recipe: black sesame cupcakes

idk what you were drinking doing saturday night but this girl was recovering from a night of quarter tones and xylophones via midnight improvised black sesame cupcakes. it's what happens when you get out of rehearsal in soho and it's already past your bed time and the 19-year-old in you asks the 23-year-old in you if you should hightail it to the party in the heights but because a 62-year-old chinese jewish grandma comprises most of you these days {and bc everyone else in the band tells you that you're too old for these partying shenanigans}, you go home and soften some butter.

anyways, i love black sesame to the point where it baffles me why everyone in america doesn't. it is nutty and smokey kinda and so... couthly sophisticated. black sesame goodies are never too sweet, just badass.

black sesame cupcakes.

this recipe is a work in progress. the cake turned out deliciously, but i could see the future version of myself deciding to add more sesame seeds. the frosting was a learning experience... i think for now i'll just recommend using a basic buttercream frosting recipe minus some of the vanilla, and adding a couple tablespoons of ground black sesames.

ingredients

1 stick butter, softened

3/4 c white sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tb cocoa powder

3 tb black sesame seeds, ground in a spice grinder

2/3 c milk

clues

preheat oven to 350.

cream butter and sugar. add eggs. stir in vanilla.

in a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients. add to the butter mixture. stir in milk.

bake in muffin tins. if making mini cupcakes, bake for about 10-12 minutes. if large cupcakes, bake for 18-24 minutes. 

cool, frost, sprinkle with a few more sesames, and spread the good word of black sesame things.

-yeh!

sweets scenes and sister stoop on a snowy christmas

on christmas eve day, stoopie and i executed a four-course sweet tasting for santy claus. {santy claus, benji, santy claus! so goes my all-time favorite/only favorite faulkner quote.} it began with an amuse-bouche of almond-pistachio nougat and then launched into almond + cinnamon + meringue biscuits in anticipation of what if santa is gluten free? marzipan oreos came next. meaning, i just threw a bunch of marzipan and almond extract into the mixer as i was making the filling. they are at least seven times better than the candy cane joe joe's i stole from roommate megan. the champion of the tasting, however, was a little coconut layer cake that stoopie made and that we covered with tiffany's-colored marzipan and marzipan evergreen trees. {consider it practice for when i find myself making stoopie's wedding cake next year.}

it completely paid off. i think i'm santa's favorite. he brought me a hello kitty rice maker. it's exactly what my kitchen needs. i hope it speaks japanese to me as it cooks me fluffy rice in the shape of kitty cats.  

-yeh!

recipe: marzipan + dark chocolate + orange rugelach

when i was in school, mum flew in for just about every percussion ensemble concert, which happened twice a year. she'd arrive in the city with a giant massive suitcase weighed down by multiple batches of her amazing yummy fantastical rugelach, which i'd bring to the dress rehearsal for all of the other percussionists and, more importantly, the stage crew. the alice tully stage crew loved that stuff so much. to the point where even now when i pass by the stage door on the way to work and see one of them outside, they ask for mum's cookies. and whenever that happens, i miss those early mornings before percussion ensemble concerts, rehearsing and eating rugelach.

so last week in preparation for the first percussion ensemble concert of the year, i bought a silly amount of cream cheese and butter, and got workin so that i could arrive with a little surprise for the tully crew and my percussiony successors. i replaced mum's typical cinnamon sugar filling with my current obsession, marzipan. and then added some citrus to balance everything out. they came out of the oven beautifully, and i couldn't wait to prance back stage after the show and deliver batches of rugelach.

but then.

on the morning of the concert as i made my newspaper rounds, i discovered the percussionists dress rehearsing in peter jay sharp theater. not tully. i wanted to cry and i tried to think of ways to sneak in to tully and deliver the crew my rugelach.

but instead i let the percussionists {who played a wonderful concert} have seconds, and considered this round a test batch for the springtime concert. which i think is in tully? let's hope.

marzipan + dark chocolate + orange rugelach

{makes 40-50 cookies}

the dough is based on molly o'neill's recipe, the one that mum uses.

dough

1 c {2 sticks} unsalted butter, chilled and cubed

8 oz. cream cheese, chilled

2 tb sugar

2 c. all-purpose flour

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

filling

1/2 c orange marmalade {apricot or raspberry jam would also work well!}

1/2 c dark chocolate chips

1/2 c marzipan "chips" {i make these by rolling out marzipan and then using a pizza knife to cut small squares, about the same size as chocolate chips}

egg wash

1 egg yolk

1 tb honey

1 tb water

a few pinches of salt {i use maldon flakes}

++++++++++

1. make the dough: in a large bowl, combine the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and flour with a pastry blender or your hands. 

2. in a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, vanilla, and almond extract. add to the flour mixture and mix well until smooth. form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic, and chill overnight. 

3. preheat oven to 375, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

4. using half of the dough {the other half should remain in the fridge} roll out dough on a floured surface into a rectangle that is 1/4 inch thick. spread evenly with half of the jam, and then sprinkle with half of the chocolate and marzipan. working carefully, roll up dough into a jelly roll shape. slice the roll into one-inch sections and place on prepared baking sheet. repeat with the other half of the dough.

5. make egg wash by combining the egg yolk, honey, and water. brush this onto the tops of the rugelach, and then sprinkle with salt.

6. bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the tops are brown.

cool and enjoy! the calories don't count if you've just spent the morning moving a ton of percussion instruments.

 -yeh!

pie, mum

yesterday i woke up to the kitchen covered in little crumbly doughy pieces and onions flying everywhere. in the middle of it stood mum with the look on her face that george gershwin gets when he gets to go in the car. she was so excited because for the first time in her life she realized that making homemade pie crust is in fact not too difficult and way better than pillsbury. all you do is you crumble up butter and flour and blah blah blah pie crust yum!! i immediately went to work out in anticipation for what was about to come out of the oven. when i returned, the house smelled like passover {in the good, matzoh ball soup way} and there was a stunning lancashire cheese-and-onion pie sitting on the counter and together mum and i tore it apart. 

-yeh!