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French King Cake (Galette des Rois)

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This is a popular January dessert, traditionally eaten for epiphany, but I make it all year round. It is a perfect last-minute dessert, for potluck, dinner guest, or work friend's birthday you almost forgot. It will look like more effort than you'd put in.

The whole dish comprises just two components: puff pastry, and frangipane. Egg-wash/decoration completely optional, but strongly recommended - for 30 seconds of effort, it'll look a lot more impressive!

Ingredients:

2 sheets of puff pastry (~9-inch)
1 cup almond meal
1/2 cup granulated sugar or 3/4 cup powdered sugar
6 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Instruction:

Cream butter with sugar just until mixed. Add eggs one at a time, then mix in almond meal and vanilla. Cut out 2 round puff pastry sheets by using a lid or plate as mold. Add the stuffing to the center and spread until there's ~1 inch margin. Brush the margin with egg whites to help the sheets stick. Fold the other sheet of pastry on top.…
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Fluffy, Pillowy, Foolproof Instant Mashed Potato Gnocchi

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If you've ever bought pre-made, shelve-stable, room-temperature packaged gnocchi, you've been disappointed before. They're always gummy with very little potato taste. I wish it were easier to like the much more convenient substitute. God knows how many times I failed at making the legendary light-as-cloud, fluffy, pillowy gnocchi. I've made enough batches that were colossal waste of time and ingredients, I could hear Gordon Ramsay yelling in my head.

Truth be told I kinda know why. But honestly, who measures Idaho potatoes by the grams?! How big do you consider a "medium potato" to be? Do you bake your potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil, or microwave them with a lid on? What is a good amount of water loss? What is a proper amount of dusting flour? What does it even mean to work just until the dough comes together?!

If you've shared my frustrations, this is a recipe for you! It recently dawned on me that potato gnocchi are finicky because the wetness of…
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Shortcut Soup Dumpling with Gelatin, Pasta Roller, & Cake Ring!

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This is a hacky way of making my childhood favorite dim sum. My mother laughed at all my cop-out's, but was delighted at the result. Truth is, while xiaolongbao is an ubiquitous Shanghai specialty, a lot of locals have never actually made it themselves because the traditional way is quite time consuming.

In a nutshell, the soup was added to the dumplings by cooking down pork or chicken collagen until you get a thick enough broth that gelatinizes when cooled. The solid soup jelly is then chopped up and mixed into the meat, which is then wrapped into the dough. When steamed, the jelly dissolves into soup again at high temperature, and you have soup dumpling.

To save you hours of cooking and chilling, my shortcut is to add gelatin into store-bought broth. To further reduce chilling time, warm up only half of the broth needed, dissolve bloomed gelatin in it, and stir in the remaining cold broth into the mixture. This will cool down the mixture a lot faster. My broth was set in abou…
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