Autumnal Cookies

Yuzu is Reading Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

I have been out sick most of this week. Some virus has been making the rounds through my office, as several other coworkers have been calling in sick as well. I've been in my pajamas for the past couple of days. Watched a lot of daytime TV. Surprisingly didn't do any crafting or much reading (I'm too lazy and tired to make an effort with anything).

Last weekend, however, I baked some cookies to welcome the season of autumn. They're plain sugar cookies with a festive touch — green & brown sprinkles and orange candy pumpkins that sort'a look like hearts.

©2008 Yuzu Eats

We're still experiencing a bit of a heatwave in southern California. Temperatures are higher than normal. It was cloudy and rained for a split second last weekend, but it's back to hot, sunny days again. I wish it would quit being so hot!

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Felt Macaron Plushies

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Motivated by my fascination with macarons, I had the need to make some of my own last month. Not edible ones, of course. Just macarons sewn by hand. :) I used sheets of acrylic felt, of which I have an abundance, to make the food plushies. Below are raspberry, original (almond) and chocolate flavors. Their sizes are true to life.

©2008 Yuzu Eats

It's officially autumn now, but the weather is much like that of midsummer. This week we're having temps of 80-100ºF (25-40ºC). As much as I love the longer days of summertime, I'm done with the heat. I want it to get cold already! I feel like baking pumpkin bread or something autumny like that.

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Macarons from Cake House

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©2008 Yuzu Eats

A couple of workmates and I went to lunch on Sawtelle Boulevard in West L.A., where there is an abundance of Japanese restaurants and stores carrying cute knickknacks. After spending an hour (or two) browsing the shops, we felt it was time for dessert. So we made our way to Beard Papa. But before crossing the street, I spied some colorful macarons in a bakery window. I rarely get to eat macarons because they're not widely available, and I have to drive far (or fly to New York) to eat some. So I was quite pleased that a Korean bakery named Cake House offered them in their shop. I bought four macarons at $1.50 each — chocolate, lemon, raspberry and green tea — and later enjoyed them with my little niece. Verdict? The chocolate was yummy, as was the green tea (you can really taste the matcha), but the raspberry and lemon ones were rather dry. Perhaps this is because the macarons are not baked on the premises, so who knows how fresh they are when they're sold?

Later that day, I realized there's a Cake House in Buena Park, so much closer to me than the one I visited off of Sawtelle. Apparently, I had been driving past this bakery in Orange County every day, never knowing it existed because it's nestled in a strip mall next to a Ralphs supermarket. One would never expect to find macarons near Ralphs, after all.

The day after I visited the L.A. location, I made a quick trip to the Buena Park Cake House after work and purchased every flavor macaron they had available — coffee, chocolate, raspberry, lemon, green tea and blueberry. I shared them with my mom and dad, who enjoyed them with a cup of hot green tea. The blueberry macaron (which my mom thought would've been taro-flavored) didn't taste much like blueberry. It was more like a plain macaron with blue food coloring. The other flavors tasted the same as they did before. I didn't try the coffee one, as I gave it to my dad, the coffee addict.

I much prefer the Orange County location to the L.A. one because, for one thing, it's much bigger. The shop has tables in the back that you can sit at and hang out with friends. The baked goods, with the exception of the cakes and fancy pastries, are available for customers to just grab and place them in plastic basket trays to bring up to the counter for checkout. I'm glad I got to try the various macarons Cake House has to offer, but they sure don't beat the yumminess that is Bouchon Bakery's macaron.

Cake House 11301 Olympic Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064 (310) 914 0404

Cake House 5410 Beach Blvd. Buena Park, CA 90621 (714) 522-0101

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Un-Macarons for Bastille Day

Yuzu is Listening To The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Harry Gregson-Williams

In celebration of France's national holiday, I brought some wannabe French treats to work today. Almost everyone knows of France's famous little sweet, the macaron. Inspired by My Paper Crane's wannabe macarons, I baked my own version of the treat.

©2008 Yuzu Eats

They're sugar cookies sandwiched together with frosting. The brown ones are chocolate, the pink are raspberry, the green are pandan, the yellow are yuzu, and the violet and teal ones are almond-flavored (I ran out of other flavorings, although ube would've been cool for violet). With the exception of the chocolate "macarons", I used bottles of pure extracts to flavor the cookies and frosting. I cheated on the frosting and used the store-bought kind, but I changed the flavor up a bit to match the cookies I paired them with. The longest step in the process was mixing the food coloring to get each section of cookie dough (and frosting) the right color, but I'm really happy with how colorful and flavorful these turned out.

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Best Yuzu Sugar Cookies Ever

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I've only baked a few desserts so far with yuzus, but this is my favorite thus far. My mom wanted me to bake cookies yesterday, so I searched for a recipe that called for ingredients my parents had in their pantry. ;) I also had a couple yuzus from my yuzu tree that I wanted to use, and I was able to incorporate them into a recipe to make sugar cookies with a nice citrus flavor.

©2007 Yuzu Eats

I'm very happy the way these cookies turned out, because they weren't too sweet, and the yuzu flavor wasn't overpowering the cookie. The cookies are moist & chewy, with crispy edges. My parents liked them a lot, so that spells success to me! Here's the recipe for anyone who wants to try these out. You can substitute lemon for yuzu, as I know how difficult it is to have actual yuzus on hand.

Best Yuzu Sugar Cookies Ever
3½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
¼ cup light-brown sugar, packed
zest of 2 yuzus (approx. 1 tbsp.)
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed yuzu juice

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Sift flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Using a freestanding mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix sugar, brown sugar and zest. Add butter until mixture is light & fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the yuzu juice. Slowly add the flour mixture until a soft dough forms. Scoop 1½" balls of dough onto baking sheet. Flatten the balls slightly with the palm of your hand, and sprinkle a bit of granulated sugar on top. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them sit for about a minute. Then move cookies to cooling rack.

Makes 30 cookies, 3" (7½ cm) in diameter.

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Finally a Christmas Update

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I hope everyone had a good holiday break. I enjoyed a nice week and a half off, relaxing with family, eating nonstop and sleeping in really late. I meant to update my journal right after Christmas so I can show you what I baked over the holidays, but I took a break from blogging last week. So I'm posting my Christmas goodies now.

©2007 Yuzu Eats

These were actually chocolate cookies, not gingerbread


Green Christmas tree sugar cookies


Butter yellow cupcakes with vanilla frosting and festive sprinkles


These cupcakes were made with Pillsbury cake mix
which came with Christmas-colored candy bits


I covered them in Pillsbury vanilla frosting topped with fun Christmas shapes

I think I've had enough sweets in the past couple of weeks to last me all through January. But that doesn't mean I won't have an ice-cream cone or a few cookies here and there. ;) Happy new year, everyone!

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Hot Chocolate & Biscuits

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I love listening to holiday music. It gets me in the mood for Christmas. There's nothing quite like the cozy feeling of sitting in the living room, listening to Christmas songs and looking at the lights on the Christmas tree. The other night, I just chilled out on the sofa with a cup of hot chocolate and some biscuits.

Burton's Jammie Dodgers:
delicious stretchy jam splodged between 2 yummy shortbread biscuits

Cute nighttime snack...and festive-looking too!

©2006 Yuzu Eats

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The Yuzu Tree Giveth

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My blog has been lacking in posts lately because (a) I was on vacation in Chicago for a while, and (b) I've been bitten by a cold bug that's left me too lazy to post anything in the last week. But I return with a yummy yuzu entry! My yuzu tree has been blooming ever so wonderfully, and I picked one of its fruits to make a citrusy dessert which I brought to Thanksgiving dinner a couple weeks ago.

©2006 Yuzu Eats

I took a simple lemon bar recipe and tweaked it so they'd yield yuzu bars instead. I'm not really a fan of lemon bars, because they taste too eggy to me. But I know other people love lemon bars, so I baked these for them. ♥ This recipe will produce yuzu bars that burst with a lot of citrus flavor. If you prefer a more subtle citrus taste, switch all the 'yuzu' parts in the recipe with lemon and decrease the amount of lemon juice to 6 teaspoons.

Yuzu Bars
Crust:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup confectioners' sugar
2 cups flour
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Combine ingredients and mix well. Press mixture in 9" x 13" greased glass pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Filling:
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup flour
2 cups granulated sugar
7 tsp. yuzu juice (bottled yuzu juice will suffice as well)
zest of 1 yuzu

Combine flour and sugar; mix in beaten eggs, yuzu juice and zest. Pour onto slightly cooled crust. Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes or until filling is set. Cool and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

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Yuzu Biscuits

Experimenting in the kitchen again! I came up with a recipe for some yuzu biscuits. It's basically like shortbread, but with a nice hint of citrus flavor. They go well with a cup of hot tea or a glass of milk. Mmm!

©2006 Yuzu Eats

The recipe calls for yuzu juice. Since it's nearly impossible to find fresh yuzus anywhere but Japan, bottled yuzu juice is perfectly fine. You can buy it at a Japanese market or gourmet grocery store.

Yuzu Biscuits
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ tbsp. yuzu juice
1 tsp. citrus zest (lemon or lime is fine if you have no yuzus)
½ tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
yellow food coloring (optional)

Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in the egg until light & fluffy. Mix in the flour, yuzu juice, citrus zest, baking powder and salt. If you wish, add a few drops of yellow food coloring and incorporate into the dough to give it a vibrant yellow color. Wrap the dough in wax paper, and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lay dough on a floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough until it's ¼" thick. Use a floured cookie cutter of any shape you want to cut the dough. Placed the cut pieces onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for approximately 12-15 minutes, or until the edges are very light golden brown. Remove cookies from cookie sheets and place on cooling rack. Eat with tea. :)

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Ravioli Dolci

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It's been mad hot in southern California this past week. Not exactly the kind of weather that's conducive to baking. But I felt like baking anyway. I ended up creating a cookie that my family enjoyed with coffee & tea. :) They're butter cookies that are shaped like ravioli! And they're filled with yumminess too.

©2006 Yuzu Eats

The recipe calls for very basic ingredients. The jam can be any flavor you like. The assembly can take some time if you're not used to making rolled cookies. I'm still very much a novice in this area, but the cookies came out decent.

Ravioli Dolci
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 cup apricot jam (or jam of your choice)

Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer at medium speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Switch to a lower speed and slowly add the flour mixture until all the ingredients are combined to form a soft dough. Split the dough in half, wrap each in wax paper, and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour so it becomes a bit firm.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Lay one piece of dough on a floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 7 x 10½" rectangle. Use a knife to score the dough into 24 1¾" squares (don't actually cut through dough). Place ¼ teaspoon of jam into the center of each square. Take the second piece of dough and, working on top of floured wax paper, roll it into another 7 x 10½" rectangle. Lift the dough rectangle on the wax paper and flip the dough onto the other dough rectangle (with the jam on it). You'll be able to see the little bumps underneath the dough where you scooped the jam. Use a fluted pastry wheel to cut into 24 1¾" squares. You should have what looks like a sheet of uncooked ravioli. Place each 'ravioli' onto two ungreased cookie sheets, at least 1 inch apart. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until the fluted edges are light golden brown, but the tops are still fairly light. Remove cookies from cookie sheets and place on cooling rack. Use a sieve to garnish cookies with powdered sugar.

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Starry Dodgers

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I've been fascinated with Jammie Dodgers for quite some time. I just like sandwich cookies, in general. I was in a baking mood last night, so before I went to sleep, I decided to bake some sandwich cookies of my own. And since it was Independence Day in the U.S., and stars and stripes abounded throughout the country, I thought I'd use a star cookie cutter to make the holes in the cookies.

©2006 Yuzu Eats

A few of the raspberry jam-filled cookies plated


What did I do with the star centers that I cut out?


Made a whole bunch of mini star cookies (they're 1", or 2½ cm, across).

This was my first time making sandwich cookies. I think they turned out pretty. :) I don't have a recipe for this. I just used a basic sugar cookie recipe, rolled out the dough, and used cookie cutters to cut the shapes. I made two dozen circle cookies, and two dozen circle cookies with the star shape cut out. Then I baked 'em at 375°F for 6-8 minutes (removing from the oven just before they turned golden brown). After they cooled, I scooped raspberry jam onto the whole circles, while the circles with the "star holes" in them received a light 'rainfall' of confectioners' sugar. I placed the cookie pieces together and...viola! The mini star dough pieces that were left over, I baked for 5 minutes.

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Flower Spritz Cookies for Springtime

I'm trying to get more into baking again. I baked these little flower spritz cookies last Friday. I'd never made them this shape before, and I'm pleased with how 'puffy' they turned out. They were chewy too. Mmm. =9

©2006 Yuzu Eats

Here's the recipe for those who are interested.

1½ c. butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. almond extract
3½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
few drops of food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Thoroughly cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, vanilla and almond extract; beat well. Stir together flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing to make a smooth dough. If you decide to add any food coloring, make sure to add a bit more flour to keep the consistency of the dough rather thick, as water-based food colorings will thin out the mixture. Place dough into cookie press and press cookies onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-9 minutes or until very lightly browned around edges. Remove cookies from baking sheet so the bottoms don't get burned.

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Chocolate and Vanilla Spritz

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I made chocolate and vanilla spritz cookies for a Super Bowl party I went to with my family yesterday. For those of you living outside of the U.S., Super Bowl Sunday is a huge event for Americans. We gather in front of the television and watch a football game (our crazy American 'football', not what the rest of the world calls 'football'), while eating tons of food. :)

©2006 Yuzu Eats

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Chocolate Sumthin'

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Ahh...there's no joy like that which comes from experimenting in the kitchen and coming up with something doesn't taste like rubbish. I took a regular sugar cookie recipe, added some more sugar, a bit of unsweetened cocoa powder and a dash of pure vanilla extract (I really didn't measure anything), and this is what came of it: a chewy, chocolate...something. Cookie. I don't know what to call it. Chocolate cookie? Yeah, that sounds good.

©2006 Yuzu Eats

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Spritz Cookies

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My sister received a cookie press from Crate & Barrel for Christmas. So, of course, I had to use it myself because I'm sneaky like that. I baked sugar cookies this past weekend, and I'm surprised that they actually came out looking okay. ^__^

©2006 Yuzu Eats

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Christmas Cookies

I baked green & red sugar cookies! Some are in the shape of gingerbread men, and the others are tiny, swirly pinwheels. I'm bringing these to my aunt's house later for our Christmas Eve family gathering.

©2005 Yuzu Eats

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Cookies With Tea

For the tea party I attended yesterday, I baked cookies! I am no cookie-making expert (although I'm quite good at eating them), but I think they came out okay. There is definitely room for improvment in taste and looks.

Almond crescents


Chocolate pinwheels that look crooked


Raspberry thumprint cookies with white chocolate drizzles

©2005 Yuzu Eats

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Chocolate Crinkles

Earlier tonight I attempted to make my first-ever batch of chocolate crinkles. I used Aoi's recipe, which is pretty simple. I didn't have any baking chocolate, but I did have a lot of unsweetened cocoa powder, so I substituted that for the actual bars of chocolate. I think I didn't add enough sugar because they weren't sweet enough to me. Chocolatey, yes...but not very sweet. At least they came out looking like they're supposed to!

I went a little overboard on the confectioners' sugar. =P

©2005 Yuzu Eats

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Cookies By Design

Last night my sister brought a cookie bouquet home for her husband (he's a doctor, so that explains the "health care" theme of the bouquet). Isn't the bouquet so pretty? She ordered it from Cookies By Design.

My sister wanted to eat one right away, and I was kind'a curious myself as to how they taste. But I was afraid to take apart the bouquet because I didn't want to mess it up! My sister, brother-in-law and I each had one bear cookie. They were fresh, moist and delicious! And they're so BIG, too (about 6" tall)! There are still three bears left – I might want to eat another when I get home from work today.

My sister also bought a cookie just for me — it's a turtle! I haven't eaten it yet because it's too cute to eat. I might crack into it eventually, though, before it goes bad. =P

©2005 Yuzu Eats

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