DiscoverA Bit of OptimismAsk Yourself "What If?" with Milk Bar Founder Christina Tosi
Ask Yourself "What If?" with Milk Bar Founder Christina Tosi

Ask Yourself "What If?" with Milk Bar Founder Christina Tosi

Update: 2025-06-03
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What if this podcast turned into a baking show?

For Christina Tosi’s third visit to A Bit of Optimism, we decided to find out. So we headed to Milk Bar to make compost cookies from things in my own pantry and my favorite beer bread from scratch! 

Christina’s not just my best friend—she’s the founder of Milk Bar, host of Bake Squad on Netflix, a cookbook author, and a fan favorite on this podcast. She lives by one simple question: what if?

In this experimental episode, we dug into some big ideas about creativity, uncertainty, and the magic of trying something new. Recipes below!

This...is A Bit of Optimism.

You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube here.

For more on Christina and her work, check out:

christinatosi.com

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Simon's Compost Cookie Recipe (makes 15-20 cookies):

  • 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup tightly packed light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons glucose syrup
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • Maltesers
  • 85% dark chocolate
  • Optimism Coffee grounds
  • Granola
  • Space/Astronaut Ice Cream
  • Kettle Corn Pop Chips

For the full step-by-step recipe, visit Milk Bar's website!

Beer Bread Recipe:

  • 3 cups self-rising flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 4 tablespoons honey (or to taste)
  • 12 oz beer (Samual Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout is Simon's preference!)
  • 2 tablespoons butter (and save a little for the top)

Mix ingredients slowly together
Bake at 350 for 45-60 mins until baked through

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This episode is brought to you by True Classic!

I really love True Classic T-shirts, so we called them up and asked if they wanted to work together. And they said yes! 

Check out their clothes at: trueclassictees.com

Comments (1)

Karissa Norrington

I really loved this episode, but as a longtime professional in the beer industry, I'd like to offer a gentle correction to Christina's statement about the presence of yeast in commercially packaged beer. In truth, yeast is almost never present in packaged beer, as most beers are filtered after fermentation. Even those beers which are not filtered or contain yeast for the purpose of secondary fermentation are not likely to have any living cells remaining by the time they are purchased. Cheers!

Jul 10th
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Ask Yourself "What If?" with Milk Bar Founder Christina Tosi

Ask Yourself "What If?" with Milk Bar Founder Christina Tosi

The Optimism Company from Simon Sinek