Hopefully my previous failures and newfound knowledge will help you when making the Milk Bar cookies!  Let me know if you have any questions when baking, I learned quite a lot from the bakers at Milk!  And of course, if you are coming to NYC sometime soon, sign up for a class yourself!  It's a great way to spend a night!