That is Extremely Advocate, a column devoted to what individuals within the meals trade are consuming, consuming, and shopping for proper now. Right here Genevieve Yam writes about Horlicks, the malted milk powder that may do all of it.
In Britain and different Commonwealth nations, Horlicks—a subtly sweetened malted milk powder—is marketed as a sleep assist greatest consumed earlier than bedtime. However in Hong Kong, town the place I spent most of my childhood, the beverage is a staple at native cafés (cha chaan tengs) and roadside stalls (dai pai dongs), the place it’s obtainable across the clock and offered iced or sizzling. Every sip of Horlicks is wealthy, nutty, and deeply satisfying—and one you wish to return to time and again.
Till just lately, I’d solely loved Horlicks because it was marketed: in beverage kind. The drink was part of my wintertime routine—I’d whisk the powder right into a saucepan of simmering milk or flip it right into a malted sizzling cocoa by including just a few tablespoons of chopped darkish chocolate. As I launched into my skilled culinary profession, although, I noticed that the powder’s true potential lay outdoors the cup.
Loads of pastry cooks use milk powder so as to add depth of taste to their confections. As Tiffany Hopkins wrote for Epicurious, milk powder provides “a bonus layer of richness, sweetness, and creaminess to just about any deal with.” Toasted nonfat dry milk powder is the key ingredient on this unbelievable brown butter frosting. As for milk powder’s malted cousin, pastry chef and cookbook writer Stella Parks refers to it as “the umami bomb of desserts.”
Whereas milk powder is, primarily, milk in a condensed, dried kind, malted milk powders like Horlicks are made with each dehydrated milk and a mix of wheat flour and malted barley. Malting, the method of sprouting grains after which drying them at medium-low warmth, ends in toasty, caramel notes that complement elements generally utilized in baking, like brown sugar, butter, chocolate, and nuts. A teaspoon or two of Horlicks is all you should give your espresso desserts, chocolate chip cookies, and cocoa puddings an earthy, barely savory depth of taste that you just in any other case wouldn’t get from utilizing salt alone.
I nonetheless stay up for my cup of malted sizzling chocolate on chilly winter evenings, however you’ll additionally discover me reaching for my container of Horlicks at any time when I’m baking. And when individuals ask how they, too, could make higher desserts with minimal effort, I’ll present them my little canister of Horlicks—the malted milk powder that might.
