Milk Street BAKES (Amazon affiliate link) This is a fabulous baking book! And in Milk Street tradition, it’s filled with recipes that aren’t going to be in the average baking book. So many delicious and unexpected bakes! This is a really fun book to play in. It will be loved by the amateur and the experienced baker alike. It’s a huge volume and the cover design is just gorgeous.
I’ll tell you all about the bakes we tried, but let’s get you that Savory Kale and Two-Cheese Scones recipe first! They are ammmaaazing! They’re super hearty, and the flavor is dialed all the way up and perfectly balanced. And the texture is to die for. Earthy kale, salty sharp cheeses, a little sweet pop from the raisins, and nutty seeds. They’re total lookers, too.
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EXCERPTED FROM MILK STREET BAKES BY CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL. COPYRIGHT © 2024 BY CPK MEDIA, LLC. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOE MURPHY, USED WITH PERMISSION OF VORACIOUS, AN IMPRINT OF LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. NEW YORK, NY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
SAVORY KALE AND TWO-CHEESE SCONES
When standard breakfast pastries are too sugary, bake a batch of these flavorful savory scones. This is our adaptation of the hearty kale and cheese scones created by Briana Holt, of Tandem Coffee + Bakery in Portland, Maine. Dried currants and a small amount of sugar complement the minerally, vegetal notes of the kale and counterbalance the saltiness of the cheddar and pecorino, while a good dose of black pepper adds an undercurrent of spice. Either lacinato kale (also called dinosaur or Tuscan kale) or curly kale will work; you will need an average-sized bunch to obtain the amount of chopped stemmed leaves for the recipe.
Start to finish: 1¼ hours (40 minutes active), plus cooling
Makes 12 large scones
70 grams (½ cup) dried currants
87 grams (4 cups) stemmed and finely chopped lacinato or curly kale (see headnote)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
455 grams (3½ cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
54 grams (¼ cup) white sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1¼ teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
226 grams (16 tablespoons) salted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled
113 grams (4 ounces) sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese, cut into ¼-inch cubes (1 cup)
15 grams (½ ounce) finely grated pecorino Romano cheese (¼ cup)
1½ cups cold buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten
36 grams (¼ cup) raw shelled sunflower seeds
Don’t allow the buttermilk and butter to lose their chill before use. Keeping them cold helps ensure that the dough will remain workable and won’t become unmanageably soft during shaping. When rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time, work quickly so the oven doesn’t lose too much heat.
Heat the oven to 375°F with racks in the upper- and lower-middle positions. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with kitchen parchment. In a small microwave-safe bowl, stir together the currants and 2 tablespoons water. Microwave uncovered on high until warm and plump, about 30 seconds; set aside. In a medium bowl, toss the kale and lemon juice; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper.
To a food processor, add about half of the flour mixture and scatter all of the butter over the top. Pulse until the butter is in pieces slightly larger than peas, 10 to 12 pulses. Transfer to the bowl with the remaining flour mixture. Add the currants and any remaining liquid, the cheddar, pecorino and kale. Toss with your hands until well combined. Add about 1/3 of the buttermilk and toss just a few times with your hands, making sure to scrape along the bottom of the bowl, until the liquid is absorbed. Add the remaining buttermilk in 2 more additions, tossing after each. After the final addition of buttermilk, toss until no dry, floury bits remain. The mixture will be quite crumbly and will not form a cohesive dough.
Lightly dust the counter with flour, turn the mixture out onto it, then give it a final toss. Divide it into 2 even piles, gathering each into a mound, then briefly knead each mound; it’s fine if the mixture is still somewhat crumbly. Gather each mound into a ball, then press firmly into a cohesive 5-inch disk about 1½ inches thick. Using a chef ’s knife, cut each disk into 6 wedges. Place 6 wedges on each prepared baking sheet, spaced evenly apart. Brush the tops with the beaten egg, then sprinkle with the sunflower seeds, pressing lightly to adhere.
Bake until the scones are deep golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Cool on the baking sheets on wire racks for 5 minutes, then transfer directly to a rack and cool for at least another 5 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Back to that review….
Savory Kale and Two-Cheese Scones. Very much to our surprise, this was our favorite! They’re super hearty, and the flavor is dialed all the way up and perfectly balanced. And the texture is to die for. Earthy kale, salty sharp cheeses, a little sweet pop from the raisins, and nutty seeds. They’re total lookers, too.
Three-Seed Beer Pretzels. These are delicious. I’ve never seen the baking soda baked pre-simmer before. These taste amazing and have that gorgeous chewy-fluffy balance. They’re meant to be enjoyed with mustard, but I centered dinner around them with a bratwurst potato onion bake and crisp sweet apples. Perfection.
Bete Noir. Whoever penned this certainly knows their way around cocktails. Bourbon, yes, but I’ve never seen bitters in a cake before. It looks intimidating but it’s really not. The cake was huge success. I had a little flambe action with the candied bourbony orange peel, so it’s a little darker than the book, but the taste was fabulous. As Julia Child said, “I don’t know if the flambe does anything, but it’s fun!”
German Apple Cake. This is the cake on the cover. It looks like it’s going to be a fussy recipe, but it’s Tuesday-night easy! The flavors and textures are divine. It’s very almond and butter forward. Everyone should have this one in their back pocket!
Brazilian Cheese Bread. I milled my own tapioca into tapioca starch from tapioca, so the exterior is not as smooth as it should be, but wowza, these are so easy to make and so much better than what’s commercially available.
Zucchini Bread with Orange Zest and Chocolate Chunks. Just fantastic bread. The flavors play beautifully together. It’s wonderfully moist. And the finishing sugar giving this little bit of sweet crunch to the top is chef’s kiss.
German Blueberry Streusel Cake. Delicious!!! It’s how you want your coffee cake to be! It tastes super fruity but stretches 2 cups of blueberries with a bunch of pantry items, so it’s super budget-friendly, too. They really missed an opportunity not pulling together a list at the beginning of all the “make ahead” recipes. Making this the day before and then giving it 8-24 hours in the fridge before finishing it really makes it such a practical and flexible recipe, the sort people really prize for entertaining and busy occasions where you want something wonderful to be at the ready! I made this on Saturday and then finished it early Sunday morning before a lovely family outing. Perfection!
Tahini Browned Butter Cookies. These are fantastic. Posh, grown-up peanut butter cookies. We loved the optional chocolate dip with toasted sesame seeds, too. But we did try them unadorned just to be thorough. Twice.
Pizza Dough. This recipe is easy and makes 4 10” pizzas. You can use it that same night or within 48 hours, so it’s nice and flexible. I made two pizzas that night, and two more two days later. 4 different pizzas! Super worth the little bit of time to get the recipe together.
Fig, Blue Cheese, and Prosciutto Pizza. Oh my word. This is a fantastic pizza! Sweet figs, savory salty prosciutto, and tangy blue cheese finished with acidic pops from balsamic glaze and zippy scallions.
Pizza with Pepperoni, Mozzarella, and Hot Honey. Oh, lets not forget the pepperoncini. This is a sweet and spicy meat lover’s dream. They mentioned hot capicola or hot soppressata variations. Can’t wait to try those, too!
Upside-Down Pizza with Fennel, Taleggio, and Salami. Okay, this was supposed to be an upside-down pizza with a different dough, so I tossed the veggies on a baking sheet with their olive oil, salt, and pepper for 15 minutes while the oven was finishing its preheat, so they would work on this short-broil on the baking steel thin pizza style. My grocer was out of Taleggio, so I had to sub in Brie. Really delicious and interesting pizza.
Pizza with Ricotta, Zucchini and Mint. Wow, this is a cool pizza! Cheesy lemony base didn’t overpower the zucchini, and the nuttiness of the pistachios and fresh pops from the basil finished it beautifully.
Spinach and Cheese Borek. This is seriously addictive. Spinach, feta, and mozzarella, encased in phyllo layers brushed in a milk-olive oil mixture. The texture is great. Crispy, but not dry at all. It’s dotted with sesame and nigella seeds at the end. They mention that nigella are also called kalonji. The spice merchant I use sells them as Charnushka.
Almond-Coconut Cake with Cherries and Pistachios. Love love love this cake. Every bite is filled with big pops of flavor. My daughter laughed and said this is what people want fruit cake to taste like. Moist, dense, and rich, and filled with cherries, coconut, and pistachios. Strongly flavored and not a bit sweeter than it needs to be.
You want to see more Milk Street? Sure! Here are the last 3 blogposts I did about them… Milk Street 365
Vietnamese-Style Meatball Lettuce Wraps
Tacos al Pastor
Greek Egg-Lemon Soup
#MilkStreet #177MilkStreet @177MilkStreet #MilkStreetBakes #MilkStreet365 #ChristopherKimball #JenniferGuerrero #TheNotSoStarvingArtist @StarvingArtistEats #JensProteinNiceCreams #Ninja #NinjaCreami #NinjaCreamiDeluxe #ProteinIceCream #Protein #Macros #healthy #cottagecheese #recipes #cookbook #NinjaCreamy #NinjaCreamyDeluxe #NinjaCreamiDelux #NinjaCreamyDelux
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Need that book? Milk Street BAKES (Amazon affiliate link)
Jen’s books
Jen’s Protein Nice Creams
Jen’s Protein Nice Creams 2
Jen’s Protein Nice Creams 3
Hope you love them!!!
Need more info? Here’s an FAQ blogpost!
Next! You need a machine!
I have the Ninja Creami Deluxe 11-in-1. The containers hold 24 oz and it has the most settings. All of my recipes are made for these 24 ounce containers. Those 24 oz containers are perfect for the hub and I to split. This machine is amazing!
The Ninja Creami 7-in-1 is also highly rated. It has a few fewer functions and the containers are 16 oz. If you’re going this route, just make 2/3 of each of my recipes and modify the nutritional info to 2/3!
An immersion (stick) blender.
Cuisinart Smart Stick Blender. This fits right into the container, so you can mix your base without having any extra dishes. It makes it all streamlined. You could do it in a food processor, but that’s a lot of cleaning after each flavor. The immersion blender makes it so easy and tidy that you’ll use it all the time! (And not ice cream related, but combining a stick blender and a mason jar, sauces and dips are a breeze!)
Extra containers!
The Ninja Creami Deluxe comes with 2 containers. After you blend your base, you have to stick it in the freezer for 24 hours before it goes in the Creami. I bought two extra sets of 4 containers so that I’d have a total of 10 to work with. I personally went with generic. They are cheap and work just as well! BE SURE TO GET THE RIGHT CONTAINERS FOR YOUR MACHINE!!!! THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE!
4 pack of the 24 oz Deluxe size 4 pack of the 16 oz 7-in-1 size
Wine glass covers.
10 Silicone Mug Cup Covers. Huh???? Yeah. Things expand when they freeze. The top of your concoction is perfectly level when you put it in your freezer. You pull it out and some weird frozen sculpture is trying to emerge from the surface. We don’t want to break our Creami blade! What to do? Some people put their mixtures in the freezer with the lids off until they freeze. Others shave down the icy protrusion. I just pop a wine glass cover right on the mixture’s surface and pop my lid on. Solved!
Protein powders
The first two are the main two I use for everything! (I’m putting links for the 2 lb containers, but the 5 lb are more economical!) The next three are fabulous, one recipe powders to add to your collection after the main two!
All 3 books Vanilla ice cream whey Extreme milk chocolate whey
Book 1 only Girl Scout Thin Mint Girl Scout Coconut Caramel S’mores whey (Amazon only has the 5 lb right now. I’ll update the link when the put the 2 pound back up.)
Books 2 and 3 Ryse Jet-Puffed (Several flavors and I’m in love with this stuff!!! It’ll be in book 3, too!)
Book 2 only Quest Salted Caramel
Book 3 only Unflavored Collagen – lots of recipes Vanilla Casein – 1 recipe
Sweeteners
The first two are my main. I just use the confectioner’s version for red velvet, but you could totally use plain. Absolutely sub in whatever your favorite sweetener is!
Regular Swerve, Brown Sugar Swerve, Confectioner’s Swerve – There’s an Amazon pack with all 3!
Extracts
Sometimes, even with 1 ½ to 2 cups of fabulous fruit in the concoctions, the flavor just wants a little boost to push it from yummy to fabulous! I love extracts.
Vanilla extract Almond Extract Rum extract Butter extract Strawberry extract Raspberry extract
Peach flavor Buttery sweet dough emulsion Boiled cider
Add to the bin for Book Two Mango Coconut
Add to the bin for book 3 Vanilla Bean Paste Cream cheese icing flavor Caramel flavor
Butterscotch flavor Rose water
Other Stuff
PB Fit (low fat peanut butter powder)
Max Mallows (zero sugar marshmallows) Only a 6-pack is available now. I’ll update this link when 1 or 3 are back up. Burnt Caramel flavor Max Mallows – pack of 6
Jordan’s Skinny Sauces Salted Caramel Fun addition, BUT!!!! It’s like a jack in the box. You lightly squeeze and nothing. A tiny bit more pressure and a violent stream rockets out! I look like Will Ferrell in Elf squeezing it in the most tentative manner. I just increased the size of the hole and it’s less dramatic. lol!
Lavender
Hibiscus
