Cereal Milk Ice Cream. Cranking Up AWOLNATION.

Ah, Childhood.

Have you seen this photo?

Well, when I was ~~childish~~ little, me and my friends used to play a game where we would clip clothespins to the droopy pants of family and neighbors. The goal was to see how many clothespins you could attach before the person caught on.

As we grew older, we abandoned the physical clothespins, but would still remark to each other whenever there was a sagger in the vinity. “Oh, that guy is four clothespins.” “Quick, to your left….at least a 6 clothespinner.”

Man, I could lose a whole clothesline of pins in the Bieb’s drawers.

Another childhood memory of mine: I remember how much I adored the sweet milk that was left over after a big bowl of breakfast cereal. The sweeter the better. I’d tip the bowl up to my mouth and drink those delicious dregs.

Well, through the brilliance of Christina Tosi, the ultra cool and inventive dessert creator for Momofuku, I was able to escape to the past with a future fresh recipe for Cereal Milk Ice Cream.

I used Corn Flakes as a basic starting ground, but now I cannot wait to try other cereal flavors. The ice cream had a light, refreshing taste with a lovely corn flavor the result of roasting the cereal briefly before steeping it in milk. There are no eggs in this ice cream recipe so it gets its creaminess from the glucose.

Cereal Milk Ice Cream

Ingredients:

Cereal Milk (recipe follows)
3/4 tsp powdered gelatin
2 Tbs (30g) light brown sugar
1/4 tsp (1g) kosher salt
1/4 cup (20g) milk powder
2 Tbs (50g) glucose
Fresh fruit or cereal to garnish (I used Cinnamon Toast Crunch)

Directions:

1. Sprinkle the gelatin over a small amount of the cold cereal milk and let it sit for a couple of minutes to soften.

2. Warm a little bit of the cereal milk and whisk it in the gelatin to dissolve. Whisk in the remaining cereal milk, brown sugar, salt, milk powder, and glucose until everything is fully dissolved.

3. Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The ice cream will keep in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 weeks. Garnish with your favorite cereal.

Cereal Milk

Ingredients:

2 ¾ cups (100 grams) cornflakes
3 ¾ cups (825 grams) cold milk
2 tablespoons (30 grams) light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon (1 gram) kosher salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.

2. Spread the cornflakes on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly toasted. Cool completely.

3. Transfer cooled cornflakes to a large pitcher or bowl. Pour the milk into the pitcher and stir vigorously. Let steep for 20 minutes at room temperature.

4. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, collecting the milk in a medium bowl. Discard mushy cornflakes (or eat them).

5. Whisk the brown sugar and salt into the milk until fully dissolved. Store in a covered container, refrigerated, for up to 1 week.

Recipes from Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook by Christina Tosi (I left out the freeze dried corn powder called for in the original recipe since I couldn’t be arsed to track it down.)

My son included this song on the Mother’s Day mixtape he made for me. As he would say, it is pretty sick.