While I was practicing intermittent fasting/crash dieting prior to my Hawaii trip, I was craving a lot of different things, which was both good in that I was able to really drill down on the foods I was craving to eat, and bad because I was craving food that actually tasted good, and was not…
Tag: Brown Butter
Matcha Kokedama(Moss Balls)
Kokedama are these decorative moss ball plants that are super popular in Japan. They are used as planters for other plants more often than not, and they give any room a pleasant, earthy aesthetic that I just adore. My first time seeing a kokedama was when I was playing Animal Crossing New Horizons, where they…
Matcha-Red Bean Financiers
Whenever I bake a financier, I like to make a joke that I am financier(which I am, as a person who technically works in a financial role/has had prior finance/accounting experience) making a financier. Unless you’re super familiar with French cuisine, you might not even know what a financier is! And no worries, you’re not…
Persimmon Tea Cakes
I am fortunate in that a ton of my family friends own persimmon trees. While it is delightful to eat fresh persimmon in peak season at first, admittedly, when you are gifted with 5 pounds of it, you start getting… fatigued by the taste. These little tea cakes were my answer to needing a new…
Ube-Passionfruit-Coconut Cake
This recipe came about because I had ube paste, coconut milk, and fresh passionfruit, all of which I wanted to use, and preferably together. Ube(pronounced oo-beh) is a Filipino purple yam that is sweet and nutty in flavor. Almost like if you took a purple yam and toasted it with brown butter. Ube is a…
Whipped Cheesecake with Brown Butter Carrot Cake: a plated dessert
This recipe came about because I was thinking what I could make with rainbow carrots, and I thought about a fun plated carrot cake meets a cheese platter. Whipped cheesecakes are always a favorite dessert of mine, because they are super easy to do. Cream cheese, gelatin, sugar, and there you have a silky textured…
Blonde Chocolate Crumb Cake Doughnuts
I would be lying if I said this recipe was not just a crumb or coffee cake baked with a hole in it. That’s literally the recipe. However, there is something doubly nostalgic about a crumb cake that also looks like a doughnut, since those are the two coffee shop staple desserts you would usually…
Fidough Box Cake
I have made many cakes in sake cups before. I just love the minimalistic aesthetic of a small wooden cake and when you scoop into it, there’s cake! The concept of this recipe is definitely inspired by the tiramisu from Cafe Bora, but since there is no coffee/tea or alcohol being used, it felt wrong…
Brown Betty Beggar’s Purses
Because of apple picking, I had a plethora of apples that I needed to get rid of. I had to think of creative ways to use them, beyond just making a cake, or cookies, or pie, and that was when I thought about crepes. I remember the first time making a crepe, and how therapeutic…
Eevee Coffee Bundt Cakes
Eevee is my absolute favorite Pokemon. I just love a Pokemon that can become anything it wants when it grows up. Eevee can become a mermaid, a bolt of electricity, a living icicle, or even cover itself with ribbons! I adore all of the Eeveelutions(Umbreon is my favorite though), but Eevee itself just has a…
Pumpkin Butter Mochi Pie
So I had a lot of leftover pumpkin lying around after doing R&D on my calabaza en tacha clafoutis, so I had to figure out how to get rid of it. After blending it up into a puree, I found that the only thing I could feasibly do with pureed pumpkin(that was already sweetened) was…
Milkbar Buddy Honey Butter-Pear Crack Pie
Since Sam and I enjoyed doing our cake collab together so much, we figured we would venture into another Milkbar classic, this time being pies! Milkbar/crack pie is such a staple, and we wanted to do our own interpretation of it using some ingredients to bring in a more festive feel. Fun fact, the original…
Apple Mont Blanc
So my fellow AAPI pastry friends (Dara Yu and Jess Wang) and I wanted to challenge ourselves to make a fun holiday dessert using apples, just in time for Thanksgiving. While I have also done a pie collab with my dear friend Sam, in case you are not a pie lover, this recipe is here…
Kinako-Tofu Rare Cheesecake
Tofu cheesecake literally takes me back to high school. I still remember taking Japanese 3, we would have these cooking projects, and one of them was making Japanese desserts. One of those desserts was tofu rare cheesecake. The crust was made with these digestive biscuits, while the cheesecake filling was made with cream cheese/yogurt, and…
Pumpkin-Persimmon Mirror Glaze Cake
This recipe came about because I had a buttload of pumpkin-dulcey(blonde chocolate or roasted white chocolate) ganache that I left in my freezer for when fall rolled around. And the moment that it did, I went ahead and busted out my pumpkin-blonde chocolate ganache and made this cake with it and randomly a persimmon that…
Apple-Cajeta Phyllo Tart
I have made quite a few apple tarts. Mostly because I love buttery pastry and caramelized apples. Unlike other apple tarts, this recipe is deceptively simple, but does require a lot of technique to make. Namely because of the cajeta, and the phyllo. Cajeta is the Oaxacan cousin to dulce de leche, using goat’s milk…
Milk Tea Hot Chocolate
I have been making this miso-hojicha milk tea in a variety of desserts, on and off, for 2 years now. Needless to say, I have been trying to make miso-hojicha sugar happen with as much vigor as Gretchen Wieners from Mean Girls has with the word “fetch”. Also, side note, but did anyone else not…
Miso Caramel Pear Tarts
A long, long, LONG time ago, I made these caramel tarts with poached apples that I just adored. The caramel was taken to this super dark color that almost resembled chocolate, while the apples, I poached with brown sugar and seared them to give them this gorgeous caramelized finish. Since I made the plate lick…
Buckeye Layer Cake
Depending on what part of the world you are in, you may or may not know what a buckeye is. If you happen to be from Ohio, you’ll definitely know buckeye, as they are basically the state’s official dessert! Peanut butter fudge balls partially dipped in chocolate to resemble the nut of a buckeye tree,…
Gluten-Free Rhubarb Financiers
Years ago, I was fortunate enough to snag a dinner table at Annisa in New York City. Annisa was a 1-star Michelin restaurant(which sadly closed in 2017) helmed by the highly talented Anita Lo, who focuses on French cuisine with Asian influences. I remember seeing chef Lo dominating in Iron Chef, Battle Mushroom, back in…
Freddy's Harajuku 