Recipe: Brown Butter Sweet Potato Sage Streusel Muffins

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For this recipe, I partnered with Danish Creamery to come up with a tasty fall treat. I love baking in the fall, warming up the house with the smell of cozy spices. But as you may know by now, I do not have the biggest sweet tooth, so I wanted to create a recipe for something that feels like a treat and has all the best of flavors that the season has to offer but is *not too sweet*. These muffins are made by first making brown butter with Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter to give it a wonderful nuttiness, before using it in a batter that’s loaded with sweet potato, fresh chopped sage, and Chinese five spice, sweetened with maple syrup. The streusel topping is also made with brown butter and I added a touch of salt and ground peanuts, giving it a little bit of a sweet-salty vibe that I think is quite addictive!

I’m calling these “muffins” but don’t expect the bready, crumbly kind—these are rich and moist from all that brown butter and fresh mashed sweet potato. The texture on the inside is going to be similar to a decadent carrot cake or banana bread but to provide a nice contrast, the streusel topping is crumbly and light, almost like the edges of a cookie.

With the brown butter being such a major ingredient in both components, you’re going to want to use a high-quality butter to start. Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter is made with just high-quality cream and a touch of sea salt and it is slow-churned in small batches for a velvety texture and rich flavor. It contains 85% butterfat, which beats out most other European style butters that contain 82%–83%. Browning butter is actually a good way to determine the richness of a butter; avoid butters that create a lot of splatter as they are melting, as that is an indication of their higher water to fat ratio. This butter, on the other hand, melted very smoothly and foamed up gently before turning the rich amber-colored liquid gold that is toasty brown butter!

Let’s get into the details of what you’ll need to do to get these lovely autumnal muffins.

Key ingredients for the brown butter sweet potato muffin base:

• Brown Butter: What is brown butter? To make brown butter, all you need is good quality butter like Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter (and a pot and a spatula)! Nothing else goes into it; you are simply cooking the butter and toasting the milk solids in it to intensify the flavor. Bring the butter to room temp first, then cut it into a few smaller pieces and put it in a light colored pot or pan; you’ll want to be able to watch the color so a dark pan is not recommended. Cook the butter on medium-low heat, swirling or gently stirring occasionally until it starts to get foamy. Once it starts to foam up, stir constantly for 2–3 minutes, watching the color. Once the color starts to change, take it off the heat and keep stirring until all the foam subsides, and what you’ll be left with will smell amazing and resemble the color of amber; if you remember the color of the stuff they extracted the dinosaur DNA from in Jurassic Park, that’s the color you want! (But it’ll be way tastier.)

• Mashed Sweet Potato: This recipe requires the real stuff: fresh mashed sweet potato. You will need about 1 large-ish sweet potato to get the 1 cup needed for this recipe. I have tested this recipe with both steamed and roasted sweet potato and both turned out great. I do not recommend cooking your sweet potato by microwave as that will probably dry it out. My favorite method is roasting. To roast sweet potatoes: Preheat the oven to 425°F. Wash the sweet potatoes and prick them all over with a fork. Place the sweet potatoes directly on the middle rack of the oven. Place a foil-lined baking sheet underneath them to catch anything that drips. Bake for 40–50 minutes or until they are completely soft inside. You should be able to scrape them easily from the skins and mash them up with just the slightest amount of pressure. You do not need a perfectly smooth purée for this recipe but there shouldn’t be big lumps. This can most definitely be done ahead; just bring it to room temp before using it in the batter.

• Sage: I used 2 tablespoons of finely chopped sage for this recipe. I know that sage can be pretty divisive, but I love it. To me, it’s one of the flavors that makes Thanksgiving food special, even more so than the pie spices and the fall gourds. I actually felt that there could’ve been more sage flavor, but Spouse, who is not as much a fan of sage, thought that it was enough to notice it’s there without being at all bothered by it. I think that sage lovers could bump this all the way up to 3 tablespoons if they wanted. Conversely, if you hate sage, you can totally leave it out.

• Maple Syrup: I used maple syrup as the only sweetener in the muffin batter because it brings a gentle sweetness and complements fall flavors so well. And ol’ maple syrup will do, as long as it’s the real stuff. 

• Chinese Five Spice Powder: I wanted to do something a little different for fall baking here, so instead of a blend of classic American pie spices, I used Chinese five spice powder. What is five spice? It doesn’t always have only five spices, but the number five is called out because the ingredients are meant to represent the five elements in Chinese mythology. It typically has cinnamon, star anise, clove, fennel, and sichuan pepper. I opted for this because it is a pantry staple for me and I liked that it is a little bit more savory-leaning. You can substitute a pumpkin pie spice blend if you don’t have it, but I find that the heavy cinnamon content in those makes the blends a bit stronger than five spice, so I’d reduce the amount if making this substitution.

Things to know about making the streusel topping:

Once again, you’ll be making brown butter for the streusel that goes on top of the muffins, giving them that appealing, crackly mushroom top. You could brown all the butter for the recipe at once and then measure it out for each component; however, I found it was easier to do them separately and use the measurement markings on the butter wrapper. Either way, you will want to make the streusel first anyway to give it a little bit of time to chill. 

In addition to the brown butter, the other key ingredients for the streusel are a touch of five spice, dark brown sugar, regular white sugar, kosher salt, and unsalted roasted peanuts. 

Why roasted peanuts?  I included finely chopped peanuts in my streusel because I wanted the crumbly topping to have a salty-sweet quality to it, in the vein of kettle corn or salted caramel. The peanuts helped bring in a savory quality as well as nice texture to the streusel mixture, and combined with the kosher salt, the result is definitely a nice little touch of a salty balance for the maple and sweet potato muffin base. You can substitute in any nut you’d like for this. If you have a nut allergy, you could also sub in breadcrumbs, or finely crushed chicharrones!

How to get the most visually appealing muffins: 

To get bakery-style muffins that are nice and full with a mushroom top, there are a couple of special but easy tricks I used here that I will now share with you. (Note that in the photos, I used a vintage muffin tin that is proportioned a little differently but to actually test the recipe and bake the muffins shown, I used a modern, standard muffin tin and standard paper liners.)

You’ll notice that this recipe makes 9 muffins. I filled the muffin cups all the way to the top using an ice cream scooper to scoop out the batter into a nice domed shape. The amount of batter will rise and fill out the muffin cups nicely this way. You can certainly divide the batter into 12 muffin cups, but they just won’t have the muffin top you see in the photos, and you’ll want to test for doneness a couple minutes early.

Another major trick is to give the muffins a burst of high heat at first to get the tops to really rise up, and then lower the temp for them to bake evenly through the rest of the way. I start the oven at 425°F for the first 5 minutes, and then turn it down to 350°F for the rest of the time. You can skip this step if you don’t have time to watch the oven, and just bake them at 375°F for 20–25 minutes.

The last tip is to really pile on the streusel topping. Even if the top looks totally covered when you first put the muffins in the oven, keep in mind that as they rise, the surface area of the tops will increase, creating gaps in between the chunks of streusel. This recipe makes a very generous amount of streusel for if you are making 9 muffins; you might not end up using every single crumb of it, but get on them as much as the muffin tin will allow to get fully streusel-covered muffins in the end. 

Now that you know all my tricks for how to produce aesthetic muffins, happy baking!

How to Make Brown Butter Sweet Potato Sage Streusel Muffins

(Makes 9 muffins)

Ingredients for the Streusel

5 tbsp Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter, cut into chunks
1/3 (packed) cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts, finely chopped
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Ingredients for the Muffin Batter

1/2 cup (1 stick)  Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter, cut into chunks
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp Chinese five spice powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup milk or nut milk
1 cup sweet potato, cooked and mashed*
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp sage, finely chopped

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Notes

* Recommended method for mashed sweet potato: Preheat the oven to 425°F. Wash the sweet potato(es) and prick all over with a fork. Place directly on the middle rack of the oven. Place a foil-lined baking sheet on the rack below. Bake for 40–50 minutes or until completely soft inside. You should be able to scrape the flesh easily from the skins and mash with slight pressure. Sweet potato mash can be made ahead. Measure 1 cup and allow to come to room temperature before using in the recipe.

Procedure

To make the streusel: 

Brown the butter: Cook the butter on medium-low heat, swirling or gently stirring occasionally until it starts to get foamy. Once it starts to foam, stir constantly for 2–3 minutes, watching the color. Once the color starts to change, take off the heat and keep stirring until all the foam subsides. The melted butter should now be the color of amber. Set aside.

Whisk together brown sugar, sugar, and five spice in a small bowl. Mix in brown butter. Add flour, chopped peanuts, and salt. Use a folding and pressing motion with a spoon or spatula to gently combine everything together; texture should be similar to a dry shortbread dough. Pack together into a disk and place in the fridge to chill for 5–10 minutes; it should feel slightly firmer but not be hard or solid.

To make the muffin batter:

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Follow the same instructions above to make brown butter. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, five spice, baking powder, and baking soda.

Once brown butter has cooled, transfer to a mixing bowl. Stir in salt, maple syrup, milk, sweet potato mash, eggs, and sage in that order. Gently fold in one third of the dry ingredients at a time. Combine until just homogenous. Batter should be thick but wet.

To assemble:

Line or grease 9 cups in a standard muffin tin. Divide the batter evenly among the 9 lined cups (using an ice cream scooper is recommended for this). 

Use your hands to crumble up the disk of streusel dough into mixed sized chunks ranging from the size of a pea to finer crumbs. Cover the tops of the muffin batter with the streusel and press in gently.

Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and bake for an additional 15–18 minutes. Muffins are cooked through when an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to set for about 3–5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. If desired, add a sage leaf on top of each to garnish. 

Once fully cooled, store leftover muffins in an airtight container. However, the streusel will soften over time.

Enjoy them on their own, or give them a swipe of some softened Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter for some extra indulgence.

Thank you so much to Danish Creamery for sponsoring this recipe! Visit their website to learn more about their legacy of carefully-crafted Old World-quality butter made with milk from family farms since 1895.

Recipe: Apricot and Brie Tart

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I wanted to make a bunch of apricot rosettes and what better way to display them than in a sweet and savory tart?

Once I have finished working on a recipe I really am happy with, I try to get as much out of it by riffing on it and using it in different contexts. Recipe testing is time consuming, and I am determined to get my time’s worth by using that recipe over again. For this tart, I made the same cheesy, savory short crust shell that I developed for a sponsor for this mixed stone fruit and goat cheese tart here. I love this crust recipe because it’s cheesy and peppery and unlike what you’d expect for a fruit tart. It has a serious snap to it, and enough flavor that it could really stand alone, but it is also perfect for tarts that have a savory cheese filling. The dough comes together very easily in a food processor, though you do have to plan ahead a bit and freeze the cubed butter. The actual labor involved is low, though, so you can save your energy for rolling up those pretty apricot roses!

In reality though, this is still going to taste good if you just cut up your apricots into little pieces and dump them onto the tart. I am completely willing to admit that slicing up a bunch of apricots and then wrapping the slices round and round each other to form a bunch of rosettes is not a normal way for someone to spend a summer afternoon. But would you have clicked on this recipe if the tart didn’t look this pretty? I personally find it sort of therapeutic to focus on delicately handing tiny pieces of produce for a bit, and at this time of year, I’ll find any excuse to immerse myself in stone fruit.

Here is a detailed walkthrough of how to make this apricot and brie tart:

• Make the tart shell/crust: You will need to plan ahead here, because you’ll need to cut butter into small cubes, freeze them, make the dough, press it into the tart tin, and then let that chill. This tart utilized the tart crust recipe found here. Follow the “ingredients for crust” section and the first step of the procedure and that will take you up to the point where you have your chilled raw crust that is ready for baking action. That’s where the story picks up over here with a different filling, this time celebrating the beautiful delicate combo of brie and apricots.

• Bake the crust and brie: First, you will blind bake just the raw crust for 20 minutes with some sort of pie weights to keep its shape and prevent it from puffing up in the tin. (I line my crust with foil and then use dried beans as a cheap alternative to buying pie weights.) Then you will bake the crust until it is nearly golden brown and pretty much fully baked. For the last 5 minutes, you’ll add slices of brie to melt across the bottom. I used this goats milk brie, but a more traditional version will be just as tasty. Just make sure you are getting as even of a layer as you can when you are slicing and placing the cheese; it doesn’t matter if the pieces of cheese look weird because they will get fully covered.

• Spread the jam: After the brie has been melted, it will cover the bottom of the shell more evenly. Then you’ll want to add a layer of apricot jam or preserves. Feel free to swap for a different flavor but I wanted to keep the flavors simple in this one so I stuck with apricot. This sticky jam layer is going to be what holds the apricot roses in place.

• Make and place the apricot rosettes: To make the rosettes, I first cut the apricots lengthwise into thin slices. I’ll use the thinnest pieces for the centers of the rosettes, rolling them into as tight of a spiral as I can, and then I will wrap a few pieces around it before placing it into the jam layer. Then I will tuck a few more pieces around it until I am happy with the size and fullness of the rosette. Keep doing that until all the big gaps are filled.

• Glaze the apricots: Whisk together a little honey and water to form a glaze; microwave the mixture a little if needed to help dissolve the honey. When the glaze is back to room temp, brush this over the apricots. It will give them a shiny look and prevent them from browning if you are making this a bit ahead of serving.

• Fill in the gaps with herbs: If you wish to, you can fill in any gaps in between the rosettes with fresh herb leaves to give the tart a very full and finished look. I used oregano here because I had a lot in my garden, but small basil or mint leaves would honestly be a better flavor pairing. You could also fill the gaps with pitted cherries—I think that’d look lovely. I also sprinkled a little bit of lemon thyme on the tart, which added a nice herbal aroma.

• Cut in with a very sturdy, sharp knife and enjoy!: The crust is quite short and snappy so you’ll need a good knife to press through for cutting clean wedges. It may feel like a shame to cut into it after making all those roses, but food—even pretty food—is meant to be eaten!

How to Make the Apricot & Brie Tart

Ingredients

1 chilled, unbaked cheesy shortcrust from this recipe
5 oz brie cheese, cut into 1/8"-inch slices
5–6 tbsp apricot jam or preserves
3–4 apricots, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp honey
1 tsp warm water
fresh herbs for garnish (optional)

Special Equipment

food processor
tart pan with removable bottom
dry beans or pie weights

Procedure

Preheat oven to 400°F. 

Dock chilled shell with a fork to prevent it from warping and puffing while baking. Line with parchment paper or foil and fill with dry beans or pie weights. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Gently remove the lining and weights, then bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Add brie in an even layer over the bottom of the tart shell. Bake for an additional 5 minutes, or until brie is melted and crust is golden brown.

Spread apricot jam or preserves in an even layer over the brie.

Form rosettes with the slices of apricots and arrange them in the tart. The apricot jam will help hold them in place.

Whisk together honey and water and brush over the apricot rosettes to give them a shiny, glazed look.

Garnish with fresh herbs if desired. Oregano, mint, or basil leaves could be used to fill in gaps between the rosettes.

Recipe: Stone Fruit & Herbed Goat Cheese Tart with Cheesy Crust & Hot Honey Butter

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For this recipe, I partnered with Danish Creamery to celebrate my favorite time of the year—stone fruit season! I came up with the idea for this tart because I love making hybrid baked goods in the summer that feature raw seasonal produce in all of their peak-flavor glory. I still want the satisfaction of crafting and baking some kind of base or crust—something where I can proudly say “I made this from scratch!”—but when fruits are already ripe and bursting with their natural juices, I think baking them is honestly a waste, so I add them at the end to be enjoyed fresh.

So, this tart features a snappy cheesy buttery shortcrust, which gets baked solo and then gets filled by a creamy blend of whipped goat cheese and fresh herbs and topped with fresh, raw stone fruit before getting finished off with a drizzle of hot honey butter. Because my taste preferences are always leaning towards savory, I love to experiment with combining sweet fruit with savory ingredients and I think that the balance is just wonderful; it allows for savoring the natural sweetness of a beautifully ripe fruit without limiting the result to something that can only be served as a dessert. Instead, I recommend that this sweet-savory beauty be considered for your next al fresco brunch or picnic potluck; it holds up well when made a bit ahead so it would certainly be a low-stress addition to any sun-soaked gathering where smiles and good vibes are the objective.

Though the nectarines, apricots, and pluots are obviously the star here, don’t sleep on this cheesy crust! I am so proud of how much flavor I was able to pack into something that is often overlooked or perceived as just a vessel when it comes to tart making, and it is definitely a recipe that I will be using as a base for more than just the fruit tart idea you see here. Loaded with asiago cheese and high-quality butter, this savory shortcrust is so snappy and yummy that it would even be delicious broken up into chunks and eaten alone as a snack! This sturdy shortcrust is what helps make this tart a good menu item for summer gatherings, and the munchable texture is a result of keeping all the ingredients super cold while putting together the dough and keeping the moisture content to a minimum. Using Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter, which has a higher butterfat content than most other European butters, is one trick I used getting the right texture and flavor for the crust. A good butter is key for a shortbread or shortcrust, and Danish Creamery’s  butter is made with just high-quality cream and a touch of sea salt, slow churned for a rich flavor that really sets this shortcrust dough recipe up for durable and delicious success.

I also used Danish Creamery’s European Style Sea Salted Butter in the hot honey butter drizzle that serves as the finishing touch for this tart. This creation is something akin to drizzling a dessert with salted caramel at the end, but I think the hint of spicy chili mixed with the honey and the salted butter is the perfect way to really bring together this combination of sweet and savory flavors. You will end up making more than you need for the tart when following the recipe below, and I recommend saving the extra to drizzle on toasts, pizza, or anything where a little spicy indulgence is welcomed.

This stone fruit and herbed goat cheese tart is made up for the following components:

• Cheesy Shortcrust: A durable tart shell is what holds all the magic together, but it also brings plenty of its own flavor. I start by cutting Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter into small cubes and then freezing them—keeping the crust ingredients super cold is what gives you a short, crisp, snappy texture instead of a dreaded soggy bottom, so planning a little ahead and giving the cubes of butter time to freeze will make that goal easier. The rich, creamy butter, made with cream from healthy grass-fed California cows, becomes the savory foundation that gets supplemented with asiago cheese and black pepper to give the crust its addictive flavor. While using high-quality butter should be a given for a crust like this, there’s also an unexpected ingredient: vodka. Using vodka instead of water further ensures that this crust does not get bogged down by moisture; it brings together all the dry ingredients but evaporates quickly in the bake, along with any concerns about having alcohol in your pastry. These ingredients get pulsed together in the food processor and then pressed into the tart pan, so you don’t even have to bother with rolling. 

• Herbed Goat Cheese: Whip together room temp chèvre with Greek yogurt and fresh chopped herbs to form the first layer of filling that goes inside the cheesy tart shell. Not only does the mixture help hold the stone fruit in place if you choose to arrange it in a decorative manner, but the tangy, creamy goat cheese and herbs are such a lovely flavor complement. You can really use any soft herbs of your choosing here but I opted for chives, basil, and thyme.

• Stone Fruit: This is the main event! In case you didn’t know,  the term “stone fruit” refers to fruits like peaches and apricots that have a singular stone-like pit inside to house the seed. Feel free to use a medley of nectarines, apricots, and pluots like I did, or whatever is your personal fave. When selecting your stone fruit for this tart, seek ones that are fragrant but still have some firmness to them, so that they are easy to slice and will keep well on top of the tart. You can either slice them thinly and arrange them like I did, or opt for chunkier wedges that you can just dump into a somewhat-even layer on top.

• Hot Honey Butter: This finishing touch brings a unique spicy kick to the sweet-savory creation and helps to unite all the other flavors. A mix of gochugaru (Korean red chili flakes) and red chili pepper flakes are given a chance to bloom in a bit of velvety Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter before being combined with honey. This recipe yields more than what is needed for the tart; save the extra in a microwave-safe jar and heat for a few seconds to improve viscosity for drizzling on other creations afterward.

How to Make the Stone Fruit & Herbed Goat Cheese Tart

Ingredients for Crust

1 stick Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter, cut into 1/4”-inch cubes then frozen
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup asiago, grated then chilled
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
4–6 tbsp vodka, chilled

Ingredients for Filling

5 oz goat cheese/chèvre, at room temperature
4 tbsp Greek yogurt, drained
1/2 tsp chives, finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp thyme leaves
2 tbsp basil leaves, finely chopped
2–3 stone fruits, sliced
fresh herbs and edible flowers, for garnish (optional)

Ingredients for Honey Butter

1 tbsp Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter
1 tsp gochugaru/Korean chili flakes
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 tbsp honey

Special Equipment

food processor
tart pan with removable bottom
dry beans or pie weights

Procedure

To make the crust, add flour, asiago, salt, and pepper to a food processor and pulse briefly to combine. Scatter in frozen butter cubes and pulse until the texture resembles wet sand. Add 1 tablespoon of vodka and pulse a couple of times; repeat, adding 1 tablespoon of vodka at a time and pulsing briefly after each, until the mixture looks like it is just barely starting to form clumps. Dump mixture into tart pan and use a spoon to quickly press mixture evenly against the bottom and sides, keeping everything as cold as possible. (A sheet of wax paper could also aid in smoothing out the mixture). Chill unbaked tart shell in the freezer for 20 minutes or in the refrigerator for 1 hour or up to overnight.

Preheat oven to 400°F. 

Dock chilled shell with a fork to prevent it from warping and puffing while baking. Line with parchment paper or foil and fill with dry beans or pie weights. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Gently remove the lining and weights, then bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Allow to cool to room temperature before filling.

In the meantime, combine goat cheese, yogurt, and chopped herbs in a mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer, whip together until incorporated and fluffy. Set aside.

When the tart shell is cooled, spread the goat cheese mixture in an even layer. Arrange sliced stone fruits on top. 

To make the hot honey butter, add butter to a small stainless steel pot and heat on medium-low. When the butter is completely melted, reduce heat to low and add gochugaru and pepper flakes; stir continuously with a silicone spatula for 1–2 minutes, allowing the spices to bloom and the mixture to get completely foamy. Add honey and keep stirring until the mixture becomes completely foamy again. Remove from heat and once the bubbling resides, drizzle hot honey butter immediately over the tart, to taste. 

If desired, garnish with pretty edible flowers and herbs.

Thank you so much to Danish Creamery for sponsoring this recipe! Visit their website to learn more about their legacy of carefully-crafted Old World-quality butter made with milk from family farms since 1895.

Recipe: Strawberry Herb Biscuits

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For this recipe, I partnered with Danish Creamery to share something that captures the promise of sunny days and a beautiful spring season. And to me, bright, ripe strawberries are the sign of the peak of spring. Growing up in the agricultural Central Valley, it used to make me so happy to see little farm stands popping up everywhere we drove, with painted wooden signs pointing to cartons full of freshly picked strawberries. It was a marker for those perfect spring days when it was a joy to be outside; the ones that came sandwiched in between foggy, frosty winters and scalding summers.

Now that I am in San Francisco, the seasons are not quite so distinct, weather-wise, but I still live for how the changing of the seasons becomes evident in the produce aisle. We have strawberries all year but they definitely do not taste the same when they are not in season! 

I got the idea to fold fresh strawberries into my base biscuit recipe from a local bakery that had strawberry scones, but I can’t resist a good biscuit. These might look a bit like scones from the outside, but trust that inside you will find a hint of savory and lots of tender layers. These joys are all thanks to the perfectly creamy 85% butterfat Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter, which I freeze and then grate to form the dough. I have found this technique to be way easier than cutting all that butter into tiny cubes or rubbing them into pea-sized kernels. The grating of the slow-churned velvety butter and a quick series of letter folds of the dough are my tricks to getting these beautiful biscuits every time—the kind that you don’t even need a knife to split open because you’ve created all those wonderful layers.

And once they are out of the oven and as soon as they are cool enough for you to be able to stand prying them open without burning your fingerprints off, spreading on more of that creamy butter (and maybe just a tiny sprinkle of flaky salt) is all these biscuits need to be enjoyed to their full potential. No jam necessary because that sweet strawberry goodness is already baked in! Danish Creamery European Style butters are carefully crafted using the same recipe they’ve been using since 1895 plus high-quality cream from family farms in California’s Central Valley (where I’m from!) so you can bet that it is mighty tasty slathered on all your home-baked biscuits.

What you need to know about the ingredients for this Strawberry Herb Biscuit recipe:

• butter: Great butter is one of the most critical ingredients for making biscuits, both for the taste and texture. I used Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter because of Danish Creamery’s legacy for producing an old world style butter with a high butterfat content, made with milk from healthy cows that munch on grass on wide open California family farms. Freezing and then grating the butter makes short work of incorporating this decadent butter into the biscuit dough in a way that will create lovely layers as they bake up in the oven. Don’t sweat it if a bit of butter gets left stuck on the grater—there should still be plenty of buttery goodness to make your biscuits nice and yummy. 

• Greek yogurt: While many biscuit recipes call for sour cream, Greek yogurt is what I always have already in my fridge and I’ve found it works great. There is plenty of creaminess already in the dough from all that high-quality butter, so using Greek yogurt has an added plus of making the biscuits a little healthier (...not that we’re concerned about that here!) Before using, stir up your Greek yogurt to create a uniform consistency. If the yogurt feels dry and thick like cream cheese, add a teaspoon of water to thin it out.

• strawberries: This recipe is all about celebrating strawberry season, so be sure to use strawberries that are firm but sweet. If you’re making this Strawberry Herb Biscuit recipe with off-season fruit, you may wish to add an extra tablespoon of sugar into the batter. As you’re handling the dough, do so gently to avoid completely smashing the bits of strawberry that are mixed in; a little moisture running out of them is expected and is nothing to sweat about but you want to keep the pieces relatively intact. 

• fresh herbs: I love the combination of strawberry and basil for the perfect sweet-savory balance that is encapsulated by this biscuit recipe. I also used lemon thyme because the stems are much more tender than French thyme and simply require a rough chop without picking the tiny leaves. You can certainly sub in your favorite thyme, or other herbs that pair well with strawberries like sage or tarragon. Just be sure to leave out any hard stems.

One last note:

You definitely don’t need to decorate your biscuits with edible flowers like I did, but you know I can’t resist pressing pretty blooms onto all my bakes when my backyard garden is thriving in the spring. I used violas, as well as the leaves of lemon balm, lemon thyme, and parsley. I’m guessing they successfully lured you into coming to this recipe, but now that you’re here, I assure you that it’s the good butter that is key to making these delicious springtime indulgences, and they will taste just as good with or without the floral decor.

How to Make Strawberry Herb Biscuits

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups AP flour, plus extra for dusting
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1–2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
10 tbsp Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter, frozen
4 tbsp honey, divided
1 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, stirred
1 cup strawberries, stems removed, cut roughly into 1/4” pieces (about 7–9 strawberries)
1 tbsp lemon thyme, tough stems removed and coarsely chopped
2 tbsp basil leaves, coarsely chopped

Procedure

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and whisk together.

Grate in the frozen butter using the large holes of a box grater; toss together with the dry ingredients as you go, to avoid clumps. Then, toss all the butter and dry ingredients together gently so each shaving of butter is separated and coated with the dry ingredients. Drizzle 3 tablespoons of honey evenly over the mixture.

Add strawberry pieces and chopped herbs to the mixture and gently combine.

Create a well in the center of the mixture. Pour yogurt in the well, then slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the wet yogurt . Once all the yogurt is absorbed, resulting in a craggy texture, use hands to gather the dough together and fold it on itself a few times until it is a cohesive dough.

Dump dough onto a cold work surface and try to work quickly and keep everything cold during the folding process. Dust work surface with flour and do so generously throughout the process as needed to prevent sticking. Use hands to shape dough into a rectangle, then use a dusted rolling pin to roll into a rectangle roughly 8 inches wide by 12 inches tall. Fold down the top third and then fold up the bottom third (like you would fold a letter). Flip and rotate 90 degrees and repeat the shaping, rolling, and folding sequence. Flip and rotate again, then do the sequence one more time, so you have done 3 sets of letter folds total.

Roll out the dough one more time, to a rectangle slightly larger than 8 inches x 12 inches. Using a sharp knife dusted in flour, cut the rectangle into 6 even sections by pushing the knife straight down firmly to avoid any sort of sawing motion (that could seal the layers and prevent the biscuits from puffing up). If desired, trim off a tiny amount of dough from all the outer edges of the rectangle to create sharper edges and discard the excess dough—this will also result in a more puffed-up biscuit.

Place biscuits on a parchment-lined baking tray. Freeze for 10 minutes.

While biscuits are in the freezer, preheat oven to 425°F.

Combine remaining 1 tablespoon of honey with 1 tablespoon of water and whisk together until homogeneous. Brush evenly over the tops of biscuits.

If desired, gently press edible flowers and herb leaves on top of the biscuits for decoration. If biscuits do not feel chilled when done decorating, return them to the freezer for another 5–10 minutes before baking.

Bake for 17–20 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden. Enjoy by splitting open with your hands and spreading halves with softened Danish Creamery European Style Sea Salted Butter.

Thank you so much to Danish Creamery for sponsoring this recipe! Visit their website to learn more about their legacy of carefully-crafted Old World-quality butter made with milk from family farms since 1895.

Recipe: The Easiest Strawberry Galette

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This is for sure the easiest strawberry galette recipe because the very first time I made it was under pretty stressful circumstances, and I still managed to pull it off on the fly; it turned out so well despite my totally just winging it that I decided to make it again to write the recipe down and share it with you guys.

The first time I made this strawberry galette was for my friend’s big 30th birthday bash in Palm Springs. His husband had gone all out organizing a gorgeous multi-casita private resort rental for our group of 10 for a long weekend and it was everyone’s first post-vaccination group outing so we were all a little giddy with the culture shock of spending time with other humans again. Prior to the event, all the planning was coordinated through a group chat on Instagram and during our first meal all together, I learned that most of the party had already checked out (stalked) each other’s Instagram accounts, and were very intrigued as to why one of the party members (ME) had thousands of followers. Everyone was incredibly kind and curious to learn about my career as a food blogger, but of course in my mind the pressure was on for the brunch that I had planned to contribute to a couple days later. THEN, I learned that the plan for the entire group to contribute to said brunch was scrapped and that there was no backup plan other than my enthusiasm (which, thankfully, was shared by one other party-goer who wanted to cook too). My original plan has been to make my Everything But the Bagel Galette for the group cookout, but since no one but myself and one other person would be cooking, I knew I had to make another dish, and I tried to come up with something as easy as possible that would still look beautiful on a brunch table. And this is what I came up with!

Despite the ease with which I can describe myself cooking, I get pretty dang nervous cooking for anyone but my spouse and my family. So when I found myself in an AirBnB kitchen I had never used before, cooking for more people than I had ever cooked for before at any one time, and with a reputation to uphold—can you see why I said the circumstances were stressful? And yet, I was still really happy with how the galette turned out! If I could pull it off then, I think you can pull it off now.

This recipe is also super riffable (I hate that word) in that you can follow the same steps but switch up the fruit or the cheese for completely different flavors. You can change up the toppings for the crust, or add nothing at all if you want it keep things the absolute simplest. Strawberries are in season now and that is something I get very excited about, but I am eager to try this out with other fruits too.

Here are the simple steps to fruit and cheese galette glory:

• Prep the ingredients: Move a ready-made frozen pie dough sheet to the fridge the night before to thaw, and then leave it on the kitchen counter to warm up for 30 minutes before rolling it out. (Or, if you didn’t plan ahead, leave the frozen pie crust out for 1–2 hours until it’s malleable.) You’ll also want to macerate the strawberries for that same amount of time. Macerating means adding sugar to the berries to draw out some of the liquid and sort of marinate in the sugar at the same time.

• Roll out the dough: I use the frozen pie dough from Trader Joe’s and they crack 100% of the time when I unroll them. But this is no big deal! I just ball it all up together and roll it out again.

• Spread the cheese: This tart is such a crowd pleaser because it’s a little sweet and a little savory at the same time. But on a practical level, the cheese layer helps protect the pastry, preventing the juices of the strawberries from making the crust soggy. I recommend chèvre (young goat cheese) for this, and you can even get a flavored one if you want to add another note to the galette—here I used this black truffle chèvre and it was soooo good! Other spreadable cheeses could work here too, like a well-strained ricotta or some feta. Whatever you use, you can pop it in the microwave for a few seconds first to get it to spread easily.

• Add the fruit: Strain out the excess liquid that you don’t want to make the crust soggy, then pile the fruit in the middle.

• Fold the crust: Galettes are meant to be rustic as far as I can tell, so don’t worry about making a perfect circle or anything. Just fold up little sections of dough all the way around.

• Add finishing touches to the crust: You will want to eggwash the crust to get it to look golden brown but it’s not even close to the end of the world if you don’t have an egg and want to skip that. I think it is always nice to add a little something to the crust of a galette for more flavor and texture too, but it will still taste good if you choose not to add the sliced almonds and extra sugar like I did.

• Bake: The pastry is so thin that it doesn’t take long but you will want to look out for it being golden brown on the top and crispy on the bottom.

Since the dough is meant for pies and the fruit is packed in there, don’t plan on being able to toss this gal like a frisbee, but other than that, I think it is a pretty unfussy recipe. The next time I find myself spontaneously having to cook brunch for a crowd, I know I’ll be making this again.

How to Make a Strawberry & Cheese Galette

Ingredients for the Galette

1 sheet ready-made pie dough, thawed in the fridge overnight*
1 pint strawberries, stems and leaves removed
2 tbsp granulated sugar (white or raw turbinado)
1/2 tsp flour, plus extra for dusting
5+ oz goat cheese, at room temp
1 egg, beaten

InGredients for the Optional Parts

a few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1 1/2 tsp turbinado sugar
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp water

* If unable to plan the night before, leave the frozen crust out on the counter until malleable, about 1–2 hours

Procedure

Remove the pie dough from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature for about 30–40 minutes.

In the meantime, slice the strawberries—halve small ones and cut larger ones into slices so that everything is about equal thickness. Combine the sliced strawberries and granulated sugar in a bowl and toss gently to combine. Allow the strawberries to macerate until the sugar is completely dissolved and a noticeable amount of liquid has been released, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Form a round disk with the pie dough. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to a 12-inch circle. Transfer the dough circle to a piece of parchment paper.

If needed, microwave the cheese in a small bowl for 10 seconds to get a spreadable consistency. Spread the cheese in the middle, leaving an empty 1-inch border all the way around. Optionally, sprinkle thyme leaves over the cheese.

Drain the excess liquid from the strawberries. Add the flour and toss to coat. Pile the strawberries in the middle of the cheese layer, leaving an empty 1-inch border of cheese all the way around (see image above).

Brush the dough border with beaten egg and fold small sections over the filling to form a galette-style crust. Brush the pleated crust thoroughly with egg, making sure to get it in all the folds and crannies.

Optional step: Combined sliced almonds with about 1 tbsp of the remaining beaten egg (or more as needed for all the almond slices to be very thinly coated in egg). Gently pat the almonds onto the crust. Then, sprinkle the turbinado sugar evenly over the crust.

Slide parchment paper onto an inverted baking tray and bake the galette on the middle rack for 20–25 minutes, rotating once halfway.

Optional step: Combine honey and water in a small bowl and microwave for 10 seconds. Stir together to make a glaze, and brush the glaze over the fruit when the galette comes out of the oven.

Allow the galette to rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Recipe: Baked Feta with Roasted Strawberries

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So we all know about baked feta from that baked feta and tomato pasta trend on TikTok. I tried it and I think it is perfectly tasty but one thing that confused me about it was why people’s minds were so blown. It’s warmed, creamy cheese and roasted tomatoes…OF COURSE those taste good together! But rather than fester on my confusion, I decided to take inspiration from the baked feta trend and make it a bit more interesting. We all know that roasted tomatoes are amazing…but have you tried roasting strawberries?

Think about when you are eating a charcuterie platter where there’s crostini, and spreadable cheeses, and jams, and how combining those things is like a party for your mouth. This is basically a sheet pan version of that!

Roasting tender fruits like strawberries makes them so lovely and jammy because it concentrates their flavors and makes them soft. Obviously baking the block of feta makes it warm and soft and spreadable, so it becomes perfect to smash on top of toast. I admit that this is not all that groundbreaking either, but a lot of people don’t think to roast sweet fruits like berries and grapes, so I thought this recipe was still worth sharing. It also makes your house smell amazing.

How to Make Baked Feta with Roasted Strawberries

Ingredients

1 lb strawberries
8 oz feta (domestic is fine)
2 tbsp date syrup
freshly cracked pepper, to taste
1/2 a soft baguette, cut into 1/2-inch slices
extra virgin olive oil
1–2 sprigs basil, leaves picked

Procedure

Position one rack in the middle of the oven and another closer to the bottom. Preheat oven to 400°F.

Remove the stems and leaves of the strawberries. Slice smaller strawberries in half and cut larger ones into 1/4-inch slices.

Place the block of feta on a baking sheet and arrange strawberries around it. Drizzle date syrup and sprinkle black pepper over everything.

Bake the feta and strawberries for 20 minutes on the middle rack.

In the meantime, brush the baguette slices with some olive oil. When there are 3–5 minutes left for the sheet pan (depending on how crunchy you like your toast), add the bread onto the other oven rack.

Take everything out of the oven, then gently mix the strawberries around with the juices that released.

Roughly chop larger pieces of basil and leave the small leaves whole.

To serve, smear some of the soft feta on top of each toast, then spoon on some of the strawberry mixture. Top with the fresh basil.

Recipe: Apple Streusel Muffins with Maple Glaze

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I don’t know how many times I have been disappointed in muffins from cafes. I think muffins (and scones for that matter) are baked goods that you are really rolling the dice on when purchased—some are great but there is always the risk of them being chalk dry, or just plain bland. My spouse almost always inevitably chooses poorly because he is trying to be “healthy” by going for the bran raisin muffin or something obviously gross like that.

Well, these muffins are most definitely NOT trying to be healthy. But you can still tell yourself it’s a muffin and not a cupcake, and it’s chock-a-block full of apples…those are healthy, right?

When I was in college I kept a hand-written notebook full of recipes that I still have today. I would go home during breaks and go through my mom’s cookbooks and cooking magazine subscriptions and hand-copy things I wanted to try to make. Eventually I realized this was painfully inefficient and started either typing them up or just finding recipes on the internet! But I would print them out and tuck the papers into that notebook. One of those recipes is the original version of these apple streusel muffins—a printout of a recipe that had been typed into a Word document, from I-don’t-remember where, with extra annotations written in the margins by Past Me. So I thought it was time to immortalize the recipe on the internet.

This time around, I also added some crushed chicharrones into the streusel mixture, because I am a savory-loving weirdo like that. This is not a critical ingredient, and I’d like to put out there that streusel doesn’t need a strict recipe anyway. (You’ll notice my recipe has some unconventional measurements.) I’d encourage you to add your own mix-ins for whatever you want your streusel topping to be; oats, chopped nuts, panko breadcrumbs, and desiccated coconut are just some of the other ideas I had. The recipe presented will produce a softer streusel topping rather than a crunchy one.

For extra luxury and Instagram-worthiness, I also did a maple glaze drizzle adapted from this donut glaze by Sally’s Baking Addiction. If you are into smokey flavors like I am, I highly recommend using Tippleman’s Barrel Smoked Maple Syrup** for this part. It’s quite a splurge, but I have been buying it for years because it is unlike any other maple syrup; it is incredible in this glaze because the smokiness adds a whole other dimension of flavor that takes these far beyond humble fruit muffins.

One last component I want to call out is the type of apple to use. Use whatever you want, really! I personally find that this is a good way to even use up an apple that has gone mealy. In this particular instance though, I used Lucy Glo apples, which are naturally red inside!

I just started noticing these popping up in stores this year; I’ve purchased them from Trader Joe’s and Sprouts. I think they look very cool, but obviously they still taste like regular apples. I love that you can see a little bit of red peaking through the streusel on the tops of some of these muffins, obviously because the apples I used had red flesh. But! A couple days later, the apples inside had a blue tint to them; I learned this was because of a reaction with the baking powder I used and I am not sure if this would have happened with a more neutral colored apple or not. The taste was not affected.

Disclaimer: Not all the apples in these images are Lucy Glo, which has a pale yellow exterior skin. I had quite the apple collection as I was shopping for this shoot, and an eager human and dog waiting for to help eat them.

How to Make Apple Streusel Muffins with Maple Glaze

(Makes 6 muffins)

Ingredients for the muffins

1 cup apples, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 cup + 1 tbsp AP flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
heaped 1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp pumpkin spice or ground cinnamon

Ingredients for the Streusel Topping

2 1/2 tbsp butter
1/6 cup packed brown sugar (eyeball with your 1/3 cup measure)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup AP flour
2 heaped tbsp crushed chicharrones, or some other fine mix-in

Ingredients for the Maple Glaze

1/2 tbsp butter
4 tsp maple syrup
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp AP flour

Procedure

To make the streusel, melt butter in the microwave for 30 seconds or until completely melted. Whisk together brown sugar, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Mix in butter. Then add flour and your fine-textured mix-in and use a folding and pressing motion with a spoon or spatula to combine everything together into a big flat disk. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 375°F and line 6 muffin tins.

To make the muffin batter, start by transferring about 1/4 of your chopped apples into a small bowl and mash with a muddler or pestle.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients for the muffins: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

In a larger bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and cinnamon. Gradually add in the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Fold in the chopped and crushed apples, and any juice released. (Mixture’s consistency will be more like a cookie dough texture than a muffin batter. Do not be alarmed by this.) Divide evenly into the muffin tins.

Use your hands to break up the clump of streusel topping and crumble over the muffins. Press it in gently. Bake muffins for 22–25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the muffins to sit for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Sift together the confectioners sugar and flour for the maple glaze. Combine the butter and maple syrup in a small sauce pan on very low heat. When the butter is melted, whisk thoroughly and remove from heat. Whisk in the flour and confectioners sugar and immediately drizzle on the muffins. (I used by mini whisk as my drizzling wand.) You may need to return the glaze to the heat and keep whisking after each muffin to return the glaze to a thinner consistency for drizzling. (A little tricky, but worth it!)

Recipe: Gochujang Hot Cocoa Cookies

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It has been a great ambition of mine to develop a savory cookie recipe. Even though I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I love the IDEA of cookies…especially chewy ones. When Chris Morocco’s miso almond butter cookie recipe blew up during quarantine, I thought that the work had already been done for me and I could peacefully retire that goal. I made his recipe, but it was way too salty for my liking. Still very tasty but, like, needed to drink half a gallon of water after. In fairness, I probably used the wrong kind of miso, but I think it is problematic that the recipe doesn’t specify; there are a lot of miso varieties out there and they can be super different from one another! Anyway, the quest for good savory cookie was back on.

And then I had to develop a holiday recipe for a client using their gochujang-based sweet and spicy condiment, and I thought—here’s my chance to work on that savory cookie recipe. I was really happy with how that recipe turned out, and when I shared it in my Instagram stories, I got a lot of intrigued members of Team Savory wanting to know more! I was certainly pleased to know that 1) people did not think I was out of my mind for making a cookie with gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) and 2) there are other people who like the idea of a cookie that teeters into the realm of savory!

That recipe revolves around having a very specific product from that particular client, but I decided to also make a spinoff that uses more generic ingredients, since the product isn’t available everywhere. This time, I also worked in a little bit of cocoa powder, because I love that combination of chili and chocolate! The result is a soft, almost cake-like cookie that hits a little salty upon first bite, then evolves into sweetness with a quiet chili burn, and leaves a faint cocoa-y memory thereafter. Appearance-wise, I like to think of them as a distant sassy Korean relative to the Pfeffernüsse cookies that popular in Germany at Christmastime, but the flavors are VERY different.

I will confess I only tested this with one tub of gochujang: this one. Other than the spiciness (which can be selected to your taste) there is less variation among these rectangular tubs of gochujang from the Korean market than there are types of miso but I will caution that if the gochujang you have is super salty you may want to dial back on adding salt to the dough. Also, I find that the texture and moisture content of gochujang changes the longer the tub sits in your fridge, so I would recommend making sure your gochujang is somewhat fresh, or whisking it together with a small splash of water if it’s been a while since the last time the tub saw the light of day.

Eager to buy mooncake molds to be extra prepared for the next Mid-Autumn festival but also very against kitchen uni-taskers, I was happy to learn that this cookie dough is great for taking on pressed designs. (This is the mooncake set I have.) After portioning out the dough for the cookies and rolling them into balls, I simply pressed the dough down using the plates from my mooncake mold set to shape and flatten them. The dough sticks to the mold but is strong/firm enough to then be gently peeled off without losing its shape or pressed pattern. The almond butter in this recipe is more of a structural component than a flavor contributor, but you can always to the classic peanut butter cross hatch design on these if you don’t have a mooncake mold. I obviously loved how they turned out with the mooncake molds, though, because I took a ton of photos!

How to Make Gochujang Hot Cocoa Cookies

(Makes about 18 cookies)

Ingredients

7 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup raw creamy almond butter, stirred
1/4 cup gochujang (like this one), at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Sparkling sugar

Procedure

Place butter in a large mixing bowl and melt in the microwave for 30 seconds, and then for additional 10-second increments until completely melted. Working quickly while the butter is still hot, drizzle in almond butter and whisk thoroughly to combine. Then add gochujang and whisk thoroughly again to combine.

Whisking vigorously after each additional ingredient, add the brown sugar, egg, then cocoa powder to the mixture. (All this whisking is what will help give the cookies their airy yet cakey texture.)

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, using a spoon or spatula to incorporate everything together into a thick dough.

Roll dough into 1- to 1 1/4-inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Chill them in the refrigerator for 10–15 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F.

Use plates from a 100-gram mooncake mold to press designs into the cookies while flattening them. (I found that it worked best to place the ball in the center of the mooncake plate, and then carefully turn them both over onto the baking tray, and press down on the plate until the edges of the cookie dough are almost spread to the edges of the plate.) If necessary, tap the molds in some flour to prevent sticking in between cookies, but make sure there are no clumps of flour on the mold. If you do not have mooncake molds, press a crosshatch pattern into the dough balls with a fork. After pressing all the cookies, sprinkle some sparkling sugar on the tops.

Bake for 9–10 minutes or until bottoms are browned. Remove from the oven and allow to set for 3 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Recipe: My 90-Second Chocolate Mug Cake

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My disclaimer (or testament) for this recipe is that I don’t like chocolate cake—most of the time. But like any breathing human, I do get a craving for them now and again. In times like those, it can perhaps be argued that the taste of instant gratification is the sweetest of them all. I sometimes wonder if the reason I like mug cakes so much has less to do with the quality of the cake and more to do with my fascination for the microwave’s awesome and terrifying power to transform basic pantry ingredients into the semblance of a baked confection in 90 seconds.

And yet my spouse—a professed great lover of chocolate cakes—can attest that this chocolate cake sure does tick a lot of the boxes: moist, fudgy, not too cloyingly sweet, yummy. The things I’d want in a chocolate cake, somehow achievable in a mug in less than 3 minutes if you include the time it takes for me to dig the ingredients out. I’m not trying to win any pâtisserie awards any time soon, but I am trying to win over my spouse’s heart (again) and perhaps yours, too.

Some things to note about this recipe:

• Trust me on the amount of sugar. It seems like a lot for such a small amount of other ingredients, but I tried it a few times with less sugar and it just didn’t taste right. I hate overly sweet things, and this doesn’t turn out overly sweet. I’d say it turns out more like an Asian style dessert, that strives to not be cloying or sugary tasting.

• Use a big mug. The mixture will puff up in the microwave and you don’t want spillage.

• The images with the stenciled sugar were done with the ‘gram in mind. I didn’t do the last step of adding extra chocolate chunks, and instead, I dusted powdered sugar on top. Here is a photo of what the mug cake will look like if you follow my usual recipe, as presented below:

If you want to make the powdered sugar version, skip the step about adding chocolate chunks on top, and just microwave the cake batter for the full 90 seconds. I used a laser-cut wood snowflake ornament from Cost Plus World Market as a stencil. I placed the ornament on top of the cake, dusted the powdered sugar through a fine mesh sieve, and then carefully lifted off the ornament.

This recipe was adapted from a recipe by user safinabakes1231 on Allrecipes.

One last stray comment, for those who got lured here from my Instagram post—yes, the green on the mugs in those images was Photoshopped! #doitforthegram

How I Make a Chocolate Mug Cake

Ingredients

1/4 cup AP flour
scant 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbsp* unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp table salt
4 tbsp oat milk
3 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
~ 1 tsp date syrup
~ 1 tsp raw almond butter
a few chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or marshmallows (optional)

(* I know, a half-tablespoon is not a very standard measurement, but just eyeball it! 2 teaspoons (2/3 tablespoon) would be too much though.)

Procedure

Add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt to a large microwave-safe mug and whisk to combine.

Stir in oat milk and olive oil.

Add date syrup and almond butter to the top of the cake batter and use a butter knife or toothpick to create a marbled swirl on the top (this sometimes turns out pretty after cooking, and other times it gets lost, but I do it every time).

Microwave mug for 1 minute.

Add chocolate or marshmallows on top, if desired. Microwave for 30 more seconds. Allow to cool a bit (if you can wait!) before eating out of the mug with a spoon. (Would be amazing with vanilla ice cream!)

Recipe: Spicy Almond Butter Cookies

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For this recipe, I partnered with Bibigo USA to use their Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce to make a giftable holiday treat. Cookies may be the classic homemade gift for the holidays but when working with savory Korean sauces and marinades, transforming them into cookies may not be the first idea that comes to mind. These cookies are pretty out there—but in my opinion, in a good way. If you’ve read my other blog posts, you will know by now that I am a diehard lover of savory over sweet, so I thought this would be a cool opportunity to develop a cookie recipe that teetered between the two taste realms.

When you look at Christmas cookies, spiced confections seem to be pretty rooted in the flavors of the season but this typically means cinnamon, nutmeg, and the like. Well, these cookies are spiced all right—as in spicy! Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce is a sweeter, lighter take on gochujang, a Korean red chili pepper paste. I was so pleased with how that flavor came across after getting baked into a cookie. These cookies are slightly sweet and a touch salty; instead of spicy kick, I’d describe the spice of these as a mellow burn. If you love gifting cookies but you’ve got someone in your life who is always looking for unusual spicy things, I hope you will consider giving this recipe a try.

This recipe was adapted from a recipe by Katiebird Bakes.

How to Make Spicy Almond Butter Cookies

(Makes about 15 cookies)

Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup raw creamy almond butter, stirred
1/4 cup Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Sparkling sugar, optional

Procedure

In a large mixing bowl, melt butter in the microwave for 30 seconds, and then for additional 10-second increments until completely melted. While butter is still hot, slowly drizzle in almond butter and Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce while whisking. Whisk together vigorously until completely homogenous. 

Add brown sugar and egg to the mixing bowl and whisk mixture together until completely homogenous. 

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients gradually to wet ingredients, mixing together with a spoon or spatula until thoroughly combined and a firm dough is formed.

Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and place 2 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Chill cookie dough balls in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F.

Use a fork to press a crosshatch pattern into the dough balls and slightly flatten them. Sprinkle sparkling sugar on top of each, if desired.

Bake for 9–10 minutes or until bottoms are browned. Remove from the oven and allow to set for 3 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Biscuits Two Ways

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At my house, we are deeply divided between Team Sweet and Team Savory. My husband loves chocolate, pancakes, and PB & J; I love cheese, tater tots, and scrambled eggs. Fortunately, I am in charge of the cooking, so I get to feed us whatever I want, and my husband (the dish washer) is at the mercy of my charitable pancake breakfast and cookie baking every now and again.

But when I can, I try to adapt recipes into sweet and savory versions so we are both happy and get our cravings satisfied. If found that this is pretty doable when it comes to batter- and dough- based recipes, and usually causes only one extra dirty bowl at the most. For example, when I make a batch of waffles, I’ll follow a standard recipe for my husband that he can pour syrup and fruit over, and then part-way through cooking them I’ll add grated cheese and herbs into the bowl of batter to turn it savory.

I decided to experiment with this concept and turn a batch of biscuits into a sweet and savory version. I used BA’s Sour Cream and Onion biscuit recipe as a starting point for the ratios of the key ingredients, but my execution was pretty different (and IMO, easier). After making a base I split the dough into two portions: a sweet version with honey and a savory one with cheddar, scallions, and black pepper. These don’t have a huge rise because I intentionally made them big and flat for purposes of making breakfast sandwiches, but they could be made taller and smaller if you so choose.

I think these are best when they are fresh from the oven and just barely cool enough to tear open with my hands. So, I recommend only baking what you plan to eat right away, even if it’s just one of each, and freezing the rest. Freeze them on a parchment-lined tray first and then you can transfer them to a freezer bag. When ready to bake, pop them directly from the freezer to a parchment-lined tray and bake them for an extra 5–10 minutes.

How to Make Two Kinds of Biscuits in One Batch

Ingredients for base

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus extra bench flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp sugar
10 tbsp butter, plus extra for finish
1 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
kosher salt

Ingredients For Savory Biscuits

2 scallions, chopped
1/3 cup cheddar, grated
lots of freshly cracked black pepper

Ingredients For Sweet Biscuits

1 1/2 tbsp honey, plus extra for finish

Procedure

If you have the half-cup sticks of butter like I do, start by throwing at least one stick into the freezer; if working with a block, freeze all 10 tablespoons.

Stir up your Greek yogurt to be an even consistency. If it is super thick, add a teaspoon of water to thin it out.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and a pinch of salt and whisk together.

If you have a portion of butter that you did not freeze, cut that portion into tiny cubes, trying to keep it as cold as possible. Add that to the dry ingredients and use cold hands to smash into small crumbles. Then use a box grater to grate in the frozen butter, and once again use your hands to incorporate the butter with the dry ingredients into a crumbly-looking mixture.

Pour about 40–45% of the mixture into another bowl. (Just eyeball, it will be fine. I did this because the savory ingredients will add more volume and I wanted all the biscuits to be uniform in size. If this does not matter to you, just divide evenly.)

Make the savory biscuits: In a small bowl, combine scallions, cheese, and pepper and toss to combine. Add these to the smaller portion of dry ingredients and whisk together. Create a well in the center. Pour half of the yogurt in the well, then use a fork to slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the wet yogurt. Once all the yogurt is absorbed, use your hands to gather the dough together and fold it on itself a few times until it is a cohesive dough.

Make the sweet biscuits: Drizzle honey over the remaining flour and butter mixture. Then form a well in the center and repeat the same process of incorporating the remaining yogurt as before.

Preheat your oven to 425°F.

For each portion of dough, you will do three sets of letter folds to create layers in your biscuits. Dust your work surface with flour and do so throughout the process as needed to prevent sticking. Shape one portion of dough into a 9” x 3” rectangle, fold in a third from the right and then a third from the left (like you would fold a letter). Then rotate 90 degrees and repeat the shaping and folding. Rotate again then do the process one more time. Finally, rotate, shape, and cut your dough into 3 biscuits. Repeat this process with the other portion of dough.

Place biscuits on a parchment-lined baking tray. Optionally, spread a tiny bit of melted butter on top of the savory biscuits and top with a bit of coarse salt; and spread a small amount of extra honey on top of the sweet biscuits.

Bake for 17–20 minutes.

Recipe: Toffee Bars

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My mom used to make toffee bars from an old Betty Crocker cookbook as part of her big Christmas cookie bakes, and being a child of sophisticated tastes, they were the ones I looked forward to the most. I never knew why they were called “toffee bars” though? The crust tastes like brown sugar shortbread because that is basically what it is.

While sheltering-in-place I’ve been baking a ton, but because it’s just me and my spouse (happily) trapped here together, I have been adapting recipes to produce smaller amounts. I took one third of the old recipe and swapped out the egg for Greek yogurt to make the right amount for baking inside a loaf pan.

The original recipe, as my mom used to make it, called for a topping of chopped walnuts. But I find that flakey salt is the way to go if you are gonna top a slab of melted dark chocolate with anything. Because I had some edible flowers that I’d purchased from the farmers market, plus more growing in my own back yard, I decided to add some of those plus some bee pollen to really dress these up. This ingredients have minimal impact on the taste, and are entirely optional. Just don’t skimp on the flakey salt.

This recipe was adapted from Betty Crocker.

How to Make Toffee Bars

Ingredients for Toffee Bars

1/3 cup butter, softened at room temperature
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 tsp plain Greek yogurt
2/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks*

Toppings

flakey salt
bee pollen
food-safe flower petals

* You could also chop up a baking bar or use chocolate chips. The less stabilizers in your chocolate product, the better it will melt.

Procedure

Cut a strip of parchment paper to match the width of your loaf pan and use it to line the pan lengthwise, allowing the excess to hang over the top. (While the pastry does not really stick after baking, it is helpful to have this as handles for lifting it out of the pan.)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine butter, brown sugar, vanilla, Greek yogurt, and salt in a mixing bowl and cream until smooth. Mix in flour. Press into the loaf pan in a smooth layer. (I like to place a piece of wax paper over it and use the back of a spoon to smooth it out.)

Bake for 25–30 minutes until golden brown but still soft. Immediately sprinkle chocolate on top and allow it to start melting. Spread the chocolate evenly.

Sprinkle flakey salt and other toppings, if using, evenly over the chocolate. Allow chocolate to set for at least 30 minutes before lifting out of the pan, and then allow the chocolate to fully set and cool (about 2 hours at room temperature) before cutting into bars with a large knife.

Recipe: Dalgona Mocha

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Dalgona coffee is everywhere on Instagram and TikTok right now, and while it makes me feel a little like a sheep to have jumped on the trend, I also prefer to have a more warm and fuzzy perspective on it. From what I understand, this style of coffee first became popular in South Korea when people self-quarantining were looking for a way to capture Seoul’s wonderful cafe culture while not being able to leave their homes. While friends and loved ones can’t grab a cup of coffee together to socialize at the moment, I like thinking about how the explosion of dalonga coffee on social media means we are all having coffee together in a way.

The recipe for dalgona coffee is super easy to remember: equal parts of hot water, instant coffee granules, and sugar in a bowl, and then whisk the crap out of it and serve it on milk. But the other day I swapped out a little bit of the coffee granules for unsweetened cocoa powder to make a mocha version, and got several DMs about the proportions I used, so I figured I may as well make a blog post about it. The tiny amount of cocoa was enough to really change the flavor, even for my spouse who doesn’t like coffee and has the weakest sense of taste of anyone I’ve met.

Happy whisking!

How to Make Dalgona Mochas

This recipe makes 2 drinks with a generous amount of whipped coffee foam, piled high for the ‘gram.

Ingredients

3 1/2 tbsp instant coffee granules
1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp boiling water
12 oz milk (I used full fat oat milk)
extra unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting, optional

Procedure

Combine instant coffee, cocoa powder, sugar, and water in a bowl that is roomy enough for some major whisking action.

Using an electric hand mixer, whisk the ingredients together, working your way up to the highest setting and rotating the bowl as you go, until everything is a homogenous foam with medium-stiff peaks. (I do not recommend a stand mixer, which has trouble when the volume of ingredients is so small. You could certainly do this manually with a regular whisk but you will be whisking a very long time to get the texture seen in these photos.)

Divide the milk of your choice into two small glasses and top with the whipped mocha foam. Dust a little extra cocoa powder on top. Take several dozen photos, then enjoy!

Recipe: Date & Cacao Bran Muffins

CLICK HERE to visit my friends over at Nomtastic Foods and get my recipe for date and cacao nib bran muffins—a healthy grab-and-go breakfast, the perfect accompaniment to afternoon tea, or a sweet and chocolate-y dessert you’ll be proud of yourself for eating.

Recipe: Holiday Fuel Cookies

Because Double-Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Sea Salt Cookies Seemed like too much of a mouthful.

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When I was in college, I had a notebook where I’d hand-copied recipes from my mom’s old cookbooks to bring with me and make away from home. We most definitely already had the internet and laptops back then, so I am not sure why I did this. But I still have the notebook and one of the recipes in it is a oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. I don’t think I’ve ever actually made it with raisins—because there’s nothing more disappointing in life than biting into what you think is an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie only to learn those chocolate chips are actually horrible raisins—and over the years the recipe has completely evolved according to my tastes. Over time, I’ve reduced the sugar, tried different mix-ins, and even experimented with different types of oatmeal—and I have always just maintained these recipe adjustments in my memory instead of writing them down.

Until now! I was so touched to be invited by @cosetteskitchen to participate in a Virtual Cookie Party on Instagram this Sunday. To be considered an active part of such a rich community of home cooks and food bloggers means so much to me as my own Instagram account (@lilybubbletea) has really become such an important place for me to show who I am as a food stylist and photographer, but also who I am in general. I thought Cosette’s idea of having a cookie potluck party no matter where we are really reminds how great Instagram can be as a community builder; check out the hashtag #virtualcookieparty2019 to see what others are bringing to the party.

I’m sharing my tried and true oatmeal cookie recipe but with a few mix-ins to turn these cookies into an indulgent snack that is easy and tempting to grab while feeling extra frantic during the holidays. Big gooey chocolate shards are the highlight for me, but there’s also cacao nibs for crunch, dried cranberries for a little tartness, sea salt for a tiny touch of savory balance, and oatmeal…for health?

How to Make Double-Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Sea Salt Cookies

Ingredients for the Oatmeal Cookie Base

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened but not melted
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/2–1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp (or more!) ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup quick oats
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Holiday Fuel Mix-ins

3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup cacao nibs
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1-2 pinches flakey salt, for finishing

Procedure

Making chocolate shards: This is a totally optional step that requires some foresight but I think it gives baked goods a rustic, really gooey look. Melt the chocolate in a double-boiler and pour it all onto a parchment- or silicone-lined baking tray. Spread the chocolate into a thin layer and allow to fully set in the fridge or freezer, then cut or break into small shards. Alternatively, you could just use chocolate chips.

Preheat your oven to 375°F.

Cream together butter, sugars, egg, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.

Gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet but try not to over mix. Then gently fold in the chocolate shards (or chocolate chips), cacao nibs, and dried cranberries.

Scoop dough into golf ball sized mounds, 2 inches apart, on ungreased cookie sheets. Top each with a little sprinkle of flakey salt. (Makes about 20 cookies)

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the bottom edges start to look golden brown. Allow the cookies to set for 2 minutes before removing and cooling on a rack.

Here’s what other bloggers brought to our virtual cookie party:

• Cosette’s Kitchen Tahini Pinwheel Cookies

• Kathryn Pauline’s Sesame Blossom Cookies

• Candice Walker’s Dark Chocolate Gelt with Matcha Mousse

• Tawnie Graham’s (Krolls_Korner) White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies 

• ¡Hola! Jalapeño Peppermint Mocha Milk Fudge 

• Rylee Foer (About to Sprout) Spiced Honey Cardamom Cookies with Orange Glaze 

• Gina Fontana (Healthy Little Vittles) Cookie Dough Stuffed Dates

• Christine Ma (Cherry on My Sundae) Southern Butter Pecan Skillet Cookie

• Alexa Blay’s (Key To My Lime) Gluten Free Vegan Sugar Cookies for Cutouts

• Tamara Giebel (The Herbalist & The Carnivore) Chocolate Espresso Dipped Hazelnut Lace Cookies

• Ashley Cuoco’s (ashcuoco) Stamped Citrus Shortbread

• Mike Johnson’s (MikeBakesNYC) Chocolate Peppermint Macarons

• Elizabeth Waterson (ConfessionsOfABakingQueen) Viennese Whirls

• Erin Kowal's (Down to a Simmer) Date Drop Cookies

• Kathleen Culver, The Floured Table Triple Ginger Molasses Cookies

• Taylor Carson (Crust and Confections PNW) Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies

• Kimberlee Ho (kickassbaker) White Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream Sandwiches

• Cindy Feingold (saltandserenity) Chocolate Dipped Mint sandwich Cookies

• Tamara, Tina, Tara (ThreeTeasKitchen)  https://threeteaskitchen.com/lawzena/ 

• Jean Choi’s (whatgreatgrandmaate) Cranberry Pistachio Paleo Chocolate Cookies

• Tristin Rieken’s (onearmedmama) Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies

• Kathryn (wornslapout) Rocky Road Chocolate Bark 

• Taylor (allpurposeflourchild) Mulling Spice and Orange Marmalade Thumbprint Cookies

• Dana (olivemeetscoconut) Cranberry Orange Halaweh Cookies

• KendellKreations Pecan Butter Balls

• Kristine Hinterkopf (TheEarnestBaker) Smoked Sea Salt and Bourbon Cowboy Cookies

• Anita (cookonawhim) Cranberry and Rosemary Tassies

• Casey Colodny (TheMindfulHapa) Paleo Soft Ginger Cookies 

• Emma Duckworth (Emma Duckworth Bakes Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies

• Kat Higashiyama (Pasta Ragazza) Chocolate and Coffee Biscotti

Recipe: Mango Coconut "Sticky" Rice

CLICK HERE to visit my friends over at Nomtastic Foods and get my recipe for my quirky take on the classic Southeast Asian dessert.

Everything I Ate in Hong Kong

I just visited Hong Kong for the first time and even before I’d left, people were already asking me for food recommendations. After sending my haphazard Simplenote notes to a handful of people, I decided it made sense to clean them up and write a blog post.

One thing that surprised me when visiting Hong Kong was how not English-friendly it was, despite how recently Hong Kong was a British colony. I remember watching the handover ceremony on TV as a kid. There are probably plenty of modern, tourist-friendly places to eat where English speakers would not have any problems, but most of the places on my itinerary were about seeking out foods and experiences I couldn’t get at home in San Francisco (despite its large Cantonese population), so I had to rely on my sub-par Cantonese a lot when communicating in Hong Kong. Growing up, Cantonese was probably the most common language my parents spoke to each other but because they grew up in Malaysia and went to either public or English schools, they never learned to write Chinese. My vocabulary is limited to simple conversations we would have as a family and I don’t know a lot of specific food words outside of dim sum. I probably would have had a very different eating experience if I’d either known less or more Cantonese, and to some extent I think I get unduly embarrassed whenever I travel to a foreign place and don’t know the local language…which is why I am rambling on and on about language accessibility and include notes about it for all the places below.

66 Hot Pot, Mong Kok

Interesting style of hot pot. First you eat a pot of saucy chicken mixed with Szechuan aromatics. They really expect you to eat all the chicken before moving on to the next step—my spouse and I were gently scolded to eat more of the chicken first when we requested the broth too early. After eating the chicken they fill your pot with broth for a normal hot pot and you can order sliced meats, dumplings, veggies, etc to cook in it.

Verdict: Tasty but not mind-blowing. It’s on the pricey side. Hot pot ingredients are a la carte, but if you order the signature chicken pot, the broth top-ups are included.
English speakers?: No
English menu?: Yes, you order everything on an iPad.
Google Maps Link

Sun Hing, Kennedy Town

dim sum at Sun Hing

This is a really old school dim sum shop where I believe they make everything in-house. They only have the classics and you can just go grab them at the front yourself and have them mark what you chose on your tab. Very fresh. They open at 2am.

Verdict: Great for the first “morning” after you land if you’re awake and hungry at a strange hour and want to be immediately thrown into a chaotic Hong Kong style eatery. Expect simple, tasty food but not the best dim sum of your life.
English speakers?: No
English menu?: Technically yes, there was one on the wall, but it’s completely useless because you can only order what’s out on display unless you speak Cantonese.
Google Maps Link

Yee Shun Milk Company, multiple locations

cold double film milk pudding at Yee Shun Milk Company

Get their famous double film milk pudding. So simple, yet so good that I went twice during my trip. 

Verdict: Go there.
English speakers?: No
English menu?: Yes, with pictures of their most popular items.
Google Maps Link

Tiger Sugar / The Alley, multiple locations

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These two popular chains are both famous for their versions of the brown sugar pearl/boba/bubble fresh milk drink. (Don’t call it boba in HK though, that means big boobs.)  I didn’t find either version to be particularly amazing but I did prefer Tiger Sugar (Taiwan-based) over The Alley (HK-based). Check out my Instagram post for a more in-depth review.

Verdict: Not bad; not as good as ones I had in Taipei.
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes

Hot Star, multiple locations

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This Taipei-based chain is famous for their XXL breaded and deep fried chicken cutlet, likely to be bigger than the size of your face. Read my Instagram post for a more in-depth review. 

Verdict: Loved it!
English speakers?: Most likely yes
English menu?: Yes

Mammy Pancake, multiple locations

Believe it or not, these egg waffles / eggettes are Michelin Guide recommended. There are lots of flavors to choose from, both sweet and savory. I got the squid ink salted yolk flavor, and could very subtly taste both elements. They were perfectly crisp outside and had a nice chew inside. 

Verdict: These probably are legitimately the best egg waffles out there. Personally, I wouldn’t go out of my way for them but if you love this type of snack you should totally go. 
English speakers?: Not sure because I ordered in Cantonese, but the staff were young.
English menu?: Yes

Yuen Kee, Sham Shui Po

There are other businesses with the same name but I’m writing about the dai pai dong—a licensed open-air food stall. These eateries are known for stir fried dishes celebrating wok hei, the flavor that comes from cooking in a wok over extremely hot flames (or some think of it as the energy/breath from the wok). These are sadly a dying food genre in HK because the licenses cannot be transferred even within the family, so definitely do some research around what dai pai dong suits you, if not this one, and go while you still can. We got a sizzling plate of fatty pork, black bean sauce clams, and Chinese leeks with dried fish, squid, and cashews, all based on the photos on the wall. Everything was a little on the salty side but also immensely flavorful and perfectly cooked—clearly meant to be eaten with rice to dilute the saltiness. This was my overall fave meal of HK.

Verdict: Definitely recommend, but you may need to be amazing at charades if you don’t speak Cantonese.
English speakers?: Hard no. My Cantonese was good enough to let our waitress know we wanted to order dishes off the pictures on the wall plus two bowls of rice and a large beer.
English menu?: No, our waitress was not pleased when I asked for one! But ~15 dishes are pictured on the wall.
Google Maps Link

Kam Wah Cafe, Mong Kok:

bo lo yau and milk tea at Kam Wah Cafe

This place is known for their bo lo bao / pineapple buns and they totally lived up to the hype!!! Ask for a bo lo yau if you want that iconic slab of butter stuffed inside (I did!). My spouse enjoyed a HK style French toast with peanut butter stuffed inside. The milk tea tasted way too tannin-y or over-steeped to me, though I have been told that is part of the HK style milk tea. This is a cute little cha chaan teng (Hong Kong style tea cafe) but you can also buy their famous pineapple buns to-go from a little counter at the shopfront.

Verdict: This is where you should go to try pineapple buns.
English speakers?: They might understand you? At least they were friendly.
English menu?: Yes, though I believe it is not their full menu.
Google Maps Link

Yum Cha, multiple locations

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Very cute but slightly expensive dim sum. Detailed review in my Instagram post.

Verdict: Go if you’re in it for the ‘gram.
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes; order by marking things off on your paper menu.

Tai Cheong Bakery, Central:

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Best daan tat / egg tart of my life! Insanely flakey and buttery crust. More detailed review on Instagram.

Verdict: Yessss so good!
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: It’s a bakery, so you can scope out what they have in the pastry case.
Google Maps Link

Lan Fong Yuen, Central:

Famous for inventing HK stocking milk tea—stockings on handles are used to keep the tea leaves separate as the tea brews, and then it is sweetened with condensed milk. Perfect to accompany the egg tarts as they are very close to each other. However, as I mentioned before, I personally didn’t love the over-steeped taste of this style of tea in HK, even though I get HK milk tea at bubble tea shops in the States. There is a full cha chaan teng, but there’s also a little shed in front where you can just order the milk tea to-go.

Verdict: Only if you’re in the area, to pair with the daan tats above.
English speakers?: I don’t think so, but if you order from the front, the only things you can order are hot milk tea (yeet lai cha) or cold/iced milk tea (dong lai cha).
English menu?: Not sure about the cha chaan teng inside but the front stall had all sorts of signs in Chinese only so I have no clue what info I was missing out on. I definitely tried to order from the wrong window at first.
Google Maps Link

Yat Lok, Central

This is one of the places that always shows up on lists about contention for best roast goose in HK, and I opted to go here because a friend recommended it. Roast goose was so damn good. I made the mistake of ordering a combo plate with BBQ pork cuz I wanted variety but really should have just ordered more roast goose.

Verdict: Order the roast goose, don’t bother with other things.
English speakers?: No
English menu?: Yes
Google Maps Link

Shake Shack, Central

We just stumbled upon this when we wanted dessert. Worth noting that there’s an HK themed dessert menu.

Verdict: If you’re in the area and want an ice cream based dessert, then maybe? You can see the Kowloon side’s light show across the harbor (the crappier side) but it will be set to the playlist I made in the early 2000s (a.k.a. the Shake Shack soundtrack blasting through their outdoor speakers).
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes, obvi
Google Maps Link

Tsui Wah, multiple locations

This was like the HK equivalent of Denny’s, open 24 hours. All the HK cafe / cha chaan teng options you can imagine, including all the wacky fusion dishes. Nice service. We got ox tongue on mushroom sauce spaghetti and it was good like how Denny’s is good but not really good at all.  

Verdict: Go if you are literally on a bus from the ferry port back to your hotel and realize you are hungry but don’t know what else to Google to look for food.
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes

Yummy Cart Noodles, Sham Shui Po

my creation at Yummy Cart Noodles

Really wanted to try cart noodles and I could see from pics online that this menu had English and pictures so that’s how I ended up here. Meant to go to Man Kee but chickened out cuz the order card is all just Chinese text. My soup was a bit bland here but all my selected ingredients were great and there were condiments to add. Service was the friendliest of the trip.  

Verdict: Go if you want cart noodles but can’t read Chinese and are looking for a very pleasant noodle eating experience even if it’s not the tastiest one ever.
English speakers?: They try!
English menu?: Yes, with pictures. You mark what you want on a laminated card.
Google Maps Link

Sheung Hei (a.k.a. Good Taste Clay Pot), Kennedy Town

clay pot rice at sheung hei

Michelin Bib Gourmand clay pot rice. I thought it was meh. I think it’s very hit or miss depending on what you get; the strangers we sat next to liked theirs and it looked hella good. I ordered one with various preserved meats plus duck, and the duck was the tiniest, boniest pieces imaginable with what little meat available clinging in a rubbery fashion to said bones.

Verdict: Ask the locals next to you what to order or skip this one.
English speakers?: Nope.
English menu?: Yes, but you have to ask for it in Cantonese and then your friendly local table mate might have to remind them you asked for it.
Google Maps Link

Charles Tea Bar, multiple locations

The Mong Kok location is a cool little bubble tea stand. Had lots of interesting options that aren’t at bubble tea shops at home. I got papaya milk with mini taro and sweet potato balls and enjoyed it.

Verdict: Yes, if you are looking for some unique bubble tea options.
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes

Australia Dairy Company, Jordan

Simple but freaking good!!! They are known for their rude service but to be honest I felt it to be simply efficient, quite cordial, and less rude than other places I’d been to in HK. Due to the presence of my gwai lo spouse, we were handed an English menu upon being seated without having to ask for it. Yes, it is quite cramped and, as expected, we had to share a tiny table with strangers (who turned out to be a sweet old couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area who were making their annual trip back to their hometown!). We went at breakfast time when literally everyone else was ordering their set breakfast meal, so spouse’s French toast took a bit to arrive but was totally worth the wait. If you like scrambled eggs, this is a must.

Verdict: Go there for a new appreciation of scrambled eggs and plain white bread.
English speakers?: No
English menu?: Yes
Google Maps Link

ComeBuy Tea, Mong Kok

The fanciest bubble tea shop I’ve seen, in terms of their drink making process. They have these shiny machines that spurt steam out the tops and I am not exactly sure what they do but they made me feel like I was getting a high end bubble tea experience.

Verdict: Not a destination unless you are extremely fascinated with tea making technology but if you are in the area and want some legit tea, you could stop by.
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes
Google Maps Link

Long Jin Mei Shi, Mong Kok

skewers and curry fish balls at a random street food stall in mong kok

To be honest I just picked a skewer stall that looked like it had a lot of variety on my last morning in Hong Kong, and this one had a LOT of variety. (I subsequently had to find a picture of the stall and ask a friend for help reading the name so I could include it here.) This stall had all sorts of street snacks from curry fish balls to hash browns shaped like the ones at McDonald’s. I got a small bowl of curry fish balls, a squid skewer, a skewer with mini cheese-filled sausages, and a skewer with mixed beef offal. The beef offal one was amazing, stewed until suuuuuper tender and very flavorful! The sausages were also yummy. My gwai lo liked the squid one the best because it was the most bland and he likes bland things.

Verdict: There’s something for everyone here, whether you like bland things or super interesting animal parts!
English speakers?: No
English menu?: No, but just point at everything that looks interesting and give it a try! This was a great final stop before leaving Hong Kong.
Google Maps Link

Toasts From My Childhood

For National Toast Day, I want to talk about some toasts from my childhood. But first, here’s my reimagining of those childhood flavors as an adult.

As a kid, these probably would have all been on pre-sliced white bread. I don’t think my mom would have even gone for the Wonder Bread name brand; we probably got the generic supermarket brand white bread. But for this dressed-up adult version, and because I worked damn hard in life and now I can, I went for one of the most luxurious (but still square-shaped) breads available at my local vegetarian grocery co-op: the Josey Baker Bread Adventure Bread. Here’s what you’re looking at (clockwise from top-left):

Whipped buttercream and brown sugar. Inspired by my memories of having toast slathered with margarine (from the plastic tub) and a scoop of sugar sprinkled over. I don’t know why my mom thought this was a legitimate thing to serve a child, but in fairness I never had any energy and was scared of playing outside, so sugar intake was not an issue.

Creamy peanut butter and apricot preserves. Because yes, even as an Asian kid, I had peanut butter and jam. I never liked grape jelly.

Condensed milk. I think everyone knows about condensed milk toast now. I made my own condensed milk for this because I didn’t want to open up a whole can just to smear a little bit on a tiny piece of bread for a photo. (So I made a whole jar of it by laboriously stirring for 45 minutes over the stove instead? Adult Lily logic.)

Pandan kaya jam. Yes, I’ve been having this ever since I was a child even though you may have just learned about it from seeing someone post about it on Instagram. This is really what I wanted to talk about.

Kaya toast is having a moment right now here in San Francisco. Thanks to the popularity of Bread Belly’s version, with a bright green pandan kaya piped diagonally across the surface of the bread, kaya toast is showing up on my Instagram feed more often that the ubiquitous avocado toast these days. I haven’t made my way across town to try it just yet, but they seem to be a great little local business and I am happy for their success over presenting Asian-inspired flavors in high-quality baked goods. Seeing kaya toast blow up this way is a little weird for me, though. You see, Bread Belly did not invent kaya toast, nor do they make any claims that they did, and I have been eating kaya toast since I was a little kid. It’s a flavor I associate with visiting my family in Malaysia, when—even though I wasn’t considered a picky eater as a kid—my aunties were kind enough to give me toast and cereal for breakfast because they knew I wasn’t used to having curry or nasi lemak in the mornings. I associate it with avoiding eye contact with tiny lizards on the walls and the rotting-fruit smell of ripe durian caught in the humid air as I made my way down the stairs in their homes. I do not associate it with eating for the ‘Gram.

This must be what it was like for Japanese people when all of a sudden everyone started losing their shit over ramen that didn’t come out of a styrofoam cup or for Danish folks when everyone suddenly realized that putting stuff on bread looks more aesthetic when served open-faced. I’m excited that a food so Malaysian/Singaporean in origin is rising in popularity but part of me feels strangely worried that almost none of the people flocking to it know where it came from. Do they know that you can get a jar of kaya (a jam made of coconut milk, sugar, and eggs—pandan optional) from the Southeast Asian section of the Asian supermarket for less than $4? Because that’s the kaya I’m familiar with: not the nice, handcrafted, vibrant looking stuff that makes toast pretty, but rather the fresh-from-the-jar gooey stuff, as everyday as the processed peanut butter I used in this photo. Should I care about whether or not people know this?

I never bought it before in the States because I wanted to preserve that specialness that I associated between visiting Malaysia and the flavor of kaya but now I’ve gone and purchased it for $3.19 at Pacific Supermarket right here in San Francisco for purposes of this photo and the story I wanted to tell with it. I wanted to do my part to share with people where kaya came from and try to describe how weird it is to suddenly see everyone getting excited about it. I’ve always loved it and it’s always been exciting to me. I’m glad you like it, too.