Milk Bar in Bellevue, WA

I am so happy I finally made it over to Christina Tosi's Milk Bar location attached to Nordstrom in Bellevue, Washington. 

I ordered her famous Cereal Milk soft serve with Corn Flake Crunch topping and I thought that it was delicious. It's an undeniably American creation that is both comforting and craveable. The corn flake crunch is a must - it adds so much flavor and texture. I loved it. In fact, I think I want it on most ice cream sundaes going forward.

I am such a fan of Christina Tosi. I love her approach to baking and the creation of sweets for American tastes. I have her original Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook and I think it is brilliant. She looks at sugar and desserts through a very interesting lens and her desserts definitely make sense. You can tell that she created them and believe that they'll be good, if that makes sense. I guess I'm saying that I like how she thinks and I admire how she invents new fun desserts from old classics. I can't wait to see what she does next.

There's a great feature on Christina Tosi on Netflix's Chef's Table Pastry

I also wanted to tell you that during the pandemic, I was also amazed to see her hosting free baking classes on Zoom every week. She decided that it would be fun to form a Bake Club to help everyone, included her, cope with the strange times. I joined every once in a while and I really enjoyed it. She posted the ingredients we'd need the night before. It was such a neat way to spend a weekday afternoon. 

So Christina Tosi, I'm a fan. And I'm grateful that you brought your deliciousness to the Pacific Northwest.

Bake Club: My First Baking Class with Christina Tosi of Milk Bar

Yesterday I made homemade Peanut Butter Cups live on Instagram with Christina Tosi of Milk Bar fame. I mean, when I realized this was possible, how could I not?

As a Midwesterner, I'd only heard of David Chang's restaurant Momofuku and read about the wild success of the the in-house desserts created by Christina Tosi at Milk Bar, where she creates very American, very cereal-sugar-snackfood inspired desserts. When I heard about her bottled Cereal Milk, I knew she was a genius. You'll have to read more about her and get inspired too. It's great fun.

Anyhoo, we're 11 months into the pandemic. This summer, I realized I could follow David Chang on Instagram (his baby son, Hugo is so sweet!) and that got me thinking about his business and it led me to "check out" the Milk Bar cookbook on my Libby app (to check out and read library books). I still need to read his book, Eat a Peach. I read the whole Milk Bar cookbook cover to cover, looked her up on Istagram and suddenly I saw that she was hosting a free WEEKLY cooking class called Bake Club to get us all through the Mondays of the pandemic. I am so late to the party! 

All are invited to subscribe to her Sunday night emails, which includes a list of the ingredients needed for Monday's recipe. She also posts an image of the ingredients on her Instagram on Sunday night to remind you to start planning/shopping. The week I found her it was MLK Day and she encouraged everyone to make paper snowflakes and relax into Inauguaration Week. When I subscribed to her email, I noticed that she has ALL of the prior recipes posted on her website and you can watch the Bake Club episodes you missed on her Instagram.

I decided my Peanut Butter Cups would deviate from the traditional with Guittard dark chocolate chips and chunky JIF peanut butter in the base. I made them in mini muffin tins. They are everything. I'm toying with making simple chocolate wafer cookies and piping the extra PB filling in between them like Oreos. For a review of these chocolates, Dan said that he "can't go back" to the store bought ones and has eaten 4 of the 8 I made since yesterday. 

I think this is incredibly generous of Christine Tosi to share her recipes. To teach online for free. To try and uplift us all with her skills. I am am thankful that she's as cool as I thought she was. Thanks for bringing delight, Christina! I'll be joining when I can.

#bakeclub #christinatosi #finddelight #beautyofeverydaylife #chocolate