These Carrot Cake Truffles are a treat from Momofuku Milk Bar's genius chef, Christina Tosi. Carrot cake is crumbled and bound together with liquid cheesecake, and coated in milk crumbs.
Ingredients
For the Carrot Cake:
1/2cupunsalted buttersoftened
1/2cuplight brown sugarpacked
1/2cupsugar
2eggswhisked
1/4cupvegetable oil
6.25ozall-purpose flour, by weight(1.25 cups, measured)
1tspbaking powder
1/4tspbaking soda
3/4tspcinnamon
1tspsalt
2.5cupsgrated carrots
For the liquid cheesecake:
8ozcream cheeseat room temperature
3/4cupsugar
1tbspcornstarch
1/2tspsalt
2tbspmilk
1egg
For the milk crumbs:
1cup+ 1/2 cup milk powder
2.5ozflour, by weight(1/2 cup, measured)
1/4cupcornstarch
1/4cupsugar
1/2tspsalt
1/2cupunsalted buttermelted
6ozwhite chocolatemelted
For assembling the truffles:
9ozwhite chocolatemelted
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Whisk to combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
Cream together the butter and both sugars in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (read my article on how to cream properly if you don’t know how). Cream for 1 minute, then scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs. Mix until incorporated. Scrape down the sides and add the oil, and beat until the oil has been incorporated.
Add the flour mixture and mix until the flour disappears, then fold in the grated carrots. Scrape it all out into a 9×13 baking dish and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool, and turn the oven down to 300 degrees F.
To make the liquid cheesecake: set the oven to 300 degrees F.
Beat the cream cheese in a bowl with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and mix until the sugar has been incorporated.
In a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch, salt, milk, and eggs, and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Beat this mixture into the cream cheese and beat for 3 minutes.
Place the liquid cheesecake in an ovenproof bowl. Place the bowl into another ovenproof pan and fill with enough boiling water to come up halfway up the sides of the liquid cheesecake (this is a bain marie, it will help regulate the temperature of the cheesecake and make sure it doesn’t brown or curdle). Bake the cheesecake in this water bath for 15 minutes.
Remove the cheesecake bowl from the water and let it cool. Turn the oven down to 250.
To make the milk crumbs: Set the oven to 250 degrees F, and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Whisk to combine 1 cup milk powder with the flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Add the melted butter and use a spatula to toss the mixture until small clusters form. Spread these clusters onto your parchment covered baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
Add the remaining 1/2 cup of milk powder and toss, then crush the large clusters with a fork.
Pour the white chocolate over the crumbs and toss until large crumbs form again. Place the crumbs in the fridge or freezer to let the white chocolate harden. If the crumbs are too large, crush with a fork or spin them briefly in a food processor (be careful not to melt the chocolate in that hot food processor).
To assemble the truffles: Use a fork to flake the carrot cake into crumbs, and mix 6-8 tbsp of the liquid cheesecake in. Use a small cookie scoop to portion out truffles and roll them into balls. Dip each ball into the melted white chocolate, then roll to coat in the milk crumbs. Repeat with the remaining cake balls and refrigerate the cake balls until the chocolate has hardened.