I came up with this recipe namely because I was craving financier, but I was also craving coffee cake. Coffee, or crumb, cake consists of this dense, rich cake that is usually made with sour cream, and lightly spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon. It has streusel bits baked throughout it, which adds a pleasant crunch…
Author: Freddy
I have some training in both savory and pastry when it comes to food. I love to develop recipes in my spare time, just because the creative side of cooking is what really appeals to me.
Maple-Pecan Cookies
These maple-pecan cookies were the result of me wanting something pecan pie-adjacent, and not wanting to outright bake a pecan pie or eat pecan pie filling. That and I was craving maple-flavored cookies. I have been making tons of brown butter-baked goods, and maple is just something that fits perfectly with that flavor profile. I…
Miso-Black Pepper Corn Muffins
These miso-black pepper corn muffins were my way of turning my miso-black pepper corn cookies into a corn muffin type of thing. The corn muffins are the Claim Jumper were a huge childhood hit for my family, and I wanted to find a way to create my own version of those, since Claim Jumper is…
Tres Leches Cake with Whipped Condensed Milk
This cake was actually a cake order for one of my repeat customers who have been ordering cakes from me sine the pandemic! For the sake of confidentiality, I won’t outright say who they are, but I have made so many cakes for them already, and am grateful as always whenever they reach out for…
Cinnamon-Apple Crumble Muffins
One of my favorite things to make with apples is this Italian yogurt-apple cake, featuring brown butter, yogurt, and grated apples to create this super tender cake crumb. That cake was inspired by an old episode of Top Chef, where it was referenced by a chef who substituted the apple for radish and made this…
Mortadella and Pistachio Pizza
This recipe was originally going to be a revisitation of my old squash blossom and burrata pizza I did years ago. Except that I could not find squash blossoms anywhere, and so I had to pivot. I wanted to try out a fun recipe using my sourdough starter, and making this airy, high-hydration, pizza dough…
Sourdough Smash Burgers
Now I get it. When you think a recipe by Fred, you would never think hamburger. The last time I ever made a burger was probably in college, where I made the patties too thick and almost unhinged my jaw attempting to bite into one. But I have learned a few tricks since then, namely…
Quahog Clam Onigiri
A long, long time ago, I was watching a Japan travel video, where someone purchased these red clam onigiri(rice balls), stored in the clam shells, and enjoyed them on a coastal train ride. Now, I would have totally linked the video, but it was years ago and I honestly could not find it anywhere. But…
Azuki-Cream Cheese Galette de Rois
It has been a while since I last attempted a galette de rois, and unlike the last time, where I had to fast track making one to get something posted in time for Epiphany, this time, I was able to get a little more prep done. A galette de rois is a French cake, made…
Maple-Vietnamese Cinnamon Rolls
These cinnamon rolls were a random brain child when I was trying to think of fun things I could do with maple syrup and Vietnamese cinnamon. When life gives you cinnamon, making a cinnamon roll is kind of a no-brainer. However, I did not want to just do a plain cinnamon roll. So that was…
Tonka Bean and Yuzu Paris Brest
I made this dessert for my friends’ highbrow-lowbrow caviar night. We sometimes do this thing where we buy caviar to be bougie, and pair it with fancy things(like champagne and charcuterie) or less fancy things(like chips and fried chicken). In my case, I wanted to go the fancy route, since I am a bougie bitch…
Red Velvet Cake with Cheesecake Brulee
This red velvet cake combines together a few fun desserts, being obviously red velvet cake, but also cheesecake, and creme brulee. I have been obsessed with doing these baked cheesecakes with bruleed sugar tops – these kinds of cheesecakes are similar to a basque cheesecake, but instead of the top being burnt, it is a…
Vegan German Chocolate Cake
German chocolate cake reminds me of two things. The first is back in 2018, when I worked at a hotel in Inglewood, and I had a boss who threw a giant stink because I was not bringing desserts into the office frequently(because every time I would, nobody would eat them so it was a giant…
Chocolate Mont Blanc Chiffon Sandwiches
My favorite after school snack my mom would get for me was the mont blanc from JJ Bakery in Torrance. Their mont blanc consisted of a fluffy chocolate sponge cake with chestnuts and chantilly cream in the middle, and a generous piping of the creamy chestnut puree on top. It was soft, light, nutty, and…
Sourdough Sata Andagi(Okinawan Brown Sugar Doughnuts)
The first time I had sata andagi was in 2023 when my family and I were visiting Japan. We went to a local bakery in Kyoto, and they were selling these cute, rectangular, crackle-surfaced brown sugar doughnuts. I was a bit taken aback from the texture at first – I was expecting something more like…
Chocolate-Tonka Shortbreads
These shortbreads are meant to be decadence incarnate. I really wanted to celebrate chocolate in its darkest and richest flavors, and what pairs better with cocoa than butter and sugar? So with that logic in mind, I decided to make these buttery shortbread cookies, flavored with black cacao, and studded with chocolate throughout. One of…
Mini Levain-style Cookies
On and off for the past year, I have been trying to perfect a mini version of those gigantic Levain cookies. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Levain(which is a French culinary term for sourdough starter) is a bakery originally from New York that specializes in these tall, chunky cookies that are crispy…
Gjetost Corn Cookies
Corn cookies have been an ongoing love affair for me circa 2016, when I first made them after watching Christina Tosi make them on Mind of a Chef. They have really evolved over the years, and this is basically corn cookie version 8 or so. What makes these corn cookies unique is my usage of…
Injeolmi Shortbreads
Whenever I think of my friend, Ellie, I think about how wonderful of a person she is. We have known each other since elementary school, became friends in middle school, sort of grew into different cliques in high school, but when we both went to college in Boston(her Boston College, me Boston University), our friendship…
Toffee Chip Brown Butter Cookies
Brown butter cookies are a pain to make because typically with a cookie dough, you want the butter to be chilled so that the dough can be firm, easy to work with, and to keep the cookies from spreading excessively/the fat from leaking out of the cookies themselves. With browning butter, you are melting down…
Freddy's Harajuku 