Eat The Love - Recipes, Photographs and Stories about Desserts, Baked Goods and Food in general, with a healthy dose of humor and happiness for the food obsessed

Chinese Pearl Meatballs – 珍珠丸子 (with video)

These Chinese pearl meatballs (珍珠丸子) are a savory pork meatball coated with glutinous rice. It is an easy dish from the Hubei/Hunan region of China.

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A blue plate of Chinese pearl meatballs on a checked cloth napkin with a bamboo steamer basket of more pearl meatballs in it.

Growing up, my mom cooked all sorts of Chinese dishes that most folks associate with dim sum dishes. And though I have a number of Asian dishes on this site, including Taiwanese popcorn fried chicken, Japanese karaage, chicken char sui fried dumplings and Korean fried chicken, I have yet to really share any of the food that she made growing up. Pearl meatballs are one of the easiest dim sum dishes that you can make, as they have a similar savory pork filling similar to dim sum dumplings but don’t require any folding or sealing of the wrappers. They’re the perfect gateway dish to make if you are looking to get into making Chinese dim sum or Chinese food appetizers!

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Roasted Carrots with Za’atar, Pomegranate Seeds and Molasses (with video)

This quick and easy roasted carrots is packed with flavor because of the za’atar spice blend and a drizzle of pomegranate molasses and seeds.

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Roasted rainbow carrots with za'atar spices and drizzled with pomegranate molasses and seeds on a white serving plate.

These carrots are a great and easy side dish to go along with something like my Lamb Tagine, Mediterranean Meatballs or Spiced Lamb and Beef Kebabs. Since the carrots are cooked under the broiler, they cook fast, with a slight smoky char to them. Regular orange carrots are great, but to make the dish extra special, look for rainbow carrots, which are available at farmers markets and upscale grocery stores.

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Cardamom Buns (aka Swedish Kardemummabullar)

These Swedish-style Cardamom buns are a fun, less cloyingly sweet twist on the classic American-style cinnamon roll.

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a cardamom bun on a plate with a cup of coffee and a chemex pot of coffee next to it. Beside the plate is a wire cooling rack with more cardamom buns and two small plates with Belgian pearl sugar and ground cardamom spice in them.

The days have gotten short and brisk here in San Francisco while the nights are long and dreary right now. And though the days will start to get longer soon, I feel like I’ll still be hunkering down for the next couple of months, trying to achieve some Scandinavian hygge, a Danish word for a mood of comfortable contentment.

This of course will entail me making large mugs of coffee, reading lots of books, wearing thick wooly sweaters and socks, and baking up a storm with warm wintery spices. And though I love making cinnamon rolls in all their various forms, from classic cinnamon rolls, red velvet cinnamon rolls, rosemary & pistachio cinnamon rolls, sweet potato cinnamon rolls and, even eggnog cinnamon rolls, I was inspired by a local Scandinavian eatery nearby, to make these cardamom knots.

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Red Velvet Crackle Cookies

Red velvet crackle cookies are fun variation of the chocolate crackle cookie with a secret ingredient to give that classic red velvet flavor!

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Red velvet crackle cookies on a blue plate, with two small milk bottles with milk in them next to it. Next to the milk bottles is a wire cooling rack with more cookies on it.

I’ve been obsessed with red velvet EVERYTHING for years now. This is evident with my recipes for red velvet cinnamon rolls, red velvet smores (with cream cheese marshmallows), and my ridiculous blood orange and coconut velvet cake. And though red velvet’s popularity has definitely gone up and down over the years, I’ve been a steady proponent of it. So this year, I finally got around to nailing the red velvet crackle cookie recipe that I’ve been working on for years.

Similar to my chocolate crackle cookies and my reverse white chocolate crackle cookies, and my black forest chocolate crinkle cookies, these cookies have a touch of cocoa powder and a healthy dose of red food coloring gives the cookie the same look and flavor of red velvet cake. In addition, the powdered sugar coating has a touch of buttermilk powder to give a slight tang to it, just like the cream cheese frosting would give. A festive cookie perfect for the holidays (and, truthfully, all year round).

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Cranberry Spiral Bread with Ginger and Pecans [Sponsored Post]

This stunning holiday cranberry spiral bread is inspired by a Swedish tea ring but has a cranberry, ginger, and pecan fruit filling that will make your holiday table look spectacular.

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A large cranberry spiral bread on a red plate with two small desserts plates and two mugs of hot tea next to it.

This post was sponsored by Bi-Rite Market. I was compensated for this post and developing this recipe. However, all opinions below are my own.

I’ve been making this cranberry spiral fruit bread ring for years now in one version or another. It’s inspired by a traditional Swedish tea ring, a yeasted coffee cake that is often served during the winter months. Yet somehow, I have never actually gotten to share the recipe on my blog. So when I was approached to partner with my favorite local San Francisco grocer, Bi-Rite Market, I knew it was the recipe I wanted to share! I’ve been shopping at Bi-Rite Market for the past 15 years, ever since I moved two blocks away from them, and they always have the best seasonal and local produce available.

This cranberry spiral bread is one of those stunning desserts that uses seasonal fresh cranberries in the filling along with crystallized ginger and chopped pecans. Rolled into a log, made into a ring, then cut partially into spiral disks, the sweet yeasted bread looks like a beautiful holiday wreath that you can eat!

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Cinnamon Rolls

These fluffy cinnamon rolls are easy-to-make from scratch and have an extra amount of cinnamon in the filling make to give them zip and pop! Make them the night before if you want a special breakfast with minimal morning effort.

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Cinnamon rolls in a pan, with one individual cinnamon roll on a plate next to a small bowl of cream cheese frosting.

My obsession with cinnamon rolls is a little over the top. This is clearly evident in my archives, as I have recipes for pumpkin cinnamon rolls, sweet potato cinnamons, rosemary pistachio cinnamon rolls, red velvet cinnamon rolls, eggnog cinnamon rolls, and quick and easy cinnamon rolls. Heck I even have a cinnamon bun cookie on this blog! WHAT. IS. WRONG. WITH. ME. (some would argue SO MUCH, but that’s probably a blog post for another day). YET…somehow I have never shared a recipe for my basic classic cinnamon rolls. Partly it is because I keep on tinkering with the recipe, trying over and over to find that center of the Venn diagram of easy-to-make, super fluffy, and extra tasty without being too sweet. Finally, here’s my favorite homemade cinnamon roll recipe.

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