Cereal Milk Ice Cream Pie

Yes, you read that title correctly.  CEREAL MILK!  For those of you who grew up eating sugary cereals, I’m sure you can remember the freakishly colored, oh so sweet milk that was left after you finished eating a bowl of Lucky Charms or Frosted Flakes.  Were you one of those people who slurped it up?  I was.  That is, when I was even allowed to eat sugary cereals.  Once a year, on our birthdays, my mother would buy my sister’s and I a sugared cereal to enjoy.  Other than that, the most sugar we got in a cereal was Honey Nut Cheerios.

You could definitely use other cereals for this recipe.  Just keep in mind the color of the milk after you’ve made it.  This recipe used regular cornflakes, and the ice cream was still nice and white.  I can think of a few cereals that might get a little weird looking when steeped in milk!

Cereal Milk Ice Cream Pie, adapted from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook

makes 1 9-inch pie

For the Cereal Milk:

• 2 ¾ cups cornflakes
• 3 ¾  cups cold milk
• 2 T light brown sugar, tightly packed
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

Heat the oven to 300°F.

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

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

Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, collecting the milk in a medium bowl. The milk will drain off quickly at first, then become thicker and starchy toward the end of the straining process. Using the back of a spoon or ladle (or your hand), wring the milk out of the cornflakes, but do not force the mushy cornflakes through the sieve.

Whisk the brown sugar and salt into the milk until fully dissolved. Store in a clean pitcher or glass milk jug, refrigerated, for up to 1 week.  I used one of these plastic Ball jars that work great for freezing too (I also use them to store homemade ice cream, pasta sauce, broth).

Now feed the leftover cornflakes to your dog.  They’ll love them!

* Toasting the cornflakes before steeping them deepens the flavor of the milk. Taste your cereal milk after you make it. If you want it a little sweeter, don’t be shy; add a little more brown sugar. If you want a more mellow cereal milk, add a splash of fresh milk and a pinch of salt.

For the Cornflake Crust:

• 2 1/2 cups cornflakes
• 1/4 cup dried milk powder
• 1 1/2 T granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• 4 1/2 T butter, melted

Heat oven to 275°.

In a medium bowl, with your hands, crush cornflakes to ¼ of their original size. Add milk powder, sugar, and salt; toss to mix. Add butter; toss to coat. (As you toss, the butter will act as glue, binding the dry ingredients to the cereal, creating small clusters.)

On a parchment, or silicon-lined sheet pan, spread clusters and bake for 20 minutes, at which point they should look toasted, smell buttery, and crunch gently when cooled slightly and chewed.

Cool completely before storing or using in a recipe. Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the crunch will keep fresh for one week; in the fridge or freezer, it will keep with one month.

To make the crust, crush cornflakes again, with the back of a spoon this time.  The mixture is too buttery to use your hands (I learned this the hard way!).  Pat into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch pie plate.

For the Ice Cream:

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

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 and incorporated.

Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into your ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. It will keep in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.

Pour the ice cream into the cornflake crust or your favorite pie crust.  I think a chocolate wafer or graham cracker crust would be delicious too!