Today’s dessert recipe is inspired by one of our favourite bakeries, Milk Bar, helmed by award winning pastry chef Christina Tosi. We frequent the Toronto location attached to Momofuku and have visited the shop inside Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas, where we enjoyed their classic Birthday Cake.
Milk Bar’s best known creation, however, is cereal milk, which is literally meant to taste just like the milk at the bottom of a bowl of cornflakes. It goes well in ice cream, and as we learned this week, is also perfect for panna cotta.
Recipe
Adapted from Gourmet Traveller.
Servings: 6 | Ready time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients
Panna cotta
- 75 grams cornflakes
- 675 ml heavy cream
- 60 grams light brown sugar
- 1 package (7.2 grams) gelatine powder
Cornflake crunch
- 85 grams cornflakes
- ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate
Steps
Prepare cereal milk
1) Preheat oven to 300 F. Spread cornflakes on an oven tray lined with baking paper, bake until lightly toasted (15 minutes) and cool completely. Set aside portion for the cornflake crunch to be prepared later.
2) Transfer to a large jug, add heavy cream, stir vigorously and then stand at room temperature to infuse (20 minutes). Strain through a fine sieve, pressing on solids to extract all liquid (discard solids).
3) Whisk in brown sugar and ½ teaspoon sea salt, cover and refrigerate until required.
Prepare panna cotta
4) Warm cereal milk in a small saucepan over low heat. Add gelatine to warm cereal milk and stir to dissolve, being careful not to incorporate air.
5) Divide among 6 small glasses or ramekins (about 300 ml) and refrigerate until set (3 hours-overnight).
Prepare cornflake crunch
6) In a medium sauce pan, heat 1 inch of water on low-medium heat. Place a large bowl over top, ensuring water is not touching the bowl. Place chocolate inside the bowl and allow to melt. Mix with spatula.
7) Spread toasted cornflakes on a flat surface. Use spatula to drizzle melted chocolate on top.
8) When panna cotta is set, spread cornflake crunch on top. Ready to serve.
👨🍳 Notes from Mr. Chuckles
The panna cottas are best served within about a day after preparation, while they remain moist and soft.
The little marshmallow looking things you see on our version are matcha flavoured meringues. You can find our meringue recipe here.
We used heavy cream for the cereal milk, which produced a denser panna cotta. For a lighter, airy version, stick with the original recipe which calls for cold milk.
And here’s the story behind Milk Bar’s cereal milk, as told by Christina Tosi herself.

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