I've been baking from Christina's book for a few years now and I've been putting off writing a review, but I find that it's time to post a review, even though I'm not all the way through this book yet.
I first started baking about 2.5 years ago when my friend introduced me to the show "Great British Bake Off". Ever since then I've wanted to create the things they created, and in my search for challenging cookbooks, I stumbled upon this one, Joanne Chang's book "Flour" and also Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller. I am not afraid of a challenge, and when I read multiple people speak about Christina's book being too involved and difficult with unusual ingredients, I knew I had to try it. As mentioned multiple times here, be sure to read her directions in the front of the book before trying any of them.
I first made the Compost cookies, moved on to the Confetti cookies, and then tried my hand at her birthday cake (for three of my friends who were celebrating birthdays the same weekend). And let me tell you, I became an immediate fan, and I fell in love with this woman's genius and her flavor combinations. I love all the cookie recipes in this book and have made most all of them. Some of them can be super sweet (i.e. cornflake marshmallow cookies), but on the whole they're decadent and somewhat complex. Out of all the cookies, the only one that fell a bit short for me was the corn cookies. I just don't want to taste corn in a cookie. It tasted like a big burst of corn that morphed into a sugar cookie that melted in your mouth. That being said, all of my coworkers loved them. So, I'm chalking that one up to personal taste.
I moved on to trying her cakes after the success with the birthday cake. I made her Apple Pie Cake and Oh lord that cake is magical and wonderful and delicious. And then I tried her chocolate malt cake (although I used the version from the milkbarstore website so I could add milk chocolate frosting..not included in the book version), and I kid you not, the salespeople at my workplace emailed me saying that that cake was the best thing they've ever tasted in their entire lives. I doubled the amount of burnt marshmallow from her recipe, by the way.
ON to the pies in the book. I made her Brownie pie and AGAIN, it's a masterpiece of flavors. That one is both simple to make and decadent. I recommend trying that one for the beginners in the group who are just picking up this book for the first time. I then finally said, "Steve.....just make the Grapefruit pie! You've been wanting to for years!" So, I made the Grapefruit pie recently, and upon first taste it was very flavorful (the crust and the passionfruit curd, especially), but the topping of condensed milk just wasn't doing it for me (mostly due to texture). It just tasted strange. So, I found a recipe online for a limoncello grapefruit mousse and I remade the pie, and the tartness from the mousse so perfectly complemented the sweetness of the curd and the butteriness of the Ritz cracker crust.
Recipes I'm wanting to try going forward: PB&J Pie, Carrot Layer Cake, Bagel Bombs, Kimchi and Blue Cheese Croissants, and Chinese Sausage Focaccia. If any of you have made any of these that I haven't done so far, please do share your thoughts.
EDIT 9-23-21 - Since writing this review a while ago, I have made the Cinnamon Bun Pie, the Banana Cream Pie, and then the Banana Cake. The cinnamon bun pie was only okay. I like the filling, and the topping, but I found the bread to be a bit too.....bread-y? Also, the pie baked up so much that it wasn't really a pie anymore, but a large disc of baked dough with cream cheese filling on top. I would never make that one again. The Banana Cream pie was wonderful. That filling! That filling made me want to weep. I found that I didn't make a good crust, though. I added too much butter and when it chilled, the butter chocolate crust stuck to the pie plate like glue!!! So, it was a mess. But it was oh so delicious.
As for the Banana Cake, it was a very very fiddly process. It was comprised of Banana cake, Banana cream, Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache, Hazelnut frosting, and a hazelnut crunch. For the Ganache, I had to make her fudge sauce in order to incorporate into the ganache. For the crunch, I had to make a hazelnut praline, and also buy feuilletine as well, while mixing those with hazelnut paste (Which is basically like peanut butter, but with hazelnuts). I converted the cake to 8", and by doing so, had to buy two jars of Hazelnut paste online here (180g per jar) for $25 per jar. This became an expensive cake. But it was worth it! As I said above her banana filling was perfect, and the cake itself was amazing! Seriously good. I personally don't really like hazelnuts, but I loved them in this recipe. The taste, the texture, were all very good.
This book is fantastic. I'm sad for anyone who hasn't had success with the recipes.
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Christina Tosi's book "Milk" is a challenging book that yields delicious recipes
I've been baking from Christina's book for a few years now and I've been putting off writing a review, but I find that it's time to post a review, even though I'm not all the way through this book yet.I first started baking about 2.5 years ago when my friend introduced me to the show "Great British Bake Off". Ever since then I've wanted to create the things they created, and in my search for challenging cookbooks, I stumbled upon this one, Joanne Chang's book "Flour" and also Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller. I am not afraid of a challenge, and when I read multiple people speak about Christina's book being too involved and difficult with unusual ingredients, I knew I had to try it. As mentioned multiple times here, be sure to read her directions in the front of the book before trying any of them.I first made the Compost cookies, moved on to the Confetti cookies, and then tried my hand at her birthday cake (for three of my friends who were celebrating birthdays the same weekend). And let me tell you, I became an immediate fan, and I fell in love with this woman's genius and her flavor combinations. I love all the cookie recipes in this book and have made most all of them. Some of them can be super sweet (i.e. cornflake marshmallow cookies), but on the whole they're decadent and somewhat complex. Out of all the cookies, the only one that fell a bit short for me was the corn cookies. I just don't want to taste corn in a cookie. It tasted like a big burst of corn that morphed into a sugar cookie that melted in your mouth. That being said, all of my coworkers loved them. So, I'm chalking that one up to personal taste.I moved on to trying her cakes after the success with the birthday cake. I made her Apple Pie Cake and Oh lord that cake is magical and wonderful and delicious. And then I tried her chocolate malt cake (although I used the version from the milkbarstore website so I could add milk chocolate frosting..not included in the book version), and I kid you not, the salespeople at my workplace emailed me saying that that cake was the best thing they've ever tasted in their entire lives. I doubled the amount of burnt marshmallow from her recipe, by the way.ON to the pies in the book. I made her Brownie pie and AGAIN, it's a masterpiece of flavors. That one is both simple to make and decadent. I recommend trying that one for the beginners in the group who are just picking up this book for the first time. I then finally said, "Steve.....just make the Grapefruit pie! You've been wanting to for years!" So, I made the Grapefruit pie recently, and upon first taste it was very flavorful (the crust and the passionfruit curd, especially), but the topping of condensed milk just wasn't doing it for me (mostly due to texture). It just tasted strange. So, I found a recipe online for a limoncello grapefruit mousse and I remade the pie, and the tartness from the mousse so perfectly complemented the sweetness of the curd and the butteriness of the Ritz cracker crust.Recipes I'm wanting to try going forward: PB&J Pie, Carrot Layer Cake, Bagel Bombs, Kimchi and Blue Cheese Croissants, and Chinese Sausage Focaccia. If any of you have made any of these that I haven't done so far, please do share your thoughts.EDIT 9-23-21 - Since writing this review a while ago, I have made the Cinnamon Bun Pie, the Banana Cream Pie, and then the Banana Cake. The cinnamon bun pie was only okay. I like the filling, and the topping, but I found the bread to be a bit too.....bread-y? Also, the pie baked up so much that it wasn't really a pie anymore, but a large disc of baked dough with cream cheese filling on top. I would never make that one again. The Banana Cream pie was wonderful. That filling! That filling made me want to weep. I found that I didn't make a good crust, though. I added too much butter and when it chilled, the butter chocolate crust stuck to the pie plate like glue!!! So, it was a mess. But it was oh so delicious.As for the Banana Cake, it was a very very fiddly process. It was comprised of Banana cake, Banana cream, Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache, Hazelnut frosting, and a hazelnut crunch. For the Ganache, I had to make her fudge sauce in order to incorporate into the ganache. For the crunch, I had to make a hazelnut praline, and also buy feuilletine as well, while mixing those with hazelnut paste (Which is basically like peanut butter, but with hazelnuts). I converted the cake to 8", and by doing so, had to buy two jars of Hazelnut paste online here (180g per jar) for $25 per jar. This became an expensive cake. But it was worth it! As I said above her banana filling was perfect, and the cake itself was amazing! Seriously good. I personally don't really like hazelnuts, but I loved them in this recipe. The taste, the texture, were all very good.This book is fantastic. I'm sad for anyone who hasn't had success with the recipes.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2019
I first started baking about 2.5 years ago when my friend introduced me to the show "Great British Bake Off". Ever since then I've wanted to create the things they created, and in my search for challenging cookbooks, I stumbled upon this one, Joanne Chang's book "Flour" and also Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller. I am not afraid of a challenge, and when I read multiple people speak about Christina's book being too involved and difficult with unusual ingredients, I knew I had to try it. As mentioned multiple times here, be sure to read her directions in the front of the book before trying any of them.
I first made the Compost cookies, moved on to the Confetti cookies, and then tried my hand at her birthday cake (for three of my friends who were celebrating birthdays the same weekend). And let me tell you, I became an immediate fan, and I fell in love with this woman's genius and her flavor combinations. I love all the cookie recipes in this book and have made most all of them. Some of them can be super sweet (i.e. cornflake marshmallow cookies), but on the whole they're decadent and somewhat complex. Out of all the cookies, the only one that fell a bit short for me was the corn cookies. I just don't want to taste corn in a cookie. It tasted like a big burst of corn that morphed into a sugar cookie that melted in your mouth. That being said, all of my coworkers loved them. So, I'm chalking that one up to personal taste.
I moved on to trying her cakes after the success with the birthday cake. I made her Apple Pie Cake and Oh lord that cake is magical and wonderful and delicious. And then I tried her chocolate malt cake (although I used the version from the milkbarstore website so I could add milk chocolate frosting..not included in the book version), and I kid you not, the salespeople at my workplace emailed me saying that that cake was the best thing they've ever tasted in their entire lives. I doubled the amount of burnt marshmallow from her recipe, by the way.
ON to the pies in the book. I made her Brownie pie and AGAIN, it's a masterpiece of flavors. That one is both simple to make and decadent. I recommend trying that one for the beginners in the group who are just picking up this book for the first time. I then finally said, "Steve.....just make the Grapefruit pie! You've been wanting to for years!" So, I made the Grapefruit pie recently, and upon first taste it was very flavorful (the crust and the passionfruit curd, especially), but the topping of condensed milk just wasn't doing it for me (mostly due to texture). It just tasted strange. So, I found a recipe online for a limoncello grapefruit mousse and I remade the pie, and the tartness from the mousse so perfectly complemented the sweetness of the curd and the butteriness of the Ritz cracker crust.
Recipes I'm wanting to try going forward: PB&J Pie, Carrot Layer Cake, Bagel Bombs, Kimchi and Blue Cheese Croissants, and Chinese Sausage Focaccia. If any of you have made any of these that I haven't done so far, please do share your thoughts.
EDIT 9-23-21 - Since writing this review a while ago, I have made the Cinnamon Bun Pie, the Banana Cream Pie, and then the Banana Cake. The cinnamon bun pie was only okay. I like the filling, and the topping, but I found the bread to be a bit too.....bread-y? Also, the pie baked up so much that it wasn't really a pie anymore, but a large disc of baked dough with cream cheese filling on top. I would never make that one again. The Banana Cream pie was wonderful. That filling! That filling made me want to weep. I found that I didn't make a good crust, though. I added too much butter and when it chilled, the butter chocolate crust stuck to the pie plate like glue!!! So, it was a mess. But it was oh so delicious.
As for the Banana Cake, it was a very very fiddly process. It was comprised of Banana cake, Banana cream, Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache, Hazelnut frosting, and a hazelnut crunch. For the Ganache, I had to make her fudge sauce in order to incorporate into the ganache. For the crunch, I had to make a hazelnut praline, and also buy feuilletine as well, while mixing those with hazelnut paste (Which is basically like peanut butter, but with hazelnuts). I converted the cake to 8", and by doing so, had to buy two jars of Hazelnut paste online here (180g per jar) for $25 per jar. This became an expensive cake. But it was worth it! As I said above her banana filling was perfect, and the cake itself was amazing! Seriously good. I personally don't really like hazelnuts, but I loved them in this recipe. The taste, the texture, were all very good.
This book is fantastic. I'm sad for anyone who hasn't had success with the recipes.
Christina Tosi's book "Milk" is a challenging book that yields delicious recipes
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2019
I've been baking from Christina's book for a few years now and I've been putting off writing a review, but I find that it's time to post a review, even though I'm not all the way through this book yet.Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2019
I first started baking about 2.5 years ago when my friend introduced me to the show "Great British Bake Off". Ever since then I've wanted to create the things they created, and in my search for challenging cookbooks, I stumbled upon this one, Joanne Chang's book "Flour" and also Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller. I am not afraid of a challenge, and when I read multiple people speak about Christina's book being too involved and difficult with unusual ingredients, I knew I had to try it. As mentioned multiple times here, be sure to read her directions in the front of the book before trying any of them.
I first made the Compost cookies, moved on to the Confetti cookies, and then tried my hand at her birthday cake (for three of my friends who were celebrating birthdays the same weekend). And let me tell you, I became an immediate fan, and I fell in love with this woman's genius and her flavor combinations. I love all the cookie recipes in this book and have made most all of them. Some of them can be super sweet (i.e. cornflake marshmallow cookies), but on the whole they're decadent and somewhat complex. Out of all the cookies, the only one that fell a bit short for me was the corn cookies. I just don't want to taste corn in a cookie. It tasted like a big burst of corn that morphed into a sugar cookie that melted in your mouth. That being said, all of my coworkers loved them. So, I'm chalking that one up to personal taste.
I moved on to trying her cakes after the success with the birthday cake. I made her Apple Pie Cake and Oh lord that cake is magical and wonderful and delicious. And then I tried her chocolate malt cake (although I used the version from the milkbarstore website so I could add milk chocolate frosting..not included in the book version), and I kid you not, the salespeople at my workplace emailed me saying that that cake was the best thing they've ever tasted in their entire lives. I doubled the amount of burnt marshmallow from her recipe, by the way.
ON to the pies in the book. I made her Brownie pie and AGAIN, it's a masterpiece of flavors. That one is both simple to make and decadent. I recommend trying that one for the beginners in the group who are just picking up this book for the first time. I then finally said, "Steve.....just make the Grapefruit pie! You've been wanting to for years!" So, I made the Grapefruit pie recently, and upon first taste it was very flavorful (the crust and the passionfruit curd, especially), but the topping of condensed milk just wasn't doing it for me (mostly due to texture). It just tasted strange. So, I found a recipe online for a limoncello grapefruit mousse and I remade the pie, and the tartness from the mousse so perfectly complemented the sweetness of the curd and the butteriness of the Ritz cracker crust.
Recipes I'm wanting to try going forward: PB&J Pie, Carrot Layer Cake, Bagel Bombs, Kimchi and Blue Cheese Croissants, and Chinese Sausage Focaccia. If any of you have made any of these that I haven't done so far, please do share your thoughts.
EDIT 9-23-21 - Since writing this review a while ago, I have made the Cinnamon Bun Pie, the Banana Cream Pie, and then the Banana Cake. The cinnamon bun pie was only okay. I like the filling, and the topping, but I found the bread to be a bit too.....bread-y? Also, the pie baked up so much that it wasn't really a pie anymore, but a large disc of baked dough with cream cheese filling on top. I would never make that one again. The Banana Cream pie was wonderful. That filling! That filling made me want to weep. I found that I didn't make a good crust, though. I added too much butter and when it chilled, the butter chocolate crust stuck to the pie plate like glue!!! So, it was a mess. But it was oh so delicious.
As for the Banana Cake, it was a very very fiddly process. It was comprised of Banana cake, Banana cream, Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache, Hazelnut frosting, and a hazelnut crunch. For the Ganache, I had to make her fudge sauce in order to incorporate into the ganache. For the crunch, I had to make a hazelnut praline, and also buy feuilletine as well, while mixing those with hazelnut paste (Which is basically like peanut butter, but with hazelnuts). I converted the cake to 8", and by doing so, had to buy two jars of Hazelnut paste online here (180g per jar) for $25 per jar. This became an expensive cake. But it was worth it! As I said above her banana filling was perfect, and the cake itself was amazing! Seriously good. I personally don't really like hazelnuts, but I loved them in this recipe. The taste, the texture, were all very good.
This book is fantastic. I'm sad for anyone who hasn't had success with the recipes.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2017
I love how there are lots of textures in all of Christina’s recipes & great depth of flavor, not just sweet. I love how unusual and unique the recipes are – no boring snickerdoodles or devil’s food cake. I made the birthday cake & cereal milk ice cream for Father’s Day & what a hit! The cake seemed a little intimidating with 4 different components (the cake, the cake soak, the frosting, the cake crumb) but making it was very simple and not time-consuming as I envisioned. The cake is inspired by the funfetti cake mix but funfetti has nothing on this cake! This is my favorite cake I’ve ever had. No words describe how amazing it is & how impressive you’ll look showing up with a cake like this. It wasn’t even difficult to assemble. The cereal milk ice cream was very unusual but very delicious.
Although the finished recipes have a lot of components, every recipe is explained so clearly that they’re practically fool-proof. To those negatively reviewing because your cookies didn’t come out: I seriously doubt you followed instructions. I’ve made 2 different batches of cookies (blueberry and cream cookies & confetti cookies) & both turned out AMAZING. Did you follow her instructions & use King Arthur bread flour? Mix the fats for 10 minutes until it wasn’t streaky? Refrigerate for at least an hour and go straight into the oven? I had zero issues following the clearly-explained methods. Every recipe I’ve made so far has turned out amazingly well & I look forward to working through the entire book.
UPDATE:
I’ve since made every single cake (some multiple times) and every ice cream recipe in this book. Any gathering or excuse I can find to make one of these cakes, I make one. Every single person rants and raves about how it’s the best cake they’ve ever had. I have a lot of books on ice cream, but Christina’s recipes are my absolute favorite. She uses gelatin instead of eggs, so you get a pure flavor of whatever the ice cream is (the graham ice cream is the best!).
Again, to anyone thinking the recipes are too complicated or time-consuming: they’re not! If she says cream the ingredients for 3 minutes, then set a timer for THREE minutes! I’m no professional baker but I can follow instructions, and every single recipe I’ve made (over half the recipes in this book!) have turned out PHENOMENAL. Just follow Christina’s very simple instructions & you’re set! You don’t have to make everything in the same day. Sure, the cakes have 4-5 components to them, but that’s what makes them the greatest cakes you’ll ever taste. The two frostings most of the cakes have means more complex flavor & then the crumb adds a nice textural component.
You can not only make some of the components in advance, but you can make the entire cake up to 2 weeks in advance! That’s what I love! You have to freeze the cake for a minimum of 5 hours to be able to remove the acetate, and you can keep it in the freezer up to 2 weeks! Normally, I would never freeze a fully assembled cake, but these turn out perfectly fresh – you can’t even tell it’s been frozen.
I’m also obsessed with the assembly of these cakes! You bake it in a sheet pan & cut the 3 layers out with a cake ring. You use acetate to create the perfect layers – so easy with Christina’s clear instructions but SO striking!!
This is 10000% my favorite cookbook EVER. I will definitely shed a tear when I’ve baked everything & I’m craving new recipes.
Anyone who isn’t in love with this book is wrong.
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2017
I’ve been on a baking rampage since I got this book. I read it cover-to-cover & I’ve made 8 recipes so far. I normally don’t bother reviewing stuff (I know, I know..) but the negative reviews of this book are so ridiculous. People negatively reviewed because the recipes are too complicated & require special ingredients that cost money? What do you expect?! I’m sure happy Christina didn’t “dumb down” her recipes for this book. If you want a cheap easy recipe, go on Pinterest or buy a box of Betty Crocker… I want to be able to make the authentic desserts from Milk Bar, even if it means I have to buy a $12 roll of acetate and some fancy cake flour. If that’s how they do it at Milk bar, that’s what I want to attempt at home.Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2017
I love how there are lots of textures in all of Christina’s recipes & great depth of flavor, not just sweet. I love how unusual and unique the recipes are – no boring snickerdoodles or devil’s food cake. I made the birthday cake & cereal milk ice cream for Father’s Day & what a hit! The cake seemed a little intimidating with 4 different components (the cake, the cake soak, the frosting, the cake crumb) but making it was very simple and not time-consuming as I envisioned. The cake is inspired by the funfetti cake mix but funfetti has nothing on this cake! This is my favorite cake I’ve ever had. No words describe how amazing it is & how impressive you’ll look showing up with a cake like this. It wasn’t even difficult to assemble. The cereal milk ice cream was very unusual but very delicious.
Although the finished recipes have a lot of components, every recipe is explained so clearly that they’re practically fool-proof. To those negatively reviewing because your cookies didn’t come out: I seriously doubt you followed instructions. I’ve made 2 different batches of cookies (blueberry and cream cookies & confetti cookies) & both turned out AMAZING. Did you follow her instructions & use King Arthur bread flour? Mix the fats for 10 minutes until it wasn’t streaky? Refrigerate for at least an hour and go straight into the oven? I had zero issues following the clearly-explained methods. Every recipe I’ve made so far has turned out amazingly well & I look forward to working through the entire book.
UPDATE:
I’ve since made every single cake (some multiple times) and every ice cream recipe in this book. Any gathering or excuse I can find to make one of these cakes, I make one. Every single person rants and raves about how it’s the best cake they’ve ever had. I have a lot of books on ice cream, but Christina’s recipes are my absolute favorite. She uses gelatin instead of eggs, so you get a pure flavor of whatever the ice cream is (the graham ice cream is the best!).
Again, to anyone thinking the recipes are too complicated or time-consuming: they’re not! If she says cream the ingredients for 3 minutes, then set a timer for THREE minutes! I’m no professional baker but I can follow instructions, and every single recipe I’ve made (over half the recipes in this book!) have turned out PHENOMENAL. Just follow Christina’s very simple instructions & you’re set! You don’t have to make everything in the same day. Sure, the cakes have 4-5 components to them, but that’s what makes them the greatest cakes you’ll ever taste. The two frostings most of the cakes have means more complex flavor & then the crumb adds a nice textural component.
You can not only make some of the components in advance, but you can make the entire cake up to 2 weeks in advance! That’s what I love! You have to freeze the cake for a minimum of 5 hours to be able to remove the acetate, and you can keep it in the freezer up to 2 weeks! Normally, I would never freeze a fully assembled cake, but these turn out perfectly fresh – you can’t even tell it’s been frozen.
I’m also obsessed with the assembly of these cakes! You bake it in a sheet pan & cut the 3 layers out with a cake ring. You use acetate to create the perfect layers – so easy with Christina’s clear instructions but SO striking!!
This is 10000% my favorite cookbook EVER. I will definitely shed a tear when I’ve baked everything & I’m craving new recipes.
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Tamara
Libro excelente pero me lo enviaron roto
Reviewed in Mexico on June 4, 2021
Tamara
Reviewed in Mexico on June 4, 2021
Pero el libro es sensacional
Images in this review
Jonathan M.
The best baking book I have ever read.
Reviewed in Germany on March 24, 2023
Noobtacular
Very cool book full of interesting recipes.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 1, 2020