Sweet Recipes

Black Sesame Tarts with Ube Custard Filling

| Zoe Wong

Shout out to my friends “Chef Ramsey’s Right Hand Pan,” “All Might,” and “Chickpea” for helping me come up with a title!

Names suggested: tarts de la custard ubé, sesame street tarts, ube custard me me tarts, and ube bae bae.

What’s Ube?

If you’re unfamiliar with ube, it’s a yam that’s purple on the inside but a lot sweeter than your average yam! Some people mistake it for taro, but taro, while also delicious, is not a yam to say the least.

Ube is also known for its rich purple color and while taro can also be purple (or white), it’s a lighter shade than ube. Because of it’s intense purple color, ube-flavored foods like breads or lattes are visually captivating.

For example:

Around 2015 in California, ube sweets were trending in California and prompted many ube-oriented sweets shops to open in LA. Although I live in a suburb of LA, I’ve never had the opportunity to visit one of these stores.

Flash forward five years, and having the time, motivation, and adequate knowledge, I decided to create my own ube treat instead of making the trip to LA (not that I could during the quarantine anyways). I decided on a tart theme.

Initially, I imagined making an ube cheese tart or ube mochi tart. Unfortunately, I didn’t have cream cheese on hand to make a cheese tart and while I was very tempted to make a mochi tart, I wasn’t sure how successful my endeavor would be. Thus, I settled with a custard tart.

No Tart Tin? That’s Okay!

There was one small problem with making tarts ⁠— I didn’t have tart tins so I had to use cupcake tins and a 5-inch cookie cutter. You’ll soon see that it turned out to be hardly a problem at all.

Ended up trading this 3″ cutout shape for a 5″ flower shape to better fit the tin

I cut some parchment paper rounds to line the bottom of the tins, but I found that it would probably be fine without since there’s so much butter in the dough.

Since I wasn’t too confident in making a tart shell, I did a small batch of tart shells first as a trial run though. For the sake of science, here were the ingredients I used:

Trial 1 – Crust was too thick!

  • 5 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
  • 1 Large Egg White
  • 2 Tbsp Sugar
  • 13 Tbsp Flour (or 1/2 Cup + 5 Tbsp)

Crust was too thick at a quarter inch!

The result was a tart that was kind of chewy but also kind of dry. I think it tasted dry because I didn’t roll out the dough as thin as I should’ve. Regardless of the thickness, I felt that this wasn’t the kind of crust that I wanted. I envisioned something more crisp and delicate, not chewy.

After I eating the tarts with the ube custard, I also felt that there was a certain depth missing. I started to think that adding black sesame’s earthy and aromatic flavor profile might help…so I did just that for trial #2.

Added one plain tart (rolled out thinner) for flavor and texture comparison

Except that while I usually have plain black sesame powder on hand, I didn’t this time. I did have instant black sesame powder paste though ⁠— the kind that makes instant black sesame dessert soup. I decided to use it anyways because it claimed that it was low sugar anyways, so I took a chance that it would work.

If you use plain black sesame powder (not for instant dessert soup), try substituting with roughly 6 Tbsp black sesame powder and 1 Tbsp sugar.

Anyways, I modified the first tart recipe as follows:

Trial 2 – Winner!

  • omit sugar since the instant black sesame powder already has sugar
  • add cornstarch for a more delicate pastry
  • use less flour to account for flour needed for dusting
  • roll out the dough thinner (about an eighth of an inch thick)
Blind baking shells: poke holes on the bottom and sides with a fork, line with parchment paper, and top with pie weights (I used dried red beans)

I couldn’t be happier with this trial’s results! The pastry was delicate yet crisp, and the black sesame perfectly complemented the ube custard and brought out a “natural” ube flavor.

On another note, I’m so glad that the ube custard set after baking. It was one of my main concerns going into this project but it turned out alright the first time around so I focused on the tart shells instead.

Ube custard darkens at the top after baking. I also suggest smoothing out the custard before baking (which I didn’t do!)

Without further ado, here are the recipes for the ube custard and black sesame tarts:

Ube Custard

  • Servings: enough to fill 12 tarts
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • roughly 1 and 1/2 Cups Steamed Ube, mashed
  • 1/2 Cup milk
  • 2 Tbsp condensed milk
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • 3 egg yolks

Directions

  1. Combine all the ingredients except the egg yolks in a saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat and stir continuously until the mixture is as smooth as possible. Some small chunks of ube are ok. Turn off the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
  2. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until completely smooth. Transfer back to the saucepan.
  3. Beat the 3 egg yolks together in a small bowl. Add two tablespoons of the ube mixture to the eggs and mix to temper them. Add the tempered egg-ube mixture into the pot.
  4. Whisking continuously over medium-low heat, heat the custard becomes very thick (should be able to hold shape even when it’s hot). Turn off the heat.
  5. Pass the mixture through a sieve and let it cool. Cover the custard with plastic wrap directly touching the custard. Store in the fridge until needed.

Sesame Tart Dough

  • Servings: 7 tarts using cupcake tins
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • 5 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, room temperature
  • 1 Large Egg White
  • 2/3 Pack Sesame Powder Paste (Torto brand)*
  • 3 Tbsp Cornstarch
  • 1/2 Cup + 1 Tbsp Flour
  • 1 Tbsp Flour mixed with leftover sesame powder (for dusting)

Directions

  1. Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl until it becomes a cohesive ball. Roll out dough between two sheets of plastic wrap until it is around a quarter inch thick.
  2. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Meanwhile, cut out parchment paper rounds to line the bottoms of the cupcake molds.
  3. Sprinkle a work surface with a bit of flour and sesame powder and roll out the dough to an eight-inch thickness. Dust the top of the dough with flour/sesame as needed to prevent sticking.
  4. Use a 5″ cookie cutter to cut out 7 tarts. Place cutouts into the cupcake molds.
  5. Prick holes at the bottom and sides of the tarts with a fork. Place a small square of parchment paper on top of the the tarts and place pie weights on top. The parchment paper makes it easier to remove pie weights onced baked.
  6. Blind bake the tarts at 375°F for 7 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through baking to ensure even baking.
  7. Take tarts out of the oven and allow tarts to cool for at least 5 minutes. Remove pie weights and parchment paper squares.

*If you use plain black sesame powder, try substituting with roughly 6 Tbsp black sesame powder and 1 Tbsp sugar.

Black Sesame Tarts with Ube Custard Filling


Ingredients

  • Half of the Ube Custard
  • 7 blind-baked Sesame Tarts

Directions

  1. Fill each tart shell with roughly a tablespoon and a half to 2 tablespoons of ube custard. Smooth out the tops of the custard.
  2. Bake tarts at 350°F for 20 minutes in the middle-rack of the oven or until the tops of the custard forms a skin. Turn off the oven but let the tarts rest inside for an additional 7-10 minutes or until tart crusts brown to your liking.
  3. Cool tarts at room temperature for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies (Updated)

| Zoe Wong

These are by far the softest and fluffiest cookies I have ever had. Ever. And so, like any amazing recipe, I had to share it and make sure it never disappears. The original recipe is from Mrs. Sigg’s.

The trick to these cookies is to make them by hand because it is easier to overwork the dough using electronic machines, thus, ruining the texture of the cookie. However, if you must break out the hand-mixer or stand-mixer, be sure to be wary about overworking the dough. Stop mixing immediately once the ingredients are homogeneous.

The perfect homemade treat with some tea.

I use an ice cream scoop to make the cookie sizes relatively even, but if you have a cookie scoop, that’s even better!

Since these cookies are really soft, it’s important to let the cookies rest after baking. Although it’s hard to resist oven-fresh cookies, these cookies will be too soft to handle fresh. Letting them cool will help the cookies harden slightly.

The total cost of a whole tray of medium-sized cookies for me was roughly $2.95.

  • I made large cookies with a 1/4 C. measuring spoon.
  • Yields about 6 large cookies.
  • Be sure to increase bake time to ~12 minutes for large cookies.
How to make large-sized snickerdoodles.

Want something chocolate-y instead?

Fudgy Brownies (Updated)

Crispy top and melt-in-your-mouth interior…what other reason do you need to make these brownies?

Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies

  • Servings: 12, 3-inch cookies
  • Difficulty: easy
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Credit:  Mrs. Sigg’s. It’s very important to use room temperature unsalted butter in this recipe.

Ingredients

  • 8 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
  • 3/4 C. Sugar
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 Tbsp Cinnamon
  • 1 Large Egg, beaten
  • Roughly 1+1/3 Cup of Flour
  • 3 tsp Baking Powder
  • Cinnamon Sugar (3 Tbsp Cinnamon + 3 Tbsp Sugar)
  • Cooking Spray

Directions

  1. Whip butter until creamy. Add sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix until ingredients are all combined.
  2. Add in the beaten egg, and mix until combined.
  3. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together. After sifting, add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold wet and dry ingredients together with a rubber spatula until just combined.
  4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cookie tray with parchment paper and grease with cooking spray.
  5. Use an ice cream scoop to portion the cookie dough into about 12 cookies.  With our hands, shape portions into balls.
  6. Coat the surface of the ball in cinnamon sugar by rolling the ball in a small bowl with cinnamon sugar. Place the coated dough balls onto the tray, allowing at least an inch of space around each cookie.
  7. Bake in the oven for 8 minutes or until edges start to brown. Allow cookies to rest at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Warm up cookies older than a day by baking at 350°F for about 4 minutes.

Big thanks to my roommate who actually tests out my recipes. There are a lot of components of a recipe’s success that I am ignorant of until she lets me know. It is only because of this that I am able to edit and improve my recipes so I am incredibly grateful.

In the older version of this recipe, I was open about the fact that I had used salted butter with success for this recipe. It didn’t occur to me that I should’ve included a word of caution about selecting fats for cookies.

Generally speaking, I find that for cookie recipes, it is mandatory to use unsalted butter if that’s what it calls for. In desperate times, I have used salted butter before; however, I do not recommend it if it can be helped. It may seem obvious, but the salt in salted butter can mess up a cookie’s texture because salt produces moisture in the cookie dough when it bakes. It’s not an extreme difference though, which is why I was able to get away with it in this case. The consequences of substituting salted butter in more delicate cookie recipes could be way worse though.

It should be noted that some recipes call for salt even if unsalted butter is being used but this still doesn’t mean that using salted butter is okay. The salt added with unsalted butter is miles less than the amount in salted butter. That said, in my case where I used salted butter desperately, I would’ve skipped any additions of salt the recipe called for to minimize damage.

Other evil substitutions for unsalted butter include margarine, stick-version of vegetable oil, and liquid oils. Not only do these fats secrete unwanted moisture, but they also have a different melting temperature than what is desired in unsalted butter.

Good luck in the kitchen, and please do let me know your results if you try out any of my recipes!! ❤👩‍🍳

Sweet Potato / Ube Latte

| Zoe Wong

A couple of years ago, I heard that sweet potato lattes were popular in Korea. While making a drink out of potatoes may seem strange, I think it’s one of those uncalled for inventions that no one knew they needed until it existed. It’s the perfect drink during the colder months– because the latte base is sweet potato, the latte is thicker than other flavored lattes, say, a green tea latte, which means that this drink fills you up and retains its heat much better. Additionally, since sweet potatoes are sweet by themselves, you don’t have to add much sugar to the drink, making it a relatively healthy treat!

Another “healthy” treat:

Avocado Smoothie

Avocados contain four grams of protein, making them the fruit with the highest protein content!

That said, I chose to use purple sweet potato (aka ube) this time instead of regular sweet potato. Since the purple coloring is pretty, I also decided to try to do a layered effect and make it a bit fancier than the normal sweet potato latte.

I’d imagine that any other sweet potato variety would also work for this, but keep in mind that the sugar levels differ depending on the type of potato, so adjust the recipe as needed.

Since I’m doing a layered effect, I separated the latte into three parts with the densest layer on the bottom: paste, milk, and whipped cream respectively.

If you want to re-create this recipe normally and don’t care for appearance, go ahead and blend the paste and all the milk together. This is what I usually do with normal sweet potato latte.

  • Denser ube paste at the bottom of the mug.
  • Slowly add hot almond milk.
  • Top with whipped cream and chopped walnuts.

Unfortunately, I would also like to be able to have pretty milk foam floating at the top, but I haven’t found a successful way to froth milk without a milk-frother yet. If you know how to froth milk, by all means, do it!

3-Layer Ube Latte

  • Servings: 1 cup
  • Difficulty: easy
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Use whatever milk you prefer.

Ingredients

  • 1 small Purple Sweet Potato, steamed and peeled
  • 1 Cup hot Almond Milk
  • 2 Tbsp Condensed Milk
  • Whipped Cream for topping
  • Chopped Walnuts for topping (optional)

Directions

  1. In a blender, combine the small purple sweet potato, 1/4 Cup of almond milk, and 2 Tbsp condensed milk. Blend until smooth. Strain mixture if needed. Pour mixture into the bottom of a mug.
  2. Slowly and carefully add hot milk on top of the sweet potato paste.
  3. Top with whipped cream and walnuts, if desired.

Sweet Potato Latte

  • Servings: 1 cup
  • Difficulty: easy
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Use whatever milk you prefer.

Ingredients

  • 1 small Sweet Potato, steamed and peeled
  • 1 Cup hot Almond Milk
  • 2 Tbsp Condensed Milk
  • 4 Walnut Halves, chopped
  • Whipped Cream (optional)

Directions

  1. In a blender, combine the sweet potato, 1 Cup of almond milk, 2 Tbsp condensed milk, and 4 walnut halves. Blend until smooth. Strain mixture if needed.
  2. Pour mixture into a mug. Top with whipped cream and more walnuts, if desired.

By the way, I got my pretty glass mug from Ikea! 😊

Orange Soufflé (Updated)

| Zoe Wong

Soufflés are often expensive when they’re sold in restaurants or cafés, and the media makes them seem like a challenge to make! In reality, it’s fairly easy once you know what you’re up against.  The soufflé is one of my favorite desserts to eat and make and I’ve made them countless times, especially around Christmas. 

I totally stole this recipe from Chef John. It is an incredibly versatile recipe that I’ve abused countless times in my baking experiments. Therefore, I am positive that it is near impossible to mess up this recipe, so don’t be intimidated by this recipe!

The only modifications I have made from the original recipe is substituting Grand Mariner with orange juice. I did this because I did not have any Grand Mariner on hand the first time I made this (I was still a minor).

But because it’s made with orange juice, it’s a perfect excuse to eat soufflés for breakfast. Life is short, enjoy it to its fullest.

Sugar for breakfast please!

For three soufflés straight out of the hot oven, it only costs 96¢ (excluding optional ingredients and orange juice)!  Restaurants can charge upwards $9 for one!

Recipe Pointers:

Make sure you throughly cover the sides and bottom of the ramekins in sugar. Doing this will help the batter have something to grab onto as it rises. In other words, it helps the souffle rise straight up.

The rising agent in soufflés are whipped egg whites, or meringue. Making a meringue should be simple and easy in theory, but it is equally easy to screw up badly even before you start.  Head over to this page for some pointer tips! In Chef John’s recipe, he says to stop whipping when the consistency is like shaving cream (before stiff-peak stage aka meringue).  I have tested this, and yes, the souffle still comes out beautifully.  I have also accidentally whipped it fully into the stiff-peak stage and still had successful soufflés.

By the way, recipes always tell people to preheat the oven in the very beginning, but I never do this because I feel like I’m wasting energy. I don’t preheat the oven until minutes before I need it. If you prefer to heat the oven from the beginning, go ahead, but just note that I don’t write out this step in “Prep”. That said, let’s get baking, shall we?

  • Grease ramekins with butter, then generously coat with sugar to ensure an even rise.
  • Melting butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat.
  • Add flour and cook until it smells delicious!
  • Add milk and stir until thick.
  • This is basically making a white sauce.
  • Beat egg whites until soft-peaks.
  • Introducing a quarter of the meringue to the batter first. will help incorporating the rest of the batter later.
  • Add the lightened batter to the rest of the meringue.
  • Gently combine to keep as much volume as possible.

Orange Soufflé

  • Servings: 3, 8-ounce ramekins
  • Difficulty: easy
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This is a non-alcoholic version of Chef John’s Grand Mariner Soufflé recipe.

Ingredients

Prep:

  • 1 tbsp room temperature butter
  • 1 1/2 tbsp white sugar

Batter:

  • 1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 5 tsp all-purpose flour
  • 4 tbsp cold milk
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tbsp orange zest, grated
  • 2 tbsp orange juice
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
  • 4 tbsp white sugar
  • 1/4 tsp cream of tartar (optional)
  • Powdered sugar for garnish (optional)

Directions

Prep:

  1. Wash and dry 3, 8-ounce ramekins.Throughly grease the bottoms and sides with some room-temp butter.
  2. Coat the sides and bottom of the ramekin with sugar. The butter should allow the sugar to stick easily. Dump the excess sugar into the next ramekin and repeat until all ramekins are coated.

Making the batter:

  1. In a saucepan, melt 1 1/2 tbsp of butter over medium-low heat.
  2. Stir in 5 teaspoons of flour. Keep stirring the mixture until fragrant and turns a light golden color (about 2-3 minutes).
  3. Lower the heat and add milk slowly.
  4. Return the heat to medium-low and stir the mixture until it becomes a smooth, thick paste that doesn’t stick to the sides of the pan. Turn off the heat.
  5. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl. Add orange zest, orange juice, vanilla, egg yolks, and mix until homogeneous. Set aside.
  6. Make a meringue. Whip the egg whites until frothy. Add in cream of tartar if you have some. Continue whipping and gradually add in 4 tbsp of sugar. Stop whipping once egg white reaches a “shaving cream” consistency.
  7. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
  8. Combine a quarter of meringue into the batter mixture to lighten it. Gently fold the rest of the batter into the meringue.
  9. Distribute the batter among the 3 ramekins and bake for 15 minutes or until lightly brown and risen.

Garnish: If you plan to garnish it with powdered sugar, have that ready near the table it will be served. Take about a tablespoon of powdered sugar and sift it onto the soufflé.


Keep a close eye on the soufflés after 12 minutes because you want to catch them when they’re nicely golden. Remember, soufflés deflate VERY quickly after taking it out of the oven even with all precautions.

On a random note, I started baking because I have a sweets-tooth and I fell in love with sweets even more after watching baking animes like Yumeiro Patissiere. I mean, animes make food look like literal magic. And thus, being further encouraged by anime, I took it upon myself to teach little ol’ me how to make various sweets.

I ‘d like to have the courage to try making something like this one day!

Why did you start baking or cooking? I’d like to know in the comments 😊

Fudgy Brownies (Updated)

| Zoe Wong

Not to toot my own horn, but this is a really, really, good brownie recipe. I’ve gotten so many compliments on these brownies and most of my sweets recipients have become fans for these treats in particular.

Check out this gooey goodness! 😍

I must admit that this recipe is not completely my own- I encountered it on AllRecipes on one fine day. The original recipe calls for all vegetable oil, which I swap out for entirely melted unsalted butter. I also use cocoa powder instead of dutch-processed cocoa powder.

Since this recipe calls for a lot of oil, the estimated cost of this recipe is more pricey than my other recipes (roughly $4.83/tray). For comparison, I’ve found that a Betty Crocker brownie mix is $1.39 while a Ghiradelli “Double Chocolate” brownie mix is $1.99. However, I think this recipe tops any box mix, no matter how fancy (yeah, I’m looking at that Ghiradelli option), and is well worth the extra work and cash money.

Not feeling chocolate? What about…

Also, a perk of making your own brownies is that you can decide how “gooey” or well-done you want it to be. If you’re a fudge fan like me, bake for about 30 minutes and rest in the oven until the surface cracks (about 10 minutes). Alternatively, if you prefer a well-done brownie that resembles dense chocolate cake, bake for 40 minutes until the surface also cracks or a toothpick inserted in the middle can come out clean.

To spice things up a little, you can even add semi-sweet chocolate chips or toasted walnuts to the batter. I’ve tried both and they were delicious and make a great gift for the holidays!

I use a 6-inch square pan!

I think the most common size for square pans is 9-inches. Unfortunately, I do use a 6-inch pan for this recipe.

If all you have is a 9-inch pan, try doubling this recipe and altering the bake time to about 55 minutes and resting for 10 minutes. This timing is a rough estimate so I would also suggest following the pointer tips below:

Pointer tips:

After baking for 30 minutes (6-inch) or 55 minutes (9-inch), shake the pan. The center of the brownies should not be solid but should not be very jiggly either. It should barely jiggle.

Then, if a toothpick is inserted in the center, it should indicate that the batter has the consistency of chocolate ganache- like thick melted chocolate.

When the brownies has passed both of these conditions, turn off the oven but leave the brownies in the oven for an additional 10 minutes or until the surface cracks become more prominent.

  • Toothpick Test
  • “Prominent” cracks

Fudgy Brownies

  • Servings: 1, 6-inch square pan
  • Difficulty: too easy to resist
  • Print

These brownies are ooey-gooey like a lava cake!  Credit:  Mmm-Mmm Better Brownies


Ingredients

  • 1/2 C. Unsalted Butter, melted, at room temperature
  • 1 C. Granulated Sugar
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
  • 2 Large Eggs
  • 1/3 C. Cocoa Powder
  • 1/4 tsp. Salt
  • 1/2 C. All-Purpose Flour


Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350℉.
  2. Grease a 6″ square pan.
  3. In a large bowl, blend together butter and sugar to get a grainy paste.
  4. Crack in the eggs and vanilla into the butter/sugar mix. Whisk until all ingredients blend together.
  5. In a smaller bowl, combine in cocoa, salt, and flour using a clean whisk to combine the ingredients.
  6. Add the dry ingredients to the larger bowl containing the wet ingredients in two parts. Fold with a rubber spatula in-between additions. Ensure everything is homogeneous.
  7. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Insert the pan into the middle rack of the oven.
  8. For fudgey brownies, bake for 30 minutes, and rest with the oven off for 10 minutes or until the surface cracks. The residual heat will finish off the brownie. For “well-done” brownies, bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

To ensure maximum fudge goodness, I constantly check on my brownies while it’s cooling (or slowly cooking) in the oven. Since the brownie is using the leftover heat to finish, resist opening the oven door! Use the oven light to check if the surface has cracked.

Alternatively, once I notice that the sides and top looks cooked, I will open the oven door to jiggle the pan a little. The middle should still be very slightly jiggly for fudge brownies. If you are unsure whether you the brownie is done, inserting a toothpick in the middle is a great way to check how far along the brownie is. It should feel a bit like a chocolate ganache (not liquid, not solid either, but a creamy, dense chocolate).

Try adding semisweet chocolate chips or toasted walnuts to the batter for a lovely variation!

Christmas Box Cookies

| Zoe Wong

Usually, I would use my adapted sablé cookies recipe from linuxhacker since I’ve already made so many variations of it; however, I came across a cookie box recipe on YouTube and wanted to try it out after reading all the positive comments.

I went ahead and decided to make 5 different varieties using half the recipe: cranberry-orange, chocolate chip, classic chocolate and vanilla, strawberry-jam linzer, and holiday gingerbread.

Unlike the old recipe I usually used for these kinds of cookies, this recipe used raw eggs. This saved me some time since I used have to boil and grate the yolks of boiled eggs in the old recipe.

Heart-stamped strawberry-jam cookies, leaf-shaped “gingerbread” cookies, orange-cranberry, and chocolate chip cookies.

In the video, Emma stacked two cookies to make the jam-centered cookies. I chose the lazy route and stamped some hearts into cut cookies instead and fill the indentation with jam. It still worked 😆 but the jam didn’t fill as cleanly as if I were to cut and stack two cookies together.

Emma also made gingerbread flavored cookies in her video. She used a little bit of cocoa powder to add color to the gingerbread flavored cookies. I thought this was a great idea, so I also did the same. However, I didn’t have ginger powder nor cloves, so I used a bit of pumpkin spice mix with some extra cinnamon powder. I don’t recommend doing this for a true gingerbread flavor since mine tasted predominately cinnamon-y.

Overall, it was a great recipe, and my mom even thought it was better (cause it was softer) than my adapted recipe from linuxhacker. Personally, I couldn’t really tell since they were both delicious! Anywho, thank you Emma, for sharing your wonderfully versatile recipe– it’s definitely a keeper!

DIYed some cookie boxes to give away the cookies to my friends.

Other cookie recipes:

Turtle-Shaped Cookies

Did you know turtles date back to the time of the dinosaurs, over 200 million years ago?