tahini oreos

in

i'm sitting at the table with a pile of freshly baked bread because i've just spent yesterday catching up for my time without it last week. 

did you miss me, pita? did you miss me, focaccia?

[the bread stares back in silence. molly feels uncomfortable, and then unaffected. she peels a potato off of the pony-shaped focaccia, eats it, and goes back to work.]

how was your passover, orthodox easter, and/or weekend??

my passover was mostly spent in louisiana, a few hours west of new orleans, at the home of tabasco sauce. the factory, headquarters, and research and development pepper fields are hidden by massive ginormous mossy trees and surrounded by swamps and bayous, and the bayous are filled with alligators. there's a tiny post office and an archives building, and i stayed in an old large mansion down the road from the factory with blogger friends and ghosts of old tabasco family members. or something like that. it might sound scary, with all of the alligators and ghosts, but it wasn't at all! the alive humans were so friendly that i just assumed the ghosts and alligators would be too if we ever came into direct contact. the trip was really beautiful. quite humid. fascinating. made me want to invent something as cool as universally loved hot sauce. 

anyway, i'm back now for a few good weeks, spring planting is well under way (eggboy is officially coated in his thin semi-permanent layer of dirt), and i've got some fun pop-ups and parties coming up that i'm cooking and baking for. so i've been whipping up a few new experiments as menu possibilities! some of them have been good, some of them bad (like the donuts on this cake, they were so sadly mediocre), and some of them great. like these oreos. they're pretty effing good. they're butter and sugar and chocolate and tahini, transformed into dark crispy cookies and sandwiched with smooth nutty tahini buttercream. aside from the fact that the two components balance each other as well as meryl and charlie, i love them because they'll keep well for a week or two in your fridge and longer in the freezer. and what better mother's day present than a freezer full of homemade oreos?

a note on tahini: i have become very very picky about my tahini in recent years. the good stuff is life-changing, but not always easy to find in the states. here are my current recs: al arz, karawan, seed + mill, soom, whole foods' 365 brand. 

tahini oreos

makes about 18 sandwich cookies

ingredients

cookies:

2 c all-purpose flour

1 c unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting*

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1 1/4 c unsalted butter, softened

3/4 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract 

*dusting your work surface with cocoa powder will yield a beautiful, dark, chocolatey aesthetic, but using a lot of it could make the cookies taste a little bit bitter on their own since the cocoa powder is unsweetened. when they're paired with the super sweet buttercream, i love it. but if you know you'll prefer a sweeter cookie, dust your work surface with powdered sugar or a mixture of powdered sugar and cocoa powder. 

filling:

1/2 c unsalted butter, softened

1/4 c tahini

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

a pinch of ground cinnamon

a pinch of kosher salt

clues

make the cookies:

preheat oven to 325ºf. line two baking sheets with parchment and set them aside.

in a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt.

in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. mix in the vanilla. slowly add the dry ingredient mixture and beat until just combined. it will still be a bit crumbly.

pour the mixture out onto your work surface and give it a few kneads to bring it all together. dust your surface with cocoa powder and/or powdered sugar, and working swiftly and carefully, roll out your dough and cut out 2-inch circles. transfer them to your baking sheet, about an inch apart (using a small offset spatula really helps with this step). re-roll scraps and cut out remaining circles.

this is a super delicate dough, so try not to handle it more than you need to, and if it gets too soft, stick it in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes to firm up. this dough can also be made a day in advance, wrapped tightly, and kept in the fridge.

bake the cookies for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are no longer shiny. cool on the pans on a rack for 5 minutes and then remove to the rack to cool completely.

make the filling:

in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and tahini until creamy. gradually add the powdered sugar. add the vanilla, cinnamon, and salt and beat to combine. 

assemble:

fill a piping bag with the filling and pipe a blob onto the center of half the cookies. top them with the rest of the cookies to make little sandwiches. place them in the fridge for a few minutes to allow the filling to firm up before serving. store in the fridge.

enjoy!

this is based on my matcha oreo recipe! so if you need more oreos, here, make some green ones too. 

-yeh!

everything i ate and drank on maui

in ,

(or, most of it!)

the freshest poke bowls i will probably ever have, from the back of a liquor store, gobbled up on the beach under the dreamy influence of westbound jetlag. it was our very first stop and it was the perfect stop. 

spam musubi. tons of it, and not nearly enough.

a spring break-style fishbowl cocktail with four straws at a restaurant called --wait for it-- humuhumunukunukuapua'a. (now say it out loud! you can do it.)

a man made out of fondant who starred in the fanciest turn down service on earth. lily and i named him don. i miss don. 

millions of garlic and onion macadamia nuts. i kept them in the glove compartment, right next to my map, just in case anyone got hangry. 

a very coconutty squash soup that is making me wish i had a squash right this very moment. we all wore flower crowns while we ate it and it was part of a beautiful supper club called feast, which was so whimsical and great. 

saigon fries: peanuts, cilantro, hoisin, aioli, and sriracha on crinkly fries, slayyyyyyyy meeeeeee.

perfectly crispy pork belly from the magic mind of jimmy bannos, jr., who was on the island at the same time we were. it was so fun running into a part of chicago so far from home!

a mountain of croissants after an early morning spent watching the sun rise from above the clouds, on the mars-like dormant volcano, haleakala. we groggily ate our croissants in lily's childhood yard, which felt right out of willy wonka, if willy wonka was a tropical fruit factory. 

wedding cake flavored shave ice on a bed of mochi and macadamia ice cream, under a blanket of condensed milk. it was the best afternoon pick-me-up. i wonder what it would take to get someone from maui to come and open up a shave ice place in grand forks. we have so much snow, i can make the mochi, and whatever wedding cake flavored syrup is, i'm sure we can make it happen, right?

the new object of my obsession: japanese breakfast. my rice cooker has gotten a workout in the days since i've been back! sushi rice, miso, pickles, furikake. and i've been adding an egg and an avocado. so tasty. 

taro leaf pesto, goat cheese tempura, gnocchi mac and cheese, and many other delights at cane and canoe. 

a deliciously doughy rhubarb empanada from the cutest little place in the cutest little town.

shakshuka! it wasn't on many menus on maui, but obviously when i spotted it i went for it. and it was filled with chickpeas! i'm into this. gonna add chickpeas to my next shakshuka. 

one of the thousands of taro breeds in existence (did you know so many existed?!) at this beautiful taro farm.

a new-to-me fruit, the longan! chewy, lychee-like, totally cute.

a big juicy pineapple freshly yanked from the ground, chopped with a machete, and enjoyed near the presence of a one-legged rooster. and then washed down with macadamia nut rum. 

...and when we weren't eating, we were singing and laughing and telling secrets in hot tubs. and listening to the bird calls from the hammock grove and attempting to dance hula. we strolled through lavender fields and swam in the ocean and even made new whale friends and goat friends! believe what everyone says, maui is a dream. i loved it so much and i can't wait to be back.

-yeh!

thank you, maui visitors and convection bureau, for a magnificent week in maui. and further thank yous to: incase, paia inn, feast hawaii, trilogy, and of course to the wonderful bbs of #slamsquad2016! check out alana's, steph's, and lily's recaps! 

almond and orange passover cake

in , ,

Happy almost Passover! I am getting ready to zip on over to Chicago for my family seder but before I go I must show you this year's Passover cake! It's not chocolatey, like last year's, rather it's inspired by the flourless tangerine apricot cake from olives, lemons, and za'atar and an almond cake recipe that my friend marshy gave me, which calls for an entire orange (the peel and all!) to be chopped up and tossed in the batter. both of them were quite similar to my valentine's day almond cake but I loved the addition of the citrus. Eggboy, on the other hand, did not. So rather than adding a whole entire orange into the mix, I took a cue from yossy's grapefruit tarts, threw a supreme party, and then sprinkled in just a wee bit of zest to brighten the whole situation.

this is not a super model cake! it looks great when it comes out of the oven, but after a few minutes of cooling, it collapses just slightly to turn into a very rustic, yet lovable dessert. it's almost like a sweet crustless quiche that's packed with ground almonds (thanks to king arthur's almond flour, which is suuuper finely ground) and balanced out by a little zing of orange. it's great with a heavy dusting of powdered sugar or a dollop of whipped cream (or whipped coconut cream) or both!

Orange and Almond Passover Cake

Makes one 9-inch cake

ingredients

6 large eggs, separated
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 c sugar
2 oranges, plus more for garnish
2 c king arthur almond flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Powdered sugar, for serving

clues

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9” springform pan and set it aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg whites and 1/4 teaspoon salt and beat to soft peaks. Gradually mix in 1/4 cup sugar and beat to stiff peaks. Set aside.

Zest one of the oranges, and supreme both of them. Place the zest, segments, and juices in the clean bowl of a stand mixer. Add the egg yolks, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, remaining 3/4 cup sugar, almond flour, almond extract, and vanilla and beat on medium high until pale, about 3 minutes.

Use a rubber spatula to fold the whites into the yolk mixture and then pour the batter into the pan. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean; begin checking for doneness at 35 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, remove to the rack and cool completely. It’s completely normal for this cake to cave slightly as it cools, its rustic-ness is part of the charm. To serve, dust with powdered sugar and decorate with orange slices.

-yeh!

i used the following king arthur flour products in this recipe: almond flour, vanilla extract, and almond extract. thank you so much, king arthur, for sponsoring this post!