Matcha Green Tea & Meyer Lemon Mochi Cake

Dear DfB readers,

It has been so long! I've missed wishing you a Happy 2015, and an entire month has already flown by of this new year, faster than we can even inhale a piece of cake. It's February already. Goodness gracious.

You guys, tenure track is no joke. It's always so funny to hear that undergrads think that our jobs just involve showing up to lecture and teaching them. Maybe holding some office hours, too. Bwahahaha. Allow me to set the record straight right now. Teaching is about, like, 20% of our jobs. The other 80% is filled with research, grant-writing (and grant-crying when you get rejected), service to run the department, the university, other teaching duties like proposing and evaluating new classes, majors, minors, degree programs. Oh, did I mention the research? That's what really matters. Publish or perish, folks. It's real.

So yeah, sorry, blog. Any energies to write and think have largely been sucked into academic writing. Hours and days are now measured by the yardstick of, "is this time that I would make a cake better spent writing a few pages of that overdue paper?" The answer is... nearly invariably, yes.

But, let's not talk about all that for today. Let's talk about fun, yummy news today! Let's take a brief reprieve from the crush of tenure track and academia, and talk about beautiful, delicious, happy moments of sugar and fruit. Of friends and tea. For you all today, I have some extraordinarily exciting news: a cookbook shot by yours truly and written by Annelies Zijderveld all about cooking with tea is coming to a bookstore near you!!! STEEPED: Recipes infused with tea is coming in April!!!

^ There it is! The physical, advanced copy of STEEPED. In all of its beautiful, printed glory. During the summer, between moving cities, and ending grad school, and starting professor-hood, Annelies and I hunkered down in my old studio space for one final hurrah there. Over the course of three weeks, Annelies cooked up a storm downstairs in my kitchen with her wondrously creative recipes using tea in all different ways, and I snapped away upstairs, styling food, dipping my fingers in everything to try, wading through a room full of props (more linens and plates and forks than Downton Abbey likely has), racing sun and light ... to produce the photos for her book. I'm so thankful to Annelies for her amazingly collaborative spirit, entrusting me with the huge job of translating her mind's eye vision in her words to the visual world, making her recipes come alive on the page. I hope I did her food justice. And, if I may sound ever so proud, the final book is quite gorgeous. ^^

When our advance copies of the book arrived in the mail, Annelies and I got together for an afternoon to celebrate (and to make some promo photos). Upon hearing that I'd basically been shut up in my ivory tower headspace for the past several months, Annelies insisted that I take the afternoon and make a cake. I've been so obsessed with matcha lately--ever since shooting the book, and also since going to this cafe in Portland, which specializes in matcha tea lattes--and have been fantasizing about making a matcha mochi cake for the upcoming Chinese New Years'. At the same time, my meyer lemon tree has been bursting with fruit, and stares at me forlornly through the window every day because I haven't had time to go harvest it. So, I at last picked off some of the lemons for some matcha cake.

The result: a matcha green tea and meyer lemon mochi cake, which I like thinking of as a preview of the spring!, embodied in cake form. The luminous candied meyer lemons--just ever-so-slightly carmelized on the edges from baking--meld into this earthy, chewy, layer of grassy matcha mochi cake. It's a cake with such a satisfying, toothsome texture. There's nothing crumbly or fluffy here. Instead, it's dense mochi that seems almost paradoxically light-hearted from the brightness of the matcha and meyer lemon flavors.

I know things have been too quiet on this blog lately, but at least, thanks to Annelies, I have this wonderful news about the book to share, and a cake recipe for you, just in time to wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year! See? I didn't miss New Year's after all.

GO PRE-ORDER STEEPED!

More sneak previews from the book coming soon, I promise.

Read on for recipe...

A Citrus Dessert Re-issue

It was brought to my attention by a reader recently that (sadly) the recipes that I did for Anthology's Holiday Gift Guide a year or so are no longer online! So, I'm re-issuing them here in a more permanent home on the blog. Even though it's not the holidays anymore, citrus season is still going strong, so maybe these recipes will get some love this year after all. And if not this year, there's always bookmarks! ;)

Below are three recipes, based around a few of my favorite citrus fruits: orange rosemary bundt cakes with dark chocolate glaze, meyer lemon pecan cookies, and a blood orange-grapefruit white chocolate tart (gluten-free!). Grab your citrus squeezer and zester, and let's go!

Read on for recipes...

Cinnamon Chocolate Sunken Souffle Cake with Sparkling Cranberries

This is a cake that I made last week for our department holiday party. I went back and forth about whether or not I wanted to share it here on the blog, since I only had time to snap one quick photo of it before having to cart it off to the party where it was promptly demolished without any further photo ops. But then I thought, if the world ends tomorrow, I would want you to go out having this recipe, because it's one of my favorite flourless chocolate cake recipes, and because it's even awesomer when topped with a high pile of crunchy, tart, sugared cranberries for a decadent sparkle to the cake. I like to call it the "Richness of the Base" cake, which is kind of a really lame linguistics pun (and yes, I like my puns in baked form). But really, this is one of my go-to flourless chocolate cake recipes ever since I developed it for the chocolate issue of sated. While I find most flourless chocolate cakes far too dense, this one is the perfect balance between being richly chocolate and still light enough to feel like you're eating cake rather than eating a melted-down bar of chocolate. The coconut oil and cinnamon in this version add a touch of extra special punch to the cake, making it perfect for holiday parties. Also! sugared cranberries are just wonderful little bursts of fruit--this is my first time making them, and I probably ate most of the cranberries before they even made it onto the cake. Oops! :)

I also decided today that if the world does end, I wanted to at least see one last sunset at the Pacific Ocean. So I just dropped everything and went. The sun and the trusty Pacific did not disappoint!

It's been sort of an insane past week, filled with a family friend's funeral and bad news and horrible people doing horrible things, and all of this oddly punctuated by good, fun, sweet, heart-warming moments in a way that's just... life being life. Even if the world doesn't end tomorrow, I keep getting the feeling that I want to hug everyone a little tighter from here on out.


Read on for recipe....

Apricot Plum Crisp with Maple Nut Froyo

As my parents get older, I worry more and more about their future health.  My family has never been a very active one.  While my mom spends most of her days on her feet at her hospital job, my dad works in an office and has been sitting for a good portion of his life.  Aside from my ballet dancing when I was younger, exercise was always an "Event" in our family rather than a daily routine--to exercise, my parents would drive us forty-five minutes to this reservoir to walk a mile or two.  (Arguably not the most efficient way to exercise!) And, all of us in my nuclear family have a soft spot for ice cream.  So... statistically speaking, this does not bode well for any of our health(s) in the future!

So this year, for my dad's birthday (and Father's Day), I decided to reinvent his favorite birthday dessert that I make him every year into something healthier.  He adores maple nut ice cream, and so this time around, I came up with a maple nut frozen yogurt, accompanied by an apricot, plum, oat, and buckwheat crisp.  The frozen yogurt is made with 2% fat Greek yogurt--still thick and creamy, but without the actual heavy cream, milk, and eggs.  The only sugar in the frozen yogurt comes from the maple syrup, which is pretty much unavoidable when you're making maple nut ice cream. :-)  As for the crisp, my family likes tart and not-too-sweet desserts, so the filling of apricots and plums really relies on natural sweetness in the fruit, with only a bit of sugar sprinkled in.  The crisp topping is made with equal amounts of butter and thick yogurt to help cut down on the amount of butter needed--an idea that I 'borrowed' from 101 cookbooks.  The topping is also made with no gluten--just oats and buckwheat flour, both of which add a natural nutty sweetness to the crisp.

Even though this dessert was waaaaaaay healthier than my dad's normal birthday fare, it worked out really deliciously.  The slight tang of the yogurt went perfectly with the sweet maple syrup in the maple nut froyo, and the crisp was bursting with juicy goodness, which mixed so well with the melting nutty froyo scooped on top--all in all, I deem this Healthy Dessert Success.

Anyone have any favorite healthy dessert tips to share?  I of course remain very much committed to heavy cream and butter, but it's always good to explore the options!


Read on for recipe...

Teatime: Pear Buckwheat Cake with Poached Pears

Thank you all so much for your blorgthday/blogiversary wishes last week!  I've had such fun reading about all the little things in life that put a smile on everyone's face--thanks for sharing!  The winner of the giveaway is announced at the bottom of this post before the jump to the recipe.

The weather around here has finally gotten the memo that it should be autumn, and we've been blessed with mornings of cloudy and moody skies, which, as a SF Bay Area native, I absolutely adore.  (Trust me, fog is awesome.)  And finally, finally, we're starting to see the first hints of fall in the farmers' markets too, with apples and pears and pomegranates (though I can't complain about the sweet, late-season berries that are still floating around)!  Ah, love.  Autumn and spring have always been my favorite seasons--times of transition when you can basically have it all, unlike the drastic hots and colds of summer and winter.

Pears have always been one of the fruits I look forward to the most when autumn rolls around.  For some reason, they remind me of my grandfather, though I can't for the life of me pinpoint any specific memory from which this association stems.  I think it's because he always cut sweet, ripe, and soft pears for me to eat, served on an old rectangular plastic microwave-oven plate, and, when I was old enough to wield a knife, was the first one to teach me how to cut pears, slicing the sides and meat off of the core.  (Incidentally, my grandfather was the first one to teach me how to cook--simple things, like the perfect fried egg, different varieties of fried rice, or sweet rice with dried pork.)

The idea for this pear buckwheat cake with tea-poached pears has been floating around in my mind for a while now, but I kept wanting to wait until the weather had just enough crispness to it to enjoy this cake with a steaming cup of black tea in hand, thinking back on the endless mug of oolong tea that my grandfather never failed to have with him.  This cake is inspired by a recipe of David Lebovitz's for buckwheat cake with poached cider apples, though it's been very heavily modified by me.  For a buckwheat cake (that's completely gluten free, too!), it's surprisingly delicate and airy, thanks to the whipped egg whites.  It's also surprisingly moist, from the homemade pear sauce that's added in, which balances out the nuttiness and the texture of the almonds and buckwheat.  The cinnamon and brown sugar lend the cake a perfect hint of spice, and I wouldn't have it without a side of sweet black tea-poached pears that are tender enough to cut through with a fork and work perfectly with the earthy buckwheat cake.  This cake would probably also go really nicely with a dollop of lightly-sweetened whipped cream and macerated strawberries, if you're lucky to be somewhere that still has fresh berries in the markets.  Ah--and a cup of tea on the side.  Don't forget that one.

I should also take a moment to thank my friend, Middy, for kindly allowing me to borrow a few teacups and saucers from her amazing collection to photograph.  When Middy got married this past summer (I made the cake!), she had these tea party bridal showers for which people brought her teacups and saucers from all walks of life.  Ever since then, I've been hankering for an excuse to photograph some of her collection and finally was able to come up with a suitable reason.  :-)  Thanks, Middy!

Now, onto the giveaway winner-- congratulations, Eve!  An email is on its way to you.

Thanks to all for participating.  Make sure to keep your eye out on the blog--there's more fun to come, I promise!

Read on for recipe...

The Lady Grey Trio, or Death by Orange, Tea, and Chocolate

A few weeks ago, an old friend, who was one of my thesis advisors from my undergrad days, came by our department to give a talk, so afterwards, and after dinner, I had her over for dessert. This whole "coming over for dessert" arrangement was fantastic because I didn't have to worry about cooking dinner too and could focus my entire concentration and energy on preparing dessert, which is quite arguably the most important part of the meal anyways. (Arguably, I said.)

I actually agonized for several days over the perfect dessert to make.  I don't get the chance very often to do plated desserts, which can be great fun, so I wanted to really take my time in developing this one.  There were other constraints also, such as having everything made ahead of time, since I'd be in class and on campus the entire day.  I knew that I wanted the dessert to involve chocolate (because it was the one thing I was sure that Sharon liked), and I knew that I wanted to do something in triplicate.  Beyond that, though, I was clueless (and intimidated, after a mutual friend of ours had informed me that Sharon's a foodie).  Until, my mom showed up one day with a bag of beautiful, home-grown oranges from a friend's tree.  Then it hit:

Lady Grey tea.  If you haven't tried this more subtle version of Earl Grey tea yet, I highly, highly recommend it.  Basically, instead of the typical lemon accompaniment for Earl Grey tea, Lady Grey tea uses orange instead, which, to me, really enhances the fragrance of the bergamot extract (Twinings is the brand I recommend for Lady Grey, and, for you lucky folk in London, I know that the Twinings main store sells loose leaf Lady Grey).  Lady Grey and chocolate also go fabulously together, and so I present to you the Lady Grey Trio dessert:

The Lady Grey Trio

Earl Grey Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

Orange Creme Brulee

Chocolate Orbit Cake

with white chocolate Lady Grey creme anglaise

Now, I must warn you: this is not a dessert trio for the faint of heart.  First of all, it involves not one or two, but three different types of custards and creams.  (Meaning also, lots of subsequent meringue and macaron practice.)  Then, it also involves a lot of chocolate.  In fact, there's so much rich, creamy chocolate that the orange creme brulee actually acts sort of like a palate cleanser.  I'm not kidding.  Creme brulee as a palate cleanser.  Proceed at your own risk.  (Though, come to think of it, this entire dessert is gluten free, so that's one "healthy" thing going for it.)

That said, those of you who *are* willing to take the plunge won't regret it, because this dessert trio is an unabashed and shameless celebration of extreme decadence and love of chocolate.  The Earl Grey dark chocolate ice cream is made with dark chocolate and Dutch-processed cocoa powder, and there's also black cocoa powder thrown in for good measure.  Of course, I always use extra heavy manufacturing cream whenever possible.  *looks about innocently and whistles.*  The end result is some of the darkest and richest chocolate ice cream that I've ever had, with lingering flavors of the Earl Grey tea and bergamot at the very end.  (I refuse to go back to store bought ice cream these days.)

For a chocolate cake, I of course had to turn to David Lebovitz's chocolate orbit cake, which is basically, as I always put it, chocolate baked in the oven.  Because, quite literally, that's what it is.  It's an extremely moist and dense chocolate cake, and to lighten it up, I drowned it here in some white chocolate Lady Grey creme anglaise sauce.  "Lighten" is a relative term, okay?  The sauce went really well with the cake, with the flavors of tea and orange and white chocolate balancing out the robust, dark chocolate-ty richness underneath.

As for the orange creme brulee--well.  Thank goodness for the orange creme brulee.  The light creaminess of the baked custard and intense orange flavor from fresh orange zest and a dash of Grand Marnier was most definitely a welcome accompaniment to the indulgence of chocolate in the other parts of the dessert trio!  And, who doesn't enjoy cracking open the top of a creme brulee?  :-)

All in all, we had a wonderfully pleasant evening: Sharon brought over her violin and we, together with my roommate, played (well, I stumbled) our way through several Baroque and early Classical double violin and piano trios.  I have to say that I thought my dessert trio was the perfect complement to our musical evening--for some reason, the bergamot and orange tea and dark chocolate flavors reminded me faintly of ye olden Baroque times (highly romanticized by my imagination, I'm sure) when people would enjoy good food, company, conversation, and music post-dinner in their candlelit salons amidst stacks of musty old books and claw-footed sofas.  And, how much more fitting it was when my roommate remarked afterwards that "the Lady Grey Trio" would make a great name for a chamber music trio, too!

Anyways, time to wrap up this extraordinarily lengthy post and announce the winner of the black cocoa and photo print giveaway!  Selected at random (using random.org algorithm), congrats to entry #102 myblankpage!  You didn't leave a contact email, though, so please email me at s [at] shihbakes [dot] com to claim your prize!  You have one week before I pick someone new.

Thanks so much to everyone else for commenting in the giveaway.  As I said before, it was so much fun to visit your blogs and hear your ideas about what to do with black cocoa.  I now have a to-make list miles long.  Alas, though, after this Lady Grey Trio dessert and the past two posts, I think I might put this blog on a chocolate-free diet for a week or so.  I, at the very least, need the detox.  :-P


Read on for recipes...