I Am... Cloud Bread Recipe: How to make that viral TikTok bread
TikTok is about to be banned so in a virtual way of pouring one out for it, I'm looking back at all the viral recipes that won’t stop, starting with cloud bread because super fluffy cloud bread is so jiggly and cute. Plus it’s only three ingredients! I mean, I loved dalgona coffee and pancake cereal, so maybe there’s something to this TikTok food thing? 2025 update: Tiktok has given us so much more: a salmon rice bowl, cucumber salad, and even frozen gummy bears. After seeing multiple people ripping into and squishing their TikTok cloud bread, I just HAD to make some myself.
What is TikTok cloud bread?
If you’re on TikTok and you’ve looked under #cloudbread you’ve probably seen the fluffiest, most impossible giant puffs of bread you’ve ever seen. All you need to make it is egg whites, sugar, and cornstarch. Cloud bread is essentially a softly baked meringue with some rebranding. If you’re not sure what a meringue is: it’s a type of dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar. Sometimes a binder (in this case cornstarch) is added to give it a bit more structure. Meringues taste kind of marshmallow-y when gently baked and light and crispy when baked and dried out longer. If you’ve had pavlova or lemon meringue pie or macaron, you’ve had meringue and by extension, cloud bread.Ingredients for cloud bread
- Egg whites. Egg whites are what give your cloud bread fluffiness and loft. If you’re going to separate egg whites yourself, be sure to not get ANY yolks into the whites or they won’t whip up. It’s better to separate your eggs while they’re cold, but they will whip up better if they’re at room temp. You can also just buy egg whites in a carton at the store, which is what I did. You’ll need 3 large egg whites or about 6 tablespoons of egg whites from a carton.
- Sugar. Just use regular white sugar. Sugar is what is going to stabilize your egg whites and let them fluff up even more. The sugar is also going to make your cloud bread just a little bit sweet.
- Cornstarch. You just need a tiny bit of cornstarch in your cloud bread, to help soak up any extra liquid in your meringue. Cornstarch also helps make your meringue shiny.
- Food coloring. This is optional, if you want to make your clouds colorful.
How to make cloud bread
- Whip the egg whites. Add your egg whites to a very clean, grease free bowl. Start to whip your egg whites on medium-low, until frothy and pale.
- Stir in sugar. Add the sugar, a little bit at a time on high, until the sugar dissolves and the egg whites start to foam up.
- Add the cornstarch. I like to sift the cornstarch in so that there are no lumps. Continue to whip on high until the egg whites become a glossy thick meringue that holds a peak. The egg whites are done when you lift the beater from the bowl and they hold a peak and look smooth and creamy like shaving cream If you tilt the bowl, the whites should not slide. Be careful not to over whip!
- Shape the cloud. Use a rubber spatula to scoop out the meringue and shape into a cloud on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Bake. Bake in a low oven until golden and cooked through.
What does cloud bread taste like?
To be honest, this cloud bread is more looks than taste. Maybe just like TikTok? It’s beautifully fluffy and full of tiny air bubbles and very squishy and satisfying but it’s not the most delicious. It’s light and airy and reminiscent of a marshmallow. It kinda tastes like angel food cake texture wise, but not taste wise.Tips and Tricks
- Make sure your egg white whipping equipment is completely clean and free from fat or oil or your egg whites won’t whip up.
- Similarly, make sure there are ZERO egg yolks in your egg whites.
- Separate your eggs while they’re cold, but beat them up with they’re at room temp.
- Don’t add all the sugar at once. Your meringue will be fluffier if you add it in gradually, 1 tablespoon at at a time.
- Don’t over beat! If you meringue starts to look grainy or really wet, it means your egg whites have been over-beaten and your cloud bread won’t be fluffy.
Cloud bread FAQs
How do I whip the egg whites?
Make sure your utensils are COMPLETELY clean and there is absolutely no oil or fat residue on your whisk or bowl. If you break your yolks as your separating the eggs the whites won’t whip up. Use a stainless steel or glass bowl and make sure it’s completely clean. Don’t use silicone or plastic bowls or utensils – even when they seem clean, there’s a possibility of oily residue that will make it hard for your eggs to whip up properly. Whipping egg whites takes time, so don’t be surprised if it takes a while for them to whip up.Why didn’t my egg whites whip up? I’ve been beating them forever!
If your egg whites didn’t get fluffy it’s because there was oil or fat in your egg whites. Oil or fat is the enemy of whipping up meringues. Fat interferes with how the proteins in egg whites bond together to whip up. If you’re separating your egg whites by hand and there is fat on your hand, your whites might not whip up. If there is any oil or fat on your whisk or in your bowl, your egg whites won’t whip up.How can I make my egg whites whip up?
You can try adding a touch of cream of tartar (1/4 teaspoon), vinegar (1/4 teaspoon), or lemon juice (1/4 teaspoon) to help whip up your eggs. Cream of tartar, vinegar, and lemon juice are all acids that help stabilize the egg whites and encourage them to get extra whipped.Why didn’t my cloud bread bake through?
If your cloud bread is golden brown on the outside but still under baked on the inside it might be because your oven is running too hot. Some ovens aren’t calibrated well or have hot spots. It probably means that the oven was too hot and that the outside of the bread cooked faster than the inside. Cloud bread bakes at a very low temperature. If the inside of your cloud bread is raw, you can just put your cloud bread back into the oven until it is baked through.Does it taste like eggs?
Cloud bread is made from 3 ingredients: egg whites, sugar, and cornstarch. The egg whites are make up the majority of the recipe so it’s only natural that cloud bread will taste like eggs. If you want a sweeter cloud bread to help it taste less like eggs, add a 1/4 cup of sugar. Warning: if you do this, your cloud will not be as fluffy.Do I need a stand-mixer to make cloud bread?
Technically you don’t need a stand mixer. You can whip these up with a regular whisk or a hand mixer. But it will take a REALLY long time and a lot of arm muscle. You can do it! I use this milk frother and it works amazingly.Why is my cloud bread wrinkly?
That’s just the nature of cloud bread! Because it’s not a cake with a significant amount of flour to stabilize it, it will get wrinkly as it cools, kind of like a soufflé. It’s best to enjoy it while it’s still a bit warm :)Can I make cloud bread in advance?
Unfortunately, just like clouds, cloud bread is extremely fleeting. You can’t make it in advance because the longer it sits, the more wrinkly and shrunken it’ll get. Cloud bread is best made and eaten fresh from the oven.Substitutes for cornstarch
If you don’t have cornstarch, which is also known as cornflour, you can use regular all purpose flour. The amount of flour is very small so it won’t make a difference.Substitutes for sugar
Sugar works best if you’re making meringue but you can also use sweetener if you’re avoiding sugar. The meringue won’t fluff up as much but it will be sugar free. Try things like: stevia, splenda, or monkfruit sweetner.Why does my cloud bread taste like eggs?
Cloud bread only has three ingredients: egg whites, sugar, and cornstarch. It’s tastes like eggs because eggs are the main ingredient. If you want it to be sweeter, more meringue-like and less eggy, you can make it with more sugar or add some extracts like vanilla or almond. Instead of using 2.5 tablespoons of sugar, use 6 tablespoons. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract. The cloud bread will be a bit stiffer and not as fluffy but it will taste more like meringue!Cloud Bread Recipe
3 ingredient fluffy TikTok viral cloud bread
- 3 large egg whites (about 6 tbsp)
- 2.5 tbsp sugar (~30g)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch (~10g)
- food coloring (optional, see note)
Heat the oven to 300°F. In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the whip attachment to whip the egg whites on medium high until frothy.
Add the sugar slowly, 1 tablespoon at at time and whip on high until small bubbles start to form.
Sift in the cornstarch and continue to whip on high until the whites are whipped up into a glossy thick meringue that holds a peak, about 5-6 minutes.
Scoop out the meringue on to a parchment paper lined baking sheet and shape into a fluffy cloud or mound.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. The outside will be a light golden brown. Let cool and enjoy the fluff!
Optional: If you want to add flavoring (baking extracts) or color into your cloud bread, add it in when you add your cornstarch.
Estimated nutrition is for one loaf.
Recipe via @linqanaaa and @abimhn
I Am... Vietnamese Fish Sauce Recipe (nuoc cham aka dipping sauce)
Is there anything that’s more of an umami bomb than fish sauce? A few drops of this magic stuff into a dish can take it from from great to spectacular. It's an amazing secret ingredient to have in your arsenal. This is the ultimate guide to fish sauce for anyone who is curious or interested in adding it to your culinary toolkit. In this post, you'll learn what it is, what brands to buy, how to use it, and most importantly, how to make prepared fish sauce for dipping or dressing at the table. My family's fish sauce roots run deep. We're from a countryside village by the ocean. Several times a year, boats would come to the docks with the various in-season seafood for the villagers to make fish sauce with. Every household would have their own barrels of fish sauce. The rich family in the village made their money selling industrial quantities of the stuff, made in large open air concrete pools. My mom was famous in the village for her prepared fish sauce which she sold with bowls of noodles and fresh grilled cobs of corn.
Nuoc mam vs nuoc cham
Sometimes on restaurant menus you’ll see a reference to nước chấm. Nuoc cham in Vietnamese just means dipping sauce, but what it really means is ready-to-eat/table/prepared, aka fish sauce made into a ready to eat sauce (ie, for dipping) with garlic, lime, and chilies. Very few people would use the raw unadulterated sauce out of the bottle for anything other than cooking. In my family and in our part of Vietnam, we don’t say nuoc cham. We just say nuoc mam and you’re expected to know which kind is meant based on context. At best, it would be called nước mắm chấm, which means dipping fish sauce. If you are cooking, you use it right out of the bottle, but at the table, it’s always prepared. Prepared fish sauce is the stuff of dreams, and almost always a jealously guarded family secret. Every Vietnamese family claims their recipe is the best, or that their family makes it the best. Vietnamese kids who have grown up in America and can't cook as well as their moms joke about always having 2 jars in their fridge. When one goes empty, it’s time to call mom up for another jar.Prepared fish sauce recipe
When Vietnamese people say their mom’s fish sauce is the best, they mean the prepared stuff. Heck, when Vietnamese people say they dream of fish sauce, they also mean the prepared stuff. Not many Vietnamese people would share this recipe (or could, since most don’t measure or write recipes). This is a version I learned long ago from my mom and tweaked through the years by me, and best of all, written down.How to make prepared fish sauce
- Crush sugar, garlic, and Thai chilies in a mortar and pestle.
- Transfer to a jar, then add lime, fish sauce, and water.
- Let mellow in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before enjoying.
An even better (and cheaper) version
It's 2025 and limes are ridiculously priced and not that great. I've started making and serving our ginger fish sauce which is traditionally eaten with poultry, but all the time. And it's been a hit. I'll update the recipe below but basically, it's sub lime for ginger and add a little more sugar and garlic to offset the punch of ginger. Otherwise every step is the same. I've loved it with everything you'd traditionally eat with nuoc cham, such as spring rolls, salad rolls, rice plates, etc.What is fish sauce
Fish sauce, sometimes referred to as nước mắm, is a sauce made from fermenting seafood in salt that's associated with Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam and Thailand. Generally it’s made from anchovies, but it’s also made from tiny shrimp, tuna belly, and more. You can make fish sauce from any seafood. You can even make fish sauce at home by packing 3 parts fresh anchovies to 1 part salt in a large jar and leaving it for a year or so.What brand of fish sauce to buy
Of course, no one is going to make their own at home. There are a lot of brands of fish sauce out there, and more all the time, so it can get confusing as to which one to choose. The best way to choose is the same as olive oil. There’s something similar to first press for fish sauce that has a superior flavor over the cheaper stuff. To find it, look for the words mắm nhĩ on the label. This includes the popular and well known Red Boat brand, but it also includes some other great choices such as Viet Huong, Phu Quoc, and our current bottle of the moment, Megachef.What is mam nhi
Most Vietnamese people know that mam nhi is to fish sauce what extra virgin is to olive oil but not everyone knows why. The etymology of the phrase was a hard one to track down. There’s not even agreement on the correct spelling. Esoterically, it’s either mắm nhĩ or mắm nhỉ. These are pretty small differences, even in Vietnamese, but it’s still not agreed upon. On Vietnamese wikipedia it merely says that mam nhi means “proper sauce” but the explanation is a little stretched and unlikely. My dad's theory is that nhĩ is old school slang for drip or drop. Way back in the day, before mass manufacturing, every family would have wooden barrels like a wine barrel with a spout in which they made the sauce. When they needed some, they would open the spout and let some sauce drip out, and that’s what was called mam nhi. Per my dad’s theory, if they were planning on selling it, they would pour some of those first drippings back into the barrel and later press it to stretch the yield, which formed the inferior “ordinary” fish sauce. Mam nhi was the good stuff, saved for the family.Avoid this unless you know
Over the years I’ve learned that many people don’t know what brands and styles to avoid. The kind we use in most cooking is clear. Avoid any that are opaque unless you know what you are getting into, including - and especially - any that say mắm nêm or mắm ruốc on the label. These will be more pungent than the clear stuff. Used correctly as in BBH, they're delicious, but be warned, they can be dangerous for the uninitiated sense of smell. You should also avoid any supermarket brands, such as Thai Kitchen, Asian Family, Dynasty, etc because they're overly pungent, over salted, and lacking in flavor. When in doubt or in a food desert, buy Red Boat. It’s the safest, most widely available option, and it’s what we buy when we’re far from Asian supermarkets.Can you make this without a mortar and pestle?
When my mom needs to make enough for large parties (we’re talking gallons) she would use a food processor or blender. She considered it substandard but no one seemed to complain. I’ve made it both ways, there’s a very clear - but not huge - difference. The best tool for the job if you don't have a mortar and pestle in my opinion is a garlic press.Can you use lemons?
You can use any acid you want, even vinegar, but limes are best. Everything else doesn't taste quite right.Can you use other peppers or just leave them out?
Thai chilis are traditional because that's what's in that part of the world, but sometimes it's just a little hard to come by. My favorite substitute is habaneros, which are easier to seed if you don't prefer the spice, and give the fish sauce a nice fruit forward flavor as well. If you don't like spice, you can avoid them altogether, in which case Vietnamese people often add julienned carrots for a little flavor, sweetness, and color.Variations
This simple basic fish sauce is not the only game in town. We modify it to suit the dish. You can add ginger for poultry. You can make a more watered down one to flavor vermicelli bun bowls. Add carrots for color. My mom even makes a meaty version that’s essentially gravy that Steph adores for dipping spring rolls, like a peanut free peanut sauce. Basically, feel free to play around with it to get it right for both your taste and your dish.Vietnamese vs Thai fish sauce
In my family, there’s no real difference between the Vietnamese and Thai versions, they are interchangeable to us and we use whatever we have on hand.Fish sauce substitutes
It may be tempting to substitute if you come across a recipe that requires fish sauce, but you shouldn’t. In the same way you probably wouldn’t substitute mustard in a recipe, unless you’re vegan, you probably don’t need to substitute. It’s cheap and there’s lots of recipes you can use it with, in addition to just using it to boost the umami profile of literally anything from steak to ragu bolognese.Recipes that use fish sauce
If you end up with a lot of fish sauce and you don’t know what to do with it, here are some of my favorite recipes that use it:- Crockpot Beef Stew
- Instant Pot Bo Kho Recipe
- Spicy Noodles: Vietnamese Garlic Lemongrass Edition
- The Best Pho Recipe
- Coconut Chicken Curry
- Khao Soi: 15 Min Thai Coconut Curry Chicken Noodle Soup
- Bun Bo Hue: The Noodle Soup You Never Knew You Loved
- The Mushroom-iest Green Bean Casserole
- Better than Take Out Peanut Free Pad Thai Recipe
- Extra Easy Pok Pok Style Fish Sauce Chicken Wings
Recipes that use prepared fish sauce
- Vietnamese Spring Roll Recipe
- A Very Authentic Countryside Bún Bò Xả Ớt - Vietnamese Lemongrass Beef Recipe
- Lemongrass Beef Salad Rolls
- Vietnamese Steak Summer Rolls Party!
- Chashu Summer Rolls Recipe
- Smoked Salmon and Avocado Summer Rolls
- Avocado Chicken Broccoli Rabe Summer Rolls
- Hainanese Chicken Summer Roll Recipe
Fish Sauce Recipe
A secret family recipe
- mortar and pestle
- 2 tbsp sugar (or less if you prefer it less sweet)
- 2-4 Thai bird’s eye chili (sliced, more or less depending on your spice tolerance)
- 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
- 2 tbsp fish sauce (mam nhi preferred, such as red boat)
- 1.5-2 tbsp lime juice (depending on taste)
- 2/3 cup water (see notes)
In a mortar in pestle, crush sugar, garlic, and half the Thai chilies.
Transfer to a jar, then add fish sauce. Add 1/2 lime and water. Taste and add lime as needed. Finish with remaining Thai chilies.
Let mellow in the fridge for about 30 minutes before enjoying. Keeps in the fridge for up to a month.
The amount of water depends on your intended use. For dipping salad rolls, go with 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup water. For vermicelli bowls, go with 2-3 cup to 1 cup water.
For Ginger Fish sauce, use 1 tbsp grated/diced/crushed ginger (about 3/4” of ginger), 3 tbsp sugar, 4 cloves of garlic, 2 tbsp fish sauce, 1-2 thai chilis (optional as the ginger is quite spicy itself), and 1 cup water. Then just follow the steps above.
I Am... Easy One Pot Chicken Spaghetti
Chicken spaghetti is one of those casseroles that needs a little Tiktok glow up because it is good and more people need to make it. The 80s are back and I’m all for it! Give me hair scrunchies, neon, and ALL the casseroles. I don’t know why casseroles have such a bad reputation. They’re one dish, they’re creamy, they taste good, and there’s almost always leftovers. There's even a tiktok spaghetti and it's not this one. If you haven’t had it, chicken spaghetti is pure comfort food goodness. Tender pieces chicken mixed with spaghetti, tomatoes, and peppers in a creamy cheesy sauce. Back in the day it was made with canned soup but we can do better than that! And what’s more, you can make it all in one pan so there’s minimal clean up.
What is chicken spaghetti
Chicken spaghetti is an American baked spaghetti dish made with a cream sauce, topped with cheese and baked until bubbly. The spaghetti is broken up in small pieces before being cooked.How to make chicken spaghetti
- Sauté the aromatics. In a dutch oven, melt some butter and sauté onions, diced red bell pepper, and garlic until soft and fragrant.
- Cook the chicken. Add sliced chicken and cook until golden.
- Stir in the liquids. Stir in diced tomatoes, chicken stock and milk to the pan.
- Add the pasta. Add the spaghetti and bring everything to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook, tossing occasionally, until the spaghetti is tender and cooked through. If it gets too thick, stir in a bit more chicken stock.
- Cheese! Season with salt and pepper and stir in some shredded cheese until melted. Top the casserole with more cheese.
- Bake. Bake until bubbly and golden and enjoy!
What is one pot pasta?
One pot pasta is a pasta cooking method that was popularized by Martha Stewart back in the early 2000s. It’s a way of cooking pasta where you don’t need to drain the pasta water. Everything, including all of the ingredients for the sauce are put in a large, wide pan along with extra liquid that boils up and cooks the pasta. After the pasta is cooked, it’s tossed until it’s glossy and coated. I love one pot pasta because you can really get a lot of flavor into the noodles because you’re cooking it in sauce instead of water.Do I need to break the spaghetti?
You don’t have to, but if you want that classic American style, break that pasta! I opted to keep my spaghetti long because I love slurping noodles, but either way tastes amazing. If your pot isn’t wide enough to put all the pasta into the pan, laying flat, I would break the spaghetti so it fits.What about other pasta shapes?
Feel free to use other kinds of short pasta. I’m pretty sure people used broken short spaghetti back in the day because there wasn’t as much pasta variety available.Ingredients
- Aromatics - to add maximum flavor we’re going to use onions, garlic, and a bell red pepper. The onions and pepper add a bit of sweetness and four cloves of garlic add a huge garlicky hit.
- Chicken - sliced boneless skinless chicken breast is what I prefer but you can use chicken thighs too. You’ll want to cut the chicken into bite size pieces.
- Spaghetti- just regular spaghetti, not the fancy stuff. But if you do want to get the fancy stuff, you’re looking for bronze extruded pasta with a rough surface so that the sauce can cling to it.
- Tomatoes - a can of diced tomatoes is going to add some umami.
- Milk - this is what’s going to make our sauce nice and creamy without the cream.
- Chicken broth - instead of using water, a little bit of chicken broth is going to help our spaghetti cook up with extra chicken flavor.
- Cheese - shredded white cheddar (or mozzarella) is stirred into the sauce and layered on top to be baked into a golden brown cheesy crust.
What to serve with chicken spaghetti
This is a rich and filling casserole that doesn’t need much support from side dishes. If you’re going all out, serve it with these:FAQ
Can I use precooked chicken?
Absolutely. If you want to use rotisserie or leftover chicken, just shred it or chop it. You’ll need about 4 cups.Do I have to use peppers?
If you’re not a fan of bell peppers, you can leave them out. You can even substitute any kind of hearty vegetables you like.Can I use another kind of pasta?
Any sort of dry pasta will work with this recipe, except perhaps lasagna noodles.What kind of baking dish should I use?
If you have a large dutch oven or brasier it’s perfect for making the one pot pasta and baking it. The wide bottom means you don’t need to break the spaghetti. Of course, any oven safe pot will work and if you need to break the spaghetti, it just means it’s more authentic.Do I need to bake it?
Nope! In fact sometimes I just make this in the pan and eat it as is like an extra creamy chicken spaghetti. It tastes amazing unbaked but baked is also super cozy, it’s up to you.Why this chicken spaghetti
There are, admittedly, lots of chicken spaghetti recipes out there. What makes this one different is that it’s a one pot chicken spaghetti that can go straight from the stove to the oven to the dinner table. Most pasta dishes, as I’m sure you know have you cook pasta in a large pot of salted water, drain it, then add it to the sauce. We’re going to use the one pot pasta method where pasta is cooked right into the sauce. When you do this the pasta becomes extra flavorful because it’s being cooked in sauce instead of water. The result is a chicken spaghetti that is extremely delicious, creamy, and perfectly cooked.Make ahead chicken spaghetti
Make the casserole and top it with the cheese but don’t bake it. Cool completely and cover tightly and refrigerate up to 2 days. Bake in a 375°F oven, covered with foil for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake until bubbly and golden.How to reheat
To reheat you can either portion it out and microwave it or you can bake the entire casserole, covered in foil, in a 375°F oven for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake until bubbly.Chicken Spaghetti
Tender pieces chicken mixed with spaghetti, tomatoes, and peppers in a creamy cheesy sauce.
- 1/4 cups olive oil (or butter)
- 1 medium onion (diced)
- 1 bell pepper (diced)
- 4 cloves garlic (minced)
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (sliced)
- 14 oz canned tomatoes (roasted diced preferred (1 can))
- 2 cups chicken broth (no sodium preferred)
- 1.5 cups milk
- 1 lb spaghetti (or pasta of choice)
- 2 cups Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (shredded, or mozzarella/white cheddar)
Heat the oven to 375°F. In a large dutch oven or other oven proof dish, melt the butter or heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, 3-4 minutes. Add the red pepper and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add the chicken to the pan and cook flipping, until lightly golden brown, about 3-4 minutes. They will continue to cook in the sauce.
Stir in the diced tomatoes, chicken broth, milk, and spaghetti (break it to fit into the pan if needed) to the pan and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally so the pasta doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan, until the pasta is cooked through and tender, about 8-10 minutes. If too thick, slowly add 1/4 cup chicken stock until desired consistency is reached. Season with salt and pepper.
Stir in half of the shredded cheese, then top with the remaining cheese and bake in the oven until bubbly and melted, about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly and enjoy! Optionally, you can enjoy the spaghetti as is and not bake it.
I Am... Cozy Wonton Soup
Wonton soup has long been one of my favorite foods. It was one of the only things I ate as small child and I have many fond memories of my small self, kneeling on a chair at our round laminate kitchen table, meticulously wrapping wonton for dinner. I would always make the wonton extra tiny. I loved eating wonton wrappers, more so the the wonton filling, and my wonton would be 10 percent meat and 90 percent wrapper. They didn’t look anything like the wonton we would order by the bowlfuls on the weekends at our local wonton congee noodle restaurant, but I loved making those misshapen, wonky wontons.
What is wonton soup?
In America, wonton soup seems like an afterthought: something you might order to round out your takeout meal. But in Hong Kong, arguably the home of the best wonton soup in the world, it can be a Michelin worthy meal. Hong Kong style wonton soup is a clear soup base made with chicken or pork broth and dried shrimp stock, full of umami and depth. A hint of toasted sesame oil adds a light nuttiness and a touch of soy sauce adds a satisfying salinity. The wontons themselves are bouncy and delicate, a mix of ground pork and roughly chopped prawns wrapped in a silky noodle wrapper. A good bowl of wonton soup is revolutionary.How to make wonton soup
- Make the broth. Bring the broth ingredients to a simmer and let infuse.
- Cook the wonton. Bring a large pot of water up to a boil. When at a rapid boil, gently drop in the wonton and stir to stop them from sticking to the bottom of the pot. The wonton will sink down at first and then start to float as the water comes back up to a boil and they are cooked through. Take one and cut it open to make sure, then scoop out all of the cooked wonton.
- Serve. Ladle the broth into a bowl. Add the wontons and finish with scallions. Enjoy!
Easy wonton soup
It's best to make the wonton by hand, but sometimes you just don't have the time. In that case, feel free to grab a bag of frozen wonton from your local grocery store (they should be in every frozen aisle ever, no need to go to a specialty Asian supermarket) and follow the recipe for the soup. You can have delicious easy wonton soup in 5-10 minutes.What are wonton?
Wonton are Chinese dumpling filled with meat, typically served in a flavorful clear broth or dressed in sauce. Unlike most other Chinese dumplings, wonton wrappers are squares or trapezoids. The wrappers are slippery, thin, and supple. Wontons are usually filled with ground pork, shrimp, and aromatics. They’re incredibly popular, both as a snack, side dish, or meal. They’re served at home, in restaurants, as night market street food, You can make them at home easily and they also sell them premade, frozen, in lots of grocery stores. Weirdly, you can even get them on Amazon. But the best is homemade, which is what we're doing here.How to make wonton filling
Wonton fillings are where it’s at! Everyone and their grandma has a secret recipe for fillings. Usually when you get wonton the filling is ground pork with shrimp, but nowadays there are MILLIONS of filling combinations. The simplest way to make wonton filling is to put everything in a bowl and mix it up. Here are some tips:- Protein. Wontons are a meat based dumpling, so it’s best to use a protein with some fat in it so the filling stays juicy and fluffy after cooking. This is why pork is so popular. Ground pork has just enough fat to protein ratio. Adding in some bouncy shrimp is a pro move because they add some textural contrast. That being said, you can use any ground meat you like (or even tofu), just know that your wonton will probably be a bit more dense if you’re using extra lean meat.
- Aromatics and seasoning. Ginger, scallions, soy sauce, and shaoxing wine (read more about shaoxing here) are my weapons of choice to make these wontons absolutely irresistible.
- Cornstarch. Mix together a bit of cornstarch with water then stir it into the ground pork. Stirring in a bit of cornstarch and water will make the insides of your wonton super tender. It’s the secret to juicy, tender wonton! When you stir in the water-cornstarch mix everything will come together into a homogenous paste, which is exactly what you want.
How to fold wonton
The simplest way (and the way I did it when I was small) is to just put 2 teaspoons of filling into the middle of a wonton wrapper and squish up the wrapper around the filling. That’s what I did in the photos in this post and they look chubby and cute. It’s the classic Hong Kong style wrapping. However, if you want a bit more pizzazz, you can try this:- Lay the wonton wrapper out as as diamond. Place some filling near the corner closest to you.
- Fold/roll the wrapper up, enclosing the filling in a triangle.
- Press the sides to seal.
- Bring the opposite ends of the wrapper together and use a dab of water to seal.
Which wonton wrappers to buy
Wonton wrappers are always square, just look for a square package of dumpling wrappers (they’re in the fridge section). They’re supposed to be very thin, so choose the package that has the thinnest wrappers. You'll find a better selection of dumpling wrappers at your local Asian grocery store. Some major grocery stores sell wonton wrappers as well, but they tend to be thicker.How to freeze wonton
I like making a big batch of wonton and then freezing them so we have wonton on hand when we want a quick and easy meal. To freeze, just lay out the wonton in a single layer on a tray or baking sheet, not touching, and freeze until firm. Then gather them up and put them in a freezer safe bag or container. Cook from frozen, adding a couple of extra minutes on the cooking time.What does wonton mean?
I’ve always loved wonton, mostly because of how they taste, but also because wonton in Chinese (雲吞) means swallowing clouds. They kind of do look like fluffy little delicious clouds floating in broth :)How many wonton per person
A good rule of thumb is 8-10 as a snack/starter and 12-16 as a main.How much soup per person
I would say 1 1/4 cup of soup per person is a good amount.Frequently Asked Questions
- I’m allergic to shrimp, do I need shrimp in wonton? Nope, if you don’t like shrimp or are allergic, you can simply omit the shrimp and add in the equal amount of extra pork. Obviously you would leave the dried shrimp out of the soup as well. If you want to add extra umami, add a dried shiitake to the soup where you would add the dried shrimp.
- I don’t eat pork, what can I make wonton with? Chicken wonton are wonderful, as are turkey wonton. I don’t really do beef wonton much because I like how much more tender ground chicken and turkey are.
- What vegetables can I put in wonton soup? If you want to add more vegetables to your wonton soup to make it more veggie forward, the good news is that you can add just about any vegetable to make it more hearty and healthy. Try adding sliced mushrooms, kale, or spinach.
- How do I add noodles to wonton soup? If you want to make wonton soup a meal and go the Hong Kong route and make wonton noodle soup, simply cook your noodles according to the package (not in the wonton soup) drain well and then add them to the soup with the wonton. The kind of noodles used for wonton noodle soup are, unsurprisingly, called wonton noodles. They’re thin, egg noodles that are springy, chewy, and seriously good. You can find them in the refrigerated section of Asian grocery stores labeled thin wonton noodles.
One last (really important) thing
There are are a lot of wonton soup recipes out there. Heck, there are actually a lot of different kinds of wonton soups in the world. That being said, if you’ve been poking around the internet and aren’t sure if the recipe you’re looking at is authentic or not, I will give you this tip: Chinese people will NEVER ever boil wontons in the soup they’re serving them in. Don’t do it! Boiling wontons in the soup will make your soup slimy and taste weird. There’s a reason why all wonton noodle houses have at least 2 giant boiling pots: one filled boiling water for cooking wontons and one filled with that delicious broth the wontons bathe in after they’ve been cooked. Happy wonton-ing! xoxo steph PS - Try these in spicy chili oil, they’re amazing. PPS - Round out your Chinese take-out feast with Easy Homemade Char Siu, Egg Fried Rice, and Sweet and Sour Pork.Wonton Soup
Biting into a wonton is biting into life.
Wonton Soup
- 8 cups chicken stock (no sodium preferred)
- 1 inch ginger (peeled and sliced)
- 2 tbsp dried shrimp (optional)
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce (or to taste)
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
Wonton
- 1/2 lb ground pork
- 1/4 cup green onions (thinly sliced)
- 1 tbsp ginger (minced)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1/2 lb shrimp (peeled, deveined, and chopped)
- 1-2 packs fresh wonton wrappers (as needed)
To Finish
- 1 cup green onions (thinly sliced)
- 1 lb briefly blanched leafy greens: bok choy, gailan, etc
- 1/4 cup chili oil
- 1 tbsp white pepper
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp black vinegar
Make the soup: Combine the chicken stock, ginger, and dried shrimp in a stock pot over medium low heat and bring to a gentle boil. Turn the heat down to very low (1 to 2 bubbles) while you make the wonton.
In a bowl, mix together the pork, ginger, scallions, soy, Shaoxing, sesame oil, salt, and white pepper. Whisk the cornstarch with 2 teaspoons of water and mix into the filling until the pork forms a paste. Mix in the shrimp.
Optional: Massage the shrimp with 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt and let it sit for 30 minutes before rinsing throughly, chopping, and mixing into the wonton filling.
Take a wonton wrapper and place 2 teaspoons of the meat filling near the edge. Fold/roll the wrapper up, enclosing the filling. Bring the opposite ends of the wrapper together and use a dab of water to seal. Alternatively, just wet the edges of the wrapper and bring together and pinch into a small pouch. Keep the wrappers and finished wonton covered with saran wrap as you work, to keep them from drying out.
Bring a second large pot of water to boil over high heat. When the water reaches a rapid boil, add in your wonton. Stir gently so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. They will start to float once they’re cooked through. Cook for 3-4 minutes (depending on size) or until cooked through – cut one open to check.
Strain or scoop the solids out of the broth. Taste the broth and add in the soy sauce and toasted sesame oil, to taste. Fill a bowl with the soup and add the cooked wonton and greens. Finish with scallions and enjoy!
The dried shrimp, which you can find at an Asian grocery store will add a deep amount of umami to your wonton soup and make it ten thousand times better. If you don’t have any, you can skip it. I put mine in a disposable teabag for easy removal.
I Am... Easy Homemade Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork)
My ultimate comfort food is a bowl of fluffy rice, doused in sweet soy sauce with glistening glossy slices of Chinese bbq pork aka char siu. It's one of our go-to dinners for Mike and I because it’s just so darn easy. We usually just head to our favorite Chinese BBQ place and buy a pound of char siu along with some roast duck. Sometimes though, ok, actually quite often, we're living in a place without a great Chinese BBQ master, and then you need to take matters into your own hands. Luckily, unless you're trying to make a whole crispy roast pork or a brace of ducks, a home oven is all you need to make some great Chinese BBQ. This is a quick and easy char siu aka Chinese BBQ pork recipe. It’s essentially the same as this one here, minus the red fermented tofu because we don’t actually have any in the fridge. It lacks that hint of distinctive depth of flavor but it’s still really darn tasty!
What is Chinese BBQ pork?
Char siu literally translates to fork roasted and that’s exactly what char siu is, normally: fork roasted pork. Pork – usually pork butt/shoulder - is marinated in a sweet and savory BBQ sauce and then roasted. It’s sweet and salty and has just some nice complexity thanks to five spice. It’s juicy and sticky and just about perfect on a bowl of white rice.How to make char siu at home
- Cut your pork. You want to cut the pork into long strips at least 3 inches wide.
- Marinate. Mix up honey, hoisin, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, garlic, ginger, five spice, and white pepper and rub it all over the pork and let it marinate overnight (or at least for an hour) in the fridge.
- Roast. Let the pork get all juicy and cooked through on a wire rack in a low oven.
- Make a glaze. Make a quick glaze by bringing the excess marinade and a bit of honey to a boil.
- Brush. Generously coat the pork with the glaze and give it a blast of heat to char it. Slice and enjoy!
What kind of pork for char siu?
You can use pretty much any piece of pork for char siu, from pork loin to pork butt. In fact, when you go to a real Chinese BBQ place, they often ask you, “fei ding sau” (胖或瘦) which translates to fat or skinny. Truthfully they usually only use pork butt at Chinese BBQ places, but even then, there will be leaner and fattier parts on a pork butt. If you want:- a more luscious, rich char siu - use pork butt
- tender, lower calorie, leaner char siu - use pork tenderloin
- a leaner, cheaper char siu - use pork loin
- the best char siu you’ve ever eaten - use pork collar aka pork neck. It’s not a common cut, but essentially it’s the shoulder that runs from the neck to the tip of the loin.
What ingredients do I need?
You do need a couple of Chinese sauces, namely hoisin and soy sauce. They sell hoisin online and at most grocery stores in the Asian aisle, so you’re pretty much good to go. Other than that you need honey, garlic, ginger, five spice, and a pork butt/shoulder.Char siu ingredients
- Hoisin sauce - They pretty much sell hoisin everywhere now, from Target to your basic grocery store. It’s a thick, sweet brown sauce that’s used in marinades and as a dipping sauce. Hoisin is super flavorful: sweet and savory, tangy, and full of umami. It’s essential for Chinese bbq dishes.
- Shaoxing wine - This is the secret ingredient that all your Chinese food needs to taste like restaurant style Chinese food. Shaoxing wine is rice wine and while it’s optional for this recipe, it’ll be 10 thousand times better if you get it. They sell it online and in Asian grocery stores.
- Five spice - So many char siu recipes out there are just glazed pork. But if you want a savory char siu, don’t forget the five spice. It’s added flavor.
- White pepper - If you don’t have white pepper, don’t sweat it, but if you do, use it here. It’s more fragrant, delicate, and floral. It adds pepperiness without overwhelming.
How do you pronounce char siu?
It’s cha as rhymes with "rah rah rah" and siu as in rhymes with “few.”Why should I make this?
Char siu is a low effort high reward SUPER delicious juicy roasted pork that you will love. It has a sticky sweet glaze that is so good that you’ll want to eat it on everything. Plus, if you’re missing Chinese take out, this is the dish for you.What can I serve it with?
You can have it with fluffy white rice, in buns, with noodles, in fried rice, basically anything. xoxo StephEasy Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork)
A delicious sweet and sticky juicy Chinese bbq pork aka char siu recipe
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp hoisin
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp Shaoxing wine (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic (lightly smashed)
- 1 inch ginger (sliced)
- 1/2 tsp five spice (optional)
- 1/4 tsp white pepper (optional)
- 2 tbsp honey (for glaze)
- 1 lb pork butt/shoulder (cut into strips)
Mix the marinade ingredients throughly. Coat the pork with the sauce and marinate for minimum 1 hour and up to 24.
When ready to cook, heat the oven to 300°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil. Remove the pork from the marinade, shaking off excess. Lay the pork on a wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, flipping halfway through.
While the pork is cooking, heat up the remaining marinade (remove the ginger and garlic) with the last 2 tablespoons of honey. Bring to a simmer over medium heat until it reduces and thickens slightly. It should coat the back of a spoon.
Brush the pork with the glaze and turn the heat up to 400°F, brushing with glaze and flipping, until slightly charred. Let rest slightly, slice and enjoy!
I Am... Best Blueberry Muffins Recipe
These blueberry muffins were so dreamy. Cake-y and moist with pockets of blueberry jammy goodness and a crispy sugary top. Recently, I was plagued by a mad craving for muffins. Mike and I were on a walk and I had a muffin emergency. We hopped into a random bakery and I couldn't decide which muffin so I asked Mike what his go-to muffin choice was. He very decisively said, "blueberry." I asked why and it turns out that Mike used to exclusively bake blueberry muffins when he went through a blueberry muffin phase. He practically knew a muffin recipe by heart (this one) and it turned out to be so good I had to share.
Who is Jordan Marsh
I was determined to make the muffins that Mike made in his youth, so after a quick google search, he determined that they were the Jordan Marsh muffins. It turns out, Jordan Marsh's blueberry muffins are famous. Very famous, in fact. Jordan Marsh was a fancy New England department store with a flagship store in downtown Boston. That flagship store had a bakery on the top floor that was famous for blueberry muffins. They were gigantic, addictive, and worthy of making pilgrimages for.How to make blueberry muffins
- Cream the butter and sugar until light. Add the egg, beating well. Add the vanilla.
- Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder
- Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternating with the milk: flour milk, flour, milk, ending on flour.
- Fold in the blueberries.
- Line a standard muffin tin with 6 liners, and fill equally with the batter.
- Sprinkle sanding sugar over the tops of the muffins,
- Bake at 375ºF for 30-35 minutes, or until the tops are golden and toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove muffins from the tin, cool, and enjoy!
What is sanding sugar?
Sanding sugar is coarse heat resistant sugar that you can use to add a crunchy texture and a little extra sweetness to cookies, muffins, and other desserts. While it's not absolutely essential, it definitely makes this recipe. You can find sanding sugar at most grocery stores, Michaels/other craft stores, and of course, online.When is blueberry season?
Blueberry season is different depending on where you live. In the southern parts of the USA, peak blueberry season is May to July and gradually goes longer as you go up north. Washington, Oregon, and BC blueberries can extend well into October. In the winter blueberries come from south of the equator which adds to pricing, and you might want to use frozen blueberries instead. If you do, thaw them out for about 15 min and roll them in flour so they won't turn the batter purple.Wild vs cultivated blueberries
Most blueberries at the store are cultivated blueberries (highbush), which are great. But, if you see them, wild blueberries (lowbush) are amazing: more flavorful and contain more anti-oxidants. Give them a try!Muffin Tins
PS - I couldn't find our muffin pan but made do with these little individual tins that I have that turned out to be perfect. To be honest, they kind of work just like a muffin pan but better because they stack. I also played around with using parchment paper instead of regular muffin papers and that worked too. I can't decide which I like better but it's nice to know that I can make muffins even if I don't have the papers.Blueberry Muffin Recipe
The very best blueberry muffins by the genius of Jordan Marsh
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 cup blueberries (washed and dried)
- 1 tbsp coarse sanding sugar (or as desired, for topping)
Heat the oven to 375°F. Cream the butter and sugar until light. Add the egg, beating well. Add the vanilla.
Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder, and add to the creamed mixture alternating with the milk: flour, milk, flour, milk, ending on flour.
Fold in the blueberries.
Line a standard muffin tin with 6 liners, and fill equally with the batter. Sprinkle the sanding sugar over the tops of the muffins.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the tops are golden and toothpick comes out clean. Remove muffins from tin, cool, and enjoy!
I Am... How to Make Oden at Home
When the weather turns cold, oden is the answer to what’s for dinner. If you’ve ever been in Japan in the winter and hop into one of the many ubiquitous combini aka convenience stores like 7-11 or Lawson, chances are you’ll have seen oden: a steaming vat of soup featuring featuring things like fish cakes and tofu. A huge pot of oden is a great way to gather around and enjoy winter. Mike and I love oden with a passion. We’ve eaten oden on the streets of Japan, at izakaya, in various kombini, and at dedicated oden restaurants. Dare I say we’re oden connoisseurs? Fancy oden restaurants aside, I’m here to tell you that you’ve been sleeping on oden at home though. It’s just as amazing and so easy to make.
What is oden?
A classic warming winter snack or meal, oden is a one pot dish featuring fish cakes, tofu, and other hearty ingredients simmered in a flavorful soy-dashi broth. It’s a simmered dish that is continually kept warm. The ingredients in oden are meant to be simmered for a long time so you don’t have to worry about anything being overcooked. In fact, the oden ingredients, are meant to soak up the flavor of the dashi.How to make oden
Prep ingredients - peel the daikon and cut into 1 inch thick rounds. If desired, you can trim the edges of the daikon to round it out. Add the daikon rounds to a pot with cold water and bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes. While the daikon is cooking, rinse off the konnyaku and lightly score the block with diagonal cuts, then cut into triangles. Add to a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes then drain and set aside. Prep the rest of the ingredients: cut the atsuage tofu into triangles and any of the larger pieces of satsuma age into smaller pieces. Cut the hanpen in quarters and the chikuwa in half on a diagonal. Make the oden stock - In a large, heavy bottomed low pot, add dashi, soy sauce, sake, and mirin. Bring to a simmer. Simmer - Add the prepared daikon, and konnyaku, then simmer over medium to medium low until the daikon starts to turn tender. Add the chikuwa, atsuage, and any other oden ingredients you’ve chosen. Simmer for another 10-15 minutes or until everything warms through and the daikon is tender. Enjoy - Bring the pot to the table, where you can opt to keep it warm on a very low simmer on a burner. Pluck out your chosen pieces of oden as desired and enjoy!Types of oden and oden ingredients
The beauty of oden is that it’s incredibly simple to make and prepare. Most of the ingredients that go in oden are things that you pick up at the store, like fish cakes, fish balls, and tofu. If you’re feeling like getting a bit fancy and offering up some other oden goodies, I’ll talk more about preparing those later in this post. Here is a list of the most comment types of oden ingredients.Daikon
A classic! Daikon is a giant white radish that is cut into rounds and then simmered until soft and yielding, yet still a bit firm. Daikon oden is juicy and light, with plenty of the oden dashi flavor. Super tasty and a must.Tamago/egg
Boiled eggs are extremely popular even though I don’t prefer them because they tend to be too over-cooked for me. If you want to do tamago, do a soft boiled egg, peel it, then very gently dip them in the oden stock to heat them up, making sure to not over cook.Chikuwa
Fish cake that’s shaped into a tube then grilled. It’s a classic favorite, chewy, hearty, and good.Hanpen
A delightfully soft and squishy fluffy steamed fish cake. When it’s simmered it becomes super big and fluffy, full of dashi.Satsuma-age
A catch all for all the deep-fried fish cakes. They come in flat rounds, flat ovals, balls, and plenty of other shapes. You can tell they’re satsuma age from their deep orange golden color.Konnyaku
Chewy and jelly-like, konnyaku is a love it or hate it ingredient. I love it and if you’ve ever had house made konnyaku at a specialty oden shop, you’ll forever be chasing that flavor and texture.Shirataki
They look like a bundle of white noodles, but really they’re a bundle of konnyaku that’s shaped like noodles. Chewy, filling, and delicious.Atsuage
Deep-fried tofu. A large, thick slab of tofu that’s deep fried and holds up perfectly in oden.Kinchaku
A deep-fried tofu pocket with a secret mochi surprise inside! Careful, because they’re hot and the mochi is molten and melty. I love kinchaku.Ganmo
I love ganmo! It’s a piece of tofu made with vegetables inside and then deep-fried. They’re usually round and have little bits of burdock or wood ear mushrooms studded through the tofu. They soak up the dashi and are incredibly delicious.Other ingredients
These are some other things you can pop into your oden, but you’ll have to make them because they don’t come ready-made at the store. Usually you’ll find these kind of oden offerings at oden specialty restaurants or at izakaya. Tsukune - soft and juicy chicken meatballs on a stick. tebasaki - chicken wings, usually on a stick, simmered until tender and juicy. Gyusuji - served on a stick, beef tendon is simmers until soft and chewy. Rorukyabetsu - literally rolled cabbage, this is similar to a cabbage roll where a cabbage leaf is rolled around a gyoza-like filling.Where to buy oden ingredients
The best place to buy oden ingredients is at a local Asian grocery store. If you have a Japanese grocery store in town, that’s where you’re want to go. You’ll find all of the fish cakes in the frozen section, usually all together. Sometimes they’ll even have oden packs where they have a variety of fish cakes all conveniently together. You’ll find daikon in the vegetable department, and konnyaku and tofu next to each other in one of the fridge cases. For the dashi, you’ll find that in one of the aisles, usually near the soup stock section.What kind of soup should I use
The classic soup base for oden is awase dashi flavored with sake, mirin, and soy. Awase dashi is combination dashi, made from both dried kelp (kombu) and katsuobushi (dried skipjack tuna).How to make dashi
There are three ways most people make dashi. 1. kombu and katsuobushi: simmer kombu in water for about 10 minutes, remove the kombu, then steep the katsuobushi before straining. 2. dashi granules: simply add dashi granules to water. 3. dashi packs: this is my favorite way of making dashi - bring a pot of water to a boil, lower it to a simmer and add the dashi pack. Dashi packs contain both kombu and katsuobushi in a handy packet that you can fish out so you don’t have to strain your dashi. Dashi packs are readily available online: this is our favorite brand, Kayanoya, straight from Japan.Where is oden from?
Oden is a classic Japanese stew, a type of nabemono, or one pot dish. Nabe means cooking pot and mono means “things” so nabemono is things in pot. In oden’s case, the things in a pot are a variety of fish cakes, proteins, and vegetables. If you’re more familiar with Korean culture, maybe you know about odeng, which is essentially a Korean take. The Korean version usually features long flat fish cakes on skewers and is sometimes seared with a spicy soup.How to serve
Typically, the way oden is served in Japan is piece by piece. You order your favorite pieces of oden from the chef, and they scoop it out and plate it individually or with a couple of pieces on a plate or in a small bowl. They place it in front of you and you enjoy. Repeat as needed trying new pieces or getting more of your favorites until you’re full. At home, what we tend to do is have a pot of oden in the middle of the table, either gently simmering on a burner or keeping warm in our oden pot. We use tongs to fish out the pieces we like, eat them, and repeat. It’s a super simple serve yourself kind of meal. We’ll have side plates and chopsticks, and tiny dishes for condiments. Sometimes if we’re extra hungry, we’ll have a bowl of rice along side or maybe some udon. Usually though, we just enjoy the pieces of oden. If we’re feeling like we really want to go all out, I’ll grill some yaki onigiri for us to enjoy.What kind of sauce for oden
Typically they don’t serve a dipping sauce because the simmered pieces are really flavorful. That being said, when you go to a restaurant they often have sweet soy sauce, karashi (Japanese mustard), or yuzu kosho (a spicy paste made with yuzu and chili), and a miso sauce for dipping if you prefer. That’s it! I hope you give it a try. It really is the most comforting winter meal and I can think of nothing I enjoy more when it’s snowing out side and we’re all cozy inside with a big pot of oden in the middle of the table. Happy oden-ing! xoxo stephOden recipe
Warm and filling, oden is the perfect hands off, one-pot dish to warm you up
Soup
- 8 cup dashi
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sake
- 2 tbsp mirin
Items
- 1/4 medium daikon radish
- 1 block konnyaku
- 1 large piece atsuage/deep fried tofu
- 3 pieces chikuwa
- 1 piece hanpen
- 1 package satsuma age (assorted)
- 4 kinchaku
- 4 soft boiled eggs
- In a heavy bottomed pot, like cast iron, bring the dashi, soy sauce, sake, and mirin up to a gentle simmer. Turn the heat off or down to low while you prepare the oden ingredients.
- Peel the daikon and cut it into 1 inch rounds. If desired, trim so the daikon has no sharp edges. Add the daikon to a pot and top with cold water. Bring the daikon to a boil over medium heat and cook for 20 minutes. When done, remove from the water and set aside.
While the daikon is cooking, prep the rest of the ingredients: cut the atsuage tofu into triangles and any of the larger pieces of satsuma age into smaller pieces. Cut the hanpen in quarters and the chikuwa in half on a diagonal. If any of the pieces of satsuma age are extra large, cut them in half or in quarters.
If using konnyaku: Rinse off the block and lightly score the surface on a diagonal then score on the opposite diagonal, creating a diamond crisscross pattern. Cut the block of konnyaku into 3 even pieces then cut the 3 pieces in half into triangles. Bring a small pot of water to a boil and when boiling, add the konnyaku pieces and boil for 3 minutes. Drain, rinse, and set aside the konnyaku pieces.
When the daikon cooking time is up, add the daikon and konnyaku to the oden broth and bring to a simmer over medium low to low. Cook the daikon and konnyaku for 20 minutes, then add the remaining ingredients, aside from the boiled eggs. Simmer all of the ingredients for 10-15 minutes or until all of the ingredients soak up some of the dashi and are throughly hot.
Bring the pot to the table and enjoy, picking out pieces of oden to enjoy as desired. For the eggs, add them as desired, until just heated through, being sure to not overcook.
Estimated nutrition is highly dependent on what you buy and how much you eat.
I Am... Takoyaki Recipe
Takoyaki literally translated means octopus fried, but they aren't just fried octopus. They're tiny, piping hot balls of batter filled with green onions, ginger, crispy tempura bits and octopus. They're crisp, they're gooey, and they're delicious.
The best Japanese street food
Takoyaki is one of Osaka's quintessential street foods. Thankfully, you don't have to travel to Osaka to try them - they're basically found everywhere in Japan and are quite popular in North America too. If you ever come across a takoyaki stand, stay awhile and check out the takoyaki makers. They're mesmerizing. Professional takoyaki chefs have rows and rows of cast iron pans with half spherical molds. A dashi flavoured batter is poured into the molds and then each ball gets a piece of octopus, some ginger, and green onions. When the bottom of the balls are cooked, they're flipped with skewers so that the inside batter flows out to create the other side of the ball. It's amazing to watch a real pro. They're fast, furious and churn out the little balls like there's no tomorrow.Why you should make takoyaki at home
Takoyaki need quite a few ingredients and a specialized pan, but I think it's worth it. You can find a takoyaki pan on amazon.com or you can use an ebelskiver (Danish pancake) pan. As for the insides, octopus is classic, but feel free to put in shrimp, chicken, or whatever savoury filling you like. I like to do a combo of octopus, squid and shrimp. I also throw in some mozzarella cheese to get an crispy toasted cheese outside with an extra gooey cheesy inside. If you've never seen takoyaki being made, do a youtube search, it'll give a good starting point for how to flip the little balls around.What is takoyaki?
Takoyaki are a Japanese street snack that originated in the city of Osaka. They are little round balls of batter that are slightly crispy on the outside and a bit soft and gooey on the inside, stuffed with a little nugget of octopus, tempura bits, and green onions. Typically they serve them up in little wooden boats, brushed with takoyaki sauce, drizzled with Japanese kewpie mayo, and topped with bonito flakes and seaweed. They come with skewers or chopsticks to pick them up. They’re super popular and probably one of the most well known Japanese foods out there. Charmingly, you can almost always see people standing around the stands fanning their mouths because the takoyaki is too hot. Takoyaki is pure comfort food.What does takoyaki taste like?
Takoyaki are delicious! They’re super savory and full of umami. They’re piping hot when they are served, so be careful when you eat them. The outsides are just a touch crispy and the inside batter is seasoned, soft, and kind of gooey that melts in your mouth. The little nugget of octopus inside is supposed to contrast with the softness of batter. Green onions add a bit of freshness, beni shoga (pickled ginger) adds a hint of sweet and sour, and crispy tempura bits add even more richness. The sauce and mayo on top adds another layer of flavor. Takoyaki are so incredibly full of umami. The perfect bite! On mushiness: sometimes people are surprised by the texture of takoyaki. Is takoyaki supposed to be mushy? The answer is, yes, it’s supposed to be a little runny and gooey inside. It’s not exactly mushy, it’s more gooey like melty cheese. The gooey-ness is what most vendors aim for because the contrast is what makes takoyaki special. But, if you’re not a fan of gooey, you can be cook them all the way through. It just means that your balls will be a tiny bit more firm and structured than the ones you’ll find in Japan.What is takoyaki made of?
There are a lot of ingredients needed for takoyaki, but don’t let that stop you – it’s absolutely worth it. In fact, one of my all time favorite activities is making takoyaki at the table. I have so many fond memories of Mike and I making takoyaki and chatting the night away.Here’s what you need:
- Eggs. Eggs make up the majority of the batter and help it get crisp.
- Flour. Flour binds everything together into a very loose batter.
- Dashi powder. Dashi powder is what gives the batter it’s flavor - it’s a simple shortcut way of incorporating dashi (Japanese soup stock) into the base. You can buy dashi powder in the Asian grocery store or online. It adds a bunch of flavor and umami.
- Soy sauce. This is just to add some extra flavor.
- Octopus/tako. The reason why we’re here! You can buy already cooked tako at the Asian grocery store in the seafood section. Cut the tako up into cubes.
- Green onions. These add a bit of freshness to the takoyaki.
- Tenkasu. Tenkasu is tempura bits! They add texture and aroma. If you don’t have any (they sell them in bags at the Asian grocery store) then you can sub in rice krispies.
- Takoyaki sauce. A thick brown sweet and savory sauce.
- Kewpie mayo. This is essential and gives your octopus balls that iconic look.
- Bonito flakes. These flakes are what make your takoyaki look like it’s dancing! They are delicate, paper thin shaved dried fish that wave around from the hot steam. They are super savory.
- Seaweed. A little green sprinkle of powdered seaweed.
- A takoyaki pan. You can buy them for not too much money online, or if you have a Danish-style ebelskiver pan, that'll work great too.
How to make takoyaki
- Mix. Mix the batter up with a whisk making sure there are no floury bits.
- Prep. Prep all of the fillings. Cut up the octopus, slice the green onions and make sure you have everything at the ready: a little dish of oil, all your ingredients, some skewers to flip the balls, and a plate to serve on. Heat up the pan.
- Pour and fill. Generously oil the pan with a brush or a paper towel dipped in oil. Give the batter a whisk then pour into the individual compartments all the way up to the top. It’s okay if they overflow a bit. Add in the fillings and let cook until the edges start to look more solid and opaque.
- Flip. Use your skewers to turn the takoyaki 90 degrees. If they don’t easily move, they need more time to crisp up. Once they’re at a 90° angle, pour in a bit more batter to ensure a super round ball. Let cook, stuffing in any excess batter that’s outside the ball, then turn again. You should have a round ball. Cook until the balls are crispy and brown, moving the balls around from mold to mold to evenly cook (this is because most pans will have uneven heating). As the balls crisp up, it will be easier to flip them.
- Sauce. When the balls are golden and crisp, pop them on a plate and brush with takoyaki sauce and squeeze on some mayo. Top. Finish with a sprinkle of bonito and aonori. Enjoy!
Takoyaki tips and tricks
- Pre-make the batter. It can hang out in the fridge, covered and the flour can really get hydrated, making the batter smooth. It’ll help the crispiness of the outsides.
- Use a lot of oil. Oil is what is going to make the outsides crispy and easy to flip.
- Use a generous amount of batter. Professional takoyaki vendors almost always overfill the rounds of their grills and stuff the excess inside the ball so that each ball is perfectly round. Top up the batter if needed.
- Move the balls around. After the balls are lightly grilled and hold their shape, move them around the pan. Lots of home takoyaki pans have uneven heat so moving them around with help with browning.
Do I have to put octopus in takoyaki/what can you put in takoyaki?
If you don’t like tako, you’re in luck because you can put literally anything you want in takoyaki. Technically it won’t be called takoyaki anymore, but it’ll still be delicious! In Japan they have lots of varieties. Some ideas:- shrimp
- chicken cubes
- ground beef
- ground pork
- sausage
- bacon
- tofu
- cheese + anything else because everything is better with cheese
- mochi + tako
- kimchi + cheese
- diced ham + tomato sauce + cheese for a pizza version
- taco meat + diced tomatoes + cheese for a taco version
- vegetables: diced carrots, corn, peas, cabbage, zucchini, mushrooms, etc
What sauces go on takoyaki?
Once you have made the balls, finish by brushing on super savory takoyaki sauce and squeezing on kewpie mayo.Kewpie mayo
Kewpie mayo is a Japanese mayo that is sweeter, a little bit acidic and so much more delicious than regular mayo. It’s made with just yolks as opposed to all other mayos which are made with whole eggs, giving Kewpie an extra rich custard like texture. It’s slight sweetness comes from rice vinegar. It comes in an iconic super soft squeeze bottle with topped off with a little red flip cap.What is takoyaki sauce made of?
Most Japanese people buy their takoyaki sauce at the store and I do too! It's a thick brown sauce that’s similar to Worcestershire sauce but more fruity and thick. It comes in a handy squeeze bottle with a cute octopus on it. It’s really similar to okonomiyaki and tonkatsu sauce, so if you have those in the fridge you can use them too. Takoyaki sauce is sold online and in Asian grocery stores. If you need to make a sub at home, make this easy version: mix together 2 tablespoons ketchup, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon mirin, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon ketchup, 2 teaspoons oyster sauce, and 1 teaspoon sugar.What goes on top of takoyaki?
After the sauces, a handful of katsuobushi and a sprinkle of aonori are added for the finishing touch. Katsuobushi is dried bonito flakes and they’re those little whisps that look like they’re dancing when your takoyaki is hot. Aonori is a powdered seaweed. They sell both katsuobushi and aonori online and in Asian grocery stores. If you don’t have aonori, you can use seaweed strips! Unfortunately there isn’t really a sub for katsuobushi.Aonori: those pretty green sprinkles of seaweed
Aonori is green seaweed that’s been dried and powdered into small flakes. It’s used to finish dishes like okonomiyaki, yakisoba, and takoyaki. It’s not quite the same as regular roasted nori/seaweed - it’s a different variety, much like how romaine and iceberg are both lettuces, but they taste quite different. Aonori is full of umami and a robust briny flavor that will remind you of the sea. You can find it in Asian grocery stores or online.Where can I buy a takoyaki pan?
We actually have two takoyaki pans, one that my friend gifted me and one that we bought on amazon. You can also purchase them in Japan and sometimes in Asian supermarkets. I love the electric takoyaki pan but if you have an ebelskiver pan you can also make larger takoyaki on the stove. They also sell cast iron takoyaki pans too.How do you make takoyaki without a pan?
Unfortunately you can’t - you need the half-sphere shapes to really make that round ball shape.How to store takoyaki?
You might be wondering, how long does takoyaki last in the fridge? If you happen to make extra, you can keep it in the fridge in a covered container for a day or two and heat it up in the microwave but it won’t taste as good as fresh, especially if it has all the sauces on it. What you should do, if you have extra batter is just put everything in the fridge as is and then make takoyaki again, fresh, the next time you want to eat it. The batter and toppings should last up to two days in the fridge.FAQ
Does takoyaki always have octopus?
Nope, like it says earlier in the post, there are lots of takoyaki in Japan that don’t actually have octopus. They sell shrimp and squid varieties too. You can put any protein inside and even just leave them plain if you don’t want anything in the middle.Where is takoyaki from?
Takoyaki originated in Osaka in the early 1900s then became popular as street food. Nowadays it's sold by street food venders, as well as being sold in combini (convenience stores), supermarkets, food courts, bars/restaurants, and specialized restaurants all over Japan.How do I make perfectly round balls?
Make sure you over fill the rounds. Generously oil the pan, pour in the batter, add the fillings, then top up the batter so that you have extra batter to stuff into the balls, so that they fill out and become perfectly round.Which pan do you recommend?
I like this electric takoyaki pan that is super cute and has an octopus on it. A word of warning: The heat on these cheaper pans isn’t perfectly even so I always make sure to move my takoyaki around so each ball gets grilled evenly.Where to get takoyaki
If you don’t want to make takoyaki at home, your best bet to try it would be to check out a Japanese izakaya restaurant in your home town. They might have it on the menu. You can also try frozen takoyaki, which they’ll sell at Japanese supermarkets. But those aren’t quite the same. It’s really easy to make them at home so I hope you give it a try!Takoyaki Recipe
How to make the ultimate Japanese street snack in your own home.
- Takoyaki Pan
Takoyaki Mix
- 3 large eggs (lightly beaten)
- 4.25 cups cold water
- 2 tsp instant dashi
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2.5 cups all purpose flour (about 300g)
Takoyaki Filling
- 1/2 lb boiled octopus (0.5" cubed)
- 1 bunch green onions (sliced)
- 1 cup tempura bits (or rice krispies)
- beni shoga/pickled ginger (if desired)
- shredded or cubed cheese (if desired)
Takoyaki Toppings
- mayo (preferably Japanese/Kewpie Brand)
- takoyaki sauce
- bonito flakes
- aonori (or seaweed strips)
Beat the eggs and add the water and stock granules. Add the egg-water-dashi mixture to the flour and salt and mix well. Heat up your pan and oil the individual compartments with a oil brush or use a paper towel dipped in oil.
When the pan is hot, pour the batter into the individual compartments up to the top. Don’t worry if the batter over flows a bit.
Add green onions, your protein, tempura bits/rice krispies, ginger, and shredded cheese (if using).
After a while, the bottom of the takoyaki will be cooked through. At this point, you can use a skewer or two to turn them over 90 degrees. If you can’t turn the takoyaki easily, it probably needs to cook for a bit longer. If needed, add a bit more batter to the balls to fill them up. Let cook for a minute or so and then do another 90 degree turn. The balls will become easier to turn the more they cook.
The takoyaki are done when they’re lightly brown and crispy on the outside and they turn easily in their holes. Overall I’d say it takes about 10-15 minutes per batch, from start to finish, depending on how crispy or soft you like your takoyaki.
To serve, place the takoyaki on a plate and drizzle with Japanese mayonnaise and takoyaki sauce. Genrously sprinkle on the bonito flakes and aonori. Enjoy, but be careful, the insides are hot!
Makes approx. 64 balls
I Am... Tiktok Cinnamon Rolls
All you need are two ingredients for the fluffiest, gooey-iest Tiktok cinnamon rolls hack for the perfect lazy snack. I’ve been seeing the TikTok cinnamon roll hack all over my for you page and since I absolutely love cinnamon rolls, I had to try it. It’s super simple and promises to make extra moist and fluffy cinnamon rolls that taste just like Cinnabon.
How to make Tiktok cinnamon rolls
This cinnamon roll hack is incredibly easy, just like all viral hacks.- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Butter a large baking dish.
- Add the cinnamon rolls, spaced apart so they can rise and bake up fluffy.
- Pour heavy whipping cream over the tops of the cinnamon rolls.
- Bake according to the package directions.
- Add the frosting on while they’re still warm, but not hot, let cool slightly and enjoy!
TikTok cinnamon roll hack ingredients
You only need two ingredients for this hack: store-bought ready to bake cinnamon rolls and heavy whipping cream.Store bought cinnamon rolls
You want the refrigerated ready to bake rolls that come in tubes. There are so many brands out there and all of them will work, but if you want the specific ones I’ve seen on TikTok, they’re they’re Pillsbury Grands, more on that below.Heavy whipping cream
Heavy whipping cream is the secret ingredient. It adds extra moistness and richness to the buns, making they super fluffy and gooey when they bake up. They also help the tops bake up to a beautiful golden brown.What are Tiktok cinnamon rolls?
This viral hack is everywhere on Tiktok and it’s super simple: store bought cinnamon rolls baked in heavy whipping cream. The rolls bake up light, fluffy, moist, and extra gooey. The layer of heavy whipping cream bakes into the buns giving them more heft and lightness as well as helps the tops bake to a beautiful golden brown.How to open a cinnamon roll can
To be honest, opening tubes of cinnamon rolls or biscuits scares me because of the pop. I always think that the rolls are going to explode. What I like to do is, peel the outside paper off, carefully, and if that doesn’t open the package, I hold the tube and gently twist in opposite directions so the seams of the cardboard tube expands and opens. You can also gently knock it against the counter top to break the seam.Do these taste like Cinnabon?
If you want your cinnamon rolls to taste like Cinnabon, you’ve got to get Pillsbury Grands with cream cheese icing. Otherwise, all other store-bought ready to bake cinnamon rolls in the fridge section will work as well. Be sure to get the big cinnamon rolls if you want the look and feel of giant buns.Who invented the Tiktok cinnamon roll hack?
There are so many people who are doing this now and it’s kind of hard to tell who started the trend. If you know who invented it, please let me know!How to make TikTok cinnamon rolls in the air fryer
If you don’t have an oven or you’re just making one tube aka a small batch of cinnamon rolls, you can do these right in the air fryer. To bake cinnamon rolls in the air fryer, place 1 package of cinnamon rolls in a heat proof safe pan that fits in the air fryer, then pour 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream over the tops. Air fry the rolls for 12-15 minutes at 320°F or until golden on top and cooked through. Top with frosting while still warm.How long to bake Tiktok cinnamon rolls
The good thing about these rolls is that there’s no chance of them drying out in the oven. It’s best to bake the rolls a bit longer, more towards the 30 minute mark, since they bake in cream. You want to make sure the rolls cook through completely. If you have an instant read thermometer the internal temperature of the center of the cinnamon rolls should be 190°F. If you don’t have a thermometer, gently press the center of a roll. It should feel slightly firm and not raw-dough squishy. You can also stick a toothpick or a paring knife into the middle of a roll. The toothpick should come out clean. If your buns start to brown too much without them being done, cover with foil and continue to bake.Homemade cream cheese frosting
If you want to elevate your cinnamon rolls, make a batch of homemade cream cheese. While you’re baking, it’s easy to whip up a batch. Simply mix together: 1/2 package (4 ounces) room temp cream cheese, 3 tbsp room temp butter, 3/4 cups powdered sugar, and 1/2 tsp vanilla until smooth. Frost the rolls when warm. The icing will nestles into all the cinnamon-y nooks and crannies.
Small batch Tiktok cinnamon rolls
It’s easy to make a small batch of these rolls. Just bake off one tube. Lightly butter a small baking dish. Then place the five rolls inside and pour on 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream. Bake as per the recipe below and frost when warm.
Variations
The basic cinnamon roll hack is cinnamon rolls plus heavy cream, but here are two variations:- Extra cinnamon - melt 1/4 cup of butter and stir in 1/4 cup brown sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon. Pour over the rolls before adding the heavy cream. Bake as per the recipe.
- Pecans - melt 1/4 cup of butter and stir in 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup chopped pecans. Top the rolls before pouring over the heavy cream. Bake as per the recipe.
Real cinnamon rolls
If you're feeling fancy and want the real deal cinnamon rolls, try these ones! Happy cinnamon roll hacking! xoxo stephTiktok cinnamon rolls
All you need are two ingredients for the fluffiest, gooey-iest Tiktok cinnamon rolls hack.
- 2 tubes store bought cinnamon rolls (Pillsbury Grands preferred)
- 1 cup heavy cream ((aka whipping cream))
- butter (for the pan)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a large baking dish. Place the cinnamon rolls inside, giving them space to expand.
Pour the heavy cream on top of the rolls, making sure each one is fully coated.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and fully cooked through.
Remove from the oven and add the included icing on while still warm. Enjoy!
I Am... Soft and Chewy Gingerbread Cookies
These soft and chewy gingerbread cookies have taken the spot as my top holiday cookie! I love gingerbread so much so I eat it all year round. I order gingersnaps and ginger cookies and all the ginger things even when it’s not the holiday season. The warm and soothing mix of ginger and cinnamon gets me every time, every season, but especially during the holidays. The smell of gingerbread when it’s cold outside and warm inside is so incredibly cozy. It’s an instant serotonin boost, right when you need it the most. What I love most about gingerbread is that it’s an umbrella term for ALL the delicious things flavored with ginger and cinnamon. It can be soft and cakey like this gingerbread loaf to crisp and waiting for icing like these cut outs to soft and chewy like these gingerbread cookies.
Gingerbread cookies
This gingerbread cookie recipe comes to us via NY Times and Sohla El-Waylly. When I saw the picture of them, it was a must bake. NY Times does a Christmas cookie round up every year and every year I tell myself I’m going to make something and this is the year I actually did it! These cookies did not disappoint. Packed with ginger and a hint of black pepper, these cookies pack a punch with the spice and have a fudgy chewy center and crisp edges. If you love gingerbread that tastes like ginger, thick and chewy cookies with crisp edges and soft middles, these are the ginger cookies for you!How to make soft and chewy gingerbread cookies
- Brown the butter: add the butter to a saucepan and brown over medium heat, stirring until brown and toasty.
- Remove the pan from the heat and stir in freshly grated ginger, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, freshly grated black pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. Let cool in the fridge for 20 minutes, until slightly solid but still creamy.
- Add icing sugar, molasses, vanilla, salt, and baking soda to the cooled butter and mix until creamy and combined.
- Whip in the egg until pale and fluffy.
- Mix in the flour until evenly combined, then chill for at least 2 hours.
- In a small bowl, stir together sugar and ground ginger. Heat the oven to 375°F and arrange the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop the dough into balls (about 2 tbsp each) and roll them in the ginger sugar then bake for 10 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!
Ingredients
- butter - in this recipe, you brown the butter until nutty and fragrant, then cool it so it you can cream it with the sugar. Browning butter adds so much flavor to baked goods for just a tiny bit of extra effort.
- freshly grated ginger - there are 3 whole tablespoons of freshly grated ginger in these cookies! They are definitely for ginger heads. The fresh ginger, along with the ground, adds a warm, pleasing, spicy punch.
- spices - here we have the usual suspects: ground ginger, ground cinnamon, nutmeg (freshly ground is best but if you only have ground, that works too!), and freshly ground black pepper.
- sugar - I’ve never used icing/confectioners’ sugar in ginger cookies before and I was pleasantly surprised and how it creamed and how chewy and fudgy the cookies came out. There’s also a bit of regular granulated sugar in the ingredients used for coating to give the cookies a bit of sparkle.
- unsulphured molasses - also known as fancy molasses or light molasses, this is the sweetest and lightest of all the molasses used for cooking and baking. It’s what most people use for gingersnaps, gingerbread, ginger cookies, and ginger cakes.
- vanilla - a tablespoon of vanilla to highlight all those warming spices and add a hint of creaminess.
- egg - don’t forget to let your egg come to room temp, you’ll get much better cookie and the egg will mix more evenly into the batter.
- flour - regular all purpose flour, nothing much to say here!
Recipe Notes
- There’s a whole teaspoon of black pepper so if you’re not a huge fan of it, dial it back to 1/2 teaspoon. Some of the reviews online said it was too much pepper for their palate.
- There’s also a fair bit of salt in this recipe, 1 and a quarter teaspoons of Diamond Crystal kosher salt. I dialed it back a bit because as much as I love sweet and salty, that just felt like a bit much. I used a slightly heaping 1/2 tsp of sea salt, not kosher.
- This is a baking soda cookie, meaning that it will give you a thick, chewy cookie.
Other cookies to bake for the holidays
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Mochi Cookies
- Neapolitan Cookies
- The Best Snickerdoodles
- White Rabbit Snickerdoodle Cookies
Chewy Gingerbread Cookies
These soft and chewy gingerbread cookies are the best holiday cookie ever.
- 14 tbsp unsalted butter (cut into pieces (200g))
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar ((240g))
- 3 tbsp molasses (unsulphured/fancy/light (60g))
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt (Diamond Crystal preferred)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 large egg (room temperature)
- 2 cups all purpose flour ((250g))
Spices
- 3 tbsp fresh ginger (finely grated (50g))
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp black pepper (freshly ground)
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated)
Coating
- 1/4 cup sugar (50g)
- 2 tsp ground ginger
In a medium saucepan over medium, melt butter until foamy, about 3 minutes. Continue cooking butter, stirring and scraping frequently with a stiff silicone spatula, until the sputtering has subsided and the butter solids look deeply browned, 3 to 5 minutes.
Remove from heat, then whisk in the fresh ginger and spices. Scrape the butter and any brown bits at the bottom into the bowl of a stand mixer (or into a large bowl if using a hand mixer). Set aside until cool, slightly solid, but still creamy, about 20 minutes in the refrigerator or 2 hours at room temperature. Add confectioners’ sugar, molasses, vanilla, salt and baking soda to the cooled butter. Mix on low with the paddle attachment, stopping once to scrape the bowl and paddle, until creamy and combined, about 1 minute.
Add the egg and mix on medium until pale and fluffy, stopping once to scrape the bowl and paddle, about 2 minutes. Add flour and mix until evenly combined, about 30 seconds. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days before baking.
Prepare the sugar coating: In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and ground ginger.
Line two sheet pans with parchment paper, arrange the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and heat oven to 375 degrees.
Using a #40 cookie scoop or two spoons, scoop the cookie dough into 2-tablespoon portions (30 grams). Roll the portioned cookie dough into balls and coat in the ginger sugar.
Arrange on the sheet tray at least 1 inch apart and bake until set and lightly browned around the edges, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Cookies are best eaten the day they are baked. Cookie dough portions can be frozen, then coated in sugar and baked from frozen as needed. No need to thaw; bake frozen portions for 11 to 13 minutes.
I Am... Velveeta Mac and Cheese
Homemade Velveeta cheese sauce with tender mac is what mac and cheese dreams are made of. If you’re looking for the creamy mac and cheese of your childhood, this is it. These days we have fancy mac and cheese with gruyere and breadcrumbs and all that, but do you ever dream of just easy plain mac and cheese, like the box kind, but without the powdered cheese and that mushy pasta? Enter this Velveeta mac and cheese. It's the perfect side dish for holidays, BBQs, and cookouts.
Have you ever seen a prettier mac and cheese?
This mac and cheese is a people pleaser! I mean, right now the only people I’ve been serving it to are myself and Mike, but boy oh boy does it hit the spot, especially after coming in from a crisp and cold walk. Super hearty and heartwarming, so cheesy and so easy. This super easy homemade recipe is made on the stovetop and can be enjoyed as is, or baked. I like it straight from the stovetop into a bowl, with a spoon because it’s the ultimate in cozy. I love this mac and cheese because it works as both a main and a side. I’ll serve it up with a salad as a main or as the most amazing side at Thanksgiving. Velveeta mac and cheese can do it all!Why Velveeta cheese?
Velveeta is the absolutely best nostalgic cheese. It’s the cheese I grew up eating and it makes for the SMOOTHEST cheese sauce ever. It’s makes mac and cheese gooey, cheesy, creamy, and so good. Velveeta shells and cheese is the ultimate taste memory that brings me right back to all the good things about being a kid.What other cheese can I use?
The reason why this particular Velveeta mac and cheese is amazing is because it uses the super smooth power of Velveeta but also has the extra added bonus of 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar. You can’t skip out on the Velveeta, but you can switch out the cheddar for your favorite cheese! Try:- cheddar - this is the classic, but you can switch it up by choosing between sharp, mild, or medium. Sharp cheddar has the strongest cheddar taste, medium is in the middle, and mild is subtle and milky.
- mozzarella - extra gooey and stringy mac and cheese with pizza feels.
- parmesan - complex and full of umami with lovely nutty notes for a little bit of a more elevated mac and cheese.
- gruyere - smooth and velvety and full of flavor. Gruyere is nutty and earthy and using it in mac and cheese will remind you of fondue.
- smoked gouda - super creamy and melty with delicious smoked flavors. A campfire-ish mac and cheese for those cozy feels.
- fontina - a super melty cheese that is buttery and just a little nutty.
- cream cheese - this is a dark horse but it’ll add even MORE smoothness and creaminess. It’s especially good in crock pot mac and cheese.
How to make Velveeta mac and cheese
- Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook your mac (or pasta of choice) according to the package directions, then drain well.
- Make a roux. While the mac is cooking, make a roux by melting butter in a saucepan. When it’s melted, add in the flour and spices and stir until everything comes together.
- Add the milk. Pour the milk in slowly, stirring so the sauce is smooth and creamy. When you’re done adding in the milk, let the sauce come to a simmer so it thickens up.
- Melt the cheese. Add the Velveeta – it’ll melt easier if you cube it up – and stir until until the sauce is creamy.
- Stir in the mac. Add the drained mac, mix everything up and enjoy!
Stovetop Velveeta mac and cheese
To be honest, my favorite kind of mac and cheese is stove top mac and cheese because I don’t want to wait for baked! I just prepare the Velveeta mac and cheese and eat it straight from the pot.Baked Velveeta mac and cheese
Sometimes mac and cheese with a crispy baked top can’t be beat. If you’re a baked mac and cheese lover, just pop the mac and cheese into a casserole dish, top with some extra cheese and bread crumbs and bake at 350°F for about 20-30 minutes, or until the top turns golden, crispy, and crunchy.Instant Pot Velveeta mac and cheese
- Add 2 cups (8 ounces) uncooked macaroni, 1 3/4 cups water, 2 tbsp butter, and 1/2 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, and dry mustard powder to the Instant Pot insert and stir well.
- Cook on high pressure for 4 minutes then quick release and carefully open the lid. Stir in 1/2 lb cubed Velveeta, 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar, and 1/2 cup milk until the cheese melts and coats all the mac.
Crockpot Velveeta mac and cheese
- Add 2 cups (8 ounces) uncooked macaroni, 2 cups milk, 1/2 lb cubed Velveeta cheese, 1/2 cup shredded cheddar, 2 tbsp butter, 1/2 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, and dry mustard powder to the Crock Pot and stir well.
- Set on low for 1.5 hours with the lid on, stirring occasionally.
- Test for doneness at the 1 hour mark and add milk, 1/4 cup at a time if the cheese sauce starts to get too thick.
The right pasta shape
Elbow mac is THE shape for mac and cheese, but sometimes you want something a little more adult. Try these if you're (somehow) bored of the classic smile shape:- Penne - fun fact: penne was intended to look like a fountain pen's nibs. Penne comes smooth and ridged, but the ridged ones are the best for picking up sauce.
- Ziti - ziti are like straightened out macaroni and they're the closest modern version of the original maccheroni noodle. Be sure not to rinse these pasta between cooking and saucing or the sauce won't stick as well.
- Rigatoni - rigatoni sometimes feels like the overlooked shape for mac and cheese but it's actually one of the best. The large diameter of tube picks up cheese both on the inside and out, and the ridges pick up even more cheesy flavor than elbow mac could. It's the most adult shape, to be honest.
- Gemelli - gemelli means twins and they're like the DNA shape in pasta form. They're two tubes, twisted around each other.
- Casarecce - from the top view these look like little S's. Because of the shape, they seem to have two layers when you bite down and have a firm and satisfying chew you just don't get with a single layer pasta.
- Bucati corti - These are like little telephone cords, cut into 2 inch lengths. They're a super yummy shape to eat and the nooks and crannies carry a lot of extra cheesy sauce.
- Cavatappi - also known as Scooby Doo pasta, these are fun spirals that bounce when you pick them up. They're like the giant version of bucati corti.
Mac and cheese variations
- Pumpkin mac and cheese - stir in 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree
- Green chile mac and cheese - stir in 1 small can of chopped green chiles
- Cheeseburger mac and cheese - stir in 1 lb of seasoned browned ground beef, 1/2 cup diced onion, 1/4 cup tomato paste
- Taco mac and cheese - stir in 1 lb of seasoned browned ground beef, 2 tablespoons of taco seasoning, and 2 chopped tomatoes. Top with Mexican 4 cheese blend.
- Bacon mac and cheese - sprinkle on crispy bacon
- Tuna mac and cheese - stir in 2 cans of drained tuna and 1 cup of frozen green peas
- Green mac and cheese - stir in 2 tablespoons pesto, and 2 cups cooked chopped broccoli
How to make a double portion of Velveeta mac and cheese
If you need to make even MORE Velveeta mac and cheese, there’s a handy recipe scaler that you can use below. Just change the “serves 4” to how many you need to serve. Just make sure that you use the ounce measure for the pasta because the scaler only changes the ounce amount for the pasta.Make ahead Velveeta mac and cheese
You can absolute make this mac and cheese ahead of time and then either bake it in the oven with breadcrumbs on top or reheat it on the stove with a splash of milk, stirring until it becomes loose and gooey. It comes together super quickly but I totally understand how making things ahead for dinner parties and big events makes things easy. I think it heats up perfectly the next day and some how tastes even better?Can you freeze mac and cheese?
Yes! you can either store it in the fridge tightly covered for a week, or freeze in an air-tight container or heavy duty freezer bag for up to 1-2 months. Don’t forget to label and date it!How to reheat mac and cheese
Pop it in the microwave, covered and loosen with a bit of milk if needed. You can also cover it with foil and bake it in a low oven (325°F) until hot, about 20 minutes. Stir in a bit of milk after warmed through if needed.What to serve with mac and cheese
A little bit fancier
If you love mac and cheese and want to expand your horizons, give Tini’s Mac and Cheese a try! xoxo StephVelveeta Mac and Cheese
If you’re looking for the creamy mac and cheese of your childhood, this is it.
- 8 oz macaroni (about 2 cups dry, or other small pasta of choice)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
- 1.5 cups milk (of choice)
- 1/2 lb Velveeta cheese (cubed)
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
Cook the macaroni in a large pat of salted water according to the package directions and drain well. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. When melted, stir in the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, and dry mustard, until smooth and incorporated.
Pour the milk into the pan in a thin stream while whisking, until smooth. Keep on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sauce bubbles and thickens, 3-5 minutes.
Add the cubed Velveeta and shredded cheddar and stir until melted and creamy.
Add in the drained macaroni, mixing until evenly coated, taste and season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!
To bake: Scoop the mac and cheese into a oven safe casserole dish, top with 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar and 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs or crushed ritz crackers and bake at 350°F until the cheese melts and is golden and crisp, 20-30 minutes.
I Am... Easy Perfect Spatchcock Turkey
A spatchcock turkey will be the easiest, fastest, prettiest turkey you will ever make. Turkey is one of those meats that I love, kind of like a very intense chicken. They're big and you will end up with a lot of leftovers, but I think it's worth it. You can do Christmas with a honey baked ham, prime rib (or any other) roast, or anything you want, but how often can you get a big fresh turkey, perfectly cooked?
What is spatchcock turkey?
Spatchcocking is a fancy way of saying removing the backbone and flattening the bird before you roast it. It's superior to roasting a bird whole because it makes for even cooking, since the thighs aren't covered by the legs and the delicate white meat isn't exposed right up top. It also makes for crispier skin, better presentation, and lets you use the backbone and other bits to make gravy and stock right away.How to spatchcock a turkey
- Prep. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. It might be best to work in a large clean deep sink or in a large roasting pan. Flip the turkey so that it's breast side down.
- Remove the backbone. Hold the turkey firmly and use a pair of kitchen shears (you definitely need kitchen shears) to cut alongside the backbone, starting where the tail meets the thigh. Cut all the way up until the turkey is split up to the neck. Push the turkey open slightly and then repeat on the other side, carefully cutting alongside the other side of the backbone. This side may be a bit trickier, so go slow.
- Trim. Trim off any excess fat or skin you might see. I took off the tail and the hood of fat near the neck. You can use the trimmings to make the best turkey gravy ever.
- Flip and flatten. Flip the turkey over so that the breast is facing up and push down on the ridge breast bone, hard. You should hear a couple of cracks and the turkey should be flatter. Tuck the wing tips behind the breast so they don't burn.
- Season. Place the turkey on your prepared rack and baking sheet and rub with 1 tablespoon of oil. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
How long to cook a spatchcock turkey
- 11-12lb turkey: about 75 mins
- 12-14lb turkey: about 1 hour 25 mins
- 14-16lb turkey: about 1 hour 35 mins
- 16-18lb turkey: about 1 hour 50 mins
- 18-20lb turkey: about 2 hours
Should you brine your turkey first?
Spatchcock turkey is always juicy and delicious anyway so you don't need to! If you normally brine your turkey, you should keep on doing you - this is no different than roasting the whole bird. If you never have brined a turkey before though, there's no need to and brining can often end up with saltier meat than you're used to.What size turkey does this work with?
It works best with smaller turkeys, not because larger turkeys don't work as well, but because a big turkey needs a really big oven to lay flat in (not to mention a big baking sheet). If your oven doesn't fit a full size baking sheet (18"x26") you might want to stick with the smaller 14lb birds and load up on sides instead.Reasons why you should make a spatchcock turkey
- When you cut out the backbone, you get to use it to make gravy and stock, right away without having to wait for the drippings off the bird.
- Flattening the bird helps it cook evenly and quickly – I'm talking about finishing a turkey in about an hour and twenty minutes all-in.
- The flatter profile means that all of the turkey skin is facing up, exposed to the heat which means crispier turkey skin. Bonus, the meat is juicier because the skin renders the fat right into the meat, instead of just falling down into the pan.
- Spatchcocking means even cooking. White and dark meat cook at different rates and flattening out the bird so that the legs and thighs aren't protected underneath the breast means that you're exposing the dark meat to heat that would otherwise not reach it.
How do you carve the turkey like that?
It's easier than it looks!- Break down the turkey by separating the thighs, drumsticks, and wings from the turkey.
- Debone the thigh meat and set aside.
- Remove the breast from the carcass and slice them nicely into even pieces about 1/2" thick.
- Finally, arrange the breast around the platter. Add the drumsticks and wings to the middle, and fill in the gaps with the deboned thigh meat.
- Save the trimmings for Turkey BBH or Turkey Pho.
What about sides and stuffing?
- Mushroom, Rosemary & Thyme Challah Stuffing
- Crispy Duck Fat Oven Roasted Potatoes
- Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
- How to Make Crispy Air Fryer Roasted Brussels Sprouts
- Turkey Wontons in Turkey Mapo Sauce
Spatchcock Turkey Recipe
A beautiful roast turkey in under two hours with juicy meat and crispy skin, every time.
- Meat thermometer
- Kitchen Shears
Spatchcock Turkey
- 1 medium onion (peeled and quartered)
- 1 orange (halved)
- 1 lemon (halved)
- 2 stalks celery (roughly chopped)
- 10-12 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1 11lb-12lb whole turkey (or the smallest you can find, see notes)
- 1 tbsp oil
- salt and freshly ground pepper
Rosemary Citrus Butter
- 1/4 cup butter (room temp)
- 1/4 cup fresh rosemary (leaves only)
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 orange (zested)
- 1 lemon (zested)
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Adjust your oven rack so that it’s in the middle of the oven. Heat oven to 450°F. Foil line a large deep baking tray. Place the onion, orange, lemon, celery, and rosemary sprigs on the foil, then place a wire rack on top of the vegetables.
Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Flip so that it’s breast side down. Hold the turkey firmly and use a pair of kitchen shears to cut alongside the backbone, starting where the tail meets the thigh. Cut all the way up until the turkey is split up to the neck. Push the turkey open slightly and then repeat on the other side, carefully cutting alongside the other side of the backbone. This side may be a bit trickier, so go slow.
Trim off any excess fat or skin you might see. I took off the tail and the hood of fat near the neck.
Flip the turkey over so that the breast is facing up and push down on the ridge breast bone, hard. You should hear a couple of cracks and the turkey should be flatter.
Place the turkey on your prepared rack and baking sheet. Tuck the wing tips behind the breast and rub with 1 tablespoon of oil. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Transfer to the oven and roast, for about an hour and twenty minutes, rotating halfway, or until the deepest part of the breast is 150°F, and the thighs are at least 165°F.
While the turkey is roasting, blend or food process the rosemary citrus butter ingredients together. At the 50 minute mark, carefully and evenly brush on the rosemary citrus butter. If at any point the turkey skin starts to look too brown, you can tent it with foil and then remove the foil at the end to get the crispy brown skin. When the turkey is cooked, remove from the oven and let rest for 15-20 minutes.
How to carve a turkey
Using a medium sized knife, remove the legs by cutting through where the thigh meets the body. Find the joint between the thigh and the drumstick and cut through the joint. Find the joint of the wing near the top of the turkey’s breast and working the knife through it, removing the wings. You can leave the wings whole or spilt them by cutting along the joints.
Remove the breasts by slicing down the center, near the breast bone, using the tip of your knife to follow along the shape of the bone while peeling the breast away slowly. As you continue to slice, the breast should fall away in one piece. Repeat on the other side. Slice the breast into evenly thick pieces. Remove the thigh meat away from the bones, saving all the bones for stock or soup. Arrange everything on a platter and garnish with oranges, lemons, and rosemary. Enjoy!
See blog post for cooking times for other size birds.
inspired by Serious Eats
