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    Saturday, April 20, 2024

    Here's how Milk Bar makes the addictive Ted Lasso biscuits

    The pink box is optional but very effective for Ted Lasso messaging purposes. (Bloomberg photo by Kate Krader)
    Here's how Milk Bar makes the addictive Ted Lasso biscuits

    By all accounts, the Emmy award-winning British soccer show "Ted Lasso" has been an overwhelming hit.

    (Apple Inc. doesn't share information about its shows; the company did say that the Season 2 premiere brought in more accounts on opening weekend than any previous launch. The show "increased its viewership by 6x over Season One," according to the Observer.)

    In September, Apple released an official Ted Lasso biscuit recipe. Comprising just four ingredients — flour, butter, confectioner's sugar, salt — the cookies hit the buttery notes but didn't provide the compulsive adulation as seen on TV; many tasters pronounced it old-fashioned, like the show.

    One of the country's best bakers saw the opportunity to make a more compelling version of the viral sweet. Christina Tosi, founder of Milk Bar, a bakery embodying the same unabashed positive energy as the show, is a Ted Lasso fan. "When Season 1 came out, it made positivity cool again," says Tosi. "And the stickiest part of it was the power (of the biscuits) in a tiny little pink box. It's a show with the secret undertone of the power of baked goods."

    Tosi says she paid particular attention whenever the biscuits appeared on screen, studying them like a crime scene pathologist. "I would rewind, check what kind of pan, does he have a stand mixer, how is he cutting them," she says.

    To celebrate the season finale on Oct. 8, Tosi introduced the Ted Lasso x Milk Bar biscuit at the Milk Bar flagships in New York and Los Angeles for a limited time only.

    But you can sample the dead-simple biscuit by making it yourself. Tosi's version does inspire the kind of stop-everything-else fixation portrayed on the show; they're superior to the official version. That's because Tosi adds egg yolks and a few spoonfuls of brown sugar to the equation, giving her rectangular cookie a terrific, caramelized wave of flavor, along with an addictive chew that enhances the melt-in-your-mouth tenderness.

    The following recipe is from Christina Tosi, founder of Milk Bar.

    - - -

    Ted Lasso x Milk Bar Biscuits

    Makes 12 Lasso-size slices

    2 sticks (1/2 lb) unsalted butter, softened

    1-3/4 cup confectioner's sugar

    3 tbsp light brown sugar

    3 large egg yolks

    1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour

    1/2 tsp. kosher salt

    Heat the oven to 315 degrees and prepare an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray.

    In a medium bowl, mix the butter and sugars vigorously until smooth.

    Stir in the egg yolks. Add the flour and salt, mix just until the dough comes together. ("The less you mix the dough, the more positive vibes your biscuits will have," according to Tosi.) Using damp hands, press the dough in an even layer in the pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes until a thin, golden brown layer forms on top. Let cool completely before cutting into two even columns and then six even rows. Arrange in pink boxes, if you have them.

    Brown sugar and egg yolks are upgrades to the official biscuit recipe. (Bloomberg photo by Kate Krader)

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