Sweets

I like baking, and I think homemade sweets are the best (if I can say that myself :)).

But since there are only two people in our household, I hesitate to make a large amount unless I can freeze it.

Taiyaki is a good choice when you just want a little something for a snack.

It looks fancy, but it’s actually pretty easy to make (as long as you have filling ready) with this trusted Taiyaki pan which I brought from the U.S.

Traditionally, Taiyaki is filled with sweet “Azuki” bean paste, but since I had beautiful black beans from Happy Grocers, I used them, and it worked perfectly.

I was planning to have custard cream as well, so instead of making bean “paste”, I sweetened the beans but kept the shape of the beans to give a nice texture to the custard cream.

When we were at one of our favorite beverage places, Yuzu House, the other day, we saw this being sold on the counter.

I love yuzu, and this dried yuzu peel was full of flavor, slightly sweetened, and absolutely delicious.

(I will definitely buy more next time we go there.)

So I decided to add this to my Taiyaki to give a little twist.

There are so many different recipes for Taiyaki batter, but I like this recipe (Japanese) because it creates the crispy (vs. soft) texture; the recipe does not call for eggs, and that is probably one of the reasons for this particular texture.

The recipe calls for cake flour.

In my pantry I only keep all-purpose flour and bread flour, so I “made” cake flour by adding a little corn starch to my all-purpose flour.

Also, I used honey in place of mirin, which I don’t keep in my pantry either.

The ingredients are important, but pouring the batter “thin” is equally important to create the crispiness.

For the vegan custard cream I used my go-to recipe.

(I used oat milk and soy milk both (I didn’t have enough soy milk) this time, which is why the color is a little darker. It still tasted great though.)

I hope you can tell how crispy it is from this photo.

The extra edges are the best part!

And the filling was SO GOOD!

I LOVED the combination of creamy custard cream, sweet black beans, and slightly bitter but refreshing yuzu peels.

Hapy New Year!

Wishing everyone a healthy, joyful, and peaceful year. 🙏

Biscotti is one of my favorite snacks to make.

It looks fancy with the Italian name, and when you hear you have to bake it “twice” you may quickly assume it may be hard to make.

But it’s probably one of the easiest things to make.

I was craving for biscotti with nuts, and I was happy with the result.

The only thing that could have been better was almond extract.

Extracts in general is a bit challenging to find in Bangkok, but I recently found a baking specialty shop that sells pure almond extract.

I think it’s time for me to check out the shop.

I used this recipe (Japanese) as a base.

It was tasty (the right sweetness too), and I will use it again.

I brought a few baking pans from the U.S., and the brownie pan was one of them.

It took a while, but finally I got to use it in Bangkok.

This brand has several options of vegan chocolate, and we like it.

This was the first time I found this with hazelnuts, and I thought it would be fun to add this to brownies.

I always like nuts in brownies, and this hazelnut version was excellent.

I used my favorite vegan brownies recipe.

I didn’t follow the directions very well, but it still turned out great (except that this didn’t get the shiny top because of my skipping some steps, I’m sure).

I really enjoy eating it with a cup of black coffee.

But I might reduce the amount of sugar next time.

(It’s funny I didn’t think it was overly sweet before. Maybe it’s because the sweets we eat here in Bangkok is overall less sweet than the sweets in the U.S., and I got used to less sweet sweets?)

When everyone else is posting pictures of pumpkin food, this may look out of place this time of the year.

But it’s still hot in Bangkok, and I continue to crave for the flavors of tropical fruits.

I don’t have a green thumb, but my mint is doing very well.

It’s so nice to be able to use herbs that I grow myself.

Chopped fresh mint was added to the donut batter.

This is my donut pan from the U.S.

Yes, it traveled with me from Minnesota.

(They do sell donut pans here in Bangkok in case you are wondering.)

But there was a little issue with the pan.

It was a bit too big for my oven.

After trying different angles, I figured with this angle I was able to completely close the oven door.

I just needed another pan to support it at the bottom.

For the mango glaze I combined 100% mango powder, powdered sugar, and lemon juice.

This was sweet (but not too sweet), tart, and full of mango flavor.

So good!

The donuts did not get the brown color or the firm texture I wanted, unfortunately.

I suspect it might have resulted from… there was another pan below when baked, the oven was not fully pre-heated, or/and I didn’t mix the batter well enough.

They still tasted good though.

I like to make vegan treats myself because it’s a bit tricky to find good vegan sweets even in Bangkok, but more than anything I enjoy baking and creating my own desserts.

As part of the surplus set I received from Happy Grocers a few days ago, I got these sweet potatoes.

When I realized that the inside was orange colored, I quickly thought they would be just like the ones we had in the U.S.

But when I roasted them, I noticed that they seemed rather similar to the Japanese style sweet potato, Satsuma-imo, because of its texture (creamier and fluffier) and its taste (sweeter).

I took the advantage of these features, and I made “frosting”.

(I purposely left a few small chunks for the color and texture.)

A little note to myself – roasted sweet potatoes, maple syrup, salt, coconut oil, soy milk

I brought several baking pans from the U.S., but what I didn’t bring was a cupcake pan.

They sell cupcake pans here, but I decided to go with these individual cups this time.

I wanted a “warm” flavor profile for my cupcakes, so I chose cinnamon.

These cups worked just fine.

The cakes were finished off with the beautiful, orange-colored sweet potato “frosting”.

I call it “frosting”, but it’s pretty much creamed sweet potatoes with a touch of maple flavor.

My husband was skeptical about the “potato” sitting on his cupcake, but with one bite he approved!

I liked them, too.

They tasted great, and I really enjoyed the less-processed “potato frosting.

It’s October, although the temperature in Bangkok hovers around 90 F degrees.

These cupcakes brought a little piece of autumn to our home.

I’ll be honest.

I do miss all the fall things in Minnesota, pumpkin patches, apple orchards, apple cider, Halloween decorations…

If you ask me, chocolate is always a good idea.

I made a cake with the same recipe when I had my father-in-law and his wife over for dinner in Minnesota.

It was a big hit, so I kept the recipe in my “keep” folder.

The only thing I changed was using coffee in place of water.

I always like to sneak some coffee in my chocolate treats.

I had to take a picture.

It looked like art!

I poured the batter into the pan, but I coulndn’t stop licking the batter stuck in the bowl.

So good!

This was where I was contemplating if I should use my finger (lol).

Just out of the oven.

Looked dark and so handsome!

I wanted to bake it in a round pan, but I didn’t have one.

I did have a brownie square pan, but I didn’t want to make a square cake, which would remind me of grocery store cakes (lol).

So I used my Shoku-pan bread pan, and it worked out great.

It’s not round but still looks elegant.

I thought about making ganache, but I decided to go with powdered sugar.

This cake is so moist and delicious.

It’s a perfect snack to enjoy during a break from my Thai language studying.

It’s going.

Slowly.

I really enjoy learning the grammar, and I can make simple sentences.

The problem is that I don’t have many opportunities to actually speak the language…