Cardamom and Tea

orange chocolate coconut granola

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I was in grad school studying medieval poetry at Rutgers when I first started this blog in 2017. It’s strange to think how much has happened since then. I’ve since left my PhD program with an MA, had two international moves, I’ve written my first cookbook, and gone through 2020-2021 along with everyone else—it just feels like a lifetime ago. A few weeks ago, I was missing our NJ friends and feeling nostalgic for that time in our lives. So I looked through old emails to find the very first recipe I ever wrote: a copycat for my favorite coffee shop’s granola bars. I spent many afternoons writing with friends at OQ (now renamed Penstock), noshing on their orange chocolate coconut bars. I started making similar bars at home, which eventually turned into a lower sugar loose granola. And then I started sharing that granola recipe with friends.

Reading my first ever pre-blogging recipe kind of makes me laugh/cringe. I included like four different sugars, two different fats, and I included both orange marmalade and orange zest. Nowadays, I can’t stand recipes with redundant ingredients, so this made me eye-roll. I also included a million twee parentheticals like “orange marmalade (the secret ingredient!!).” I gave an oven temperature range of 400-425°F (why the 25° range? probably because I forgot to write down the actual temperature I set it at). I gave a super broad bake time estimate of about 10 to 20 minutes with absolutely no indication of how to tell it’s done toasting.

There’s certainly more than one right way to write a recipe… but this was not one of them. It’s a good reminder that knowing how to make something and teaching someone else how to make something are not the same activity. By the way, if you’d like to learn what makes a recipe successful, I’ve got this post.

So this week, I looked through old emails and wrote this actually coherent recipe for orange chocolate coconut granola. It’s super streamlined, and incredibly easy from start to finish. Here are some of my favorite things about it:

lots of orange flavor, not too much sugar

While this granola is not quite low-sugar enough to be suitable for a strict sugar-free diet, it’s much lower in sugar than most. Instead of orange marmalade (sorry “secret ingredient!!”), I add just enough maple syrup to give it some crunch. I also add a single stevia tablet for a tiny bit more sweetness. The stevia is totally optional, and kind of just bumps it up to have a sweetness a skosh closer to a traditionally sweet granola.

Feel free to experiment with adding a little more maple syrup if you like a sweeter granola. If you start to add much more maple syrup than this recipe calls for, you may need to experiment with a slightly longer bake time.

holds up to milk without getting soggy

This granola gets super toasted and golden brown, so it doesn’t easily become soggy after pouring on the milk. I mean it! I eat everything that I photograph, but some things hold up to a long photoshoot better than others. A bowl of granola with oat milk has got to be one of the worst things to photograph and then actually consume. But the bowl in these photos was actually delightfully not soggy! And if you’re planning to eat a bowl like a normal human (i.e., immediately after pouring on the milk), it will be perfectly crunchy all the way through.

salty goodness

Even though it’s a bit lighter on the sugar, this granola has still got plenty of flavor. That’s partly thanks to all that orange zest and golden brown deliciousness. But it’s also thanks to a pretty generous amount of salt. If you don’t feel like including a full teaspoon, feel free to cut back a little. But a decent amount of salt is essential even for sweet recipes, so don’t cut back too-too much.

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orange chocolate coconut granola

  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: about 7 cups

Ingredients

4 cups old fashioned rolled oats (400g)
1 cup slivered almonds (115g)
¾ cup pepitas (100g)
⅓ cup melted extra virgin coconut oil (70g)
⅓ cup maple syrup (105g)
2 tablespoons orange zest (15g, from about 3 oranges)
1 teaspoon table salt (6g)
1 stevia tab or single-serve packet (optional)
½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes (60g)
⅓ cup chopped dark chocolate (50g)

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 425°F (220°C).
  2. Place the rolled oats, almonds, and pepitas on a rimmed 13×18 inch sheet pan. Mix together and shake out into an even layer. Bake for 10 minutes, pausing the timer and stirring about halfway through.
  3. While the oats and nuts are roasting, mix together the liquid ingredients: In a large bowl, combine the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, orange zest, table salt, and stevia (crush very finely if you’re using a tablet). Stir together, breaking up any big clumps of zest. Set aside, and don’t worry if the oil separates as it sits.
  4. Once the oats and nuts are lightly golden brown, top evenly with the coconut flakes. Do not mix them in, and return the sheet pan to the oven for only 1 to 2 minutes (keep a close eye on them, as they tend to burn).
  5. Once the coconut flakes have turned deeply golden brown, remove the sheet pan from the oven (but leave the oven on). Dump the oat mixture into the large bowl with the liquid ingredients, and immediately toss together to coat very evenly. Once evenly coated, return to the sheet pan and spread out into an even layer.
  6. Place the coated oats and nuts back in the oven for about 7 more minutes, pausing the timer and stirring halfway through. They’re done once they no longer feel damp as you stir them, but feel somewhat sticky and a bit drier against the spoon. Remove from the oven and give them one last stir.
  7. Let the granola cool to warm room temperature* in the sheet pan, and then top with the chopped chocolate so it melts slightly in spots. Let it cool completely to room temperature (wait for the chocolate to solidify completely), then mix together and move to a storage container. You should end up a nice combination of chocolate streaks and whole chunks.

Notes

* If you add the chocolate while the granola is still too warm, it’ll fall out of temper and will not re-solidify. This is fine, as long as you don’t mind the chocolate completely mixing into the granola. But if you want to insure chocolate chunks, just wait for the granola to cool all the way (or just err on the side of cooler).

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herby breakfast skillet

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While tomato season has just recently left Australia behind, the northern hemisphere is about to get back to it. So I thought I’d share a dish that I started making a couple months ago, during the final few weeks of the season: An herby breakfast skillet with potatoes, kale, blistered tomatoes, feta, and a heap of chopped herbs. I kept bringing home bags of these nifty “pull-apart” tomatoes from the farmers’ market, which were perfect for blistering real quick in a skillet. But feel free to use whatever small tomatoes you can get your hands on.

Also feel free to use whatever leafy herbs you’ve got around, and don’t be shy. Parsley, dill, cilantro, and basil work well in any combination in this very herby breakfast skillet. Heaps of herbs make up the backbone of most of the food I grew up with, but I find that the uninitiated are usually a little wary of adding such a large quantity. So promise me that you won’t do a little restrained sprinkling, and that you’ll really go for it. It’s truly hard to overdo it. (Although the same can’t be said for woody herbs like rosemary, thyme, and oregano. They can get a bit perfumey).

Basil tends to be a bit less expensive and easier to find in large quantities later in the summer. But cilantro and parsley are perfect for early summer and late spring, and it’s easy to change this skillet up with whatever you’ve got on hand, no matter the time of year.

For a guide on chopping herbs like a pro and storing them so they’ll last for weeks, don’t miss my herb post. Having a few containers of cilantro and parsley in the fridge makes everything a little more delicious. And once you know how to chop them efficiently, you’re on your way to easy and delicious meals.

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herby breakfast skillet

  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Neutral oil (e.g., avocado or canola)
About 4 medium gold potatoes, sliced into ½-inch-thick wedges [455g]
Salt
1 cup sliced green onion [50g]
4 cups coarsely chopped kale leaves [80g], from about 1 very small bunch
2 medium cloves garlic, finely minced or crushed through a press [10g]
1 pint cherry tomatoes [300g]
1 cup chopped leafy herbs [40g] (any combination of dill, cilantro, parsley, and basil)
½ cup crumbled feta [75g]
3 or 4 medium or large eggs (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 450°F [230°C].
  2. Place an oven-safe nonstick or cast iron skillet over medium heat for a few minutes. Once it’s hot, add about 3 tablespoons oil and swirl to coat evenly. Add half of the potatoes (they should be in one single layer), season to taste, and let them sit until crispy on one side (about 5 minutes). Flip and let them get crispy on the other side (5 more minutes). Once the potatoes are crispy and cooked through, remove to a large bowl with tongs or a slotted spoon, and cook the second batch the same way.
  3. Add the green onions kale to the remaining oil in the skillet and season with a pinch of salt. Stir for about 2 minutes, then add the kale and another pinch of salt. Stir the kale and onions often for about 4 minutes. Once the kale softens and wilts, add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute, stirring constantly. Remove to the bowl with the potatoes, and increase the skillet to medium-high heat.
  4. Add 1 teaspoon oil to the skillet, swirl to coat, and add the whole cherry tomatoes. Let them blister and soften slightly for only about 2 to 3 minutes, while shaking the pan or stirring them constantly. Don’t let them turn into tomato sauce, and remove to the bowl as soon as they start to split open in spots. Remove the empty skillet from heat.
  5. Add most of the chopped herbs to the bowl, along with most of the feta (hold back some of each). Gently toss everything together, season to taste, then return to the warm skillet.
  6. Sprinkle the remaining feta and place in the oven for about 5 to 7 minutes, just until it’s warmed through and the feta has melted and slightly browned.
  7. While the skillet is in the oven, fry or poach the eggs using your favorite technique.
  8. Top with the cooked eggs, sprinkle on the reserved herbs, and enjoy.

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snickerdoodle blondies + how to create a dessert mashup

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For my husband Simon’s birthday (this week! 🥳), he requested that we come up with a recipe idea together, and that I develop it and test it to make his vision a reality. Since Simon’s been enjoying all the snickerdoodles I’ve been making, he went with a cross between snickerdoodles and blondies. And after discussing how to make that mashup work, I decided to write up a few thoughts on baking mashups.

So if you’re interested in making your own mashup, feel free to read through. You might even want to read on to decide whether to spend three hours waiting in line to try the latest craze. Really good mashups take two beloved desserts to create something new and exciting. Not-so-good mashups risk losing the two things we loved in the first place.

Or if you’re just here for the snickerdoodle blondies, feel free to scroll to the end of this post for the recipe. Either way, you don’t want to miss this one.

how to create a very good dessert mashup

The kind of dessert mashup I’m talking about is not the kind where you layer two desserts together. (E.g., brookies, donut ice cream sandwiches, etc.—delicious, but not the subject here). I’m talking about the kind of mashup where you take features of one thing and combine it with features of another. This kind of dessert mashup creates a whole new thing.

The cronut, for instance, takes some of the best features of both croissants and donuts, and marries them together. Certain other hybrids are more like Frankenstein’s monsters, losing what we loved about each dessert in the first place, and replacing each one with new slightly worse qualities, just for the sake of merging the two.

For instance, I don’t love big loaves of pretzel bread. The thing I love most about pretzels is their vast surface area of dark brown crust. You lose out on so much of that when you boil and bake the dough into a giant loaf. We’re all going to disagree a bit about our favorite features of various baked goods. Perhaps you always wished that pretzels had just a little less brown crust, because you don’t like bitter flavors.

But when coming up with your own dessert mashup, it’s important to spend a few minutes coming up with something that keeps all your favorite features of your favorite things. This post shows you how to come up with an idea, but I won’t get into recipe developing here. Check out this post if you want a little primer.

Ok, let’s go!

The first step is to choose two desserts that you think might merge well, and draw a venn diagram.

Choose two desserts that are not too similar but also not too different. Make sure you choose two things that you completely understand (both culturally and technically. If you don’t fully understand one of the things, research it until you do, or try another dessert that you’ve got a better handle on.

List out features like important ingredients, ingredient ratios, qualities, and/or techniques. Draw a venn diagram to help you think through whether these two desserts actually go well together, or if they’re incompatible and best left on their own.

Here’s my venn diagram of snickerdoodles and blondies:

Once you’ve got your venn diagram, ask yourself some questions about it. These questions will help make sure you don’t lose the thread, to keep the best of both worlds:

1) Which of the features of each dessert are essential, and which features are you willing to let go of?

In this case, snickerdoodles absolutely must be made with white sugar and cream of tartar, and they need to be coated in some sort of spiced sugar. But I’m open to the idea of changing the least important of the 4 features of snickerdoodles: their shape. E.g., a snickerdoodle without its spiced sugar coating is just a sugar cookie. A snickerdoodle with cinnamon sugar mixed into the batter is just a cinnamon sugar cookie. But a snickerdoodle that’s been baked into one giant cookie and coated in cinnamon sugar is still a snickerdoodle, even though it happens to be a giant one.

The essential features of blondies: They must be baked in a pan, and they must have some chocolate chips or chunks mixed in. Unlike snickerdoodles, their shape makes them what they are. E.g., if you add a little extra flour and roll them into balls, they become plain old chocolate chip cookies. The brown sugar, on the other hand, is a much less important component. Blondies are still blondies if they’re missing the brown sugar.

So let’s go ahead and cross off the less essential features:

2) Are any of the remaining essential features incompatible?

To decide if this is a doable plan, we need to decide if any of the remaining things are incompatible.

For instance, if we had instead decided that brown sugar is an essential component of blondies, and that snickerdoodles can only be made with white sugar, then these two desserts would not be good candidates for a mashup. But luckily, we’ve decided that the brown sugar isn’t super essential for blondies, so it’s looking good. Likewise, we’ve decided that the shape of snickerdoodles isn’t super important, but if we had instead decided that the shape of snickerdoodles and the shape of blondies were both equally important, then (again), this wouldn’t be a good candidate for a mashup.

Luckily we’re in the clear. Everything on the left is totally compatible with everything on the right. We’re keeping the snickerdoodle cinnamon sugar coating, getting rid of the brown sugar, keeping the white sugar, keeping the cream of tartar, adding some chocolate chips, and going with a chewy vanilla batter that can be poured into a pan and sliced into bars.

But even though this is a doable plan, we also need to make sure it’s actually a good plan:

3) Did we create any new problems? How can we solve them?

For instance, one of the best things about snickerdoodles is their crackly cinnamon sugar crust. If we instead sprinkle a pan of blondies with cinnamon sugar, we risk losing all that surface area and might not get a satisfying amount of coverage.

And what about the brown sugar that we’re leaving out of the blondies? While it’s not an essential component, is it something we’re going to miss? Or are we adding another similar flavor or texture to compensate?

Finally, we’ve got the problem of a moderately sweet cookie that’s also going to be stuffed with chocolate chips, which might just push them over the edge to cloying territory.

To solve the surface area problem, I developed a recipe for relatively thin blondies, rather than super deep-dish ones. That way, we’ll get a ton of crackly cinnamon crust with each slice.

After thinking a bit more about the issue of the brown sugar missing, I decided that its flavor is well compensated by the addition of cinnamon sugar. Brown sugar and cinnamon both add a nice warm note. But to make sure we don’t lose any of the chewy/gooey texture that brown sugar would’ve provided, I made sure the recipe didn’t have too much flour.

And to solve the too-sweet problem, I went with dark chocolate instead of milk/semisweet chocolate. While milk or semisweet goes great in a blondie, dark chocolate goes much better with a sweeter snickerdoodle batter.

4) Finally, is this new dessert mashup still recognizable as both things?

Sometimes when we create a mashup, we lose sight of one of the two base desserts by the end of the process. Are both still identifiable? Can you see the snickerdoodle and the blondie? Or just one or the other?

If you’re trying to combine two things that are just way too similar, like trying to combine a brownie with devil’s food cake, you’re going to have trouble finding enough friction and difference to have both things represented meaningfully in the final product.

On the other hand, if you’re trying to combine two things that are way too different, you might have trouble finding enough common ground to bring them together, and one of them might get a bit lost. Like, if you took baklava and tried to cross it with rice pudding, you’re probably just going to end up with a spiced rice pudding or a really mushy baklava (or you’re going to go the “brookie” route, sprinkling some baklava on your rice pudding, which is delicious, but isn’t really the kind of mashup we’re talking about here). It’s going to be hard to see both desserts represented in a mashup of such disparate things.

But in this case, we’ve still got iconic features of both, and neither takes anything away from the other, so we are all good to go. At last, snickerdoodle blondies!

A few last thoughts: Do you really need to go through this whole process? I mean, we’re talking about fun dessert mashups here. This is obviously not an emergency. But going through this process will go a long way in making a mashup that feels like it’s truly both things at once. Instead of just dusting your classic blondies with a cinnamon sugar topping, or baking snickerdoodle batter in a pan and slicing into bars, you’ll make something that’s greater (or at least fun and different from) the sum of its parts. Merging two desserts while keeping recognizable features of both is a challenge. But it’s also fun and worth trying out!

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snickerdoodle blondies

  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

For the batter:
Butter, for greasing the pan
1 cup all purpose flour (130g)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar (5g)
¼ teaspoon baking soda (1g)
1 stick butter (115g), melted and cooled*
1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
1 large egg (50g), straight from the refrigerator
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5g)
½ teaspoon salt (3g)
⅔ cup dark chocolate chunks (100)

For the topping:
1 tablespoons sugar (12g)
1½ teaspoons cinnamon (3g)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Cut a parchment square the size of the bottom of a 8 inch (20 cm) square baking pan. Grease the pan with butter on the bottom and sides. Press the parchment onto the bottom of the pan, flip the parchment over so it’s greased on both sides, and again press onto the bottom of the pan so it makes very good contact with it.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda. In a separate medium mixing bowl, whisk together the butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and salt until completely incorporated. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together just until there are a few visibly dry pockets remaining. Add the chocolate chips and stir together until they’re evenly distributed and there are no streaks of flour (but do not overmix).
  3. Pour the batter into the parchment-lined greased pan. Smooth out the top.
  4. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle it very evenly over the top of the batter. Gently tip and tap the pan to shake it around if it’s too clumpy in spots.
  5. Bake for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and meets with some slight resistance. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then trace around the edge with a knife, and remove by carefully inverting and then inverting again. Let cool at least 15 more minutes before slicing (let it cool completely, at least 1 hour, for cleanly sliced pieces).

Notes

* Make absolutely sure your melted butter is no longer warm, otherwise your chocolate chips will melt. Using an egg straight from the refrigerator (rather than at room temperature) helps make sure the wet ingredients aren’t too warm.

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blackberry sumac scones

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Glazes and icings are always beautiful, but most taste too cloyingly sweet to me. While royal icing has a lovely texture, it has very little acidity. Egg white and powdered sugar lend it that billowy texture, but don’t give it much else. Many recipes get around the lack of acidity by using buttermilk, cream cheese, or lemon juice. These are a wonderful alternative, and I often use them in my own recipes.

But when you want to make something like a magenta blackberry icing, there’s little room to introduce any additional liquids. For instance, this recipe’s blackberry icing gets its moisture, flavor, and color from five measly berries and nothing else. There’s absolutely no wiggle room for a little squeeze of lemon juice.

sumac saves the day!

If you added a squeeze of lemon juice to give it a little more zing, it would end up super runny. Moreover, that blackberry flavor and color would become totally watered down. But if you don’t add any acidity at all, it’ll taste like blackberry-flavored royal icing—certainly not a tragedy, but not the most exciting thing in the world.

Sumac is the hero of this whole situation, and you don’t need very much of it to do the job. It adds acidity without adding any extra liquid, so you get as much flavor and texture out of those five blackberries as you possibly can. Moreover, sumac goes wonderfully with just about any berry.

If you don’t have sumac at home, you can absolutely still make this recipe. A little pinch of citric acid will work just as well. And if you don’t have citric acid around, you can always just leave the sumac out entirely. It will still be bright pink and beautiful, and while it won’t have that sweet/tart flavor, it’ll still be delicious. This recipe also has the added benefit of lots and lots of cream cheese in the scones themselves (think rugelach meets biscuit dough), so you’re already a step ahead on the acidity front.

incorporating the blackberries

These scones are easy to throw together, but there is a trick to incorporating the blackberries without squishing them. Follow the recipe closely and they’ll turn out just fine. But just remember not to start compressing the dough before sprinkling on the berries. And careful not to let the food processor overwork the dough to begin with.

Dump the loose crumbs onto the counter, sprinkle on the blackberries, bring the dough together while making sure the berries are evenly distributed, and then start to compress once they’re all in place inside the shaggy mound of dough. It’s really hard to squish them once they’ve got even pressure from the dough that’s surrounding them, and even if you do manage to slightly squish one or two of them, it’s not a big deal once they’re already situated in the dough. Try not to use your fingertips, and only apply as much pressure as you need to bring it all together into a cohesive mound. And don’t worry if a few of them peek through the top or sides—they’ll turn out really pretty that way.

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blackberry sumac scones

  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 8 scones

Ingredients

For the blackberry sumac icing:
35g blackberries (5 blackberries)
125g icing sugar (1 cup)
6g sumac (2 teaspoons)

For the blackberry cream cheese scones:
260g all purpose flour (2 cups)
50g sugar (¼ cup) + more for sprinkling
12g baking powder (1 tablespoon)
6g salt (1 teaspoon)
55g cold unsalted butter (3 tablespoons)
115g cold cream cheese (½ of an 8oz brick)
2 large eggs (100g)
165g blackberries (1½ cups)
Egg wash: 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water
Decoration: blackberry sumac icing (above), extra sumac, and extra blackberries

Instructions

  1. For the icing: Place the blackberries, icing sugar, and sumac in a food processor. Blend until completely smooth, then move to a small bowl and set aside for an hour or two until you’re ready to use. It should be very thick and should slowly run off of a spoon.*
  2. Give the food processor a quick wipe or rinse to use again for the scones. No need to wash it fully, but just get rid of any big icing blobs or thick streaks, and dry it out if you rinsed it.**
  3. For the scones: Preheat the oven to 400°F [205°C].
  4. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor. Pulse 2 or 3 times to blend. Cut the butter and cream cheese into approximately 1 tablespoon blobs as you add them to the food processor. Pulse about 10 times until only small lumps remain. Add the eggs and pulse about 6 more times, just until the eggs blend in and the dough starts forming little clumps.
  5. Dump the clumpy crumbs out onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Don’t compress the dough yet and spread it out into a loosely even layer. Sprinkle on the blackberries evenly. Very gently shape the dough into a loose mound, taking care to keep the blackberries evenly distributed in the dough as you work, and being careful not to squish them. Some of the blackberries will peek out and some will be hidden inside the dough.
  6. Once the dough looks like a shaggy mound, start to gently compress it into an approximately 7 inch [18cm] diameter circle (the blackberries will squish slightly, but once they’re in the mound of dough, it’s less likely you’re going to totally smash one, because the pressure on them is now very even).
  7. Cut the circle into 8 wedges, and space the wedges out evenly. Brush each wedge generously with egg wash, and sprinkle with a little extra sugar.
  8. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Let them cool either on the sheet pan or a cooling rack, and then drizzle with icing. Decorate with extra blackberries and a little more sumac before the icing hardens.

Notes

* If you’re not weighing your ingredients precisely, you’ll probably have to adjust a bit. If your icing turns out too thick (like a spreadable paste that doesn’t run at all), blend in one additional small blackberry at a time until it reaches your desired consistency. If it turns out too thin, blend in a tablespoon more of powdered sugar at a time until it’s very thick but still pourable.

** If you make this recipe scones-first/icing-second, then you should wash the food processor fully in between because of the raw egg and flour.

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cardamom tea snickerdoodles + spice variations

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Even if this is your very first time visiting this blog, even if you know nothing else about me, you’ve at the very least probably inferred that I seem to like the combination of cardamom and tea. And you’d be right! (You can read more about why here).

Indeed, these snickerdoodles get their flavor from cardamom and black tea powder. A little cardamom goes a very long way, so be careful not to overdo it, lest your cookies go from fragrant to perfumey. There is a lot less cardamom here than the amount of cinnamon you’d use in a classic snickerdoodle, but the black tea powder swoops in to give them that classic snickerdoodle patina, as well as lending a nice bitter note, which is a welcome addition to a cookie that is usually *sweet sweet sweet!*

The base snickerdoodle recipe here yields a chewy-crisp cookie. If you’ve always wanted to customize a baking recipe, but find the idea kind of intimidating, snickerdoodles are a great place to start. You can add pretty much whatever spices you’d like to the sugar coating, and it’s easy to taste the sugar mixture as you go to decide whether you want to add more or less. It should taste quite strong, because each cookie will only get a small amount, but not so strong that it’s unpleasant. Spices and powdered tea won’t affect the chemistry of the recipe, and it’s really all about flavor customization.

So feel free to experiment! The dough includes some ground-up black tea, which you can leave in or out, depending on whether you want its flavor (it won’t affect the texture of the dough one bit).

snickerdoodle variations

  • anise cinnamon: Omit the black tea in the cookies and sugar coating, and replace the cardamom with 2 tablespoons of cinnamon and a small amount of ground anise seed. Add the anise seed about 1/4 teaspoon at a time, and taste the sugar mixture as you go. My preference for anise is never to add so much that it makes something taste like licorice—instead, it should add an element that feels like an emotionally moving single note held on the violin. Or if you’re not a metaphor person, just taste as you go, and stop once you’re happy with it.
  • masala chai: Leave the black tea in both the dough and sugar coating, and replace the cardamom with your favorite warming spices you’d find paired with tea, like this recipe from the chai box, featuring cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and fennel. Add about 1 to 2 teaspoons of ground spices at a time, and taste as you go (use more sparingly than cinnamon, but more generously than straight-up cardamom—you’ll want to use different blends in different amounts).
  • coriander cinnamon: Omit the black tea in the cookies and sugar coating, and replace the cardamom with 2 tablespoons of cinnamon and 2 teaspoons of ground coriander. My friend Rebecca says that coriander smells to her like Cap’n Crunch, which makes me realize why I love using it in small amounts in sweets. If you add too much, it’ll taste perfumey, but if you add just a little, people will just be that little “ooh, these are so good! but what is that background note that reminds me of Saturday mornings??”
  • plain old cinnamon: Omit the black tea in the cookies and sugar coating, and replace the cardamom with 2 tablespoons of cinnamon. It’s a classic for a reason!

a quick PSA about the phrase “chai spiced” and “chai tea”

Whenever someone says “chai spiced” or “chai tea,” I always think of Inigo Montoya:
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

1) Chai simply means “tea,” and tea cannot be used to “spice” something (especially itself 🥴):

In Assyrian, Arabic, Hindi, and many other languages, “chai” just means tea, with or without spices. Calling something “chai” does not necessarily mean it will have spices in it, since it’s just the word for tea. And since you can’t really “spice” something with tea, “chai spiced” just doesn’t make sense when you know what the words actually mean. It’s like calling rice pilaf “chicken-spiced rice.” Or calling French onion soup “onion-spiced soup.” These things are not spices. They can be spiced, but they can’t do the spicing.

And it probably also goes without saying that “chai tea” makes even less sense, and literally just means “tea tea.” It’s like saying “When I was in Italy, I had so much caffè coffee” or “I love Spanish pan bread.” On the other hand, you could of course say “When I was in Italy, I had so much caffè latte” or “I love Spanish pan de barra,” just like you could say “I love masala chai” or “I love spiced chai,” because those additional words are actually specifying the kind of coffee/bread/tea you like. “I like coffee with milk,” “I like Spanish baguettes,” and “I like spiced tea.”

2) Furthermore, chai doesn’t necessarily include spices:

While chai literally means tea, it doesn’t necessarily mean “spiced tea.” Some folks add spices to it and some folks do not. For example, if you ask my grandmother for a cup of chai, she will most likely bring you a cup of plain black tea, maybe with some cardamom if she is using her favorite Persian blend. On the other hand, South Asian masala chai is tea (“chai”) with spices (“masala”), and can include a variety of different flavors (see my friend Izzah’s recipe for kashmiri chai and this super aromatic chai with lemongrass and ginger from Goya Journal).

Whether there are spices (and which spices are used, and even which kind of tea is used) entirely depends on who is making it, but one thing holds constant: “chai” simply means “tea,” and does not mean “spices.” Chai is black tea, it’s green tea, it’s spiced tea, it’s plain tea. It’s literally just a generic term for tea.

So using the above, this is how you can coherently name things inspired by all things related to chai:

  • If you flavor snickerdoodles with the kinds of spices you might find alongside tea, but with no actual tea, you do not end up with “chai spiced snickerdoodles”… you’ve just got “spiced snickerdoodles,” which happen to contain 0 chai.
  • If you flavor your snickerdoodles with tea and spices, you’ve got something like “spiced chai snickerdoodles” or maybe “masala chai snickerdoodles” if they were inspired by a South Asian blend.
  • And if you flavor them with just tea and no spices, you could totally call them “chai snickerdoodles” or “tea snickerdoodles,” since the word “chai” does not mean spices, and is simply synonymous with “tea.” Will most people be like “where are all the spices?” after you call them “chai snickerdoodles” without including any spices? 100%! If you’re an insufferable know-it-all like me, just correct them. I’m told most people love being corrected, right?
  • “Chai spiced snickerdoodles” is not a coherent possibility for any of these, since you can’t spice something with tea. But having it in the title sure does help with SEO if you’re a food blogger, and leads to fewer conversations about language and culture. So I get it.

So to recap: chai = tea, chai ≠ spices, and “chai-spiced” and “chai tea” are both really awkward phrases when you know what the words mean. No shade if you’ve used these phrases without really thinking about it, but I think it’s always nice to know what the words we use mean.

The more you know! ✨🌈

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cardamom tea snickerdoodles

  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 12 minutes
  • Total Time: 60 minutes
  • Yield: 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

For the cookie dough:
345g flour (2⅔ cups)
7g cream of tartar (1½ teaspoons)
3g baking soda (½ teaspoon)
227g unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
300g granulated sugar (1½ cups)
4g finely ground* black tea (from 2 bags)
6g salt (1 teaspoon)
100g eggs (2 large), at room temperature
10g vanilla extract (2 teaspoons)

For rolling:
60g granulated sugar (¼ cup)
5g ground cardamom (2 teaspoons)
8g finely ground black tea (from 4 bags)

Instructions

  1. Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
  2. Place the butter, sugar, black tea, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large mixing bowl to use with hand-held beaters). Mix on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until it becomes noticeably lighter and fluffier.
  3. Add the eggs one at a time with the mixer running on medium, pausing to scrape down the sides between each one. Add the vanilla. Once it smooths out, stop the mixer.
  4. Scrape down the sides again, add the flour mixture, and mix on low speed, stopping once it comes together and there are no dry patches. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a couple folds to make sure it’s homogenous. Let it rest** in the fridge for 30 minutes, up to 48 hours.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350°F [180°C] while your dough chills, and line a few sheet pans with parchment.
  6. Mix together the sugar, cardamom, and black tea in a small mixing bowl.
  7. Scoop a 20g blob of cookie dough (1 heaping tablespoon), roll it around generously in the spiced sugar, roll it between your hands to make sure it adheres, roll it around in the sugar again, and roll it between your hands again.*** Move to the parchment-lined pan, and repeat with the remaining cookie dough. Leave 3 inches [7.5cm] gaps between them.
  8. Bake for about 12 minutes****, and slide the parchment out of the pans so they can cool on the parchment right on the counter.

Notes

* Use a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle to grind the tea. Feel free to use decaffeinated tea.

** If you’re in a rush, you can get away with skipping the rest, since chilling is not the primary goal of resting the dough here (they will still bake perfectly well without chilling). That being said, pretty much all cookie doughs benefit from resting. A refrigerated siesta allows the sugar and flour to hydrate, and results in very lovely (i.e., less grainy) texture. Thirty minutes is kind of a bare minimum, but if you’ve got time, feel free to let them rest even longer. Or if you absolutely must have at least a few snickerdoodles right away, try chilling at least half the dough to bake the next day, and see if you notice a difference.

*** At this point, you can place them on a parchment lined sheet pan (with just a tiny bit of room between each one), freeze the sheet pan, and then throw the frozen dough balls into a plastic bag in the freezer for longer term storage (if you’d like). You can bake right from frozen—just give them an extra minute or two.

**** Keep an eye on them. Twelve minutes in my calibrated oven works perfectly for cookies that are chewy in the center and crisp around the edges, but yours might differ. If you like crunchier cookies, go for another minute or two.

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silky-creamy oatmeal

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I’m not one for making big splashy statements. But since oatmeal is probably the least splashy food of all time, hopefully you’ll allow me this one: The way we have all collectively decided to cook our oatmeal is not making us happy. We have turned oatmeal into a stodgy blob, and it is no longer living its best life.

If you sincerely enjoy that classically gloopy oatmeal texture, or if you’re already wise to the ways of silky-creamy oatmeal, feel free to just ignore this whole post—I am not here to yuck your yum, or to tell you something you already know.

But for everyone who finds oatmeal to be a constant disappointment, as if your own personal malaise has manifested in a non-newtonian fluid: this post is for you. Only 6% of folks in the US consume it (4% in the under 35 age bracket), so even though you’re here voluntarily reading about oatmeal, I have to imagine you might have some reservations about it.

My favorite technique for cooking oatmeal is easy (although convincing people to try using this technique is not):
Use way more liquid than the side of the box tells you to.

Drown your oats with water and milk, simmer until they go from watery to velvety smooth, and then pour (yes, pour! not plonk!) some into a bowl and top with your favorite fruit. You’ll know you did something right when the fruit pieces slightly nestle into the porridge, rather than just perching atop the rock-hard surface like ducks on a frozen lake.

I had been making my oats the rock-hard-surface blob way for years, but in the last year or two, I’ve started recreating the oatmeal my grandmother always served us growing up (and continues to make every time we visit!), which is maximally creamy and silky. I suspect she makes her oats with extra liquid because the resulting oatmeal shares a similar texture to a lot of Assyrian porridges and puddings (and Middle Eastern porridges more generally).

But this cooking method isn’t limited to just my family. When I lived in Hong Kong, I’d order porridge in cha chaan tengs, and it was astonishingly similar in texture to the oatmeal I grew up with. When my sister visited Peru, her host families all cooked their oatmeal the exact same way. In Melbourne (where I live), porridge is on every brunch menu, and it’s always perfectly silky smooth, never gloopy (and often topped with macerated rhubarb, *swoon*). I also recently asked friends in an intersectional food writers’ facebook group I’m a part of, and we shared a similar experience of smooth and creamy oatmeal, having grown up in Indian, Filipino, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Korean, and Assyrian families (thanks Celeste, Nandita, Jessica, Caroline, Twilight, and everyone!).

Before I get to my recipe, I want to spend a little time exploring why I think rolled oats tend to be under-appreciated (at least by the 94% of people in the US who don’t consume them) and why some folks tend to express skepticism about adding extra liquid, and then I’ll share the details of this method. Feel free to skip to the recipe if you’re already excited to try it, or follow along for some oat philosophizing if you’re into that.

first, know your oats!

There are lots of different kinds of oats out there, but there are three most popular ones that you should know about. This post is a love letter to old fashioned rolled oats, but I’ll be referring to the other two too, so you should know the differences:

  • Irish/steel cut oats: These are just whole oat grains that have been cut into smaller chunks. Irish/steel cut oats take longer to cook than the rolled variety, and they are known for their ability to retain a chewy texture and to set up, but they can also be used to make a thinner oatmeal.
  • Old fashioned rolled oats: These are the kinds of oats that you’d see in an oatmeal cookie recipe, or what you’d simmer on the stovetop for about 10 to 15 minutes. They look like someone took an oat grain, steamed it, smashed it flat, and dried it out… which is actually quite literally how they are processed. Flattening them shortens their cook time.
  • Instant oats: These look a little like old fashioned rolled oats, and they’re processed in the same way, but instant oats are merely flattened to the next degree, and usually a little broken up into smaller crumbs. These oats are designed to be so extremely flat that you can get away with just steeping them in hot water instead of actually cooking them. I don’t love these, and don’t really know anyone who does, but they work great for backpacking and busy mornings.

why rolled oats are under-appreciated

While steel cut oats have a pretty strong fan club, old fashioned rolled oats tend to go under-appreciated, and I think that’s mostly because folks often ask rolled oats to behave in a way that just doesn’t play to their strengths. Here are a few ways I believe rolled oats are misunderstood:

  1. You can’t replicate the chewy texture of steel cut oats in rolled oats (and trying to do so misses the point):
    Steel cut oats are a great idea if you’d like to really embrace the chew (though they are very versatile, and also work perfectly well in a silkier, creamier porridge). But they don’t really help us better understand the old fashioned rolled oat, which is a perfectly good ingredient in its own right. Old fashioned rolled oats are really best made into a velvety, creamy porridge, but most recipes use way too little liquid in an attempt to create a chewier texture, unfortunately resulting in a stodgy gloop. It’s best not to try to make your old fashioned oats behave as if they are steel cut oats.

  2. Overnight oats don’t deliver on their promises:
    Some have tried to solve the mushy oatmeal texture problem by introducing an overnight soak for rolled oats, purporting that this retains their chew and texture. Full disclosure, the texture of overnight oats is just not for me (though I’m not here to tell you that you shouldn’t like something). But even if you enjoy overnight oats’ texture, you have to admit, they’re not exactly chewy in the way that steel cut oats are. Rolled oats just can’t be expected to “retain” their chew, since they were never really chewy to begin with.

  3. The ingredient ratios on the old fashioned rolled oat box are questionable:
    This is the original sin, which led to the need for such interventions as overnight oats and making the switch to chewy steel cut. Following the ingredient ratios on the box of rolled oats results in the gloopiest oatmeal texture ever, one that sets up even before it hits the bowl. There’s just not enough liquid. If you don’t like oatmeal, it might just be because you’ve had it prepared this way. Again, I’m not here to tell you to stop enjoying something you love. But given oatmeal’s staggering unpopularity, as well as the entrenched status of this cooking method, I have to assume this method of preparation is not working for many people.

  4. Instant oats give people watery oats anxiety, but “watery” is not the same as “smooth and creamy” (and instant oats are not the same as old fashioned rolled):Whenever I tell someone that I add a lot of liquid to my oats to make them super creamy, people often respond by saying “hmm, but wouldn’t that just make them super watery and mushy?” If you’ve ever had instant rolled oats steeped in boiling water or milk, you’re probably familiar with that watery/soggy texture. I’m pretty sure the soggy disaster of instant oats is the reason folks are afraid of adding more liquid to their old fashioned rolled oats. But this sets up a totally false dichotomy between watery/soggy oats and gloopy/stiff oats. There is a silky-creamy alternative out there, which is nothing like either.

The bottom line: when cooking old fashioned rolled oats, always shoot for creamy and silky, rather than firm and chewy. When cooking steel cut oats, go for either firm and chewy or creamy and silky. And when cooking instant oats… maybe consider cracking open a box of pop tarts instead! (Save me a s’mores or strawberry one please!)

silky-creamy oatmeal

My favorite method of cooking rolled oats: 1 part oats to 4 parts liquid (by volume).

The key to perfect old fashioned rolled oats is to use about twice as much liquid as most recipes say to use. Most recipes (including oatmeal boxes) have you use a ratio of 1 part oats to 2 parts liquid by volume, but I much prefer 1 part oats to 4 parts liquid by volume (that’s about 1 part oats to 9 parts liquid by weight). Or if you don’t feel like doing the math, just follow the recipe at the end of this post.

If you’ve never made oatmeal this way, you’ll probably feel like you’ve made a huge mistake at first—it looks like an awkwardly large amount of liquid for such a small amount of oats. It will look incredibly watery at first, like instant oats gone horribly wrong. But after about 15 minutes, its starches will swell and burst, a small amount of the liquid will cook off, and it will magically thicken into a velvety texture. It might still look slightly too thin, but rest assured, it will set very slightly as it cools at the table.

As my grandmother would probably want me to remind you—don’t forget that this method has fewer calories than thick gloopy oatmeal (depending on the kind of milk you use), so be generous with the serving size if you’re hungry. It’s very light, so you might want to eat a bigger bowl than usual if you like to start off your day with a big breakfast.

how to top it

The following recipe includes instructions for macerating strawberries, a really easy method for preparing a lightly sweetened fruit topping. You can macerate pretty much any fruit (especially peaches, plums, nectarines, other berries, etc.) by sprinkling them with a little sugar, and letting their juices accumulate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (more like 24 hours is ideal). Use the syrup that collects sparingly (or generously!) as a little sweetener.

I packed some macerated berries, rolled oats, and dry milk on a camping trip a couple weeks ago, and we had such a lovely breakfast of porridge and coffee. I mostly brought the oatmeal for myself, but for lack of anything else to eat, Simon accepted a bowl with a weary smile, and ever since, it’s become his new favorite breakfast. It was a fun turn of the tables, since Simon has always loved the outdoors, and I am a city mouse who has suddenly started to love camping after being cooped up indoors all year. It’s a good time to try something new!

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silky-creamy oatmeal

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 15
  • Total Time: 20
  • Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

For the oats:
¾ cup old fashioned oats (gluten free ones, if necessary) [75g]
1½ cups water [355g]
1½ cups your milk of choice* [355g]
¼ teaspoon salt
Toppings (e.g., macerated fruit, chopped nuts, spices, etc.)

For the strawberries:
8 oz container strawberries [225g]
2 tablespoons brown sugar [25g]
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1 teaspoon sumac (optional)
¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. For the oats: Bring the oats, water, milk, and salt to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring every minute or so. Once it comes to a simmer, reduce the heat to medium or medium-low and continue to simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the liquid thickens and the oatmeal softens. It will start out watery, and at a certain point it will noticeably thicken (e.g., the bubbles will get bigger), while still remaining very pourable and creamy. Leave it uncovered the whole time, and be careful not to let it bubble over.
  2. Pour into bowls and let it cool off for a few minutes (it will thicken a little more after a couple minutes). Add your favorite toppings at the table (here, pictured with chopped walnuts and macerated strawberries).
  3. For the berries: Hull and quarter your strawberries, place in a jar along with brown sugar, cinnamon, sumac, and salt. Shake together until evenly coated, and place in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes, up to overnight.
  4. Spoon the berries and rendered syrup over your oats.

Notes

* Feel free to use whole cow’s milk, or any vegan milk. Coconut milk is one of the strongest tasting vegan milks, so only use it if you’d like some coconut flavor to come through (if you’re using coconut milk, use the kind from a carton in this recipe—you can use the kind from a can, but you need to water it down to turn it into something more like the kind in the carton).

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orange blossom banana éclairs (+ flavor variations)

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Last week I promised I’d be back in March with some new recipes, but I just couldn’t resist getting this one to you guys a little sooner, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Whip up a batch, box up a few to leave on your friends’ doorsteps, and don’t forget to save a few for yourself.

There’s a lot of technical stuff involved in éclair baking, but I’ve included all the important details in the orange blossom banana éclair recipe at the end of this post, so you should be able to tackle this project even if you’ve never worked with choux pastry before (it’s actually not as impossible as it seems, especially if you measure everything in grams). While éclairs do feature three separate components, each component is actually extremely doable, particularly the creme pat and the chocolate ganache.

the perfect éclair

Growing up, my family would routinely pick up desserts from the Swedish Bakery in Chicago (now sadly closed after eighty-eight years). They have a special place in my heart as the small business that gave my family so many of their first jobs after immigrating to the US, but they also just objectively had the best cakes, cookies, and éclairs in the city. So whenever I make a Swedish or French pastry, I do so with their baked goods in mind. In particular, their éclairs had a few important qualities that stand out:

  1. A thick pastry cream: Éclairs are usually filled with crème pâtissière (a custardy pastry cream), but the Swedish Bakery’s was significantly thicker than other éclairs I’ve tried. My ideal éclair’s creme pat doesn’t run or ooze easily, sets up super firmly after chilling, and doesn’t make the choux soggy. This banana pastry cream might seem like it has a lot of cornstarch, but it’s essential for the right texture.
  2. Fudgy yet thin ganache glaze: Éclair recipes are generally divided between those that include a chocolate glaze or icing and those that include a thick ganache. The Swedish Bakery topped theirs with a fudgy yet thin layer of ganache, which I’ve emulated here. It’s a little thinner than what you’d use to frost a cake, but a bit thicker than a chocolate glaze.
  3. Crisp yet custardy pâte à choux: Removing your shells from the oven at the exact right moment comes with practice, and it’s important to err on the side of a little more done if you’re ever unsure, lest they collapse at room temperature. Ideally, you’ll learn to time it so that they’re crisp enough to completely hold their shape as they cool, but not totally dried out inside, and still holding onto a very slightly custardy layer. While I accurately recorded the times and temperatures in my recipe, it’s important to use your senses and pay attention to what the éclairs look and feel like when you pull them out of the oven. They should feel hollow and brittle on the outside, and they shouldn’t have any give when you give them a gentle squeeze. If you go much further beyond this point, they will burn and dry out, but if you pull them a few moments too soon, they will collapse as they cool.

pastry cream flavor variations:

The pastry cream in the following recipe is flavored with banana and orange blossom water, but you can easily switch things up with whatever suits you. Just make sure you follow the following substitution guide, whether you’re replacing the banana, the orange blossom, or both:

  • For a more classic pastry cream, leave out the mashed banana and add 120g [1/2 cup] additional milk in its place (for a total of 720g [3 cups] milk, and no mashed banana).
  • You can also replace the 1 tablespoon orange blossom water with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, rosewater, or almond extract. Feel free to do this with either banana pastry cream or plain pastry cream. To decorate:
    • For vanilla flavored pastry cream, just go with a plain, undecorated chocolate glaze (omit the orange blossom water in the glaze).
    • For rosewater, add 1/4 teaspoon rosewater to the chocolate glaze in place of the orange blossom water, and sprinkle some edible dried rose petals on top of the chocolate ganache.
    • For almond extract, sprinkle some sliced toasted almonds or finely ground raw green pistachios on top, and omit the orange blossom water in the glaze.
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orange blossom banana éclairs

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

  • Prep Time: 40 minutes
  • Total Time: 2 hours
  • Yield: 12 to 14 éclairs

Ingredients

For choux pastry:
235g water [1 cup]
55g butter [4 tablespoons]
10g sugar [2 teaspoons]
½ teaspoon salt
165g flour [1¼ cup]
4 large eggs broken into a measuring cup [200g]

For pastry cream:
600g milk [2½ cups]
130g granulated sugar [⅔ cup]
15g orange blossom water [1 tablespoon]
2 large eggs [100g]
1 egg yolk [20g]
50g cornstarch [¼ cup + 1 tablespoon]
1 large ripe (not overripe) banana, mashed [140g]
Salt

For ganache and decoration:
½ cup heavy cream [115g]
3.5 oz dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa) [100g]
½ teaspoon orange blossom water
Salt
Banana chips and orange zest for decoration (optional)

Instructions

For the choux pastry:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F [205°C].
  2. Place the water, butter, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan, and bring to a low boil over medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted and you see a few big bubbles, remove from heat and immediately dump in the flour. Stir together until it forms a firm ball. Move the ball to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Turn the mixer to medium-low for about 15 seconds just to break it up and help it cool down. Once it stops steaming momentarily, turn the mixer back to medium-low and add the first egg while it’s running. Once the first egg has incorporated into the dough completely (about 30 to 45 seconds), continue adding one egg at a time, waiting to let each one incorporate between additions. Once the eggs have been incorporated, the pastry should drop from the tip of the lifted paddle in a distinct v shape. Transfer it to 1 large or 2 small piping bags.
  3. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper. Cut the tip of the piping bag to leave an approximately ½ to ¾-inch diameter opening. Place a small dot of pastry under the 4 corners of each parchment sheet to help it stick to the sheet pan. Pipe 4 to 5-inch-long straight lines, leaving a generous amount of space between them (they will approximately double or triple in size).
  4. Move to the oven and bake for about 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350°F [180°C] and bake for about 20 more minutes. Let them cool at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before cutting open or piping.

For the pastry cream:

  1. Combine the milk, sugar, and orange blossom water in a large saucepan or small stockpot. Set over medium heat and let it come up to a simmer.
  2. While it comes up to a simmer, separately mix the eggs, yolk, cornstarch, and banana together in a medium mixing bowl until there are no raw cornstarch lumps.
  3. Once the milk is just simmering, remove from heat and slowly dribble it into the egg/banana mixture while whisking constantly. Return the egg/banana/milk mixture to the saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly. It will thicken as it comes to a simmer.
  4. Once bubbles break the surface, continue to cook for about 1 more minute, then remove from heat to cool.
  5. Once it’s not piping hot, move to a pastry bag (ideally fitted with a large round tip, but if not, just fill the bag and snip it when you’re ready to use it. If you’re not using a pastry tip, it’s usually best to slice/pipe/sandwich instead of fill, otherwise it can be tricky to get the plastic tip to insert into the end of each eclair). Pipe it while it’s warm or at room temperature.

For the ganache:

  • When you’re ready to dip, bring the cream to a bare simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Once the cream is barely simmering, remove from heat and add the chocolate, orange blossom water, and a pinch of salt. Swirl to make sure the chocolate is completely submerged. Let it sit for about 1 minute, and then whisk it together until it’s thickened and completely homogenous. Do not reheat, and dip within about 5 to 15 minutes of making.

To assemble:

  • Once the shells cool, slice the eclairs open along their length or poke a hole on one end. Pipe or spread pastry cream into the middle (then sandwich them back together if you sliced them open). If you’re met with resistance halfway through piping, feel free to pipe from the other side as well. Make the ganache at the last moment. Dip the eclair tops in the ganache. Decorate immediately with banana chips and orange zest, if using (go easy on the orange zest, otherwise the delicate orange blossom flavor will get lost in the shuffle).

Notes

Storage: Store éclairs the refrigerator after filling and decorating. They will be best after about 1 hour of chilling, they’ll stay very good for several more hours. Try to make them within about 12 hours of serving if you’re making them for guests, but keep in mind that they’re still very tasty for a few days afterwards (they just might start to get some condensation on the ganache, and their shells will soften slightly in texture, but they shouldn’t become soggy). They generally keep for about 2 to 3 days before they decline significantly in quality.

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an announcement!

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If you have had a conversation with me in the last year, you’re probably already in the know, but for everyone else: I’m publishing a cookbook with Chronicle Books, scheduled to be out in spring of 2022! It’s pretty much the one cookbook I’ve always wished existed, so I’m pretty proud of it, and I hope it’s something you’ve always wished for too.

I’ll give more details closer to the release date, but for now I’ll just say that it’s a book that works hard for you, and with it you can make just about anything with whatever ingredients you’ve got. It’ll have you thinking on your feet, using what you have, and getting creative while shopping for seasonal produce. It includes lots of ideas for improvisation, and it’s packed to the brim with all of my favorite recipes.

I’m so excited to get to share it in just about one year from now… and if you feel like a year is a long time to wait, just be glad that I didn’t announce this back when I signed on and started working on it in January 2020! 😜

Here are a few updates on where I’m at in the process, where I’ve been, and what to expect of this blog in the next year or so (including a few of the necessary details, but also lots of feeeeeelings! I’ll do an actual post with more details about the book itself further down the line. This is more just me telling you about what’s up with me, dear-diary-style):

  • selecting backdrops
  • first day of shooting

what’s up currently:

I turned in a full draft of my manuscript a few months ago, then got right to work on the photography, which I just wrapped up earlier this week. There’s still a lot to do: we’ve got a bit of editing and probably some reshooting to be done, and the Chronicle design team is now working on creating the book’s layout and design (then comes the marketing plan, and some other behind the scenes stuff).

But it’s still an exciting moment to actually have a full draft of the manuscript and photos, and it’s been fun celebrating those little milestones along the way. I’m so glad to be working with such great editors and designers, and I feel really lucky my book found its home at Chronicle.

  • late night working
  • self care in the form of hiking with kangaroos

what’s been up:

If you’re a regular here, it’s probably no surprise that my blog has been largely neglected for the last few months while in the heart of writing and photographing my book. When you’re working under a deadline, it’s hard not to feel like every second of extra effort might make your book that little bit stronger and better, and the idea that the book is going to be printed and immutable has brought out the perfectionist in me like never before. She’s not pretty!

But I’m really proud of myself for bothering to take care of myself, and that I’ve done a more or less okay job of taking breaks and enjoying life while undertaking this project (especially in the middle of a global pandemic, which has made self care a challenge for us all). But you know… something’s gotta give! And unfortunately, my blog was that something.

It’s funny [she says, not laughing]—I actually had a rock-solid plan for blogging while book writing, but there was a little unexpected plot twist along the way.

Long story short, I had worked on a whole other proposal for about five months leading up to my move to Australia in 2019. While the first proposal I sent out was really strong, it did not get picked up (it was largely deemed too niche). But at the time, I had stockpiled months of blog content to make sure I had a good head start going into my book project.

So when that project went pear-shaped, I ended up burning through much of my stockpiled content while jumping right into the next idea (… which meant I eventually ran out of blog content toward the end of working on this book, and basically just went into radio silence for like four months, eek!). I guess it could’ve been worse—if it wasn’t for that stockpile, I would’ve been off the map for like a year and a half. But still! The best-laid plans, etc., etc.

Thanks in large part to the support of my wonderful agent, Andrianna, I jumped right into the next proposal a few days after abandoning the one that bombed. And it’s funny, one failure actually saved me from another, because I got the idea for my next proposal from yet another old proposal that didn’t pan out.

I wrote that very first baby proposal a long, long time ago, back when I had just been blogging for a year or two, and I stopped working on it to start working in a restaurant for a while. When the restaurant opportunity arose, I very eagerly abandoned the book proposal because I believed it had absolutely no shape, no perspective, and few good ideas.

Later on, I thought maybe I was just being too hard on myself, but I went back to look at it, and I can confirm: it was absolutely awful! It was not as strong as the second one (the one that bombed), and definitely not as strong as the third. But it did have this one little kernel of a good idea.

That tiny idea grew into a robust proposal surprisingly quickly, since it had been slowly percolating for years, and we got a new proposal out to publishers within a couple months of the other one not finding a home. It got picked up, I got to work, and it’s been one of the most rewarding years of my life.

  • so many pickles!
  • so much thorough testing!

what’s up next:

I’ve still got a lot of work to do on the book, but things are definitely becoming chill enough that I feel like I have time to start blogging again. There’ll probably be a little delay from now, because I like to work on a few posts at a time, but I think it’s safe to say you should start to see new recipes regularly here again by March. I’m so excited to get back to it!

Later on in 2021, I’m going to start posting some recipes here that are tangentially related to my book, and I’ll be sharing more about how the book works and what you can expect of it. My book allows you to make just about anything, with lots of possibilities for variation, so we’re going to really put that to the test here and come up with some new exciting things inspired by it next winter/spring.

So stay tuned, and thanks for sticking around. More soon!

x
Kathryn

quince rosewater olive oil loaf cake

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Fall is the heart of pome fruit season. There’s all variety of apples, pears, and my all-time favorite: quince. You can absolutely make this recipe for quince rosewater olive oil cake with unsweetened apple sauce instead of quince purée. But if you happen to stumble upon some quince, this recipe is a wonderful opportunity to put them to use.

A little bit about quince:

They’re wonderful cooked down with sugar into a thick paste (membrillo) or reduced less to make a lovely jam. If you cook them for any moderately long period of time, they’ll turn the most incredible coral pink color. They’ve got a crazy amount of pectin, so they set up really well. You’ll also notice that when you cut them open, they will instantaneously start to brown. Don’t stress—this is just part of their charm. Think of it like wrinkles in linen.

Many online produce guides will go to great pains to inform you that eating quince raw is absolutely unheard of. However, they are indeed eaten raw in many parts of the world. This is partly because varieties in regions where they are eaten raw tend to be sweeter and less astringent. But I’ve got to say, my great grand father ate them raw from the time he lived in Syria to the time he lived in Chicago, and it apparently never phased him, so you do you.

serving suggestions

Whether the astringency of raw quince makes you swoon with delight or faint from distress, this cake makes a very happy tea-time snack for just about anyone. It’s lovely served with earl grey, and while you don’t need rose petals to decorate the top, it’s a nice touch. Quince are from the rose family, like most of your favorite fruits. But I’ve always felt like they’re the most floral of them all. So I love highlighting that note with a little extra flower power. Or feel free to go in a different direction with it, opting for a blend of apple pie spices instead of rosewater.

where to find quince

Finding quince isn’t so much a matter of seeking them out in specialty stores, as waiting all year for them to turn up in grocery stores. You’ll most likely find them in larger supermarkets from mid-fall through early winter, sometimes in the surrounding months.

Print

quince rosewater olive oil loaf cake

  • Prep Time: 25 minutes
  • Cook Time: 1 1/2 hours
  • Total Time: 2 hours
  • Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

For the cake:
1 very large or 2 medium quince*, peeled, cored**, and cut into 1-inch chunks
105g extra virgin olive oil (1/2 cup)
2 large eggs (110g)
135g sugar (2/3 cup)
10g rosewater (2 teaspoons)
200g flour (1 1/2 cup)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

For the glaze and decoration:
85g powdered sugar (3/4 cup)
15g lemon juice (1 tablespoon)
1/2 teaspoon rosewater
1 drop pink food coloring (optional)
edible dried rose petals (optional)

Instructions

  1. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add the quince and reduce heat to low or medium-low, just to maintain a bare simmer. Let the quince cook for about 45 minutes. They’re done once they’re soft enough to pierce easily with a butter knife.
  2. Strain the quince. Move to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade. Pulse until it’s very finely chopped/puréed. You should end up with 1 cup (235g). It’s ok to use a few tablespoons more if your quince were particularly large and you’ve got a smidge extra, but don’t add very much more than 1 cup.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350°F [180°C] and grease an 8×4” loaf pan.
  4. Combine the quince purée, olive oil, eggs, sugar, and rosewater in a medium mixing bowl. Add the flour to the bowl and sprinkle the salt, baking powder, and baking soda evenly on top of the flour. Mix everything together, being very careful not to over-mix. Stop as soon as there are no dry patches of flour.
  5. Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a paring knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
  6. Let the cake cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes before decorating or slicing.
  7. While you wait for the cake to cool, make the glaze: Whisk together the powdered sugar, lemon juice, rosewater, and food coloring. It’s done once there are no more lumps. Keep covered and whisk it again right before pouring.
  8. Drizzle the glaze on the cooled cake and immediately top with rose petals. Slice and enjoy. If you have any leftover, store at room temperature for a few days or in the freezer longer (never store in the refrigerator).

Notes

* Can substitute 235g (1 cup) unsweetened applesauce instead.

** Quince need to be cored a bit differently than other pome fruits (e.g., apples, pears, etc.). Split it open and use a small spoon (or measuring spoon/melon baller/corer) to scrape out the core and the stony area immediately surrounding the core. The core has the seeds and tough fibrous parts, but the area around the core also has some gritty bits, which you’ll want to eliminate. You can tell you’re done coring it once you no longer feel any rough gritty bits.

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