So this recipe has been in my to-bake list for years. Time flies when you’re living life, but one of my fondest memories was still going to Oahu with my friends, Bri, Dara, and Jessica, back in 2023. We had an absolute blast just traveling around the island, sightseeing, eating, and just unwinding after dealing…
Category: Tarts and pies
Anything that has a buttery crust, be it homemade phyllo or pate sucre, to name a few examples.
Maple-Apple Mont Blanc Tart
It is funny to think that this recipe(and so many others on this site) came from me needing to use up leftover ingredients. It is usually those recipes where I end up getting super creative or I luck into really great flavor combinations. This recipe embraced the latter. And it all started with two egg…
Cinnamon Roll Pie
I can’t even remember what initially inspired this idea. I vaguely recall watching something about cinnamon rolls on YouTube, writing down “cinnamon roll pie” on my to-bake list, not really giving it a second thought, then eventually re-exploring this idea 8 months later. When it came to conceptualizing this recipe, I knew I wanted to…
Blood Orange Mimosa Cheesecakes
Even though I purchased these adorable cheese wedge molds over a year ago, I never really use them. So I figured, I needed to do something with them. I happened to purchase a bunch of blood oranges, and was trying to think of what to pair with those. And then it dawned on me –…
Rose Apple-Yuzu-Almond Crostata
This recipe came about because I purchased one too many hidden rose apples and I did not want it to go to waste. Hidden rose apples are a naturally pink-fleshed apple(not pink peel, like the actual color of the fruit is pink), and they are usually only available 2-3 months in the year. They have…
Chocolate-Hazelnut Mille Feuille
I usually refrain from making puff pastry from scratch frequently, because it is such a time-consuming process. Chilling, resting, and rolling a butter-laden dough pretty much summarizes how you make puff pastry. Because you have to rest and chill the dough between rolling it out, it takes at least 90 minutes to make a laminated…
Chocolate-Pumpkin Cheesecake Brulee
Way back when I first started as a baker, one dessert concept I had was a baked chocolate-pumpkin cheesecake cupcake, inspired by the Halloween colors of black and orange. While Halloween obviously is over(how we’re already in November, I really don’t know), I still wanted to make a pretty little pumpkin-chocolate cheesecake number, just in…
Kimchi’s Cajeta Pumpkin Pie
Before anyone asks, no this recipe does not have kimchi in it. Kimchi is the name of my friend Brenda’s maltese. He is an adorable little pupper and is generally well behaved. Except when I brought this cajeta pumpkin pie for our annual Friendsgiving, and Kimchi decided to help himself to 40% of the pie….
Pink Peach Mille Feuille
I just had to make some fun pink peach desserts whenever white peach season rolls around. It’s so fun to take the peach peels, turn those into a simple syrup, and then simmering white peaches in those until they take on the pink color from the syrup itself. They are such a pretty garnish, and…
Aomori Apple Tartlets
Whenever I think of Aomori(which is in northern Japan), I think about the apples. Aomori apples are notorious for having a sweet, perfume-y smell, and a soft, juicy texture. So like the best version of a Fuji apple. I got super lucky that my local Japanese grocery store was carrying these, so I figured, why…
Yujacha-Blueberry Crostata
I love a good crostata. An open-faced tart made from buttery pastry, stuffed with baked fruit is always a good time in my book. Since blueberries are still in season, I figured, why not use those, and pair them with my good friend, yujacha. Yujacha is a Korean citron(or yuzu) marmalade, made with the citrus…
Japanese Apple Pies
These Japanese apple pies were inspired by me perusing through multiple Japanese bakery tour videos on Youtube, and seeing these adorable little scalloped half moon-shaped hand pies. In Japan, apple pies are popularly made with puff pastry, and can range from either a traditional pie shape to the more portable hand pies. So I figured,…
Blackberry-Yuzu Drifloon Pies
Drifloon is one of the cutest Pokemon out there, being a ghostly purple balloon with a yellow cross shape(I’m assuming that the balloon was popped and patched up), and a little wispy cloud on top of its head. I still have memories of playing Pokemon Pearl and finding them in the Valley Windworks on a…
Blueberry-Sweet Corn Basque Cheesecake
I wanted to make a corn dessert of some kind, just to embrace the seasonality of corn. Corn is just naturally so much sweeter and juicier during the summer, and it makes for some really great desserts because of that. I wanted to make a basque cheesecake, pureeing sweet corn into it, and just to…
White Nectarine-Blackberry Pie Top
This pie top was directly inspired from when I saw Christina Tosi post this shortbread disk that was topped with jam and crumble on Instagram, and it looked delicious. So to do something similar to that, because once a Milkbar member, always a Milkbar member I made a variation on that, but with a shortbread…
Purple Sweet Potato Tart
When I was making this dessert, I was reminiscing of a time before the pandemic, when there was a popular dessert chain in L.A. called Cafe Bora. They were best known for serving these aesthetically pleasing purple sweet potato desserts that were dusted in vibrant lilac purple sweet potato powder, and they were all the…
Tofu-Nutella Silk Pie
One of my absolute favorite components to make is my chocolate tofu mousse. I’ve been making for it years, since it’s so simple – literally just equal parts melted chocolate mixed with pureed silken tofu, and salt just to bring out the chocolate flavor a bit more. And yes, it is the same chocolate-tofu mousse…
Milky Oolong-Strawberry Tarts
I have become fully obsessed with milky oolong, which is an alkalized oolong tea that tastes like those creamy milk nougats you might find in Asian grocery stores. I find that milky oolong is the perfect ingredient to pair with strawberries, as one is sweet and buttery, and the other is tangy and tart. I…
Haricot Vert and Feta Pita
I had purchased green beans(or haricot vert) on a whim and was trying to figure out a way to use the last few up in a fun and creative way. That was literally how this recipe came about. When I think about haricot vert, I distinctly enjoy their snappy texture, when blanched and shocked properly,…
Baked Berry Ripple Cheesecake
Growing up, my mom only ever made two different kinds of Western desserts for us: white cake or baked cheesecake. I still remember as a really young kid, seeing her use our electric hand mixer to whip the cream cheese mixture(the literal only time she would ever use that thing), she would crush the graham…
Freddy's Harajuku 