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…
Tag: ganache
Chocolate-Hazelnut Langue de Chat
Langue de chat are one of my favorite cookies to eat. If you ever had a Milano before, it’s basically like that. Thin, melt-in-the-mouth cookies sandwiching a filling, usually chocolate-based. In this case, I went with a chocolate-hazelnut langue de chat. I love Nutella, and often get jars of it from Germany whenever we go…
Chocolate Buttermilk Doughnut Bars
Whenever I get doughnuts on the weekend, one of my personal favorites is a buttermilk old-fashioned bar. These rectangular, craggy on the outside, fluffy and light on the inside doughnuts are just so addictive, just because there is so much textural contrast in one bite! I wanted to try making an air-fried version of those…
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ripple Cake
If you are looking for pure decadence, look no further than this cake(assuming you don’t have a nut allergy; if you do, sub the peanut butter and peanuts in this recipe with Biscoff and cookie butter?). I grew up loving Butterfingers and Reeses, both of which are peanut-based candy bars. Chocolate and peanut butter is…
Pistachio-Blackberry Namelaka Cake
This recipe came about because I was craving a cake that had a light sponge and a rich frosting. There is just something so satisfying about a light as air cake and a silky, creamy sweet frosting that just melts in the mouth and makes you want to go back for another bite. I already…
S’mores Panna Cotta 2.0
One of the first plated desserts I ever made was this S’mores Panna Cotta, literally 10 years ago. Summer of 2015, I was taking summer courses at Boston University, and during my free time, I was practicing a lot with desserts and baking. That was the summer when Reynold Poernomo’s Masterchef Australia season aired, and…
Swablu Mousse Cookies
I would be lying if I said this was my first Swablu dessert. That being said, compared to my first one, these cookies definitely captured the color of Swablu a LOT better. When it came to the flavors, I wanted to go with something a little more tropical-leaning as an homage to Swablu, since it…
Chocolate-Milky Oolong Cake
Milk or milky oolong has been one of my obsessions ever since I got some from a cute tea shop in Munich. I’m partially ashamed to admit that I never heard of the tea prior to that trip, especially since it is a Taiwanese tea, and I am Taiwan-born after all, but better late than…
Peanut Butter Blossom Choux
I will be honest in that I never fully got why a peanut butter blossom cookie was referred to as a blossom. It’s a round cookie with a little Hershey’s Kiss sticking out of it – to me, that looks more like a weird hat or a part of human anatomy more than anything else….
Pate Choux Swans
Whenever I think of retro, classic-but-not-trendy desserts, the first two desserts that come to mind are an ice cream sundae, and pate choux swans. I just remember seeing them on every cruise ship dessert menu. Two little cream puff swans with a chocolate sauce underneath to visually represent a lake. Even though I try not…
Chocolate Olive Oil Cupcakes
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for cupcakes, since I learned how to bake through watching Cupcake Wars way back in the day on the Food Network. Not going to lie, I always dreamed about going on that show, but I guess being on two seasons of Masterchef and ironically still…
Litwick Carrot Cakes
Making these little Litwick carrot cakes was an interesting process. Originally, I was going to bake carrot cake batter in cookie shot molds, and then stuff those with a lot of fun fillings, and decorate the exterior of the cakes to resemble little Litwicks. Litwicks, for those unfamiliar with them, are a Pokemon that is…
Devil’s Food Cauldron Cakes
This recipe was me creating my take on Cauldron Cakes from the Harry Potter series. I did get the Cauldron Cakes from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, and while it was not terrible by any means, my one gripe was that the cauldron part of the cake was just a silicone…
Strawberry-Pistachio-Lemon Mirror Glaze Cake
Strawberry and pistachio will always be on of my favorite dessert combinations – the tartness of red fruit against the salty, crunchy, smokiness of a pistachio is just so addictive. It also might be because my birthday is so close to Christmas that I just love the color contrast between red/pink and green. Pistachio and…
Chocolate Decadence Layer Cake
I am a firm believer that there is a chocolate cake for every occasion. The best occasion for this kind of recipe is if you want a chocolate cake that tastes like baked fudge. Now I have been mentioning the Ms. Trunchbull Chocolate cake a bunch of times on this blog, but this is very,…
Chocolate-Miso-Apple Tart
This recipe was inspired by an old episode of the Japanese Iron Chef, where the challenge was to make desserts with apples and chocolate. I love the idea of combining chocolate, something sweet, bitter, and creamy, with apples, which can take on a lot of spice, bitterness, and are naturally sweet and tart. I just…
Chocolate Olive Oil Cakes
Olive oil cake is one of those kinds of cakes that you are starting to see more and more of recently. Almost every cafe in Los Angeles sells an olive oil cake, or some variation on one. However, I don’t really see chocolate-olive oil cakes often – funnily enough, olive oil gelato with chocolate and…
Boston Cream Pie Lamingtons
Lamingtons are a popular Australian dessert/snack. Traditional lamingtons do not have a filling, and are usually just cubes of cake, glazed with chocolate, and rolled in coconut. In my case, I wanted to combine them with another favorite dessert of mine, being the Boston cream pie. Boston cream pie features a vanilla cake, a custard…
Hummingbird Cake with Miso Caramel and Ginger Cream Cheese Ganache
I first remember hearing about hummingbird cake when I was watching an episode of Cupcake Wars, where it was mentioned as a Southern wedding cake that featured bananas, pecans, sometimes coconut or pineapple, and a cream cheese frosting. It sounded like a banana-nut muffin, but with frosting, if we are being honest here. Not that…
Cajeta Banoffee Pie
Banoffee pie is a British dessert consisting of a buttery shortbread crust that is smeared with dulce de leche, slices of fresh banana, cream, and chocolate. It kind of reminds me of Million Dollar Shortbread, if you have ever had that before, but with bananas. Which is to say that it is delicious. For my…
Freddy's Harajuku 