Momofuku's Cereal Milk Ice Cream

During my last trip to New York City, I felt inspired by a number of mouth-watering foods: freshly made spicy guacamole at Dos Caminos, frisée Lyonnaise (with chicken livers and a poached egg!) at Bar Boulud, a flight of chilled red wines at Blue Ribbon Downing Street Bar, and Shake Shack's 'Shroom Burger--a portobello mushroom and hunk of cheese breaded and deep-fried. In terms of dessert, my sister and I went to Momofuku Milk Bar for some of their trademark (literally) cereal milk soft serve, which was delicious and interesting with a definite essence of cereal milk in it. But I wondered how the overall effect would be as a more solid ice cream rather than as a soft serve, and figured it should be quite easy to make.

So I did... and it turned out decadent and rich, with the sweet taste of Honey Bunches of Oats (my chosen cereal) contrasting the slight tartness of pure milk. I decided to use a higher cream-to-milk ratio than I did with the previous ice creams, to try something different. I personally thought it was a bit too rich (as in, I probably couldn't eat a whole bowlful), but others preferred the thicker texture.

Momofuku's Cereal Milk Ice Cream

1 c heavy cream
1 c whole milk
1 c cereal of your choice
3 egg yolks
1/4 c sugar (approximately, depends on sweetness of cereal)

1. In a medium bowl, combine cream and milk with cereal of your choice. Refrigerate for up to 30 minutes.
2. Strain cereal out and discard. Put mixture in saucepan with sugar (to taste) and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks until they turn pale yellow and fluff a bit.
3. When mixture is simmering, turn off heat and pour 1 c very slowly into the yolks, making sure to keep whisking so the eggs do not scramble. Then add back to saucepan and turn on medium-low heat.
4. Keep stirring over heat until custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Then take off heat, cover and refrigerate overnight.
   
5. Freeze in your ice cream maker.
   

As I mention above, the amount of sugar (and overall flavor, of course) will vary with the cereal you choose to use. I chose Honey Bunches of Oats because that's what I've been eating lately, and I had it handy. Also I thought the honey flavor would go well with the "pure milk" flavor. I think Milk Bar has made cereal milk ice cream with Fruity Pebbles and some other cereal I can't remember right now. But I could easily see making this ice cream again, maybe with a chocolate flavored cereal, and also because it is so easy to make compared to other ice creams. No pureeing or major straining/juicing involved!

Next up: Some real science!