The procedure:

Spray a 12-cup mini cupcake pan with vegetable oil or rub with butter, then dust lightly with granulated sugar. Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine melted butter and sugar, whisk until pale and completely incorporated. Add the lightly beaten egg and mix again until completely incorporated. In a separate bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, mochiko, baking powder, making sure no lumps remain. Add this dry mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix lightly with a spatula until there are no visible pockets of dry mix. Pour the coconut milk and vanilla over the top and fold into the batter until the batter isn’t lumpy. Divide evenly amongst the cupcake tins. Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the brownies rest 5 minutes in the tin before turning them out onto a rack to cool completely before eating.

Will keep at room temperature for 2-3 days and can be refrigerated. However, with most foods made with mochiko, refrigeration renders them much denser and slightly more chewy. If this isn’t to your liking, you can microwave them gently and they should soften back up.

Note: This recipe is welcome to add-is like chocolate chips, chopped nuts, and dried fruit. I wanted to experience pure mochi-ness so I opted out.

The procedure:
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Place the raw walnuts in a shallow pan and roast for 30 minutes, stirring once in a while so the nuts roast evenly. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn and turn bitter. Once it starts to get fragrant, it’s almost ready. Remove the pan from the oven and let the walnuts cool.

Meanwhile, in a large pan, pan roast the black sesame seeds over medium-low heat, stirring continuously. Roast for about 10 minutes, or until the seeds start to smell fragrant. Turn off the heat immediately and remove the pan to a cool place. Grind the seeds in a spice grinder, coffee grinder or if you have a Vita-Mix/Blendtec, until you have a wonderfully fragrant powder. Make sure to scrape down the sides periodically so that you have a uniform grind.

By the way, grinding the seeds to a powder before making the butter ensures that you have a creamy end product; trying to grind the whole seeds with the walnuts will only result in a grainy, hulled butter. If this is what you prefer, by all means go for it

Once the black sesame powder and walnuts are cooled, place them in the bowl of your food processor along with the sea salt and sugar. Grind until creamy; this should only take about 2 – 3 minutes; it will first ball up, then loosen as the walnuts release their oils. Keep going until your tahini is whipped and smooth.

Scrape into a sterilized glass jar; allow to cool (it will be a bit warm from the processing) before putting on the cap and storing in the refrigerator. I’ll wager it’ll keep for at least two weeks, but keep an eye on it as walnut oils tend to go rancid quite easily.

The procedure:

Preheat the oven to 375F. Prepare your loaf pan either by oiling/buttering it or lining with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except for the beer until well combined. Pour in the beer and mix, trying not to overmix (similar to when you are making muffins, you don’t want to develop too much gluten which could result in tough bread). Mix until just combined. The batter will be thick.

Pour into the prepared loaf pan and if using the glaze, brush the top of the bread with the glaze and place in the oven. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. The crust will be golden brown. If you feel like the crust is browning too quickly, you can place a piece of tin foil over the top as a tent.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before turning out on a rack to cool completely. Slice and enjoy!

This recipe is super versatile as well; you could add any number of herbs (I used dill in my case), cheeses, nuts or dried fruits. Get creative!

The procedure:
In a bowl, combine the dried figs and sundried-tomatoes and cover with boiling water; allow to soak for at least one hour prior to starting the jam.

Drain the figs/sundried-tomatoes and put into a small saucepan. Add the rest of the ingredients and enough fresh water to cover the mixture by one inch. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cover.

Simmer for 30-45 minutes, or until the figs and sundried tomatoes are soft and pulpy and the liquid is reduced. Place the contents into a blender or food processor, and taking care, puree until desired consistency.

If the mixture is still a little too liquidy after pureeing, place the contents back into the saucepan and reduce over low heat, stirring the entire time until your desired consistency is reached. I reduced until it was tacky and slightly sticky.

Spoon the mixture into sterilized glass container, press a piece of plastic wrap over the surface and allow to cool. When cool, place in the refrigerator.

Should keep in the refrigerator for at least a week.

The procedure:
Mix together the ingredients for the sponge in a large bowl, whipping it if you can to aerate the mixture. Set it aside while you prepare the flour mixture.

Mix together the ingredients for the flour mixture, whisking it together to make sure the ingredients are incorporated fully and spoon over the sponge. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for one to four hours; or, until you see the sponge bubbling up through the flour mixture. Since it’s wintertime where I live, I waited about four hours before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.

After you can observe the sponge bubbling up through the flour mixture, add the oil and mix the dough together, either with a stand mixer or by hand. I did this by hand as the amount of dough was so small. Mix until the dough is smooth and homogenous looking; as the hydration of the dough is higher than your standard sandwich loaf, it will feel tacky and sticky. This is fine. Continue kneading the dough until you achieve good gluten structure and the dough passes the windowpane test. This took me about ten minutes by hand.

Place the dough in a lightly-oiled bowl and let it rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. After this first rise, take the dough out and degas it, you can do a couple of stretch-and-folds to give it better structure, then place it back into the bowl and let it rise again for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes have elapsed, take the dough and degas it gently and shape it (you can do a small boule or shape it sandwich style if planning to bake in a loaf pan). Place the dough in your chosen baking receptacle and let it rise a third time until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Half an hour before you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 F.

When ready to bake, place the loaf into the oven, steam (if not baking in a pullman tin) and lower the temperature to 375 F and bake for 25 minutes. Check to see if the bread is done by inserting a thermometer into the center of the loaf and making sure it reads at least 190 F. Invert the bread onto a cooling rack and let it cool for at least 4 hours before slicing to enjoy.

The procedure:

Using a blender, blend the MimicCreme, sugar, vanilla, extract, salt and vodka until smooth. Chill the base thoroughly, at least 4 hours or overnight, preferably.

Churn the ice cream base according to your ice cream maker manufacturer’s directions. During the last minute of churning, add the crushed peppermint oreo cookies.

Pour into container and freeze thoroughly. Scoop and enjoy.

Making the filling:

Steam kuri squash until flesh yields easily when poked with a fork. Let cool slightly, then scoop out the flesh and roughly mash (no need to make it very smooth, you’ll be working the flesh during the sweetening phase).

In a medium saucepan, combine the kuri squash flesh, raw sugar and salt, and over medium heat, stir until sugar is dissolved. Keep cooking the sweetened squash puree (this process helps to dry out the paste, you don’t want soupy squash as a filling for the buns) until it stops looking shiny and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Turn off the heat and let cool completely.

For the bao dough:

Whisk together the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, yeast, and salt. Add the agave nectar and vegetable oil and water, stir to combine until you get a rough dough.

Turn dough out onto counter and knead until you have a smooth, supple dough. I didn’t use my stand mixer as the amount of dough was small (and sometimes you just want to experience the pleasure of working with bread dough!). Knead until it passes the windowpane test, with a 5 minute rest halfway to allow the dough hydrate and the gluten to relax slightly.

Place in a medium, oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and proof until doubled in size. In my cold house, it took about 1.5 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Once the dough has doubled, turn it out onto the counter and give it a few kneading strokes, and let it rest for 5 minutes for the gluten to relax. Divide the dough into 5 pieces.

Divide the filling into 5 mounds in preparation for stuffing the bao.

Flatten each piece, and using a small rolling pin, roll out into a 5″ diameter circle, taking care to make the edges thinner than the center (so that when you gather the dough around the filling you don’t end up with a super thick bottom and a super thin top). Place 1 mound of sweetened squash filling in the center and draw up the edges of the dough around the filling; pinching the dough at the top to seal.

Place seam side down on baking sheet, and cover with a kitchen towel while you complete the rest of the bao. After filling all 5 bao, let proof for 20 minutes.

I mixed together a simple slurry of almond milk, cornstarch and a pinch of sugar for a matte-style wash. If you desire a shiny-type of wash, simply beat one egg with some water. Brush the tops of the proofed bao with your wash of choice and sprinkle with some sesame seeds for garnish.

Bake bao for 25 minutes (if they start to brown too fast, you can tent with a piece of foil to avoid overbrowning).

Let cool completely on racks for at least 8 hours (this allows the dough to finish cooking completely, if you were to eat them right away, you might find the dough directly underneath the filling to be slightly raw. After 8 hours, the dough will have finished cooking and the flavor will be better. This is generally true of most breads.)

Enjoy! My favorite way to eat these is to reheat them for 20 seconds in the microwave, then pop into the toaster for a little bit to get them slightly toasty on the outside. The outside becomes slightly crispy and the inside bread stays light and fluffy. Delicious!

Cooking Notes:

• I know that squash comes in various shapes and sizes, and my kuri squash, after halving and deseeded, was about 500g. After steaming and making it into sweetened puree, the yield was about 250g. Basically, you’re aiming for about 50g of sweetened filling per bao. If your squash is abnormally large or small, you can scale up/down the dough component. Or you can just eat the extra filling as is, it’s delicious that way too!
• Any type of squash, pumpkin, sweet potato/yam or even beans can be sweetened in this way; it’s really a universal technique that you can apply to many vegetables/legumes to make sweetened paste for bun/bao fillings, dumplings, etc.
• This dough is pretty versatile, besides using it as a baked bao dough, this dough makes steamed bao quite nicely too. Give it a try!

Make the dough first: sift together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the frozen butter cubes with your preferred method of choice; I used a pastry blender, then my fingertips (though a food processor or two knives would work just as well). Make sure that you do this rather quickly, you want to keep the butter as cold as possible to insure a light, flaky pastry dough. No need to blitz the heck out of the butter; just cut it in until the biggest pieces are about the size of large peas.

Add the chilled water one tablespoon at a time, stirring with your other hand, just until the dough just holds together (you might not need all the water, depending on your flour and the humidity of your kitchen). Dump the dough out on a mat and pat into a circle about 1.5″ inches thick. Double-wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (or up to 2 days).

After the chilling period, take the dough out and let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes; this allows the dough to soften slightly so that when you roll it out, it doesn’t break into a million pieces on you (trust me this has happened to me and it’s not fun nor pretty). Roll out the dough on a lightly floured mat into a 14″ circle, about 1/8″ thick. Using a pastry brush, dust off the excess flour. Carefully transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

Preheat the oven to 400 F (205 C).

To fill the tart, overlap the sliced apples on top of the dough in a ring 2 inches from the edge and continue towards the center. To complete the tart, fold over the edges of the dough. It doesn’t have to look perfect, the beauty of a galette lies in its rusticity.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over the dough edge and 2 tablespoons of sugar over the apples. Use more or less sugar to your preference.

Place the baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake the galette for 45 minutes, or until the apples are soft and have slightly browned edges. Try to rotate the tart every 15 minutes to ensure even browning of the crust.

While the tart is baking, you can work on the glaze; place the reserved peels and cores in a large saucepan with the sugar. Pour enough water into the saucepan just so it barely covers the peels and sugar and simmer for 25 minutes. Strain the apple-infused syrup through cheesecloth and set aside. Your kitchen will smell amazing at this point.

When the tart is done baking, remove from the oven and slide it (parchment and all) off the baking sheet and onto a cooling rack. Let it cool for at least 20 minutes before brushing glaze over the tart.

Slice and serve immediately, alone or alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you’re feeling decadent.

The procedure:

If the black sesame seeds you have are raw, place them in a large skillet over low heat and toast until fragrant. Try not to leave the pan as it’s difficult to tell whether black sesame seeds are burnt. Go by smell; once the seeds smell fragrant and nutty, scrape the seeds into a bowl and set aside to let cool.

Grind the cooled sesame seeds into a fine powder. I use a suribachi that I bought at my local Japanese supermarket; these things are super easy to use and they do the job quite well (you get a mini-workout in the process too!). If you can’t find a suribachi near you, a spice grinder or a coffee grinder would work equally well.

In the meantime, prepare the roasted flour by heating your large skillet over medium-high heat; once hot, dump the flour in and spread it around the pan and turn the heat down to medium-low. Keep stirring the flour so that it doesn’t burn, roasting it until it turns a golden color and lets off a nutty fragrance. Keep your eyes on the flour so that it doesn’t burn (unless you want random bits of burnt flour in your final product, an unfortunate mistake I made the first time I tried making these).

Once the flour is done roasting, scrape the flour into a bowl and set aside; return the skillet to the heat. Dump in your butter and let it melt (but don’t let it brown, we just want it melted). Once the butter is melted, add the roasted flour, sugar, powdered milk and a pinch of salt and stir with the spatula so that all ingredients are well mixed; at this point, it should look a bit gritty or sandy. Continue stirring, allowing the milk powder to toast, once it smells fragrant, take the pan off the heat and pour the mixture into a bowl and let it cool slightly.

At this point, you can shape the polvoron in several ways; the easiest is just to press the mixture into a well-oiled, foil-lined baking pan and cut into the shape you desire after it’s been refrigerated. If you feel like putting more effort into it, you could try using a mold like I did here (I was trying to recreate the chess piece shape that I remember so fondly). Essentially the basic process for shaping is the same whether you use a pan or a mold, take the polvoron mixture, press into the mold, pop it out of the mold (if not using a baking pan), and place on a sheet lined with wax paper or foil and refrigerate. Once refrigerated, the polvoron’s shape will set. Just make sure you shape the polvoron while the mixture is still warm; once it’s cooled, it is much more difficult for the mixture to stick together.

Or, if you can’t wait for the polvoron to set, you could eat it hot, straight off the burner in all its sandy goodness. I’m sure if you sprinkled it on top of yogurt or ice cream, it’d be delicious (Note to self: try this next time I make polvoron . . .)

The procedure:

In a large bowl, add the boiling water to the all-purpose flour and mix until you have a rough dough. It will be dry at this point, so don’t worry about obtaining a smooth dough.

Add the cold water to the rough dough and knead until smooth. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for 20 minutes to let it relax.

After 20 minutes have elapsed, remove the dough from the plastic wrap and knead it again, on a lightly oiled surface so that it is smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a long roll approximately 20 inches long, then cut into 20 pieces, each 1 inch wide.

Place the sesame oil in a small bowl and have it ready on the side.

To shape the pancakes: For each piece of dough, and using the palm of your hand, flatten it until into a round, approximately 4 inches in diameter. Dip your fingers in the bowl of sesame oil and lightly oil the top surface of each pancake. Place two pancakes together, with the oiled sides touching, and roll them out until they are 6 inches in diameter. It helps to try to pair pancakes that are similarly sized. Repeat 9 more times to form 10 pairs of pancakes.

Preheat a griddle or skillet over medium-high heat, then lower to low heat and and dry-fry the pancakes for approximately 30 seconds, or until small, golden bubbles appear on the bottom. Try to keep rotating the pancakes with your fingers to fry them evenly. After 30 seconds have elapsed, flip the pancake over and repeat the same procedure, rotating the pancake and checking the bottom for the tell-tale golden bubbles.

Remove the pancake from the pan and gingerly separate the pancakes from each other. I am warning you, they will be hot, so be careful! Place the separated pancakes on a plate and cover with a kitchen towel to keep them warm and moist.