Muah Chee (Mochi)

A quick snack that takes less than 5 minutes to put together from start to finish. The soft chewy mochi coated with crunchy sugar topping is so delicious and fun to eat. I can easily eat the whole plate myself.

Muah Chee
recipe adapted from Buttermilk Pantry
makes 2 servings

Mochi:
65g glutinous rice flour
8g (1 Tbsp) tapioca starch
110g water
3g sesame oil
4g regular oil

Coating:
90g peanuts, finely crushed
40g sugar
2 Tbsp black sesame powder
sea salt (skip if using salted peanuts)


1. Mix all mochi ingredients until thoroughly combined and smooth.
2. Microwave for 1 minute. Mix. Microwave for another minute.
3. Let cool slightly and drop into coating.
4. Using oiled chopsticks and scissors, cut mochi into bite size and toss in coating.
5. Enjoy!

The mochi and coating ingredients are very flexible and customizable. I subbed oolong tea for water in the mochi dough and added black sesame powder to the coating the second time around. The subtle changes make this snack very fun to make and eat.

Taste: 5 stars out of 5
Texture: 5 stars out of 5

Black Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls aka Tong Yuen

Homemade glutinous rice balls are so simple to make, so delicious and "healthier" than the store bought ones which have all sorts of unnecessary ingredients. Five ingredients are all you need to make them from scratch!

Double Black Sesame Babka - Tangzhong Method

The best way to spend a me day on a weekend? Bake! Bread baking to be exact. Just all day, bread and I. It takes time and patience to make bread, in fact, the proofing time alone took a total of 2 hours. But that's all hands off time, so you can be off to binge watch shows or just lay on the couch and scroll through years worth of feed on some stranger's instagram page.

This babka is very similar to making cinnamon rolls. Rather than cutting the rolls into individual pieces, you cut down lengthwise, reveal all the layers, braid the dough, and bake in a loaf pan. I rolled out my dough slightly too long for the pan and got 4 mini rolls out of the trimmed ends.

Since this recipe uses the tangzhong method (hydrate part of the bread flour with water prior to mixing with the dough), the resulting product came out similar to Asian style bread - super light and fluffy! Compared to traditional babka recipes, it also uses significantly less amount of butter in the dough to achieve these tender crumbs.

The black sesame flavor and aroma permeates the entire loaf with ground black sesame seeds mixed into the dough as well as in the filling. The filling has a slight hint of cinnamon which complements the black sesame flavor well. Next time, I will try a pure black sesame spread for the filling.

Black Sesame Matcha Banana Bread

Hello neglected blog - 

Ever since I came back from my Japan trip, I've become even more obsessed with matcha. Something about the earthy flavor and the green hue is just so lovely. And Japanese's love for matcha is totally infectious. You can find matcha in every form imaginable in Japan. To name a few, there are matcha beer, matcha soba and of course matcha sweets. 

As I am older and away from home now, I find myself craving Asian rooted flavors. This black sesame matcha banana bread called to me because it incorporated two of my favorite ingredients/ flavors in fatty's favorite form of dessert - banana bread. 

This recipe uses one banana which is exactly what I had on hand and makes for a little loaf enough for two to enjoy.

Black Sesame Matcha Banana Bread
recipe adapted from The Pretend Baker
makes one mini loaf (5.8 x 3.2 x 1.8")

(28g) 2 Tbsp melted butter
(63g) 5 Tbsp cane sugar*
1 large egg, room temperature
¾ tsp pure vanilla extract
½ C mashed banana from 1 large overripe banana
(91g) ¾ C less 2 tsp all purpose flour
(6g)2 tsp culinary matcha powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp toasted black sesame seeds, divided

*for less sweet, use 40g

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a mini/small loaf pan with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, combine melted butter and sugar and whisk vigorously until combined. Add egg and vanilla and whisk until light and creamy.
3. Add banana and whisk again until completely combined.
4. In a small bowl, sift together flour, matcha powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the butter/banana mixture and gently whisk/ fold until just combined. Take care not to over mix.
5. Fold in 1 TBSP black sesame seeds and pour in to prepared loaf pan.
6. Top with remaining 1 tsp black sesame seeds and bake on the center rack of your oven for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
8. Store on the counter wrapped in plastic wrap for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Taste: 5 stars out of 5

Nutty and toasty from black sesame seeds; banana flavor is prominent; sweetness on point

Texture: 5 stars out of 5

Fluffy and light; not crumbly; moist banana chunks

Black Sesame Petit Fours with Honey Cream

While most fear the making of macarons, I intensely fear the seemingly simple but extremely difficult swiss rolls.

I love swiss rolls. Growing up, swiss roll was one of the more indulgent items I get to have from Asian bakeries. It's cake in a portable and breakfast-friendly form. Swiss roll has a special place in my heart. It brings me back to the middle school days, and also recent years when I would go to the bakery with my mom and buy swiss rolls scraps at a discounted price.

So far, my attempts at swiss rolls have led to THREE fails and ONE success. That's a pretty low success rate, and the one time success was barely passable. Why does youtube make it everything look so easy?

Let me tell you what happened and also keep this as a reminder to myself to not make the same mistakes.

Black Sesame Swiss Roll (Petit Fours) 

recipe adapted from le jus d`orange

makes one roll or many petit fours

1 cup cake flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
pinch sea salt
5 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
3/4 cup - 1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
2 tbsp black sesame paste ( 2 tbsp black sesame ground up + 2 tbsp honey)

1. Line a jelly roll pan or deep baking dish with parchment paper. Prepare a clean tea towel and sprinkle powdered sugar over it. Set aside. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar, black sesame paste, and milk until pale yellow and thicker.
4. Whisk egg whites until foamy but stiff peaks form and stay in shape.
5. Add flour mixture to yolk mixture and fold until combined. 

6. Add 1/3 of the egg whites and fold until just combined. Add another 1/3 and fold. Add the final 1/3 and fold. The texture should be light but not fluid like water. It should be thick.
7. Spread batter into prepared baking sheet.
8. Bake for 7-8 minutes, until toothpick test comes out clean.
9. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake. Invert onto your prepared tea towel. Gently remove parchment paper. Gently roll, starting from the shorter edge, to create a loose roll. This shapes the cake without causing any cracks. 

10. Cool completely to room temperature.

Whipped Cream Filling (Frosting)
1 cup heavy cream, cold
2 tbsp honey

1. In a cold bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks form. Fold in honey. Cover and chill in fridge.

To assemble roll cake,
1. Gently unroll cake roll when it is at room temperature,  Spread whipped cream across the surface.
2. Tightly roll starting from the shorter edge. 

3. Wrap and chill for at least 1 hour. 

Whisk yolk and sugar until pale and thick.

Whisk/fold dry mixture in yolk.

Whisk whites until stiff peaks form.
*Note to self: start at low speed or whites will separate ):

Fold whites into yolk mixture 1/3 at a time.

Things usually goes wrong as I spread the batter onto the baking sheet. Either my baking sheets are never the right size, or the batter is always suppose to be paper thin.. Anxiety kicks in and doubts about whether just turning it into a chiffon cake surfaces.

The cake still managed to rise despite the thin layer and excess handling. However, the center was noticeably thicker than the sides. Being super careful not to overbake, I checked for doneness with a toothpick every minute after the 5min mark. Clean toothpicks and a light spring to touch were the cues that the cake was finally done at 7min.

Some suggest flipping the cake on a tea towel dusted with powdered sugar after it's done, as well as rolling it to prevent cracks after it's cooled. I decided to deviate and just let my cake cool in the pan covered with a bigger pan to not lose moisture. I went on to make my whipped cream while the cake was left to cool.

Feeling excited that everything was promising thus far, I flipped the cake onto a separate parchment paper and rolled it in to a log. The cake was flexible and did not crack!

I took my chilled cream out, dropped the first dollop on the cake, then realized I forgot to flip back the cake. "Oh wells, it's just aesthetic right?" was the passing thought. 

The top side which was now facing down on the parchment paper was.. STUCK! It was so moist that as I attempted to roll, it cracked. Worst nightmare.. so close to finishing yet one little thing ruined it all.

Swiss roll 1 - Me 0.

Lessons to be learned:

• Start off in low speed when beating egg whites.
• Check pan size. When in doubt, use smaller pan.
• Even out batter because it will not spread and become even in the oven.
• Follow tea towel and powdered sugar step.
• Flip back to have top side spread with cream.

At least, I don't think I am making the same mistakes with each attempt. The very first time I spread cream on a hot cake..