my kitchen: EASY HOMEMADE BISCUITS

Easy Homemade Biscuits

Makes 6-8 

Thank you Sugar Spun Run for the recipe! 

These biscuits were light and fluffy, yet had a nice crunchy top. Make sure to fold the dough over itself for the nice flaky layers. So good out of the oven, with a bit of honey and butter. Finished this batch the same day, next time I would double it for a dozen. This recipe is a keeper. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (250g)
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons butter very cold, chopped or grated 
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt *
• 1/2 cup whole milk *

Original recipe: uses unsalted butter and  ¾ cup whole milk or buttermilk 

Instructions

• For best results, chill your butter in the freezer for 10-20 minutes before beginning this recipe. It's ideal that the butter is very cold for light, flaky, buttery biscuits. (I had butter already in the freezer so I took it out while I was prepping the dry ingredients)
• Preheat oven to 220C/ 425F and prep a cookie sheet
• Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and mix well. 
• Cut or grate butter with box grater and mix it into your flour mixture. Can also use fingers to press butter into flour. Combine until it looks like coarse crumbs.
• Add yogurt, milk, and stir until just combined (don't over-work the dough).
• Transfer your biscuit dough to a well-floured surface and use your hands to gently work the dough together. If the dough is too sticky, add flour until it is manageable. 
• Once the dough comes together, fold in half over itself and use your hands to gently flatten layers together. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and fold in half again, repeating this step 5-6 times but taking care to not overwork the dough.
• Use your hands (do not use a rolling pin) to flatten the dough to 1" thick. You can use a round biscuit cutter or I just shaped the dough into a rectangle and cut into 6-8 pieces for a more rustic look  
• Place less than ½" apart on baking sheet. 
• Bake on 220C/ 425F for 12 minutes or until tops are beginning to just turn lightly golden brown.
• If desired, brush with melted salted butter immediately after removing from oven. Serve warm and enjoy.

news: 2024 TATLER DINING AWARDS - TAIWAN

2024 Tatler Taiwan Dining Awards

The last few years haven't slowed down restaurant openings in Taiwan, nor the awards ceremonies.  You might have heard of newer awards popping up, like 500 Plates (or Wu Bai Pan) with 100 judges from different industries each choosing 5 faves and then a tally to see which ones got the most votes. 

Another is Tatler Dining Awards, which started a few years ago for Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macau.

Held at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Taipei, today was the inaugural Tatler Dining awards for Taiwan, with 3 categories- 15 Tatler Recommended restaurants, Tatler Top 20 and then Best of 2024.  Most of the restaurants are in Taipei, with a few from Taichung, Taitung, Kaohsiung and Pingtung.

Quite of a few of these restaurants are on my to do list- restaurants to eat at and restaurants to latergram. Which ones are you looking most foward to? 

15 TATLER RECOMMENDED RESTAURANTS 

1. A Cut

2. Akin

3. Fireplay

4. Inita

5. le beaujour

6. Sinsera 24 (Taitung)

7. Mipon

8. Meowvelous

9. Ding Wang 

10. Ji Jia Zhuang

11. Danny's Steakhouse

12. Xiang Se

13. Le Palais

14. Molino de Urdaniz

15. Yonshin 

I've been to 11 of the 15 restaurants, and I really need to try Inita this year! 

2024 TATLER TOP 20 RESTAURANTS 

1. Akame (Pingtung)

2. Coast

3. de Nuit

4. Embers

5. Ephernite

6. Frassi

7. JL Studio (Taichung)

8. La Vie Thomas Buhner

9. Le Cote (Taichung)

10. logy

11. Longyue

12. Mingfu 

13. Mountain and Sea House

14. Oretachi No Nikuya (Taichung)

15. RAW

16. Restaurant A

17. Sho (Kaohsiung)

18. Silks House

19. Tairroir

20. Zea

2024 BEST OF THE YEAR by Tatler Dining

Best New Chef

L'Atelier Par Yao

Best New Restaurant

Restaurant A 

Chef Alain Huang

Best Interior Design

Inflorescence

Best Sommelier 

logy

Best Pastry Chef

Yu Chocolatier

Chef of the Year

Chef Max Wo

Silks House at Regent Taipei

Most Influential 

Chef Andre Chiang RAW

Best Service

Sens

Best Restaurant of the Year

logy 

Chef Ryogo Tahara 

my kitchen: EASY LEMON CAKE LOAF

Easy Lemon Cake Loaf

Makes 1 loaf

Thank you Broma Bakery for the recipe! 

Happy leap year! February 29th!

Last night, I was craving cake. And I had all the ingredients in the fridge, mostly. So it was the perfect time to try to make a lemon loaf for the first time.  This recipe from Broma Bakery was very easy to prepare and make, and I skipped the glaze because 1- the cake was sweet enough on it's own for me and 2- I didn't have any powdered sugar on hand. 

This recipe was SO GOOD. We ate almost the entire loaf the first day, though it came out flatter than I expected (maybe because it needed that extra 1/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of sugar. lol). (Can you see how moist it is?) 

EASY LEMON CAKE LOAF

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar*
• zest of 2 lemons (about 2 Tablespoons)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice (about half a lemon)
• 1/4 cup greek yogurt or sour cream **
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour ***
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

INSTRUCTIONS

1. 1. Preheat the oven to 175 C / 350°F 
2. 2. In a large bowl, combine the granulated sugar and lemon zest. Use your fingers to rub the sugar and the lemon zest together. 
3. 3. Add the melted butter to the sugar and mix well. Add the vanilla extract and each egg, mixing well. 
4. 4. Add the greek yogurt, milk and lemon juice. Mix to combine. It will look curdled and lumpy, and that's normal. 
5. 5. Add the all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until the batter is smooth. Do not over mix.
6. 6. Pour the batter into lined loaf pan and bake at 175 C/ 350°F for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a chopstick inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean. Cool slightly before cutting, but it's quite wonderful warm as well. 

RECIPE NOTES AND CHANGES

* (originally 1 cup)

 ** (originally sour cream)

*** (I misread the recipe and used 1 1/3 cup of flour instead of 1 2/3 cup but the cake came out wonderfully moist and rich but not too dense. will try it next time with the right amount of flour to compare.)