I have been on a real Montenegrin fix lately, and I just wanted to continue that with one of my favorite desserts, the krofne. Krofne are super fluffy doughnuts, golden brown on each side, dusted in powdered sugar, and sometimes, with jam or custard piped inside of them. Very similar to a Berliner, and eaten…
Category: Treats
Anything that didn’t quite fit into the other categories, and is “portable” or easy to eat while walking.
Lacuna: salted caramel-apple cheesecakes
So a funny little anecdote about how these cheesecakes came to be. I originally wanted to make an apple crostata, but when I was rummaging through the fridge, my dumbass self didn’t see I couldn’t find any butter(fun fact, there was butter in the fridge and I only found that out after buying two boxes…
Kabocha flan with kabocha friands
This dessert has been on my to-do list since the summer. I am obsessed with flan, it being the first dessert I ever learned how to make, and I’ve been meaning to do something with kabocha squash, but I wanted to wait until it was the fall to do so. For this dessert, it’s a…
S’mores potstickers
These literally came about because I wanted to do an innovative dumpling and I was craving s’mores. So I went with a graham cracker flavored wrapper, a chocolate truffle and marshmallow filling, and a cayenne chocolate dipping sauce to balance any overt sweetness in the dessert. What I love about this dessert is that we’re…
Frangipane, chocolate, and miso de leche babka
I actually never made babka before making it for this specific recipe. I really just was inspired to make it because I love using yeast-leavened doughs, and this one seemed really fun and playful to make, with all of the different layers of bread and chocolate. Traditionally, babka is like a brioche that is layered…
Sunshine, funshine: banoffee eclairs
I’ve been seeing so many eclairs with mirror glazes on my Instagram feed lately, so I figured I should try one of my own! I had a ton of bananas in my freezer, with the intentions of making them into vegan milkshakes, but I decided to spare two for this particular recipe, since I was…
Kuromitsu kouign-amann
Kouign-amann, pronounced almost like “queen a man”, is a popular French/Breton pastry, originating from the Brittany region. I remember first learning about it from “Chef Steps” on YouTube, back in high school, where I horrendously butchered the pronunciation of it because I don’t speak French. The last time I successfully made kouign-amann was spring break, during…
Honey-yuzu Paris Brest
This recipe really just came about because I wanted to make a Paris Brest, aka a ring shaped éclair. When I thought about my fillings, I decided to go with three in total. A yuzu Bavarian cream, homemade honeycomb candy, and honey mascarpone cream. I also made a honey-yuzu-bee pollen glaze, and infused the actual…
Blood orange-mascarpone cake doughnuts
These literally just came from an experiment where I wanted to make doughnuts, but I didn’t have any yeast, and I was too lazy to buy any/I had no patience to wait for yeast to proof anyways. I knew that you could make cake doughnuts, which would not require yeast, and I decided to go…
Dianthus: a plated dessert
I really love baking with pate choux. But I tend not to make it as often due to mirror glaze cakes and naked layer cakes and doughnut creams all looking a lot prettier, so unfortunately, cream puffs do tend to take the back burner to my list of go-to desserts. That being said, when I…
Super simple strawberry-phyllo mille feuille
Not everything I make has to be super complex or difficult. With this dessert, I tried my best to edit it down to just three things: crispy caramelized phyllo dough, Bismarck cream, and balsamic macerated strawberries. What? It’s simple by my standards. I mean, look at it! No mirror glaze, tempered chocolate, none of those bells…
Fred Bread Buns with Roast Duck and Scallions
I love making “Fred Bread”, which is my take on Japanese milk bread. I also adore making steamed buns with duck. So I figured, why not combine the two? The end result? A really light, fluffy steamed bun with a buttery crumb. It’s pretty awesome. We made these for new years, and since the recipe…
Gluten-free mocha almond fudge cupcakes
Continuing from my semi-replication of Chloe Coscarelli’s cupcakes, I wanted to make a mocha almond fudge cupcake but rather than making it vegan, I wanted to make it gluten-free. The main reason why is because I wanted to make the cupcake using almond flour, to really hammer in the almond flavor into the cupcake. The…
Vegan chocolate-raspberry cupcakes
I was going on a Cupcake Wars binge on YouTube the other day and I was watching arguably the best episode in the series, the Tournament of Roses episode. It featured four returning winners competing again, including the very baker who inspired me to bake, Chloe Coscarelli. Seeing her gorgeous vegan creations again made me…
Perfectly blue macarons
So it turns out that the majority of the time I have been making macarons, I have been measuring out my ingredients incorrectly. Whenever it was supposed to be 3/4 cups almond flour and icing sugar, I would do 1 cup. Which definitely would explain why mine would come out so overtly browned, lumpy, dry,…
Semolina knafeh with glazed figs
I really wanted to make knafeh when I saw it in My Kitchen Rules, where Sonya and Hadil, two Jordanian women who were kicked off the show because they got into a fight with another team, prepared it for their instant restaurant. Knafeh is a Middle Eastern cheesecake essentially, soaked with a beautiful rose flavored…
Amoroso pink: raspberry pate choux
The first thing I did when I received my pitaya powder was create these naturally pink cream puffs. I named the dessert Amoroso pink because it means “love pink” in Italian. Super straightforward and simple, because if you want to eat this dessert just based on its appearance, chances are, you love the color pink….
S’mores Cupcakes
These have been a classic favorite of mine since I started baking and learned how to make Italian meringue. Graham cracker crust, chocolate cake, and Italian meringue, torched in the broiler of your oven, super simple, super fun. For this rendition, I doctored up my meringue a little by introducing gelatin into the simple syrup,…
Strawberry-rhubarb tart
With rhubarb and strawberries being in season, it just made sense to try making a strawberry tart. It’s been a tradition that every summer, I try to perfect this tart using different methods. This summer, I decided to use an elderflower pate sucre, strawberry-rhubarb confiture, cornmeal frangipane, and cream cheese chantilly with elderflower glazed berries….
Peach-berry cobbler with corn cookie crust and mascarpone ice cream
This was the perfect summer treat, in my humble opinion. I love making corn cookies, and combining those with fresh peaches and berries, and serving that with a mascarpone ice cream, it makes so much sense. Corn and peaches work, peaches and cheese work, and so does corn and cheese, so it’s a natural mix…
Freddy's Harajuku 