Eat The Love

Miso Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Crystallized Ginger and Black Sesame Seeds

This miso peanut butter chocolate chip cookies has crystallized ginger and dipped in black sesame seeds for a chewy salty sweet treat!

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A white plate of miso peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with crystallized ginger and black sesame seeds next to a wire rack of more cookies.

Folks, there is SO. MUCH. GOING. ON. in these cookies. But in the best way possible. I’ve got peanut butter, crystallized ginger, and chocolate chips in the dough, with a dash of cinnamon and ground ginger as well to give complexity. Because you know, the flavor profile isn’t complex enough!

Then I roll it in a bit of black sesame to give it crunch as well as to make it all pretty. Sure you can use regular white sesame seeds. But the black sesame seeds is like giving it a tuxedo black tie look! But it’s the secret ingredient of white miso paste that gives them a deep rich and slightly salty flavor in them. The miso brings all the flavors together in an out-of-this-world combo. Don’t be scared of the miso in the cookie. I’ve used it before in my miso cranberry pistachio cookies, and it absolutely works in the best sort of way, binding all the flavors into one chewy, salty, sweet fabulous bite. This is my new favorite cookie for the holidays!

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Loaded Mashed Potatoes

Loaded mashed potatoes take the classic loaded baked potato and turns it into a casserole dish. The perfect holiday or big dinner side dish!

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A casserole dish of loaded mashed potatoes sitting on a kitchen towel.

One of my favorite side items for dinner is mashed potatoes. I’ve shared one of my favorite ways to make them as a garlic and leek mashed potatoes. And I’ve repurposed leftovers as potato croquettes, where I take the cold mashed potatoes and turn them into deep fried and breaded appetizers. But my current favorite go-to mashed potato will leave NO leftovers because they’re THAT. GOOD. These loaded mashed potatoes are inspired by the classic loaded baked potato, with sour cream, cheddar cheese, bacon and green onions mixed in, baked and then sprinkled on top. Better yet, you can easily scale the recipe up by doubling it to feed a crowd if you want!

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Savory Corn Pudding

This savory riff on the traditional corn pudding cuts out some of the sugar and adds in sautéed onions and fresh thyme for a great side dish!

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A small bowl with a serving of corn pudding in it, with a casserole dish of the remaining corn pudding next to it.

Recently my husband and I became slightly obsessed with the AppleTV show Schmigadoon!, a comedy where a modern couple from NYC gets trapped in a golden-era musical town. It’s rather amusing, especially if you are a fan of musicals from the era, like Sound of Music, Oklahoma or Brigadoon. One of the musical numbers early in the show was “Corn Puddin’” which was absolutely as ridiculous as it sounds. Which, of course, got me hankerin’ for a batch of corn pudding! Of course, I knew I wanted to tinker a bit with the traditional version, and make it more savory, less sweet, but still easy to make. With one bite, my husband declared it the best corn pudding he ever had. He even asked for an extry serving!

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Herb Parmesan Wool Roll Bread [with video]

This fancy pants herb parmesan wool roll bread looks difficult to make but is quite easy. It’s packed with chopped herbs and parmesan and is pillowy soft.

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Herb wool roll bread on a wire cooling rack.

Wool roll bread took the internet by storm in early 2021, via a Malaysian vlogger named Apron that posted about on YouTub e. Suddenly I was seeing it all over the place. But I didn’t get around to making my own version until the holiday season snuck up on me later in 2021. And though I adore my classic parker house rolls, my potato rolls, my cornbread, and my garlic knots for my holiday spread, I decided that this fun roll would make a great alternative bread dish for the holidays, or really all year round! It’s fun to make, and surprisingly easy to form. The use of the Japanese tangzhong (water roux) method for the dough, creates a super soft pillow crumb that keeps the bread soft for days.

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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins [with video]

These pumpkin cream cheese muffins are inspired by Starbucks’ baked treat but is made from scratch and so much easier on the budget!

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A pumpkin cream cheese muffins broken in half with more whole muffins next to it on a black oval plate.

I’ll be completely honest with you guys. I rarely go to Starbucks. It’s not that I don’t like coffee. I actually LOVE coffee. But I also happen to live in San Francisco, where there are plenty of small individual coffee shops that sell fantastic coffee drinks. But that doesn’t mean I’m immune to the call of the pumpkin spice latte (which inspired my pumpkin spice latte bread as well as my pumpkin spice frappuccino). Mostly though, I stop by a Starbucks to pick up a muffin or baked good when I’m in a hurry. And when they have them, my go-to choices is their pumpkin cream cheese muffin. Finally, I decided I needed to develop my own version at home. Now, I may never visit that big coffee chain shop again!

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Pumpkin Star Bread with Dried Cranberries [with video]

This stunning pumpkin star bread has a beautiful golden orange hue from the pumpkin puree in the dough, and is easier to make than it looks!

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A pumpkin star bread with dried cranberries filling sitting on a gold wire cooling rack with a kitchen towel underneath.

The weather is finally turning cooler in my hometown of San Francisco and the quality of light has the autumnal color in the air that feels cooler and crisp. All of which means I want to get into the kitchen and bake more than usual. And I usually always want to bake! And like everyone that is obsessed with pumpkin nowadays, I’ve gone through my old favorites like pumpkin spice latte bread, pumpkin chocolate monkey bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin snickerdoodle as well as my recent pumpkin bread pudding. But this time I wanted to make something a little more special occasion, so I created a pumpkin star bread with dried cranberries. It’s an impressive looking baking project that is actually much easier to make than it looks. Which, as we all know, is my favorite sort of baking project!

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