The Tech Refugee

I have spent over two decades in technology. I have aligned stakeholders, driven cross-functional initiatives to successful completion and on more occasions than I care to count, described something completely ordinary as “a paradigm shift.” I am not proud of all of it, in fact not proud of any of it.

What I am proud of, what I have been quietly, almost secretly proud of for years, is what happens in my kitchen on weekends. Specifically, what happens when I put something I made in front of people and watch their faces. There’s a moment before the polite response kicks in, and that’s the real review and requires no slides or documents.

For context: I grew up in Iran, left in my early teens, spent twenty years in England, then crossed over to America. I have travelled and seen food culture on many continents. I have eaten Tahdig (crispy rice) with saffron rice in Tehran, a proper Sunday roast in the English countryside, and an “artisanal” supermarket muffin in a suburban strip mall that tasted of absolutely nothing and cost six dollars.

That range of experience gives you a perspective. Specifically, it gives you the ability to notice when something has been tweaked to seem like good food without the inconvenience of actually being good.

Last weekend I made chocolate chip cookies. Not the ones with ready made cookie dough, but mine, from scratch, using a trick involving milk powder that sounds unglamorous and works unreasonably well. Three people ate them in near silence and one said, with genuine surprise, “these taste like they’re from an actual bakery.” and that was meant as a compliment, however I received it as an indictment of what we’ve collectively agreed to call normal.

That’s mostly what this newsletter is about.

The name requires a brief explanation, and I’ll only give it once. I left Iran as a teenager to avoid being sent to war and then 40 years later left a twenty plus year tech career because it was soul crushing. Both were the right call, both led somewhere better. The Tech Refugee is the shortest version of that story and it turns out the skills you develop escaping things serve you well in a kitchen.

The cookies and the milk powder thing: milk powder is not a glamorous ingredient and does not appear on the menus of restaurants that use the word “curated.” It lives in the back of the baking aisle next to things your grandmother bought and it is also, quietly, one of the best things you can add to a chocolate chip cookie.

It concentrates dairy flavor without adding liquid. Cookies made with milk powder taste more like themselves, richer, slightly more complex, with a subtle caramel undertone that most people can’t identify but everyone responds to. The rest of the recipe is straightforward. I also brown the butter, because it takes four extra minutes and doubles the depth of flavor, which is one of the better returns on investment I’ve found outside of a spreadsheet.

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Milk Powder Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 12 to 15. Browned butter for depth, whole milk powder for that “actual bakery” richness most people can taste but can’t name. The dough is better after an overnight rest.

Ingredients

• 225g unsalted butter (browned and cooled)
• 200g light brown sugar, packed
• 100g granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs + 1 yolk (the extra yolk adds richness)
• 2 tsp vanilla paste
• 280g all-purpose flour
• 30g whole milk powder (this is the thing, don’t leave it out)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 300g good chocolate, roughly chopped
• Flaky salt, for finishing

Method

1. Brown the butter until deep golden and nutty. Cool 20 minutes.
2. Beat in the butter and both sugars, then add the eggs and the yolk and the vanilla, and beat until slightly ribbony.
3. Fold in the flour, milk powder, baking soda and salt. Fold in the chocolate.
4. Chill at least 1 hour, ideally overnight.
5. Bake at 375F for 10 to 12 minutes, removing them from the oven when the centers still look underdone. Flaky salt immediately out of the oven. Wait 15 minutes before eating.

The milk powder lives in the back of the baking aisle next to things your grandmother bought, and it is quietly one of the best things you can add to a chocolate chip cookie. It concentrates dairy flavor without adding liquid — the note everyone responds to and nobody can identify.