in my early 20’s, i wasted way too much time worrying if my interests were cool.

i had just moved to brooklyn, and found myself surrounded by a cluster of late 20-somethings with impeccable style and taste in music, two things i thought i sorely lacked.

i wanted to be quirky. i wanted to be hip. i knew at least, that i didn’t want to be basic.

i began to keep quiet about the things i loved that didn’t align. sweetgreen salads. taylor swift. pumpkin spice.

luckily, i came to my senses over time and adopted a new perspective: who the f*ck cares? i learned to stop prioritizing the potential judgment of others over my own joy.

shamelessly, i still love salad. taylor swift still speaks the words of my soul. and goddammit, when the first signs of autumn hit, i become the biggest sucker for pumpkin spice.

these mooncakes are dedicated to that past self, and to all the joys and comforts that fall brings us. enjoy these with people that make you feel cozy. maybe even with a pumpkin spice latte in hand 😉

notes

• i prefer making 50g mooncakes. you can find pretty inexpensive molds on amazon.
• i’ve tried adding the pumpkin spice to the puree mixture over heat, and found that it’s best to add towards the end. this prevents any spices from burning.
• try to use the dough the same day or within a day. filling can be made the night before and refrigerated.
• i did try to store the dough in the fridge overnight for one batch, and i’d say avoid resting it in the fridge if you can. it’s still workable, but will make the dough be extra crumbly, crackly, and harder to handle. if you must, bringing the dough balls up to room temp first before molding helps.
• the dough recipe is from kristina cho’s honeyed pistachio mooncakes, and the filling is loosely inspired by this easy mooncake recipe from yan cooks food. if the mooncake wrapping and stamping instructions are unclear, please refer to either of the aforementioned instructions!

a post-vaccine life motto i’ve adopted: seek more opportunities to turn ordinary moments into special ones.

i buy all the flowers at the farmers market stand as it closes and cover every surface of my apartment with them. i lug bushels of apples home to make apple crisp in batches, dropping in on my friends on a random tuesday for a special delivery. i thrift a red dress that makes me feel like the 💃🏻 emoji, muster all the main-character-energy i can, and stroll around nyc in it without a so-called occasion.

i find myself delighting in the ability to infuse this everyday magic into the familiar, worn grooves of routine, in a way i have never felt before.

there is something that feels so fun, so dramatic, so extra about decorative sourdough.

unlike a cake, bread isn’t often thought of as pretty. maybe that’s why i’m even more appreciative of those who have made sourdough an art.

it’s decorative gourd season y’all. let’s make sourdough pumpkins!

notes

i’ve wanted to try this pumpkin shaping ever since i saw it on my instagram feed last year.

my variations:

• added a dash of turmeric for additional color in the dough, and subtle flavor
• saved and dried a butternut squash nub to top the final loaf for additional flourish
• included actual pumpkin puree during the autolyse for the full pumpkin effect

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

sourdough cracker toffee may be the best treat i have ever made for my friends.

i’ve seen grown adults reaching for a quickly emptying tub, eyeing the crumbles at the bottom, only to eventually tip them eagerly into their mouths to get that one last bite.

these moments of feeding people and witnessing their response bring me an almost embarrassing amount of joy. it’s my not-so-secret love language.

in chinese culture, feeding people is a common way to show care when the words aren’t quite there. it’s a universal, unspoken i love you, often followed by enthusiastic consumption. i love you too.

i’ve been baking these a lot lately for my bay area friends.

at first timidly, always asking for permission to swing by, until one friend remarked, “erica, you don’t have to ask. the answer will always be yes“.

so i practice.

i practice showing care without restraint. i practice not feeling self conscious. i practice the small act of vulnerability that is showing up unexpectedly with treats, and trusting there will be someone on the other end to devour them happily.

i love you. i love you too.

notes

popular variations of this recipe include matzah toffee, which uses matzah crackers as the base, and christmas crack, which uses saltine crackers. i’ve adapted this recipe from once upon a chef.

poking holes into the rolled out dough pre-bake is a crucial step! this will make sure your crackers will stay flat and not puff up, creating an even base for the other layers. i’ve made this mistake so you won’t have to.

i’ve specifically used a 50/50 proportion of all purpose and wheat flour for these crackers.

• different flours have different absorption properties. the texture of your dough might change if you make large adjustments. for example, when adding the same amount of water, all purpose flour will feel stickier than wheat.
• that being said, adjusting for hydration, i think rye and buckwheat could be interesting additions.

as always, i develop my recipes with my 80% hydration starter. please adjust the starter and flour amounts to match yours.

i’ve always considered dill to be a second tier herb.

my mother cooked with a multitude of herbs, often, even growing chives and green onions in our backyard.

during peak harvest times, my mother would cook nothing but chives for weeks at a time — chive dumplings, chive bao zi, chive pockets. she fed it all to my brother and i until we became bloated from the fiber.

dill just never had a place in my pantry. never harmonized with the warming notes of our rotation of ginger, star anise, and chilis, never made it into our cart during our biweekly trips to shanghai supermarket.

in the past few months, however, i’ve been flirting a lot with dill. a dill-less salad now feels naked, like it’s missing an ingredient as crucial as the lettuce itself. i’ll never leave another PLS ungarnished.

above all, i’ve become hooked on the combination of cheese and dill after trying a roll from la farine.

with the feedback of over seven taste testers, i’ve developed a delicate, puffy, pizza-crust like roll that similarly centers cheddar and dill.

this roll has a crisp and thin crust, encrusted with thinly shredded cheddar and speckled with fresh dill. bready walls surround a small divet where the cheddar pools and bubbles. when you bite in, it’s like eating a sauceless, herby micro pizza.

no matter where you are in your relationship with dill, these rolls will make you fall in love all over again. bread and cheese tend to have that kind of effect.

notes

the secret to the perfect texture and bite is using olive oil instead of flour while shaping! it is of utmost importance that you use as little flour as possible during this step!

i encourage swapping the dill for chives or scallions for a different flavor profile. in fact, i’ve tested this with scallions and the result is just as wonderful (see the three rolls in the left corner of the cover photo).

though i haven’t tried it, gruyere could also be a nice cheese accompaniment to the dill.

if your cheddar is on the saltier side, i would skip the extra salt. the cheddar i used was pretty mild.

as always, my starter is 80% hydration. please adjust the dough formula to match your starter. all timing and schedules are suggestions. i developed this recipe in springtime san francisco kitchen at about 74°F.

baker’s percentage & sample timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

i ended last year hung up on three things.

the first: a boy (isn’t it always?). quarantine fact: break ups are much, much harder during a global pandemic when there is not much else to do except sit on a rollercoaster ride of uncomfortable feelings and thought patterns.

the second: brooklyn. seeking proximity to family and an escape from the impending winter, i left new york. quarantine fact: there’s nothing like cinematic nostalgia to leave you on the ground curled up in a blanket burrito, sobbing. watching dash & lily destroyed me.

last, but certainly not least: my beloved arizmendi cheese rolls. back in august, i had scoured the internet for the recipe. i had racked my brain for the taste profile of the cheese. quarantine fact: i had tasted cheesy, bready greatness and i could not go back.

luckily, when i moved last month i discovered cheeseboard, arizmendi’s sister bakery. needless to say, i have since consumed many a cheese roll. luckily, this also had the happy side effect of mitigating the first two aforementioned hang ups. a small sacrifice in the name of research.

after much neighborly taste testing, i’m confident this formula produces a remarkable likeness to the original cheese roll, with improvements. i feel i’m doing a similar type of analysis and reconstruction for the other parts of my life. basking in the sunny, warm winter days. reconnecting with old friends over focaccia. trekking through miles of redwood forest.

i’m not saying these cheese rolls have magically cured my afflictions, though i notice progress everyday.

all i’m saying is this. if even one person is spared from the sadness that is a life without cheese rolls, then my work here will have been worth it.

notes

as always, please adjust the formula based on the hydration of your starter, and adjust the timing of the bulk rise based on the temperature of your kitchen. please treat all times listed below as a sample schedule. this recipe was developed during the winter, in a 60 degree kitchen at 50% humidity.

you might be tempted to use a different type of cheese. i strongly recommend you resist this urge. asiago cheese just hits different. i repeat. these rolls will not have the intended flavor without asiago.

as per my other experiences baking with cheese, parchment paper is a must! melty cheese can easily crust over.

this recipe preserves all of the loveability of these iconic rolls while also providing a softer bite, lighter texture, and smaller size. i’m especially excited about this recipe, and i hope you all will be too.

baker’s percentage & sample timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

this is a deviation from my regular sourdough content, but i promise it’s worth it. i baked a nian gao 年糕 for my birthday last week and it truly was one of the best things i’ve done for myself all year.

nian gao is an unleavened, gluten-free cake made from glutinuous rice flour. it’s usually eaten to celebrate chinese new year, and the name even literally translates to “year cake”.

you can steam, pan-fry, or bake nian gao, but i’ve always preferred it baked, just like my mother used to make it. the baked version has the perfect crusty, coconut-y exterior and a complementary chewy, gooey interior.

if life has taught me anything in my short 28 years of life, it’s that rules and convention should only be used as guidelines, especially for things that bring you joy. especially if it involves cake.

this cake is far too delicious to only be brought up once a year, and i hope you’ll find the same!

notes

• you can sub up to half of the coconut milk with regular whole milk. i wouldn’t do more than that since coconut milk adds a lot to the flavor.
• i use ogura-an brand sweetened red bean paste, which contributes to this cake’s sweetness.
• erawan makes the only glutinuous rice flour i’ve ever used. look out for that iconic green lettering. bonus: one bag makes two cakes.
• i adapted this recipe from marvellina’s baked nian gao. i removed the need for toasting the coconut, added sweetened red bean paste, and reduced the sugar significantly.

after a rejuvenating august, i intended for september to be a time to discover sourdough steamed buns. instead, i found myself grappling with a lack of motivation and curiosity for most things i normally loved. i felt overwhelmed by the world, and drained by my personal life.

i took comfort in other people’s recipes. a few batches of chocolate dipped miso almond butter cookies. a dozen red bean paste and salted honey peanut mooncakes.

one of my favorite recipes was artisan bryan’s sourdough pan de coco.

it’s a recipe as chill and foolproof as they come, which was exactly the vibe i needed. simple, uncomplicated, without compromising an ounce of deliciousness. the creamy coconut with the tangy sourdough meld together to create a yogurt-y like flavor.

i’d highly recommend giving this loaf a try. it’s perfect for folks just starting out with sourdough, and also perfect for more experienced folks looking for a different voice and process.

i’ve included my personal notes below, along with the link to the original recipe. enjoy, and remember to be extra kind to yourself during these trying times my friends.

original recipe

artisan bryan’s sourdough pan de coco

notes

• if you’re like me and try to minimize sourdough starter volume, i’d recommend halving all measurements in the levain build method.
• it took my starter closer to 6 hours to double in volume based on cooler fall kitchen temperatures. definitely adjust based on your kitchen and season!
• i used my hands to incorporate everything and let it ferment overnight in the fridge. this made for an extremely chill, extremely unfussy process.
• three logs felt a little awkward in my loaf tin so i went with four logs.
• i added more than 50g of sweetened coconut. my recommendation here is just to generously sprinkle whatever you have on top and not worry too much about precise measurements.
• bryan is right — this bread was best eaten fresh out of the oven! i would say it keeps for a few days at room temp. any longer and i’d recommend freezing. to re-heat i’d recommend microwaving until the texture becomes soft again.

long, lazy summer days call for simple, produce-centric meals.

i love spending weekends gobbling up as many colors as i can. heirloom tomatoes topped with flaky sea salt. watermelon with handfuls of fresh mint. cucumbers with avocado and dill.

what are your favorite farmers market finds? summer squash is one of mine.

every june, zucchini and its friends burst onto the farm stand and backyard garden scene in abundance. i love cooking them with eggs, putting them in dumpling filling, and baking them into quick breads. i have delicious memories of my grandma cooking them up with noodles for a breakfast noodle soup.

lately, i’ve renewed my love for zucchini in the form of fritters.

crispy and light on the outside, full of oniony and garlicy goodness on the inside. i like to serve them hot, sometimes with a dollop of cold yogurt. for extra fancy summertime vibes, i garnish with some freshly picked herbs.

best of all, they’re super simple and super fast. this verison is also completely vegan thanks to sourdough discard.

notes

the final batter is fairly thick. to reduce the wateriness of the zucchini, i include two additional steps.

• first, adding salt in the beginning will draw water out of the zucchini.
• second, squeezing the water out will prevent the batter from becoming too runny. if your final batter still seems too watery or loose, just stir in a bit more flour.

as always, please adjust the recipe to suit your starter’s hydration. as a reminder, i have a stiff starter at 80% hydration.

although you could bake these fritters, i strongly recommend frying them. in my experiments, they tasted way better, and the crispiness can’t be beat.

but you probably already knew i was gonna say that 😉

this is the very first guest post on this blog! charlotte, the author, and i share a long, beautiful friendship over our love and appreciation for food (among many, many other things). we first met in 6th grade in surburban minnesota! her culinary creativity constantly inspires my own. i’ve made this recipe of hers a few times now, devouring most of the batch immediately after making them. without further ado, i’ll let charlotte take it from here. i hope you love these shao bing as much as we do!

– erica

taiwanese shao bing, as told and adapted by charlotte

while versions of this sesame flatbread abound throughout the chinese speaking world, most of my memories of shao bing 燒餅 are from summers spent in taiwan. there, shao bing are often served with a kind of fried cruller— you tiao 油條—sandwiched in between its flaky layers, then dunked in a steaming bowl of freshly pressed soy milk.

when i was younger, we would go to the neighborhood breakfast shop with my Ah Gong and Ah Ma, still shaking off the jet lag of a long international flight, sweating in the heat and humidity of the morning. we’d cram around one of the plastic tables ringed by round metal stools and order from the Lao Ban, watching him sling ladles of rice milk and flip rows of egg crepes at the front of the shop. everywhere the smell of frying dough, steaming xiao long bao, motorcycles, sun-on-asphalt. these little breakfast shops, once ubiquitous in taipei, have mostly given way to western-style cafes and bakeries.

but a few remain, and my family and i make a point to go every year. unable to travel to see family in taiwan this year, we’ve resorted to sighing longingly over old photos of past breakfasts, and occasionally attempting to recreate our favorites.

shao bing is one of my mother’s favorite breakfasts, and my sister and i endeavored to recreate them for mother’s day. i very loosely adapted this recipe from edwina at cooking in chinglish, incorporating sourdough discard rather than using instant yeast.

to serve

eat immediately after baking, for breakfast. we like them split open on the side with a scallion-flecked omelette nestled into the layers, or filled with heaps of fresh alfalfa sprouts and tomatoes and a dash of salt. honestly, they’re also pretty great plain.

serve with some freshly made peanut rice milk for a taste of a classic taiwanese breakfast.

bonus recipe: peanut rice milk

1/4 cup uncooked short grain white rice
1/2 cup peanuts, toasted
3 cups water
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

soak white rice 6-8 hours or overnight, then blend with peanuts and water until smooth. heat in a pan, stirring, until the milk begins to bubble and thicken. add sugar, and cook to desired consistency. tastes just as good iced as warm!

makes 2 servings

years ago on one of my buzzfeed tasty binges, i saw a method of pan frying potstickers i had never seen before. using a cornstarch slurry, the mystery hand effortless created a lacy, crispy, delicious looking “skirt”.

as i recipe tested my dumplings last weekend, a light bulb went off in my head. what if i replaced the cornstarch slurry with watered down sourdough discard?

a few rounds of trial and error later, lo and behold — the crispiest, most delicious addition to a potsticker was born.

for the skeptics out there, do not sleep on this!! it’s absurdly good.

dumpling series

this is the last part of my three part series on sourdough discard dumplings!

• in the first part, i explain my formula and method for making dumpling wrappers using sourdough discard.
• in the second part, i focus on shandong style dumpling wrapping technique (with a vegan filling recipe!), and how i like to pay fry them.
• this part describes my formula and method for adding a pretty, extra crispy skirt on your pan fried dumplings with a sourdough discard slurry.

read them all together to re-create my sourdough dumplings, or mix and match with different techniques or store-bought items.

notes

please adjust the hydration of the slurry based on your sourdough starter.

you can use this crispy skirt recipe and technique with any sort of homemade dumpling. it should even work with store-bought potstickers!

dumpling series

this is the first part of my three part series on sourdough discard dumplings!

• in this part, i explain my formula and method for making dumpling wrappers using sourdough discard.
• in the second part, i focus on shandong style dumpling wrapping technique (with a vegan filling recipe!), and how i like to pay fry them.
• the third part describes my formula and method for adding a pretty, extra crispy skirt on your pan fried dumplings with a sourdough discard slurry.

read them all together to re-create my sourdough dumplings, or mix and match with different techniques or store-bought items.

my story

i learned how to make dumplings from generations of women in my family passing down this one tradition.

from a young age my mother made it clear to me that the way we made dumplings was not like other chinese families. first, she said, we made our own wrappers. this skill, she urged, was not one to be overlooked.

thus, my childhood kitchen table became my training ground. me struggling to roll out dumpling wrappers while my palms hurt, mom generously wrapping plump morsels, dad manning the boiling station, brother too young to contribute beyond eating (eventually stepping up into assistant wrapper).

there are many different ways to make “chinese” dumplings. each region has its preferences for wrapping, pleating, filling, and cooking methods.

shandong 山东 style dumplings are known for thicker, chewier dumpling wrappers. they are fat with filling, and don’t care to impress with braided pleating. oftentimes my mother squeezes them shut in a dual cupping pinching motion i have yet to master.

though incorporating sourdough discard into the dumpling dough is far from traditional, it does create a flavor that’s very compatible with the black vinegar sauce and fillings i usually use (cabbage or carrots).

more importantly, i wanted to develop this recipe to bring together two of my most important worlds. i wanted to share this piece of my story with all of you, and share it in an incredibly delicious way.

notes

although the formula is new, this is the process my family has always followed for homemade dumpling wrappers. the rolling method is tricky and will take practice to get used to. i can’t promise that it’s foolproof, but i can promise to try my best in communicating what the women in my family have taught me.

as always, please adjust the water and flour amounts based on the hydration of your starter.

if you have leftover dough, you can use it to make a scallion pancake.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

i wish i could say that perusing the olive and cheese selection at the park slope food coop is what inspired me to make this loaf, but alas. i must confess i made this loaf because i once loved a man who really, really loved olives.

he didn’t live in new york (or even in this country), and for some reason i got it in my head that if only he tried a piece of this bread, he would consider moving brooklyn. yes, the loaf was truly that tasty.

a year has gone and passed since then. my hypothesis was never tested, as our relationship was too short-lived for him to try this bread.

luckily, this recipe lives on.

salty, tangy, always leaving you wanting more. feed this to all the lovers and olive lovers in your life. please do let me know if it has the intended effect 😉

notes

be sure to buy pre-pitted olives! i most certainly, definitely am not including this because i learned this the hard way heh (but seriously, de-pitting them was a n00b lesson you will now not have to repeat).

for lamination videos, check out my guava cream cheese post or @fullproofbaking.

my regular batch of caveats: please be wary of starter hydration and seasonal timing adjustments (for me it means about +1 hr in the summer, and about -1 hr in the winter).

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

i don’t talk about ken forkish enough. i really should because he changed my life.

in 2016, my coworker, artur, brought in a loaf of bread (so crusty, so good) and evangelized a book he used to make it, flour water salt yeast (fwsy, for short). artur kept bringing in bread, each loaf better and more complex than the one before. and i, carb loving individual that i am, kept on eating it, each bite more curious than before.

i picked up a copy later that month and started baking alongside arty.

ken became my first teacher of sourdough, and fwsy became my bible. his story of transitioning from disillusioned banker to james beard celebrated bakery and pizzeria owner resonated with a younger version of me, a frustrated software engineer looking for, if not meaning and fulfillment, at least something where she didn’t have to stare at a screen for hours.

i have read the entire book (and have baked 90% of it) from cover to cover. my copy, you could say, is well loved. the entire middle chunk can be pulled out. there is dried, crusted sourdough starter on the guide to making your own levain pages. you can’t miss the bits of crusted up dough on the recipes i really struggled with (all i can say is, ken, you must have a frigid portland kitchen).

this recipe is inspired by one of my favorite loaves in the book, his country brown sourdough. i’ve incorporated newer techniques that work better for me in wetter doughs, and paired it with the familiar flavor of his country brown. mildly tangy, soft, accessible, and so very versatile.

notes

as always, please adjust the formula based on the hydration of your starter, and adjust the timing of the bulk rise based on the temperature of your kitchen (1 hr shorter during summer, 1 hr longer during winter).

i mentioned that this is a pretty slack, wet dough due to the high hydration and lower protein content of the flours. to introduce more strength, i extend the autolyse to 1 hr (as opposed to 30 min), use the rubaud and slap & fold methods for mixing, and load up on coil folds.

please refer to the above linked videos for the techniques i mention in my recipe, as i do not describe them further.

feel free to experiment with any whole wheat variety. i’ve baked this with both king arthur whole wheat, and locally grown red fife!

the link to ken’s book is an amazon affiliate link. this means if you purchase it from this page, i’ll make money from it. that doesn’t affect my opinion of this book at all. know that i only recommend products and resources that have helped me immensely on my personal sourdough journey and that i consider to be a worthwhile investment.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

confession: i have never baked a chocolate chip cookie i truly loved.

before i begin my saga, i would like to set the record straight and say i have eaten many chocolate chip cookies that i have loved. i line up dutifully each year at the minnesota state fair to get the family sized bucket of sweet martha’s, and pop them in my mouth like they’re cookie popcorn. i can eat an entire larger-than-my-fist-sized levain bakery cookie (or two) in one sitting thank you very much.

but baking them, you’d think they’d be straightforward, but man, something goes wrong every time.

i have traumatic memories of scooping out chocolate chip cookie dough in neat little rows fully expecting them to emerge as beautifully golden discs with crisp edges and soft centers, only to take out a tray of little mishapen piles that barely spread.

the problem is always this: they always turn out just ok. mediocre. some even good, but none great. definitely not the addictive little bundles i knew flour, sugar, butter, and chocolate had the potential to be.

i thought i was cursed until i made the cookie.

when i first saw alison roman’s salted butter chocolate chunk shortbread (or why would i make another chocolate chip cookie ever again) recipe, i felt skeptical.

who was this woman with all the “the’s”: “the stew”, “the pasta”, “the cookies.” it was a bold move, i thought, to claim them all for her own. assertive. aggressive, even. how could one person take ownership of all of these staple nouns?

but a curse was a curse, and i felt a glimmer of hope since she promised they weren’t meant to spread much anyway.

as i type this now, after happily eaten #thestew, munching on #thecookies for dessert, plotting when i can acquire shallots to make #thepasta, i confess i’m a convert. she has made a pretty special cookie.

this sourdough adaptation of her viral recipe is my homage to alison roman. they’re buttery like your favorite shortbread, not too sweet, studded in chocolate, and best of all, shockingly easy to make with a flavor complexity that goes way beyond the effort you need to put in.

we all need a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe in our lives. i’ve finally found mine.

*a side note: i recently found out alison roman said some things about other female entrepreneurs this past week that i personally find problematic. like cherry bombe, i feel disappointed. i hope we can take these comments to talk, learn, and grow as a community of women supporting each other.

**updated side note: alison roman issued a very public, very vulnerable apology which i find very brave. i don’t believe in cancel culture. i want to live in a world where we can hold multiple, conflicting emotions at once: one where we can simultaneously hurt, forgive, admire — and much much more.

notes

i added buckwheat because i was feeling fancy. if you want to stick with the nothing fancy vibes, you can stick to all purpose flour.

i like to use cold starter discard, straight out of the tub i keep in my fridge. another note on my starter: i have a stiff starter at 80% hydration. please adjust the amount of flour and starter in the dough to account for your starter’s hydration.

you can store the dough in the fridge for a week, or in the freezer for up to a month. i usually make one of the logs immediately, and then freeze the other log for whenever the need for emergency cookies strikes.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the dough build, and do not include the levain build.

*you can also sub with another fun flour like rye or spelt.

my earliest meaningful memory of pizza is of waiting in line with my mother at papa murphy’s take and bake, bogo coupon in hand, ordering two supreme pizzas. then, there was the costco food stand. our family of 4 would pile into the car, do our shopping, walk out with the largest supreme pizza available, and eat the leftovers over the next few days.

if there’s one thing my mother believed in, it was value. getting anything short of whatever gave you the most amount of toppings was unthinkable. and thus, i was raised on a string of supreme pizzas.

then, the singular experience at 17 that redefined pizza for me: a classic margherita from punch pizza.

for one, it was a topping-less pizza. i remember it coming out, the bare cheese staring back at me, bits of tomato sauce peeking through, naked, like it forgot to put its clothes on.

second, we each got our own individual pizza, as if one entire pizza was an acceptable serving size my parents conveniently forgot to mention to me, a young susceptible mind and a very hungry almost adult.

but most importantly, it was nothing like i had tasted before. the thin base, the wood fired flavor, the satisfying chew of the crust. it was hard for me to believe that we lived in a world where the pizza i knew and loved could coexist with this new pizza i didn’t know and quickly became infatuated with.

i’ve had way more pizza memories than i’d like to admit over this past decade of pizza discovery and re-discovery. pizza seems to hold the constant of re-inventing itself for me just as i keep re-inventing myself.

my newest favorite way to eat pizza is to make a big batch of dough, invite a small group of friends over, and make a couple of pizzas together while we catch up. it’s as collaborative as it is creative, as easy as it is fast, as humble as it is impressive.

i hope these will soon become your favorite pizza memories too.

notes

i have a stiff starter that’s 80% hydration. please adjust amount of water in final dough to account for your starter’s hydration.

we might not get to gather in groups again for a while, but luckily this dough keeps well for a few days in the fridge. in fact, this dough needs a long cold proof. you’ll find it becomes easier to work with and the flavors become more complex the longer it’s been in the fridge. it bakes up quick enough to make for a reasonably achievable weekday work from home lunch.

pizza like this does its best baking at very high temps. unfortunately most home ovens don’t go as high as commercial ones. just crank it to as high as it will go, and make sure your oven is clean. i may or may not have set off my smoke detector at least 5 times over the course of 3 bakes.

this recipe makes enough dough for 3 – 12″ skillet-sized pizzas or 4 – 9″ skill-sized pizzas. scale up or down as needed. i can pretty easily eat an entire one of these.

this recipe is just for the crust. some toppings inspiration:

• du’s: mozz, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, spinach. to prevent burnt ends, put the caramelized onions on post bake or hide beneath spinach. drizzle with honey & chili flakes right before serving.
• margherita: tomato sauce & mozz. put basil on right before serving.
• tie dye: ricotta & mozz, tomato sauce & pesto
• shakshuka: tomato sauce, egg, mozz, feta. top with pepper and arugula post bake

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

if you’re like me and love baking bread just as much as you love eating bread, you might occasionally have the unique, and frankly excellent, problem of sometimes being in possession of perhaps, too much bread (writing this pains me because i’d like to defend that there is no such thing as too much bread, particularly sourdough bread).

over the past few years, in addition to baking slightly smaller loaves and finding more people to share my freshly baked bread with, i’ve developed a few strategies to maximize my bread consumption and to salvage aging (or failed heh) loaves — what else is a carb-loving eco-conscious nerd to do?

1. pre-slice & freeze half

i’ve found that the shelf life of homemade sourdough is around 3 days, though the crust begins to lose its characteristic crunch much sooner than that.

let this be a game changer: you can freeze your bread, and re-toast it to revive the same texture.

i like to pre-slice the portion of the loaf i plan to freeze into toastable sizes, and then store them in a freezer bag. when i’m ready to eat, i just pull out slices one by one and pop them in the toaster on a medium-high setting. when they pop out, they’re crispy on the edges and soft in the center.

you’re welcome.

2. give your bread a second life

sometimes my sourdough gets stale sooner than i’d like. in these cases i give it a second act: savory bread pudding, french toast using day-old guava cream cheese sourdough, or my current favorite — sourdough croutons. like discard focaccia, the recipe is simple while the possibilities for flavor combos are limitless.

this recipe is vaguer than my other ones. just like okonomiyaki is a way to eat a bunch of delicious sauces, i feel like croutons are simply a vehicle to get flavor profiles you want on a very crisp vehicle.

sub olive oil for melted butter for a richer flavor. add whatever flavorings you want. i like a generous amount of italian seasoning and garlic powder. sometimes a bit of parmesan cheese if i’m feeling fancy.

cut toss bake enjoy repeat. i hope this encourages you to love your day-old bread just as much as you love your fresh-out-of-the-oven crackling loaf!

the wonderfully talented caroline schiff reminded me recently that that frying up sourdough discard on its own makes for a pretty damn tasty pancake. this, of course, had me dreaming of all the savory pancakes i’ve loved in my life and how to recreate them.

okonomiyaki, a japanese savory pancake made predominantly out of cabbage, is one of my favorites. it’s customizable, crisp, chewy, dangerously easy, disproportionately delicious, and very, very, pretty. i think of it as a relatively healthy conduit to eat a bunch of sauces i always want excuses to eat.

cabbage also happens to be one of the heartiest vegetables and lasts forever (at least in quarantine time), so of course i have an unreasonable amount now stocked up in my apt during this pandemic. wishing i could hop on a plane get myself to japan this spring, but this pancake will have to do.

notes

the toppings i’ve listed are mere suggestions. feel to top with whatever you have on hand, and whatever you find delicious. ketchup or kimchi works just as well as sriracha or chili crisp.

maybe cabbage and carrots aren’t your thing. that’s ok. feel free to throw in other vegetables or scallions in you have on hand that have similar texture to substitute (daikon, broccoli stems, etc.) for a non-traditional, but likely still delicious savory pancake.

other additions: for the non-vegetarians, kenji says you also fry it in some pork belly or bacon, and top with dried bonito flakes. for an eggier pancake, add an additional egg and 50 g additional veggies.

i’ve made these the size of a regular pancake or the traditionally larger size, either works. remember that the larger the pancake, the harder it will be to flip!

growing up, my mother made dumplings from scratch at least once a month. she always purposely made extra dumpling dough, and with the remains, we’d make scallion pancakes, often without the scallions.

a thing to know about my mom: whenever my mom makes anything, she always guesstimates. “eyeballing”, she would say, is the chinese way.

unfortunately, i don’t have my mother’s eyeballs. maybe it’s that i’ve absorbed a more western (?) philosophy, finding mostly comfort and curiousity in the precision of baking. thus, most of my adult life has been a journey to furiously scribble down measurements whenever i can and whenever my mom will let me pull out my tools to take weights or temperatures or to ask more questions than necessary.

the first recipe i managed to write down correctly was one for scallion pancakes. i was 17 and in college and really craving something other than our student center’s tofu teriyaki when i emailed home for some ratios. after some trial and error and tweaking, i finally got a version that had the same texture as my mothers.

this recipe is a sourdough discard adaptation of that original recipe.

notes

i have a stiff starter that’s 80% hydration. please adjust amount of water in final dough to account for your starter’s hydration.

these are pretty traditional scallion pancakes. for a fluffy version characteristic of northern china, check out my leavened, fluffy sourdough discard scallion pancake recipe.

if you read the introductory paragraph, you’ll realize that you can use this dough formula to make dumpling wrappers as well! i’d recommend letting the dough rest for an extra hour or two before cutting and rolling out.

this recipe makes one single-serving pancake. feel free to double and triple as you please.

the shaping technique described in this recipe optimizes for distinct layers. you can also use the roll & snail technique found in my other scallion pancake recipe for a more traditional swirl aesthetic.

bonus non-gluten side salad recipe

i sometimes like to serve this with a traditional cucumber salad. the slight tang from the sourdough with the sourness of the black vinegar is a winning combo in my book. the sauce that sits at the bottom ends up being a great dipping sauce.

slice up one cucumber, mince 2-3 cloves of garlic, throw in a couple good glugs of black vinegar, a sprinkle of salt, and a spoonful of extra crunchy peanut butter (optional). shake or toss or mix until all ingredients combined. drizzle with sesame oil to top, and serve immediately.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

focaccia is like sourdough’s super chill, completely unfussy sister that pulls everything off without even trying. you know the type — the ones that throw their hair up in a bun without having to check their reflection, throw on a jacket that’s just laying about, and still manages to bounce out the door looking effortlessly cool.

some days i want making bread to feel like this too, and on those days i make focaccia. throw everything together, go to sleep, and in the morning, poof, without having to really even think, out comes this miraculously delicious, beautiful thing.

think it’s too good to be true? let’s make it even better. this sourdough focaccia recipe is leavened with sourdough starter discard.

you’re welcome 🙂

notes

i have a stiff starter that’s 80% hydration. please adjust amount of water in final dough to account for your starter’s hydration.

you might realize you like a different thickness of focaccia than the one described here. a 10×10 inch brownie-ish or cake pan for this quantity of dough will give you a focaccia that just fills the crevices. for a thicker focaccia, use a smaller pan or scale up your dough. i use a pan where the dough doesn’t quite reach the edges and get a thinner focaccia i personally really enjoy. tldr; use what you got!

if you find your focaccia is sticking to the pan or worry it might, a few readers have recommended using parchment paper in addition to oil.

though this recipe tastes great on its own, it is also very adaptable to include whatever toppings you wish and enjoy on focaccia. a few suggestions:

• roasted garlic: roast 1-2 heads of garlic. dimple in the garlic before adding salt and additional olive oil.
• zataar: after dimpling and after drizzling olive oil and salt, sprinkle a handful of zataar. drizzle another bit of olive oil on top.
• veggies: slice a couple handfuls of raw grape or cherry tomatoes in half, and some red onion and peppers into slivers. dimple in the veggies before adding salt and additional olive oil.
• grapes: dimple in a couple handfuls of grapes before adding salt and additional olive oil.
• rosemary: top with a few sprigs of rosemary at the end.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

*you can sub einkorn flour with whole wheat, or all purpose flour

these crackers were born out of resourcefulness and convenience. after making my everything sourdough bread, i took the extra starter discard and made my basic cheesy cracker (like usual). then thinking nothing of it, i rolled the dough in the everything seasoning i had leftover.

little did i know that these crackers would become, by far, the most addicting thing i have ever baked. i have seen my friends demolish jars of these in one sitting. i have seen myself demolish jars of these in one sitting.

if you’re interested in witnessing the same progression of events, please proceed.

you’ve been warned.

notes

this recipe is shockingly simple for the flavor it delivers. there’s plenty of salt in the everything seasoning mix, which omits the need to add it directly to the crackers (i tried it once, and it was like the equivalent of eating double strength sea water).

to get an even distribution of everything seasoning, generously sprinkle the everything seasoning on the surface you plan to roll the dough on, and then directly roll the dough into the seasoning.

you can buy everything seasoning from the store or use the ratios i use for a DIY mix. the formula i’ve included will leave you with extra everything seasoning you can use for your next batch of crackers.

the proportions i’ve specified will make exactly one cookie sheet pan worth of crackers. this recipe can be easily doubled, tripled, etc. to satisfy any further cracker cravings.

we are officially in the thicket of winter, which for most people means a miserable period of darkness and coldness and wetness and <insert your other gloomy adjectives of choice>.

but from misery breeds opportunity i say! an opportunity to indulge and find comfort in all the warm, lovely carbohydrates. an opportunity to crank your oven up to the highest setting and to hover by it as the aromas and heat waft out of the kitchen.

that doesn’t so bad right?

this recipe for seeded sourdough is perfect for those who, like me, also reach for heartier, darker whole grains during the winter. packed with flavor and seeds, serve this loaf warm with a thick slab of butter or with your favorite instant pot stews.

notes

at first glance, the hydration might seem alarmingly high (85%), but the wheat flour absorbs it all and yields an extensible, pliable dough that isn’t sticky or hard to work with. i promise.

i’ve added a hefty portion of rye in addition to the whole wheat to add even more depth of flavor and to balance out water absorption a bit. when i think of my favorite seeded loaves (mostly dutch and german breads), rye is always there.

lastly, the seeds i’m using in the recipe are merely suggestions — i’ve opted for pumpkin, sunflower, hemp, and fennel seeds (the fennel in particular adds a beautiful flavor and i’d highly recommend if you are a fennel fan), but feel free to use whatever fits your fancy. i would recommend 40g of larger seeds and 20g of smaller seeds.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

flour bakery in cambridge, ma was the first bakery i truly fell in love with. in college, i’d walk the 15 minutes from my dorm on tuesday late afternoons to order my usual breakfast sandwich and a pot of tea, sitting by window doing homework until whoever was closing that day had to politely ask me to leave (also can we agree that breakfast sandwiches are not just reserved for breakfast, and deserve to be eaten at any time of day?).

as an asian american woman who also grew up in flyover states and also went to university in boston, i consider joanne chang to be one of the greats, one of my life heroes.

i’ve adapted her original sticky bun recipe to include ripe sourdough starter rather than yeast. sourdough and brioche sweet bread might seem counter intuitive, but the sourdough doesn’t negatively affect the flavor at all.

whenever i eat these i first get hit by the melt-in-your-mouth gooey goodness, and then by a huge wave of nostalgia. i’m not sure which feeling i enjoy more, and i hope these do the same for you.

notes

like many brioche doughs, this is a fairly wet dough. don’t panic if it seems unwieldy! the dough strengthens with folds and refrigeration.

you could swap the heavy cream in the goo for whole milk, though you will end up with a much thinner (albeit still tasty) goo.

sticky buns are best eaten warm, within 4 hours of baking. share with friends and after a bite, you’ll be their favorite friend.

you can store them in an airtight container for up to 1 day and reheat with microwave or oven. i’ve also stashed them in the freezer for longer term storage. i swear they taste just as good straight out of the freezer, microwaved for a couple of minutes.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

baker’s percentages are percent weight relative to total flour, and refer to the dough only (excludes goo topping)

my only childhood bagel experiences were the day old, half priced bruegger’s asiago bagels my friends and i would sneak out of statistics class to buy at our high school cafeteria. when i moved to nyc, i entered the bagel mecca itself, and oh i had much. to. learn.

i learned not to toast the good ones (the sacrilege!).

i learned that pumpernickel had no association with leprechauns (ok but doesn’t it conjure up the image?).

i learned that the bagel could, and should, be used as a vehicle to consume many other delicious things, like peanut butter, or smoked salmon, or scallion cream cheese (but absolutely no vegetables allowed except for red onions, nuh uh).

this sourdough is an homage to nyc, my home for the last 4 years. it’s encrusted with the everything seasoning we know and love, with a higher percentage of rye and spelt for that familiar tang.

for maximal stickiness, cover the sticky dough with the seasoning post-shape and pre-flour. if you find the seasoning falling off, you can try wetting it a little bit before covering the dough with seasoning by spraying a bit of water.

brooklyn in the summer is a magical place.

this granola recipe is my tribute to summer — tinted yellow from the ground turmeric, with coconut, sunflower seeds, golden raisins, and crystallized ginger as mix-ins. these flavors remind me of the things i love about warm weather and sunshine.

earlier this summer when i discovered you could make granola using sourdough discard (using it as one of the liquid binders), i went into an experimenting frenzy.

y’all, granola is one of my favorite things to make — i find store bought granola much too sweet, so i’m constantly whipping up new combinations. adding in a bit of sourdough discard helps me achieve a few more clumps than i would otherwise when i reduce the amount of sweetener used. note: if you like sweet granola, you’ll definitely want to increase the amount of honey or add more dried fruit.

notes:

• i like mixing the dry and wet ingredients together directly on the tray with a fork and my hands instead of ahead of time in a bowl. i find that i get the clusters and consistency i like with this method, but feel free to play around with what works best for you.
• if you’re adding dried fruit like we’re doing here (crystallized ginger and golden raisins), make sure to add those mix-ins after baking.
• wait at least 10 minutes before flipping the granola during the bake! flipping too early will break up any premature clusters

i make a large batch pretty frequently and love adding a few hearty spoonfuls to my morning greek yogurt for breakfast. it’s a low-sugar, nutrient-packed, flavorful addition that can accompany fruit (yum summer berries) and also standalone.

peanut butter and jelly. apples and cheddar. chocolate milk shakes and fries. these are the three iconic sweet savory duos from my american childhood.

as i’ve had the opportunity to travel and try new foods in the past 10 years, i’ve discovered a variety of other iconic sweet savory duos: tahini and date spread in israel, matcha and red bean in asia, guava and cream cheese in latin america — the inspiration behind this lovely loaf.

guava is a small tropical fruit, with a light green waxy exterior and a soft, seeded, pink interior, with a texture similar to a soft pear. guava paste tastes kinda like strawberry jam with a hint of pear, and is usually sold in rectangular brick form. thankfully, this makes it way easier to cube.

the savory from the cream cheese beautifully counteracts the sweetness from the guava, all of which is encompassed in a soft, fluffy bread.

best enjoyed on its own as a dessert, snack, or breakfast. be prepared to audibly react to the deliciousness. don’t sleep on this pro-tip: makes for an amazing base for french toast after a couple of days.

notes

i use king arthur bread flour, trader joe’s all purpose, bob’s red mill rye, and farmer ground flour einkorn. i got guava paste from food bazaar, but it’s also available on amazon.

please adjust your levain and bulk times for when your kitchen is colder or warmer, about 1 hour more during the winter and 1 hour less during the summer.

i’ve included a video of the lamination technique, using @fullproofbaking’s lamination method.

baker’s percentage & basic timetable

the percentages for water and flour only account for the final dough build, and do not include the levain formula build.

*can sub einkorn for whole wheat