Sweet Chat with Book Authour and Amazing Artist, Jessie Oleson Moore

I lose count of how many times I have told people how much I love Jessie Oleson Moore.  We first met at her former art gallery and shop in Seattle few years ago; and I could say that, she is ONE OF THE KINDEST PERSONS on earth!  I have been a devoted fans of her blog, CakeSpy ever since then.

Couple years ago, Jessie Oleson Moore wrote this most amazing and creative recipe book:  CakeSpy Presents: Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life.  I bought it and have been loving the book; the recipes in the book is so easy to follow and extremely innovative. The ultimate success of her first book was leading her to prepare the second book, the Secret Lives of Baked Goods.  I have not bought this new book yet, but definitely put it on my TO-DO list.  Here is a sweet chat between Jessie and I about her new book and some of her future new projects:

1)  Your first book was such a great hit. Did it give you any pressure of preparing your second book?
Interestingly, my first book didn't figure much into the experience of the second. I think this is probably because they are SO different. I did feel more insecure at points about my writing, though, because the first book had just headnotes and the second actually required paragraph structure and storytelling rather than just telling about the recipes. It was almost like writing another first book!

2)  Tell me and our readers a little bits about your new book and how did you come up with the idea of the theme?
I've always thought that foods taste better with a backstory. You know, grandma saying that she won grandpa over with her apple pie, or something like that. I thought that by choosing the stories behind well-known baked goods that are accessible to everyone would be a fun and engaging theme--especially for those who, like me, can read cookbooks as if they are novels!

3)  Do you have any book tour/book signing in California?  If yes, when and where?
I was in San Francisco last month, at Omnivore Books and Book Passage, respectively. Though it's not specifically a book event, I will be at the Renegade Craft Fair in Los Angeles this summer and will be selling books at the event.

4)  It looks like you travel quite a lot for your passion and work, is there one place in the world you desperately want to check out?  And why?
If I could make myself a traveling machine that transported me free of cost to anyplace, I'd choose Vienna--I think of it as a pastry Mecca.

5)  Do you think the doughnut trend will overtake the cupcake craze?
These things come in cycles. Yes, more doughnut shops are opening and it makes for good press and a new "it" baked good (fried good?) but really it amounts to the same thing: sugar is tasty and we want it. Same thing, different delivery method. But am I eating more doughnuts as of late? Heck yes.

6)  Do you have new projects coming up?
I am working on a pitch for my third book right now!

7)  Do you have any artists (could be a chef, pastry chef, writer, illustionist, fashion designer, etc) you want to pair up with to create something amazing?
If I could conjure up a dream team of people to work with RIGHT THIS INSTANT, it would be: Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, They Might Be Giants, Stanley Tucci, and  Dorie Greenspan. Why Stanley Tucci? Why not?

8)  Any new sweet artworks you would like to share with us?
Did you know that I did all of the illustrations in my new book? It's rather a different style for me and I'm quite proud! Here are some examples in my book:

A Sweet Treat - Parisian Macaron Purse

She is pretty, cheerful and sweet; she is the princess among all desserts.  However, she is beyond challenge to master.  Who this "she" I am talking about?!  No others, but the prettiest dessert on earth - Parisian Macarons she is!

A macaron (French pronunciation: [makaˈʁɔ̃]) is a sweet meringue-based confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring. The macaron is commonly filled with ganache, buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies. Its name is derived from the Italian word maccarone or maccherone. The confectionery is characterised by its smooth, domed top, ruffled circumference (referred to as the "foot"), and flat base. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth.

Macarons can be found in a wide variety of flavors that range from the traditional (raspberry, chocolate) to the new (marmite, green matcha tea). The fillings can range from jams to ganache to butter. Since the English word macaroon can also refer to the coconut macaroon, many have adopted the French spelling of macaron to distinguish the two items in the English language. However, this has caused confusion over the correct spelling. Some recipes exclude the use of macaroon to refer to this French confection while others think that they are synonymous.
(Picture and information from Google Image and Wikipedia)

 I tried to make this pretty lady couple times.  First time, I got few good looking one out of two batches.  Decided to try again after a few weeks and was wishing to get this time right.  FAILED!  Based on two failure attempts, I concluded measurements and reliable recipe are extremely important to make this pretty dessert. I am not ready to have my third attempt yet until I got fully recovered from my failtures (if you have a great recipe, please DO share with me=)). 

Even though I am not yet successfully to master this desert, but I could easily "own" one.  I found these very cute macaron coin purse from Site NYC.  They come with different colors in a decorative cigaratte lavendar colored container or you could choose your favorite color(s) and purchase them individually.  According to their website, they will make a "the perfect gift for your friend who stood an hour in line at Ladurée."  (AGREE!) 

If you want to try your crafty hands to make some macaron coin purse for yourself and someone you love, Joannie L from Craft Passion was nice enough to share a turtoraial post (with step by step pictures), click here to find out more.

Baklava Cups Recipe

Couple months ago, I tried to make my very first Baklava (recipe here).  This is one of the most additive desserts I ever ate.  After my first successful attempt, I wanted to make this little treat again for our Easter's dinner; however, I want to make it a little bits different than the one I made the last time.  So I went online and find a pretty interesting recipe from Food Network.com.  The one appears on Food Network.com looks different than the traditional one I made the last time.  The ingridents are also a little bits different too.  I used walnuts and almonds as the recipe called for.  Also added bread crumbs and dried apricots too.  Don't under estimate the bread crumbs, they actually make a BIG different in the texture of the filling.  And the dried apricots make the baklava cups lighter than the traditional one.  

A traditional Baklava I made couple months ago.

The one I made the last time was closer to the one I had in Greece.  The one I made for Easter's dinner had a little Italian twist on it since Giada De Laurentiis is an Italian.  The one I made the last time was a little bits sweeter than the one I made for Easter.  They were different, but I loved them both!  Try both receipes and let me know what you think=)

This recipe was adopted from Giada De Laurentiis's recipe, you could also click here for her demo video:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch of salt
• 1 stick butter, melted, divided
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 12 sheets phyllo dough
• Special equipment: 2 mini-muffin tins

Time:  60 mins

Make: 6 sheets phyllo dough make a dozen, 12 sheets make 2 dozens

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place the almonds, walnuts, apricots, bread crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt in a food processor. Run the machine until the mixture is very finely chopped. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the melted butter and the honey and stir to combine
3. On a dry work surface place 1 sheet of phyllo. Using a pastry brush and the remaining melted butter, lightly cover the entire sheet of phyllo with melted butter. Cover the first sheet with a second sheet of phyllo and brush with melted butter. Continue until there is a stack of 6 sheets of phyllo.
4. Cut the stacked phyllo rectangle into 12 equal pieces (Cut lengthwise into 4 pieces and widthwise into 3 pieces.)
5. Gently press each cut piece of phyllo into the mini-muffin tin cups. Press 1 tablespoon of the nut mixture into each of the phyllo cups. Gather the ends of each of the phyllo squares and twist to make a sachet shape. Continue shaping the remaining sachets in the other mini-muffin tin.
6. Bake until the edges of the phyllo are golden, about 20 to 25 minutes.
7. When cool enough to handle, remove the baklava sachets and transfer to a serving plate.

Cereal Milk Recipe by Momofuku Milk Bar

I remember when I first started my real full time job, the only thing could make me get up early was a bowl of cereals.  I am not kidding, I even craved it when I was sleeping at night and so looking forward to get up in the morning to have that bowl of cereals (sounds totally unbelivlable, but 100% true!).  What made me so addicted to the bowl of cereals were the crushiness from the cereals and the silky smoothness from the milk, but what I love the most was that cereal milk left in the bowl. 

Admit it, you love that cereal milk too!  Momofuku Milk Bar in New York knew how much people love that cereal milk, so they "created" it and sell it at their store (very smart idea!).  Owner and Pastry Chef, Christina Tosi was nice enough to write a book and share some of the Momofuku's favorite recipes with everyone.  The first recipe in the book OF COURSE was their famous Cereal Milk.  If you want to try your hands to make their famous Cereal Milk, Serious Eats shared this recipe on their website and more important, they even converted the English measurement (the book uses English measurements) to American commonly use measurement.  Sweet=)

This cereal milk is very versatile.  You could use it to bake cookies, cupcakes and cakes and even ICE CREAM!  Tea and Letter is sharing the step by step process of making your potentially new favorite ice cream on their website, click here.

Enjoy=)

(All pictures were found from Google Images)

Getting Ready for Cinco de Mayo!

Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner, are you ready to party?  I came across this very cute piñata cookies' recipe on a website called, She knows Food and Recipes.  The recipe is great with step by step pictures and clear instruction.  If you want something different for your kids on this Cinco de Mayo, this will definitely surprise them with a pinata cookies filled with mini M&M inside=)

The cookies just like a real pinata (filled with candies)!

Cinco de Mayo is not just for kids, how about some taquila shoot for the grown-ups?

Need party ideas?  Taquila shoot and mini taco for the adults.
(photo from Pinterest)

Baklava Recipe

Due to my background of growing up in a multi-cultural town and the love of traveling, I always enjoy trying out recipes of different countries and/or regions.  In the process of preparing the dishes or deserts makes me understand more about the culture of each country.  Beside traveling, making food is a great way to learn more about other countries. 

My parents started taking us to travel when I was just a little kid.  We have been so many wonderful places (Greece, Turkey, Egypt, England, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Portugal, France, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, portion of Mainland China, and America [of course], etc) throughout the whole world.  I feel so lucky that I got to see so many different things (good and bad) in such a young age; it surely opened up my mind and sights to think outside the box and learnt the best from other countries. 

Just a few weeks ago, I had an itch of trying to make a famous and popular Mediterranean dessert - Balkava at home.  Believe it or not, this dessert is so easy to make and is additively delicious.

Recipe (adopted from All Recipe.com)

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough (from the frozen section of the gocery store)
• 1 pound chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds or pistachios)
• 1 cup butter (melted)/PAM
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup honey

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C). Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 inch pan.

2.  Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan.  I used my new Ninja blender/juicer/food processor.  I will tell you more about how much I love about my Ninja blender later.  It is a great piece of tool to add to your kitchen=)

3.  Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 - 8 sheets deep.

4.  Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. You may cut into 4 long rows the make diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.  (The blodded and colored note is very important!  Once you baked it, they are very hard to cut.  So DO remember to cut it before putting it in the oven.)

5.  Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

6.  Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool.

Pulling it out from the oven when they are golden brown.

Pour your honey sauce on it immediately

Serve in cupcake papers.  This freezes well.
 Leave it uncovered because it will get soggy if is wrapped up.





Tamarind Water Recipe

We just went to try a new Korean BBQ place by our house.  Food is good and we enjoyed spending time with our family, but now I am so full, and also feel and smell like a big piece of greasy-beezy pig belly...when we got home, the first thing came up in my mind was the tamarind water I made last week.  Hm...hm...so refreshing, and now I successfully turned myself from a fatty big belly to a less fatty one=)

So you will ask, what is tamarind?  Tamarind is a fruit found in Africa and tropical Asia.  These not so good-looking (they look like Mr. Henkey from the South Park, see picture above. LOL) but surprising tasty fruits are very popular in India, Mexico, Southern Asia, Egypt and portions of Spain.  Tamarind water is one of the most popular agua fresca drinks from Mexican cuisine.

This drink is super easy to prepare and you don't need a lot of ingredients.  Here is my recipe:


6-7 tamarind pods (usually you could get this fruit from Mexican market or Indian/Asian market)
6 cups of water
2 cups of white sugar

Tamarinds with shells

Getting the pods out by hands

About 6-7 pods

1.  Remove the pods from the shells by hands.  I used about 6-7 pods, but it depends on size of the tamarinds and your personal preference (Remember this fruit is a little on the tart side).

Boil 6 cups of water in a tall pot.

 2.  Boil 6 cups of water.  Once the water got boiled, put the pods in the pot and boil for another 25 mins.

3.  Grab the pods out from the pot (they are very soft after boiled, so using a strainer will be a great choice to take them out from the pot).

Mash them good.

4.  Put the soften tamarinds in the strainer and put a bowl at the bottom of the strainer, and try your best to mash them good to get as much as liquid out from them.  After you got the liquid from the fruits, you could discard the seeds and the tamarinds.

5.  Put the liquid back to the boiled water and now you could add 2 cups of water.  Boil for another 10 mins.  

6.  Let the tamarind water cool down before putting it in the fridge.

7.  Add ice and enjoy=)

This drink is so refreshing, so easy and cheap to make, and it makes a good addition in your fridge.  Whenever you need something to refresh your mind, just pour some out and add some ice, and it will certainly put a smile on your face=)

Easy Panna Cotta Recipe

Panna Cotta means cooked cream in Italian.  It is a classic Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set. It is generally from the Northern Italian region of Piemonte.  The dessert could serve with fresh fruits or hazelnuts.  If you want to have some bitter sweet flavor, try green tea powder (aka matcha) panna cotta.

Here is my recipe (adopted from all recipe.com):

Ingredients:

1/3 cup reduced fat milk

1 (0.25 ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin (look for it from the jello section at the grocery store)

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (look for it from the baking section at the grocery store)

6 cleaned ramekin dishes

Direction:

1. Pour milk into a small bowl, and stir in the gelatin powder and mix well. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan, stir together the heavy cream and sugar, and set over medium heat. Bring to a full boil, watching carefully, as the cream will quickly rise to the top of the pan. Pour the gelatin and milk into the cream, stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla extract and pour into six individual ramekin dishes.
3. Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving.
4. Serve with fresh berries (optional).

Jamprint Cookies Recipe from OddFellows Cafe + Bar (Seattle, Wa)

Imagine from Cakespy.com

Ever since our first visit in Seattle, I have been falling in love with this city, the food, the culture and the people there.  I have been chasing after few Seattle food and dessert blogs since we had gotten back from our trip last year.  Few months ago, I made these Jamprints Cookies based on the recipe I found from the OddFellows Cafe + Bar's facebook page.  I altered the recipe a little bits by adding some fresh lemon zest.

The cookies came out so moist and yummy.  Here is their secret:

Jamprints Cookies

Imagine from PRZman.com

Ingredients

• 0.75 lbs butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3.5 cups flour
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• flaked coconut, for edges
• jam (of your choosing), about 1 teaspoon per cookie

Instruction:
Preheat oven to 350

1.     Cream butter + sugar in mixer w/ paddle attachment, add vanilla + salt

2.     Sift in the flour, mix until dough comes together

*Optional:  Adding lemon zest in the batter

3.     Wrap in plastic, chill for 1 hr
4.     Roll it into 1 ounce balls, dip balls in egg wash + roll in flaked coconut

5.     Put ball on a baking sheet + indent the top, fill with jam.

6.    Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until coconut is toasted and jam thickens.

Very easy to make and very tasty! 

Thanks Oddfellows to share their recipe.