To celebrate Lunar New Year, I wanted to do a dessert that was inspired by nian gao, which are these brown sugar-infused glutinous rice cakes. I grew up eating nian gao, and admittedly as a child, I thought they contained fish. Mostly because the texture, being so dense and chewy, made it seem like these…
Category: Treats
Fruity Pebble Baked Tofu Doughnuts
I love doing baking tofu doughnuts. Not only is it a great way to use up any leftover silken tofu, but the actual doughnuts themselves have this soft, chewy texture and are the furthest thing from dry! I wanted to showcase a fun flavor combination, since I was playing around with ruby chocolate and Fruity…
Charsiu Milk Buns
Charsiu is comfort. Back when I was a child, I was an EXTREMELY picky eater. All the caps were needed there to emphasize how I basically wouldn’t eat seafood, certain kinds of fruits(pineapples, mangoes, and blueberries) and vegetables(bitter melon understandably, lettuce, gourds of any kind, and squash), and randomly coconut flakes(but I would still eat…
Mango Pudding with Coconut Sago
Now I would be a flat-out liar if I said I grew up loving mango pudding. Truthfully, I couldn’t even eat a mango when I was a child, until the age of 15. It was a textural thing. The first time I ate a mango, that I can remember, I was 4 years old, and…
Acorn Sticky Toffee Puddings
This recipe came up because my friend and talented chef, Kesha Taro, and I were talking about acorn flour. Kesha worked for Gordon Ramsay doing culinary production for decades. She worked briefly on season 10, but I didn’t meet her until season 11 open casting calls, and she was super kind. Flash forward years later,…
Black Sesame Hotcakes
I have been on a real hotcake kick lately. Hotcakes are pancakes, but fatter and thicker. They are very popular in Japan, and are often ordered at cafes! When I was in Kyoto, I was able to get some at the hotel we were staying at, and they were super fluffy and tender. So I…
Hot Chocolate-Stretchy Ice Cream Sundae
Even though I’m posting this recipe in January, I wanted to take hot chocolate, and turn it into something more California-friendly. Because let’s be real here, Southern California has two seasons: warm and slightly less warm. I personally love drinking hot chocolate in the winter – when I went to college in Boston, doing to…
Cacio e Pepe Scones
Cacio e pepe is an Italian term that refers to “cheese and pepper”. Usually, it is the name of a pasta dish, consisting of long noodles cooked in an emulsion of cheese, water, olive oil, and pepper. And it is a simple yet delicious combination, and a go-to that I often find myself ordering when…
Chocolate-stuffed Yellow Cupcakes with Cookie Butter Frosting
The thing about yellow cake with chocolate frosting is that it is a really nostalgic, Americana type of dessert. I personally don’t eat yellow cake that frequently, but it has been requested a lot from me, and I enjoy the challenge of making it! The thing about yellow cake is that it contains a lot…
Pierogi Bread Rolls
So these rolls were going to be something I would do for Thanksgiving, but then when my sister and I planned out our menu, we realized we have 4 different carbs, and we had to nix these rolls. That being said, the idea was such a good one that I still wanted to make these!…
Apple-Gjetost Molten Cheese Tarts
So a while ago, I went to Japan, and experienced the amazingness that was the Pablo Cheese Tart. A buttery shortbread dough with a creamy, oozy, molten cheesecake-like filling, and a caramelized topping, it was like eating a basque cheesecake and an egg tart, but in one! I made a rendition on them using White…
Coconut-Caramel-Chocolate “Levain” Cookies
My sister loves the coconut delight Girls Scout cookies(formerly called Samoas before that was deemed a problematic name). When I went to the newly opened Levain bakery location in West Hollywood, we basically got one of every cookie on their menu(mostly to justify the 1 hour/30 mile drive to there). One of those cookies was…
Peanut Butter “Oreos”
One of my favorite cookies, Oreos are pure nostalgia for me. One of my early childhood memories was shortly after landing in Taipei, jetlagged, and eating Oreos with Taiwanese milk in our apartment in Linkou. I’m not sure if everyone knows this, but Oreos are actually vegan! I got my start in baking with vegan…
Chocolate and Cacao Chip Shortbreads
Back in college, I wanted to do a fun take on cookies and cream, and so I made a panna cotta with chocolate chip shortbreads. The shortbreads themselves were buttery and light, but the chocolate actually had this very enjoyable crunch to it after a batch of them had to sit through the cold Boston…
Oreo Langue de Chaats
Now I have been on a langue de chaat fix ever since I came back from Japan. I love how thin and light those tuile-like biscuits are(they are so feather-like that I almost don’t feel guilty eating 20 of them in one sitting), while the creamy filling is just melts on your tongue, and with…
Chocolate Chip-Miso Caramel Bread Puddings
Dislike bread pudding for two main reasons – I grew up watching Chopped, and everyone made bread pudding/French toast in the dessert round, and my ex loves bread pudding. That being said, my dear friend Amanda(I have like 8 friends named Amanda, but one of them, just not the Amanda from Masterchef who I think…
Pumpkaboo Mousse Cake
Pumpkaboo is one of those Pokemon that made me fall in love with the otherwise incomplete games that were Pokemon X and Y. It is a cute little critter that resembles a Jack-o-Lantern, a bat, and a black cat, all in one, and it can come in 4 different sizes, with the super-sized one being…
Pink Peach-Moscato Pound Cake
So this recipe came about because I had leftover pink peaches from another recipe, and I did not want those to go to waste. Pink peaches are made by taking the peels off of white peaches, turning that into a simple syrup, then cooking the white peaches in said simple syrup. The syrup, through being…
Spheal Dango
Originally, these were just going to be ring seal dango(round mochi-type rice dumplings). However, that idea kind of shifted towards doing Spheals instead thanks to my dear friend, Justina, who straight up to me to do that. And I am (mostly) glad I listened to her, especially after seeing the end product! I say mostly…
Gulab Jamun Madeleines
Gulab (and angoori) jamun have quickly become one of my favorite Indian desserts. These little ghee-fried milk balls are soaked in a saffron-cardamom-rose syrup, causing them to have a soft, melt-in-the-mouth texture. However, I find that setting up all of that ghee to fry with takes forever, and it’s really expensive too. Ghee is far…
Freddy's Harajuku 