The lunar new year is on January 25, and I’m celebrating the Year the Rat with some cheesecake. Namely, Japanese style cotton cheesecake adapted from Joanne Chang’s Pastry Love. Coincidentally, this recipe appeared in the New York Times around the time I was contemplating making it so maybe we were on the same wavelength! […]...
Totoro Cookie Box
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all my readers! Thanks for visiting my site and for all the lovely comments you leave here and on my social media – I appreciate them all! For my Christmas cookies this year I was inspired by the beautiful cookie box trend that’s been around for a while on […]...
Brown Butter Cinnamon Rolls from Pastry Love
Happy almost-Christmas! These brown butter cinnamon rolls from Joanne Chang’s new cookbook Pastry Love are on the list for the Christmas morning breakfast menu. They’re one of my favorite recipes from her latest book, and there were a lot of contenders to choose from – I almost earmarked the entire table of contents! If you […]...
Matcha Creme Brulee Tarts from Tartine
These matcha creme brulee tarts from Tartine’s latest cookbook are gorgeous and capture everything I love about this landmark San Francisco bakery: they’re classic, updated with a twist, and come together perfectly. The original Tartine cookbook is a long time favorite of mine, a lovely ode to this institution that’s served up sweet bites of […]...
Apple Butter Linzer Cookies
Among the many things I made with my apple picking haul were some apple butter linzer cookies. These spiced cookies really capture the epitome of autumn. If you haven’t made apple butter, it’s basically a very rich, concentrated form of applesauce. There’s no dairy butter in it, just apples, sugar, and spices cooked down to […]...
Autumn Apple Hand Pies
These cute little autumn apple hand pies are some of the happy products of a dreamy weekend spent in the apple orchards. We took Isabelle on her first apple picking experience and she loved it. Like most weekend apple picking visitors, we got carried away and brought home way more apples than we intended. Fortunately, […]...
Anita Chu, also known as pastrygirl, is a baker, writer, and photographer with a passion for pastry. She trained at Tante Marie's Cooking School and is the author of Field Guide to Cookies, Field Guide to Candy, and Lollipop Love. Anita lives in San Francisco with her husband, baby girl, and rescue cockapoo Snickerdoodle. 
