Posts tagged Dessert
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

For the past five years these have been my go-to cookies to whip up when a sugar craving strikes. And I don't see that changing.

I first made them when I was living in Beijing, where good-tasting butter was only available at the expat supermarkets. After an afternoon of googling, I found a peanut butter cookie recipe that required neither butter nor flour.

I changed up the recipe a bit by using chunky peanut butter instead of smooth. And instead of dropping the dough onto the sheet, I used my hands to compact the dough and make smaller, denser cookies and shortened the baking time by a bit. As a result my cookies came out crunchy, whereas the picture on Cookie Madness made them look soft and chewy.

But...jackpot...these taste almost exactly like the large peanut butter cookies my father used to make at his Cantonese bakery back in Boston. The ones I would scarf down whenever I stopped by, to "visit." And since he hardly ever baked at home, I didn't really learn any of his trade secrets. (Yes, it's true that Chinese folks tend to prefer crunchier cookies, having grown up outside the cult of Nestle Tollhouse.)

Read More
RecipesDiana KuanCookies, Dessert, Gluten-Free, Recipes Comments
Matcha (Green Tea) Pound Cake

As an over-consumer of food magazines and Pinterest images, I've come to miss the cookie and cake pictures this month.

Now that the holidays are over, it seems like many of us have taken a hiatus from baking. January is supposedly the time for salads and soups and juice cleanses, right? At least, that's what all the cooking magazines are telling me.

And healthy-eating-wise, I've been doing okay so far. I don't get bagels with cream cheese or pizza slices three or four times a week anymore. But the baking? No no no. It's so impossible to ween myself off it that I'm not even going to try.

Green tea pound cake is one of those foods that just has a lovely sound to it. It's fragrant, light, complex, yet indulgent at the same time. As for this particular cake, the texture is nice and buttery like a pound cake should be, but also airy and doesn't make you feel weighed down, even after a eating a few slices more than you should.

Read More
RecipesDiana KuanBreakfast, Dessert, Green Tea, Matcha, Recipes, Tea Comments
Earl Grey Shortbread

Sometimes I bake late at night as a way to wind down after a long day of work in front of the computer. Mostly chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies, but sometimes pies, if I'm feeling a bit ambitious. (We're talking 10:30 or 11pm, after all.) Yes, there are countless nutritionists who'll tell you that late-night eating is bad for you. But I'll go out on a limb and claim that smelling freshly baked cookies close to bedtime and even eating one or two has the same soothing effect that a glass of milk before bed does.

Lately, though, I've been switching gears and baking shortbread instead. I don't know why shortbread hasn't been on the regular rotation until now. It's such a simple thing to whip up, and pretty quick, even with the time it takes to chill the dough. Laurie Colwin called it "the essence of butter". Yet, it doesn't feel as heavy as a cookie loaded with chocolate chips. Whether that is a good or bad thing is up to you.

Last week for a blogger potluck at Gojee's headquarters in Soho, I made a batch of Earl Grey Shortbread with bits of Earl Grey tea spotting throughout. Like the other great blogger dishes - Kian's Yunnan-style shrimp fried rice, Veronica's Goan shrimp curry, Chitra 's curried and creamed kale, Cathy's vegetarian chili, and Paul and Steve's cheddar-blue fricos, Barb's tiramisu, and a handful of others - it was gone by the end of the night, except for a few crumbs.

Read More
BlogDiana KuanCookies, Dessert, Recipes, Tea Comments
Apple-Cranberry Pie

When you find yourself baking the same pie three times in a two-week period, and serving it to over 30 friends, it's safe to assume this is one special pie.

But first, I really want to thank all of you who reached out, whether in person, over email, or here on the blog. The amount of support flooding in has been incredible. I'm really glad to be part of this blogging community; as one food blogging friend wrote, that it's kind of inevitable that "we’ve been blogging for so long, our personal lives bleed over to our posts about food." So thank you also for giving me a forum to not only share recipes and trade cooking tips but also write about the the other important things in life. I've been told, and it seems accurate, that you never heal from losing someone close, but maybe just continuing on with daily tasks with your head held high is a good step forward.

I've always thought baking to be therapeutic, but over the past couple of weeks it has become so much more. When I find myself unable to concentrate on work at the computer, or otherwise making a serious dent on the Kleenex box, I sometimes get up and gravitate toward the kitchen. And flip open the Joy of Cooking or New York Times Cookbook to the baking sections. Following exact instructions, making precise measurements, and kneading dough, with Johnny Cash or Postal Service or Springsteen or whoever playing in the background, all of that combined, has a potent uplifting effect. So too, does the smell is pie bubbling in the oven.

Read More
BlogDiana KuanDessert, Pie, Recipes Comments
Apple Pie Ice Cream

I'm a New Englander at heart when it comes to ice cream. We not only eat it all year round, we also line up for it all year round. This includes outside, in the middle of winter.

For example, on sub-freezing January days in Boston, it's not uncommon to see lines about 15 or 20 people deep outside any J.P. Licks or Toscanini's (just to get inside, where the line continues), next to massive snowbanks on the sidewalk left over from a storm the day before. Who knows the reasoning behind this? Maybe extra body fat allows you to endure winter a little better.

So I have no qualms about making ice cream into the coldest, darkest months. I had started experimenting over the summer quite a bit, churning out eight batches in the first month after receiving my ice cream maker, including black sesame, mint, coconut, French vanilla, and an equal number of sorbets. But an experiment from last week, apple pie ice cream, proved to be the best of the bunch.

Read More
BlogDiana KuanDessert, Recipes Comments
Chinese Herbal Jelly

At first glance, anyone who didn't grow up in an Asian culture might scrunch up her nose at herbal jelly. It's black, it's shiny, and it jiggles. But really, herbal jelly, or grass jelly, is like JELL-O, only naturally colored. Whole Foods is losing a big opportunity to market this as the next "it" health food.

Maybe it's the fact that it takes the shape of the tin can it comes from, that may turn people off. If, as a culture, Americans have moved past canned cranberry sauce, we might not be too thrilled with something similarly ridged but not candy-colored. Although grass jelly is made from an herb in the mint family, the taste is pretty neutral. Which is why Asians love it in desserts. In Hong Kong cafés and dessert shops serve grass jelly with mangoes, coconut, and other tropical produce. At bubble tea shops like Saint Alp's you can opt for little grass jelly bits instead of tapioca pearls.

In Hong Kong and southern China, you can find also tortoise jelly in tea shops with big gold or silver pots. Called gwei ling go in Cantonese, the genuine stuff is made from powdered tortoise shell and can get be as expensive as 300 HK dollars (about $38) for a rice bowl's worth. Don't worry, PETA members: imitation tortoise jelly is much more common and usually costs $1 or less. It's made from different herb than grass jelly, but tastes pretty much the same.

Read More
BlogDiana KuanCulinary Culture, Dessert, Drinks Comments
Rose Tea Dessert Soup

I'm sure most Westerners who have ever dined with a group of Chinese are familiar with the the following scenario. After a ___-course lavish banquet, you look forward to something nice and sweet to cap off a great experience. Your Chinese hosts inform you that you'll love the dessert; all Westerners love dessert. This one is a Chinese specialty. Anticipation mounts. Then the long-awaited dessert arrives...in the form of red bean soup. You take one sip, utter an "Mmm!" with all the false bravado you can muster, and wonder if anyone will notice you "watering" that plant close by.

Yes, it is well known that most Chinese desserts are merely tolerated by Westerners. While I personally don't mind red bean soup or other sweet dessert soups every once in a while, other people, like a certain significant other of mine, have developed an intense fear of them. It's understandable. While in the West we crave and lust after rich chocolates, cakes, and pies, the Chinese palate can tolerate only moderately sweet things. Thus, Chinese desserts never seem sweet enough, but anyone living or traveling extensively in China can't help but encounter them again and again.

 

Read More
RecipesDiana KuanCantonese, Chinese, Dessert, Healthy, Recipes Comments
Hibiscus Mint Granita with Rum

I guess I could have also called this Hibiscus Mojito Granita, but that sounds a little hokey.

My experimentations with tea desserts continue. Since my Rose Tea Rice Pudding was a success, I moved on to hibiscus tea, another tisane I bought at Maliandau, Beijing's tea street.

Hibiscus tea is also known as roselle in Southeast Asia, red sorrel in the Caribbean, and karkady in the Middle East. Among other benefits, it contains vitamin C and is believed to lower blood pressure. All that is wonderful, but my main concern on yesterday's 30 degrees Celsius afternoon, was how to incorporate hibiscus into a frozen dessert.

Read More
RecipesDiana KuanDessert, Recipes, Tea Comments