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Takaw.Mata

Hey, I'm Aira 🇵🇭 🇦🇺
🌸 musings on food and cooking
🍰 stress baking because therapy is expensive
🔪 just pottering around the kitchen

11/05/2025

Millionaire's shortbread with coconut caramel, ube chocolate and pinipig (toasted young glutinous rice).

I love how this brings together some of the classic flavors I grew up with, wrapped up in one delicious, snackable bite.

Coconut caramel ➡️ sauce used on suman sa lihiya
Ube and pinipig ➡️ classic halohalo ingredients

I didn't have enough caramel to warrant calling it a caramel slice 🇦🇺, which sucks because it's probably my favourite element of this dessert.

Needless to say, I'll be making this again but with the correct biscuit to caramel ratio 🤭

02/05/2025

Coffee and cardamom hot cross buns with chocolate filling 🐰🐣

Soft, buttery, and stupidly rich.

The culprit is a high butter percentage plus Yudane, a method that gives it a moist and slightly chewy crumb.

I also swapped the traditional crosses for flaky puff pastry—because why not add a little extra texture?

I’d consider this a 'once-a-day' kind of treat—but let’s be real, my self-control vanishes when good bread is involved.

Recipe from https://www.chainbaker.com/cinnamon-rolls/

05/04/2025

Spicy, sweet, and totally unforgettable – this is what happens when pepperberry meets honey ice cream 🍯🔥🍦

I first tried Tasmanian honey and pepperberry ice cream from a while back, and to this day, it’s still on my mind. While it’s not available where I am, I’m lucky enough to have access to pepperberry (foraged near 📍 Mt. Macedon, VIC).

Pepperberry, a native Australian spice, has an incredible fruity and spicy flavour. Its heat lingers like Szechuan pepper, with sharp notes like wasabi. When paired with honey ice cream, it’s next-level delicious.

I used a generic honey for this test batch, but I can only imagine how much better it would be with Tasmanian leatherwood honey. Lesson learned though, I’ll go easy on the pepperberry next time! 🥵

Ice cream base recipe from Dana Cree's book, 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰, 𝘔𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘐𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮.

09/03/2025

Think twice before making shortbread cookies on a hot day.

Even with the AC blasting, I could feel the dough melting as I tried to lift the cut-outs off the sheet 😭

I had to work quickly, taking breaks and popping the dough back in the fridge to harden before trying again.

It was frustrating and tedious ... but honestly, look how cute they turned out 🥲

𝑻𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆
Turn this into a slice with a chunky shortbread base, jam in the middle and a thin layer of grated shortbread on top (made with browned butter)

02/03/2025

I often crave Champorado during cold and rainy days. It's a warm bowl of chocolate rice porridge with evaporated milk drizzled on top. It's what my mum would make to offer comfort whenever a storm was imminent.

Probably the most unique aspect of Champorado is the dried fish served with it. I'm used to having it with Tuyo, which is a type of salted dried fish. It adds a complex and savoury note that goes well with the bitterness of the chocolate. It's defnitely an acquited taste.

I didn't have Tuyo on hand, so I thought of other ways I can emulate the same flavour. This led me to making a fish sauce caramel as a subsitite, which led me to wonder "How else can I recreate Champorado?".

My first attempt 🍫🐟
Chocolate soy pudding
Fish sauce caramel
Roasted rice and peanuts

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