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!

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.

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.

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.

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)

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

deb perelman is a true queen.

amongst the kitchen goddesses of the internet, smitten kitchen reigns supreme in my heart (read: stomach. they’re the same thing right?). when i came across her recipe for double chocolate banana bread last month, i knew i had to make it. and i knew it was going to be delicious.

sourdough discard and overripe bananas are two things in constant supply in my brooklyn apartment. i love whipping up a batch of banana bread or banana baked oatmeal over the weekend and bringing it to work for breakfast for the remainder of the week — it makes the entire kitchenette smell heavenly and i never fail to get compliments from coworkers as i’m warming it up 🙂

i’ve adapted the smitten kitchen recipe a bit to create a sourdough discard version. i’ve swapped out…

• some flour for a hearty portion of sourdough discard
• butter for coconut oil to make this lighter and dairy-free
• all the brown sugar for a tiny bit of honey

most internet recipes are far too sweet for my personal taste, so i’ve decreased the amount of sweetener substantially (1-2 tbsp honey). feel free to adjust the honey to the sweetness of your liking.

when i make this for breakfast, i add walnuts to the party for a healthy kick of omega-3’s, and significantly reduce the amount of chocolate chunks. this is completely optional. turn up the chocolate and omit the walnuts if that’s how the banana bread spirit moves you.