Shortly after we moved to Ottawa, we were celebrating my wife’s birthday with some new friends. I had made the birthday cake from Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar, and everyone was very impressed with the at-the-time new and exciting-looking cake.
All of a sudden, one of the guys asked me what the crumbs were that were decorating the cake. “What do you call this?! Is it a CRUMBLE?!”
I explained that it was a crumb. He stopped. Paused a minute. Then shouted, “A CRUMB! ON PURPOSE! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!”
Well, believe it. There are many different kinds of crumbs you can make, and you can add them to a variety of desserts, whether it is pudding, cake, or adding to ice cream.
I’ve got three options below that are my personal favorites: Milk, Graham, and Chocolate.
“Think of milk powder as MSG for bakers” – Christina Tosi
*Each recipe makes about 2 1/4 cups.
Milk Crumb
Ingredients:
- 40 g or ½ cup milk powder
- 40 g or ¼ cup cup flour
- 12 g or 2 Tbsp corn starch
- 25 g 2 Tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 55 g or 4 Tbsp melted butter
- 20 g or ¼ cup milk powder
- 90 g melted white chocolate
Procedure:
- Combine first amount of milk powder, flour, corn starch, sugar and salt.
- Add melted butter and stir until a crumb forms.
- Bake on a cookie sheet at 250°F for 30 min (or until they look mostly dried out).
- Cool.
- Toss crumbs with second amount of milk powder and lastly pour the white chocolate over, toss and cool in fridge.
Chocolate Crumb
Ingredients:
- 105 g or 2/3 cup flour
- 4 g or 1 tsp corn starch
- 100 g or ½ cup sugar
- 65 g or 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 85 g or 6 Tbsp melted butter
Procedure:
- Combine dry ingredients and add butter.
- Mix until a crumb forms.
- Bake on a sheet pan at 300°F for 20 minutes (or until mostly dried out).
- Cool.
Graham Crumb
Ingredients:
- 190 g or 1 ½ cups ground graham crackers
- 20 g or ¼ cup milk powder
- 25 g or 2 Tbsp sugar
- ¾ tsp salt
- 55 g or 4 Tbsp melted butter
- 55 g or ¼ cup 35% cream
Procedure:
- Combine graham crackers, milk powder, sugar and salt.
- Whisk butter and cream together before adding to dry ingredients.
- Bake on a sheet pan at 300°F for 25 min (or until mostly dried out).
- Cool.
Recommended Listening:
I really like the cornflake crunch too. Thanks for posting.
I always have an issue with the melted chocolate adhering properly. Every time I make this I end up losing a batch because of trying to add too much to compensate for it not sticking. It sticks to the milk powder not the crumbs. No idea how people get this to work.