If you’re online at all, you know that “exercising free will” has become a meme of sorts — whether it’s folks posting about leaving their desks to get a Wendy’s Diet Coke (so crazy!) or just acting bizarre in public to get a reaction from strangers. What free will is — and if it even exists — is the subject of heated debate, but the idea is clearly compelling to people in this cultural moment. You could probably chalk this up to the way much chance, serendipity, kismet, or spontaneity has been sucked out of our lives thanks to increasingly small social circles, work-from-home, the phone-laptop-headphones bubbles we all travel in when we’re out and about, the increasing cost of third spaces, and a growing culture of over-optimization.

As a response to this, even I’ve noticed myself becoming less rigid about what it means to be productive, avoiding stopping to ask myself, is this the most efficient or best way to do this?

This weekend, instead of doing what I usually do on Saturday mornings (watch RuPaul’s Drag Race recaps on the couch) I felt a force moving me to the kitchen. This is unusual only because, if I’m not “working” on a given day, I usually don’t conduct food experiments for fun — which sucks! But on that morning, I thought it would be fun to transform some of the heavy cream and black sesame paste in my fridge (I knew would soon go bad) into some black sesame-Oreo ice cream.

I paused while I had a bunch of the ingredients balanced in my arms, is this the best use of my time today? Then I thought, what if you just did what makes you happy today? Reader, I rarely think about that. I wasn’t even going to post about the process, but when I did, you all went berserk over on my IG Story. So I’m taking that as a sign you want the recipe — and also that some of the most interesting work can come when I’m just putzing around.

Another example? I recently bought a sewing machine. I didn’t think about it for long, I just didn’t want to keep shelling out for alterations on my clothes and got the impulse to hit “buy”. This is out of character for me for many reasons. 1) I’m pretty cheap, which might explain why I think this machine will pay itself off in a few hems. 2) I don’t like when I have to store an appliance I don’t use often. 3) I am patient zero of analysis paralysis — I will spend months deciding on what drapes to buy. I’ve never sewed before, and up until recently, I didn’t have an interest in it. But I’m excited to learn something new because, once I monetized my little baking habit, the one hobby I had went poof. Since then, I’ve kind of been hobby-less for five years (unless you count going to the gym as a hobby, which...)

Most days, I take the bus home from the gym. But the other day — even though I was exhausted — I decided it was such a nice day that I should just walk the 35 minutes back to my apartment, which I never do. And you know what? It didn’t take me that much longer than waiting around for the bus — and it felt great!

Yesterday, I got so stressed out about finding a new barber. (Remember that thing about analysis paralysis?) Since I moved, I can’t make it to my old one as often and, for me, finding a new one takes recommendations from other gay guys in Brooklyn, having to develop a relationship with the new stylist, not to mention facing increasing prices. I decided it would be better (and also maybe a little fun) to just cut it myself. Yeah, it’s reckless, yeah, my bathroom now looks like Cousin It exploded, yeah my hair… does not look great! But I freed myself from the paralysis, at least for another three weeks or so.

(As I write this, I wonder to myself, Is the experience I’m describing actually mania? Or is this how everyone feels when the temperature is above 60 for a consecutive week?)

Whether these are examples of me exercising my free will or not, I don’t think it really matters. They are more-so examples of me listening to my impulses; not the base ones that signal you’re tired or you’re hungry — the ones beneath those that whisper wouldn’t it be cool if we painted the office Shrek green?

I attended a board game night this weekend and one of the partygoers asked me what made these matcha lemon bars different from regular lemon bars. I replied, without any irony, “The amount of matcha in them.” This may have been a you-had-to-be-there moment but I couldn’t. stop. laughing. about. it. Every few minutes, someone would ask a new question about how much matcha was in each batch and I, through tears, would say, “The ones that are more green… those have more matcha. The difference between the batches is the amount of matcha.” Okay, you definitely had to be there.

The only thing you need to know is all the board game players that night agreed that the amount of matcha in the final recipe was perfect. There’s matcha mixed into the shortbread crust, blended into half of the curd (then marbled with the lemon-only curd), and if you’re a real fiend for the green stuff, you can even sift some on top at the end.

This recipe packs a unique flavor and visual punch — but only takes about 45 minutes in active time to make. The bars genuinely taste like a $9 matcha-lemonade from the most Williamsburg coffee shop you can find — and I can say that because I recently left Williamsburg.

Makes about 16-20 squares

Read more

Are monkey breads too 2016-BuzzFeed-heyday coded? Even if they are, I’m not letting that stop me from publishing this recipe. And you shouldn’t let it stop you from making it for Easter or for whatever you have going on this weekend.

The recipe starts off with pureed cooked carrots folded into a supple, enriched dough. The carrots, along with some warms spices, lend it that traditional carrot cake flavor and color. Then there’s the cinnamon sugar coating between each piece of dough, as well as the morsels of cream cheese that are wrapped inside them, that really make this showstopper sing.

Then things take a turn from the traditional with some salty, buttery toffee sauce that gets poured onto the monkey bread bottom-side up right when it comes out of the oven, and then over the top once it gets turned out.

This recipe is the perfect centerpiece for a brunch where you want to impress — or just a slow morning of your family picking pieces off one by one. If you don’t have a bundt pan, you can also bake it in a large cast iron skillet, two cake tins, two loaf tins, or a 9x13-inch pan. If you’re really crazy and out there, you could even try adding a cup or so of raisins to the dough — or sprinkle the top with toasted chopped pecans.

Serves 12 to 14

Ingredients

Carrot bread

Read more

I’ve had crepe cakes on the brain. Last week, I was fighting with a black sesame crepe cake that I’m just not sure will ever see the light of day. I was working on a cream cheese filling for that recipe when, halfway through, I thought, this would be way better with blueberries. I started thinking about blintzes, the Eastern European Jewish dish comprised of a creamy filling wrapped in a thin pancake and baked, often topped with a berry sauce. This blueberry crepe cake became a play on that delicious breakfast/brunch fare — and to take it over the top, lemon juice and lemon zest flavor the crepe batter and cream cheese filling.

For the batch I shot for these photos and videoed for my socials, I didn’t add the gelatin to the blueberry filling, and you might be able to tell that the blueberries oozed out a bit too much, leading to a final product that was delicious, but didn’t cut easily with a fork. (I also didn’t allow it to set for the full three to four hours.) That’s why I added in that tiny bit of gelatin, so the layers wouldn’t slide off in sheets when you went to cut it, and so that the striations we worked so hard for would be neater. If you omit the gelatin, it won’t be the end of the world and it will still taste and look great.

I realize this isn’t the most streamlined recipe. It’s a lot of components and you will use many of your dishes and utensils. You’ll also be spending about an hour cooking the crepes. I’m just trying to level with you.

But take it as a meditative opportunity — it can be pretty relaxing once you get into the groove of it. As for the cream cheese and blueberry filling, those come together in 10 to 15 minutes. You can make this recipe easier by simply replacing the blueberry filling with your favorite berry preserves or jam — it just might not hold together as neatly.

(Serves 8-10)

Ingredients

Read more

The platonic ideal mac ‘n’ cheese has long been the subject of heated debate. Everyone prefers one format over the others: creamy and cooked solely over the stovetop, baked with a breadcrumb topping, or structurally beefed up with some eggs whisked into the mixture. It can be a personal, emotionally charged topic. In many families, bringing an over-baked dish of the stuff to a potluck or Thanksgiving can ensure you never get asked to make it again.

Sadly, many homemade macaroni and cheese recipes turn out soupy, gritty and split, or even worse — dry. A few years ago, I set out to make my dream version: bouncy, springy noodles, a creamy but flavorful cheese sauce, baked under a blanked of crusty cheesy breadcrumbs.

After publishing this recipe in 2023, making it for a few Thanksgivings, and re-testing it recently, I’ve some tweaks to it and re-pubbed it below. More importantly, I’ve also distilled all the best mac ‘n’ cheese intel I’ve learned in the process into the following tips.

1. Selecting Pasta Shapes (This Could Get Ugly.)

You already know which pasta shapes belong in mac ‘n’ cheese. Medium-length, tubed pasta works best. Obviously, regular elbow macaroni is classic, and at this point, is vintage enough to be cool again. I love using cavatappi. They’re like if elbows had like ten more elbows. One of my favorite macs in the world was at a now-closed Lubo House in Norfolk, VA. It was loaded with gorgonzola and used gemelli — an underrated shape in the mac world. A wildcard choice: radiatori!

Rotini and fusili are passable, but kind of on thin ice for me. For some reason, in my mind, penne and rigatoni just doesn’t belong with mac ‘n’ cheese. Long shapes like spaghetti — or short shapes like ditalini, farfalle or orecchhiete — are a no.

2. Be Choosy about Cheesy

Some cheeses are better for melting than others, and a big factor in meltability is age. Hard cheeses like parmesan are aged for a long time (more than a year) which reduces their moisture and changes their texture, leading to that crumbly, grit we know and love. As that happens, the flavor becomes deeper and more complex as enzymes and microbes develop and “help transform lactose into lactic acid and build other amino acids,” according Wisconsin Cheese.

Another byproduct of the aging process: gradually, some of the proteins in the cheese break down. This “matrix” of proteins is responsible for holding the oil in place, maintaining the emulsion. So when the cheese melts, the degraded matrix can’t hold onto as much oil, and the fat separates out. This is why the mouth feel of aged cheeses isn’t as creamy, and it’s also why hard cheeses don’t melt as well as soft cheeses. And the more separated oil that is introduced to your sauce, the thinner it will be.

On the other hand, soft and semi-soft cheeses such as some cheddars, American cheese, or fontina are usually only aged for a couple months. They have developed some flavor, but they haven’t lost as much moisture, they’ve maintained their protein structure, and they will still stay creamy when melted. You can use hard cheeses like parm and gruyere in mac ‘n’ cheese — they are absolute flavor bombs! But varieties like these shouldn’t make up the majority of cheese if you want a creamy sauce.

I give exact quantities for the types of cheese in my recipe, but use that more as a guide to adjust to your flavor preferences. I realize buying four or five different types of cheese is a lot of money; there’s no reason you couldn’t do this with 2 or 3 different cheeses in the sauce (for example, cheddar and American). You can also forgo the parm in the breadcrumb topping — or just top the mac with a layer of more cheddar. I recommend having a good balance of cheeses — soft, semi-soft, semi-hard and hard — across different components of mac ‘n’ cheese. Here is a non-exhaustive list:

For the sauce:

• Fontina: earthy, grassy, melty

• Cheddar: a good balance of solid, sharp flavor as well as a creamy texture. It’s why it’s a classic for mac ‘n’ cheese!

• American: mild, but ultimate meltability thanks to sodium citrate (see below)

• Gorgonzola/Blue: pungent, soft, creamy, tangy

• Gruyere: rich, nutty — great for flavor but doesn’t melt super well

For layering:

• Gruyere: powerful flavor

• Muenster: very stretchy, mild

• Mozzarella: stretchy, melty, fresh

• Jarlsberg (or other Swiss style cheeses): these melt into beautiful, stretchy strands but don’t dissolve into the sauce as well as I was hoping. Layering them in between layers of the sauce-y noodles would be a good way to incorporate the cheese pull and Swiss flavor.

For breadcrumb topping:

• Parmesan

• Parmigiano Reggiano

• Romano

• Asiago

• Grana Padano

3. Shred Your Own Cheese

Absolutely do not, under any circumstances, use pre-shredded cheese from the bag. The shreds are coated in a powder that dries them and prevents them from sticking to each other, which also prevents them from melting and dissolving into the sauce. (One exception would be if you’re just using that cheese for the topping or layering.)

Avoid a gloppy mess by shredding your own cheese. I like to get my cheese shreds small so that the cheese melts faster, meaning I don’t have to overheat the béchamel (see below). It also means I don’t have to over-stir the cheese sauce, which can cause the sauce to split.

4. Don’t Count out Velveeta!

Listen, no one is above Velveeta. American cheese, like Kraft singles, gets a bad rap because it’s ubiquitous — and not super interesting. However, it has a secret weapon that makes it a boon to all cheese sauces (nacho, fondue, etc.) not just the mornay sauce of mac ‘n’ cheese. “Sodium citrate is an extremely common emulsifying salt that is used to keep the cheese creamy as it melts,” J. Kenji López-Alt writes in Serious Eats. You can learn more about the actual molecular science in this article.

If you’ve ever had mac ‘n’ cheese that’s oily or gritty, it was probably split. I talk more about why that happens in other tips, but the great thing about sodium citrate is it prevents splitting — a.k.a. keeps things emulsified (creamy). Of course, you can buy sodium citrate from many online retailers in this day and age, making it easy to turn almost any cheese into a smooth sauce, but I know many people don’t want to order a special ingredient online that they’ll rarely use and will collect dust in their pantry. The great thing is, Velveeta and other American cheeses already contain sodium citrate (as well as other emulsifying ingredients) so even dropping in a Kraft single or two, will help keep your sauce emulsified — without bringing a noticeable flavor.

5. Watch Your Temper(ature)

When I was developing my ultimate mac ‘n’ cheese recipe, I spent test after test kicking myself wondering why my cheese sauce kept splitting. Almost every time, it was because of temperature. Your béchamel doesn’t need to be ripping hot to melt cheese, especially if you are using the right kind of cheese and its in small enough pieces. I have found the happy temperature zone for the béchamel, before the cheese is added, is about 150°F. Any cooler and you’ll be standing over the pot waiting for the cheese to melt forever and you might just end up over-working it, causing it to split. Any hotter and the oils from the cheese will be expelled, leading the emulsion to break and turning your thick, luscious sauce into soup.

This also means being patient. If you’re cooking in a Dutch oven, the residual heat from the cast iron will probably be enough to melt the cheese, so just give it time. I usually add the cheese off the stove, but if you need, stick it over the still-hot burner to use up some of that heat. If that’s still enough, I turn the burner to the lowest it will go and stir for just a minute or two. And if your sauce still has some bits of visible cheese floating around, that’s okay! It will melt in the oven, or even better, turn into a gorgeous melty strand when a spoonful of hot mac is lifted out of the dish.

6. What if My Sauce Splits?

Okay, so somehow after following all these tips your sauce still broke and became curdled and grainy. I have been able to at the very least get sauces to thicken back up using an immersion blender (don’t use a regular blender unless it has a vent on top.) I could still detect some graininess in the sauce, but you could try it in a pinch.

Bonus: Layer in Cheese

And that’s why I tuck a layer of cheese shreds, usually gruyère or muenster (the ultimate stretching cheese) to add a little bit of texture and flavor interest and to achieve the aforementioned gorgeous melty strands.

(Okay, it’s technically five cheeses)

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

Breadcrumb topping

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese finely grated (optional)

• Salt

Mac and Cheese

• ½ pound cavatappi or other tubed pasta

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour (25 grams)

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (42 grams)

• 1 cup whole milk (227 milliliters)

• 1 cup heavy cream (227 milliliters)

• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard

• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 4 ounces cheddar cheese, finely shredded (1 heaping cup)

• 4 ounces Velveeta or other American cheese, chopped into tablespoon-size pieces

• 4 ounces gruyère cheese, finely shredded (1 heaping cup)
  

• 4 ounces muenster cheese, shredded (about 1 cup, for layering)

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F and move one rack to the second highest position.

• Make the breadcrumb topping. Heat the butter in the microwave just until melted. Pour over the bread crumbs and mix together with a fork until the crumbs are totally coated in butter. Mix in the parmesan and a hefty pinch of salt. Set aside.

• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until just before al dente. Drain and set aside.

• Make the roux. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, melt the butter on medium-low heat, then dump in the flour. Continuously stir the butter and flour for a minute or so until the raw flour smell has faded and the roux has darkened in color.

• Combine the milk, heavy cream, paprika, ground mustard, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a liquid measuring cup. Drizzle the liquid into the roux a little at a time, whisking to break up any lumps. Once the roux and the liquid are combined and starting to thicken, add more liquid. Repeat until all the liquid is added.

• Keep stirring until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Do not let the mixture begin to bubble — remove from heat once it reads 150°F on an instant read thermometer. If the mixture is too hot, it will split when the cheese is added.

• One handful at a time, add in the Velveeta, sharp cheddar, and gruyère, stirring in between each addition until combined. If the mixture’s temperature drops too much, you can return it to the stove on the still-hot burner or over the lowest heat (even on the smallest burner) to encourage more cheese to melt. (Again, overcooking the sauce at this point will cause it to split.) If some of the cheese strands are not totally dissolving, that’s okay. It’s better to have a few strands of unincorporated cheese in an emulsified sauce than a gritty, split soup.

• Off the heat, add the pasta to the cheese sauce, and fold together. Then, fold in the shredded muenster just until evenly dispersed but not dissolved.

• Pour the mac and cheese into a greased 9×9-inch tin or 2-quart baking dish. (Alternatively, if your sauce-pan is oven-safe and big enough, you can just bake the mac and cheese in that.) Level it off, and sprinkle on the breadcrumb topping.

• Bake on the second highest rack from the top for around 20 minutes, or until the edges are bubbling and the top is turning golden brown.

• Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before serving.

A major problem bakers run into when adding fruit flavor to cookies, cakes, and more is dealing with extra moisture. Fruits are comprised of mostly water — and when you’re making quick breads like banana or pumpkin bread, that’s a boon. Fruit and vegetable purees (or grated flesh like zucchini or carrot) not only bring flavor and color, but they’re also great at holding onto their water during the bake and keeping the finished product moist for a long time.

But sometimes, there’s too high a ratio of water to actual flavor. Recipe developers chase after pumpkin cookies that are chewy, not cakey, but still taste like pumpkin. But chewy cookies require low moisture, so we’ve figured out that you need to remove some of the moisture from the pumpkin by cooking it on the stovetop or oven-roasting it. Fruit flavors can also be more diluted than we want them to be after adding them to a mixture like, for example, buttercream. That’s why, in my lavender blackberry chocolate bars, we cook down the blackberry puree, concentrating its flavor before adding it to the buttercream.

In October 2024, I published a recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies made famous in my circle by a friend who grew up eating and making the recipe (which came to her from a family friend). They are so simple — elegantly so. Everything comes together in one bowl. There’s no browning butter. There’s no dough chill-time. You don’t have to cook the pumpkin down — and it uses exactly one can. You don’t even need eggs!

When I promoted them on social media, likely more than 100 people commented saying that they grew up with cookies similar to these, or that their family member had a recipe like it. That makes total sense — these types of family recipes usually share one or two common points of origin like a magazine or cookbook, and then get passed down and changed over the years. Regardless, it’s still one of the most popular recipes on the blog and on here because it’s so simple — and so good.

Some people, however, lamented at the fact that these were “cakey” cookies and wondered if there was a way to make them flatter and chewier — which, for me, completely defeats the purpose. I love flat and chewy cookies like any other self-respecting foodie influencer, but these are supposed to be cakey!

All that being said, an vision popped into my head a few weeks ago of a banana cookie that resembled the dome of a banana nut muffin. I wondered if I could replicate the look and feel of the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe with mashed banana, and after several tests, it worked. (Spoiler, it was not as easy as replacing the pumpkin puree with banana.)

Makes 16 cookies

Ingredients

Read more

Settling into my kitchen over the past few weeks has been, dare I say, fun. I want to make it a lean, mean machine that functions as a studio just as well as it does the place where I air-fry Trader Joe’s spicy chicken nuggets. I’m all about highs and lows, baby. I’m thinking about how I want to show it to you all, and I’m also working on ways to show you how I’m organizing it (and all my baking stuff) as well as how I’m stocking my pantry and refrigerator. Until then, read on…

Support Our Anti-ICE Cookbook Zine

I’m contributing a recipe to Fiery Recipes to Abolish ICE, a cooking zine that includes 10 spicy recipes from 10 different food writers. Watch my the video I made for my recipe, hot honey pepperoni pretzels, below! You have until February 28 to order a copy, and you can read more about it here.

Tell Me What You Want from easygayoven!

Thank you very much if you were one of the folks who filled out the surveys I sent out last week. Your responses are really going to help me give you more of what you want out of this newsletter. If you didn’t get a chance, and want to share, here’s the survey for free subscribers, and here’s the one for paid subscibers.

This recipe is inspired by creations of two other great food creators. First, the peanut butter shaken espressos made internet-famous by Reilly Meehan. Second, the Maple Sea Salt Latte Tart from Audrey Leonard (@redcurrantbakery) that I couldn’t get out of my head for months!

Peanut butter is a powerful flavor. It’s great at playing off of fruity and acidic ingredients like chocolate or jams, but it can tend to overwhelm whatever it’s paired with. That’s why there’s less PB in this filling than you might think, but the flavor is still undeniable.

Getting the coffee flavor to come through was another story. I tried to just use instant coffee, which is great because it’s super strong and dissolved quickly without adding more water to the custard. However, the flavor can be pretty one note. Then I tried mixing actual brewed espresso into the custard. This was a non-starter because, next to the peanut butter, I couldn’t taste the coffee flavor at all. Doing what I’ve done in other coffee recipes, I decided to coarsely crush some dark roast coffee beans and steep them in the cream. That did the trick. We got all the freshly brewed coffee taste and you could still detect it despite the overpowering peanut butter. I’m also giving you the option to add even more coffee flavor by adding a bit of instant coffee to the custard.

Okay, let me quickly explain something I learned during this recipe R&D. Espresso powder, ground espresso, and instant coffee/espresso are not the same thing. And many people online are confused by this. Here are the differences as best I can tell from my research. Ground espresso is just ground coffee beans, which has a very fine texture as required by the espresso method of making coffee. Espresso powder is a specialty food/baking ingredient that is used in baked goods like brownies or cakes, or even sometimes in meat rubs, that is made from espresso grounds that have already been brewed, dried and then pulverized. Instant coffee/espresso is made from a special liquid coffee extract that is either spray or freeze-dried to create tiny granules. These granules are no longer coffee bean grounds and completely dissolve in water. Now you know!

I was trying to be cute here and do a little stripe design with some finely ground coffee and two things went wrong: 1) the parchment strips stuck (???) to the filling and peeled off the top when I took them off. 2) The coffee beans were gritty (I should have known, dumb mistake.) Next time I would use stiffer straight edges to make the stripes so the tart’s surface wasn’t disturbed — and I’d just sift instant espresso/coffee powder, which has a better flavor and no gritty texture.

A note on pan sizes:

I made this in a 10-inch tart/quiche tin, 2 inches deep, with a 7.5-cup capacity. If you don’t have one of those, you have some options. Using a smaller or shallower tart pan will still work, you’ll just have extra crust/filling and you’ll need to bake the filling for less time — more like 25 to 30 minutes, but use the visual cues I give over that time range. Alternately, a 9 or 10-inch springform pan would work in a pinch, or even a pie dish — which just wouldn’t produce as neat slices.

Makes one 10-inch, 2-inch deep tart

Ingredients

Read more

I want to start off by thanking you for being a paying easygayoven subscriber! You are truly what keeps this operation moving, and a huge reason why I can rely less on branded/sponsored content to keep the business afloat. And I know your inbox real estate is valuable so I appreciate you letting me in a few times a month.

I promised myself that in the Ne…

Read more

I know it’s hard enough to keep up with all the recipes out there on Miss Piggy’s internet, let alone all the recipes easygayoven has racked up over the years. That’s why I like doing these occasional roundups to dredge up great recipes from the past that you may have missed or forgotten about. In this post, you’ll find perfect offerings for impressing your SO, impressing your Galentines, or impressing yourself with just how much you can put away alone on your couch.

Some of the recipes are for paid subscribers, but some of them are for everyone (the bottom three are all free and on easygayoven.com.) And if you still can’t find the right one for you, feel free to peruse the EGO Recipe Index, which is organized by category and location, and tells you whether or not the recipe is paywalled.

Salted Caramel Rice Pudding

This is pretty easy, feels like a dessert at a fancy restaurant, and you can make it a day or two in advance!

Mini Chocolate Lava Cakes

I was so proud when I developed these because I know most people don’t own ramekins, but they probably have a muffin tin — which is how you bake them. To make my recipe for lava cakes for two (in ramekins) see this video.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Don’t let anyone tell you red velvet cake is just bland, red chocolate cake — it’s much more than that!

I’m writing to you from my new kitchen — that I can’t wait to show you the moment it’s ready. That’s right, folks, easygayoven HQ has moved. We’re still in Brooklyn, but no longer in Williamsburg. I know Williamsburg gets a bad rap for being more like a mini-Manhattan the further you go toward the water. It’s the butt of every tech-bro-consultant-slop-bowl-lunch joke (deservedly so). But the neighborhood is obviously more expansive than that, especially the parts that haven’t been corporatized yet. I really liked living there for four years and I’m going to miss it.

So why am I moving if I liked it so much? One, someone bought our apartment building and, after telling us we could stay, reneged and said we had to GTFO because they wanted to gut the place and put in a walk-in shower so they could, I assume, jack up the rent $2,000. I probably would have stayed there for another year with my roommates (yes, I don’t think they ever appeared on the channel but I had two roommates). But two, this was the kick in the pants I needed to go out on my own (and, in a city like New York, I could finally afford to do it.) Three, the one-bedrooms there are expensive as hell!

I’m going to miss my big, bright kitchen, even with all its quirks. (Leaky windows, blasting furnace that heated the whole apartment, at one point mice — we got rid of them!) which was a one-in-one-thousand find. Most NYC apartments either have galley kitchens or some kind of internal set up. Needless to say, they’re usually small — giving more precious space and legally required windows to living rooms and bedrooms. That’s also why I had to be very picky when finding my new apartment, since the EGO operation relies heavily on a great working space.

I was looking for a kitchen with at least two windows, big enough to fit my island worktop (yes, it goes where I go), that would ideally have southern exposure, and none of those rinky-dink ovens that you can’t even fit a half sheet tray into. And, reader, well, I got it! I know it sounds like I take this too seriously, and sure, plenty of creators have a great filming and recipe testing system without these things, but it was important to me not just logistically, but also creatively — and I try to remember that at least some of what I do here is art, or at least creative.

If you have been anywhere in a 30-yard radius of me for the past 4 months, you have heard me drone on about this journey so thank you for listening, I’ll find something new to whine about now. I’ve been slow to get back to developing new recipes because, when I moved in, I had no gas or electric — and therefore also no wifi. Before you say anything, I had put in requests for transfers on all of these services before moving. I’ll just spare you and say, getting someone to come out and replace your meter after a huge snow storm that left thousands of New Yorkers without power … not easy! Two days ago, a whopping four days after I had moved in, I finally got all three functioning at once.

And that’s what you missed on Glee!

I had a lot of passion fruit puree, fresh passion fruits, and coconut shreds lying around after my ultimate birthday cake. I wanted to use them up before the big move, so this was the last recipe I developed and shot in my old kitchen. Awww.

This passion fruit cream filling is just cooked over the stove, and because of the lower ratio of acidic lemon juice, it’s a bit looser and needs a longer chill time to hold its shape.

I wanted to use coconut cream for the topping but it didn’t work at all. This may have been because I didn’t use a dedicated can of coconut cream, opting to use the cream at the top of a can of coconut milk I had. It just didn’t have enough fat content and viscosity, so it never whipped up. But then I figured I would rather just have you use the three egg whites (that you separated from the yolks that the filling uses) to make a creamy meringue topping. (I don’t like having spare egg parts sitting in my fridge, either!) If you try whipping up some real coconut cream, sweetened with some sugar, let me know!

The fresh passion fruit rivers running down the ravines of meringue are optional because speaking from first hand experience, I know how hard it is to find. A toasting all over with a kitchen torch really takes it over the top.

Ingredients

Read more

Okay so we’re technically a week out from my birthday, but I promised myself that this year I would develop my dream birthday cake. I decided that, even if I was late, I should just do it anyway. I suppose this isn’t my forever dream cake, though, I just haven’t been able to stop thinking about doing some kind of passion fruit chocolate number lately. Besides, my dream birthday cake has long been Beatty’s Chocolate Cake, popularized by the Barefoot Contessa herself, Ina Garten.

The final iteration of this cake turned out a little different from what I planned. I bought sweetened shredded coconut to fold into the cake layers, and then forgot to put it in. I also bought coconut milk to sweeten with sugar and brush on the cake layers as a soak, but then I forgot to do that, too. I trekked into manhattan to buy $17-worth of passion fruits to put the seeds and pulp on top of the passion fruit curd filling for the filling. Guess what I forgot to do while assembling.

I only have one 8-inch cake pan that I really like and I couldn’t just use it for both layers because you kind of need to bake this batter right away. Ingenuity struck (for once) when I took an 8-inch baking ring that I’ve had lying around forever and placed it on a lined quarter sheet tray. It worked nearly as well! It’s important to cool chiffon cakes upside down so their delicate structure doesn’t collapse under the weight of gravity. This is also why we don’t grease the sides of the tin: so that the cake can climb up the tin walls in the oven and has something to hang on to while cooling.

Here’s the thing, though. Because I employed a chiffon cake method, I’m actually glad I didn’t use the shredded coconut mix-in, as I now think that could have been disastrous. I have a feeling those shreds might have sliced into the precious the precious air pockets of my whipped egg whites, popping them and sinking my beautiful sponge. Along with a bit of baking powder (it’s not cheating) the meringue is the main leavener of the cake. Alternatively, what if the coconut just weighed the feathery light crumb down? I’d have to test it again to know, but I think the milk soak will bring enough of coconut flavor and the perfect amount of moisture I was needing.

As for the passionfruit curd, it is delicious: tangy, bright, floral, with just enough butter to set it and keep it creamy. If you can find it at the store, frozen seedless passionfruit puree works perfectly for the curd, but I had trouble tracking down the refrigerated pulp with seeds. From some cursory research, it seems like it can be found at some Latino or Thai markets, or you can order it online. In the end, i couldn’t find any in-person and that’s why I had to go buy the whole fruit at the most confusing store ever: Eataly. It was worth it to top the cake with the bright orange pulp studded with pretty seeds, but it would have been more worth it if I could have also remembered to drizzle it onto the curd filling as well.

I knew I wanted a creamy, shiny coat of milk chocolate frosting adorning this cake. The richness and ….. well, milkiness, tame the sour passion fruit so they sing in harmony.

So, yes, I’m going to give directions for the milk soak since I believe the cake — which is perfectly spongey but otherwise plain and not as rich as a sponge cake, for instance — needs it. But feel free to omit any of the refrigerated fresh pulp and just use the seedless passion fruit puree in the freezer section for the curd.

This is absolutely a recipe that can be broken up and completed in several days, although you could also do it in one. The passionfruit curd, cake layers, and milk soak can all be prepped days in advance, as long as they are wrapped/covered well and stored in the fridge. The only think that should be made day of is the frosting as it doesn’t come to room temperature well once whipped and chilled.

Ingredients

Read more

Well, yesterday was my 31st birthday. I treated myself to a fat breakfast burrito from Ceremonia Bakeshop and my friends took me out to dinner at the 126-year-old iconic Italian restaurant Bamonte’s, which has been on my list since I moved to Williamsburg. For the prices, I’m sorry to say the food was mid, but the company was anything but.

As if that weren’t enough, I also signed a lease on a new apartment! Our long national nightmare is over. If you have ever looked for real estate in New York City, you, like me, wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy. Thank you for being patient as I take a little time off of easygayoven to deal with IRL matters this month. And if you’ve been following along with this journey, thank you for not unfollowing me on Instagram as I begged for leads. In upcoming posts I’ll talk about where I’m going and what I’m going to miss about the current place I’ve called home for four years. Until then, I’ll be packing.

January is a weird time to be a baking recipe developer/Substack-er. People are going Whole 30 and swearing off sweets and carbs. People’s wallets are reeling after the holidays (Rocket Money ads are plastered to all my screens right now) so people are cutting back on subscriptions. Resolution season means that people are curbing their screen time, so they’re not really seeing to what recipes are being posted anyway. More generally, it seems like no one has a sense of what flavors to lean into after our taste buds have been blown out by sugary cookie boxes and decadent dinners.

I’ve heard at least one of these sentiment echoed by a few fellow food creators recently (the wellness girlies, however, are doing just fine). Besides citrus season, which is just getting going around this time, there isn’t a lot of fun seasonal produce to work with. February has a monopoly on chocolate recipes, obviously. And I certainly won’t be making “healthy” bakes just because it’s January — sorry. My mantra, when it comes to making baked goods with less sugar, less butter, or less processed ingredients has long been: It’s not a salad.

That’s why, at the start of every year, I have been leaning into one ingredient: peanut butter. It’s earthy, comforting, and when baked into something, takes off the saccharine edge. After back-to-school season, it takes a back seat during Orange and Brown Food Season (my loving name for the pumpkin-spice time) and over the holidays. That is, unless you’re someone who likes peanut butter kisses — I don’t. Because of that, it just feels like a welcome return.

That being said, don’t let this stop you from making these cookies all. year. long. I wanted peanuts and peanut butter to be absolutely pouring out of every orifice of this cookie. (Sorry.) I’ve had two bags of Reese’s peanut butter chips withering away in my pantry. Because I’m trying to clear out before my move, combined with my January peanut butter fixation, I knew that now was the time to make the ultimate peanut butter cookie.

This cookie has more peanut butter than flour in it. It stays creamy and chewy — not chalky, as so many peanut butter cookies can end up. I wanted these to be big, like the kind of cookie you’d get at the mall. They just look better, and feel more special, especially with roasted peanut halves studding the whole top surface of the cookie. That being said, I also give directions for making them the medium-size of my typical cookie recipes. A sprinkle of flakey sea salt after baking takes them over the top, in my professional opinion.

Please use creamy peanut butter spread for this recipe — not the grainy, “natural” kind you can make at home or crunchy grocery stores. To be even more clear, I’m talking about the type, such as Jif or Skippy, where the oil doesn’t separate out so you don’t have to mix it. You have every right to go off script here, but just know the cookies might not turn out the same.

Makes 9 large cookies or 15-16 medium cookies

Ingredients

Read more

The end of the year does not inspire much reflection in me — I’m usually too busy! However, now that we’re in 2026, instead of ideating resolutions, I’ve been thinking of something I’m really happy I started doing last year. None of my resolutions has ever stuck around more than a few weeks, which is why I try to not make them, let alone announce them. (Some research even suggests that if you tell someone else your goal, you might be less likely to achieve it.) I’m a pretty calcified person. Creating new patterns in my social life, diet, work ethic, etc. is difficult for me. I’ll probably never be someone who makes his bed in the morning. No matter how many times I try to build that habit, it just might not happen. So I don’t even have any resolutions this year, private or otherwise. (I just need to find a new apartment by the end of this month!)

A habit I am proud to have stuck with all of last year is a regular practice of lifting weights. I’m not really going to talk about how often or what I do, not that anyone has ever asked for that, lol. I feel comfortable talking more about this now because … I already did it! And I’m not planning on changing anything about it so I don’t think I’m self-sabotaging my own goals, either.

I hate to say this, but lifting weights has become such a part of my weekly routine that: 1) I don’t have to convince myself to go to the gym 2) I don’t have to agonize over fitting it into my schedule (this is easier because I work for myself) 3) I actually *shudder* look forward to it most of the time 4) it genuinely improves my mental wellbeing. It has been nice to be able to track my progress linearly instead of all of the various, sometimes nonsensical metrics I use to determine success with my job. It’s almost like a video game. There’s solace in knowing exactly what I need to do and not having to overthink it. When my mind is chaotic and I can’t get anything done, unplugging (as much as my too-online brain will allow) and focusing on my silly little tasks at the gym typically helps.

Finding a way to achieve a goal — or even just creating a new habit — let alone one that also tricks you into enjoying it and putting it on an almost-autopilot, that’s something I didn’t think was possible for me. I resisted this specific type of exercise for a long time, after trying so many others. My main rationale against it: I just didn’t think I was *that* kind of guy. The idea that I would ever touch a barbell was just so foreign to me. I was tying way too much identity to a place, a workout, a body type — a straight, jock archetype.

And it’s not like that feeling came from nowhere. Growing up, and well into my college years, the body standard for young gay guys was thin. Now, the pendulum has swung and it’s much more popular to just get jacked. If you’re like me, you likely bowed out or were shamed out of most sports by the time you left high school. If you don’t have the right body type, many workout spaces can be actively hostile to you, especially if you’re a woman. And especially in today’s political climate, there’s an increasingly slippery slope between getting more protein and going full MAHA. People can’t even be interested in building muscle without getting raw milk videos flooding their Reels page.

When I went full-time with easygayoven in 2022, I started running, which I hated. I’d suffer through 30 minutes of it, multiple times a week, even though afterwards my brain would admittedly feel great. I was happy that I had developed a habit and stuck with it, but eventually I realized that I was working against what my body wanted. My knees hurt, my hips hurt, my ankles hurt. Running is not kind to anyone’s joints, and as a big guy, I was putting a lot of pressure on them. I couldn’t run as fast or far as I wanted to, even after two years of regular training. I began paying $125 a month in the winter months just to use my gym’s *treadmill* and nothing else. (Do not contact me for financial advice!)

So at the start of last year, maybe a little bit before that, I stopped running and started lifting weights. I didn’t think of it as a goal or a resolution, just a shift from doing one thing to trying something else. I had no idea what I was doing. I spent a lot of time watching Youtube tutorials the night before a gym day, or clandestinely next to a piece of unknown equipment, to try and teach myself. My gym offers free personal training sessions, but I was too anxious to use them. This was supposed to be a semi-private journey and I was afraid that any negative experience would turn me away from an already precarious new practice. My greenness probably embarrassed me a few times, even though I know that most people are not watching and do not care. I’m still learning, and there are still exercises I won’t try yet because I’m too nervous. And that’s okay! I have let the fear of being a beginner stop me from doing too many things for too long.

I’m not even trying to offer advice here, but I think a few factors made this change stick for me. One, the positive feedback loop is excellent. Chemicals in the brain go woo-woo when you exercise and eventually that makes you want to do it again. I enjoy making progress, my mental health is steady, and, vainly, I like how I look. Two, unlike running, I don’t absolutely hate my life while I’m lifting. I’m working with my body and mind instead of against them. Lastly, and I think most importantly, I took this change at my pace, privately, with low pressure, instead of concocting unrealistic goals, getting overwhelmed, then throwing in the towel.

This is just my personal journey and is not prescriptive whatsoever. No matter what your plans are, please go easy on yourselves as we enter Whole 30 and Dry Jan season. There is pressure from all sides to start something new or accomplish more or be better — and I’m sure we all could be making changes that would benefit our lives — but keeping your head above water right now is also valiant enough. If you are making a change, good luck, but just remember you don’t have to make any goals or resolutions if you don’t want to. January is a shitty month to try and overhaul your life anyway.

The recipes you all gravitated towards the most in 2025 were mostly one of two categories: A few weird little spins on cakes, but overwhelmingly, fun cookie flavor combinations that shouldn’t work, but still do. And in case you’re curious, the most popular recipe this year, which blew all of these out of the water (by a factor of 2x) were the mango white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.

Let’s take a look back at them, in chronological order, starting with January.

I doubted myself when I was pouring powdered cheese out of the mac and cheese box packets, but I’m glad I listened to my gut!

It’s like a banana bread that’s fancy enough to serve for dessert at a nice restaurant.

This was lots of fun to make and eat — my goal in life is to “confetti” every baked good.

I didn’t think many people would make this, but you all struck while the rhubarb was hot!

I’ve basically been working on this brownie recipe on and off for years, so I was glad to 1) publish a version that was more streamlined with even better results 2) hear how much people loved it online.

The It Girl this year!

Another recipe where I was pleasantly surprised by its reception! This is an example of a “doing it for me” recipe, where I don’t really expect it to pop off. I had no idea it would be so popular.

Making a s’mores cookie that actually tasted like a s’more has long been a KPI here at EGO. We cracked it with this recipe.

One of the last recipes of the year, which made it into my cookie boxes!

Subscribe now

Which was your favorite recipe of this year? Doesn’t have to be on this list! Let me know in the comments.

I’d love to start off by saying THIS IS OUR 100TH SUBSTACK POST!!! Okay, it’s our 101st, but I missed the actual 100th post and one of the those 100 was just a sale announcement, so I’m counting this one as Big 100. What a great sendoff to an absolutely bat shit year. Thank you for being here — and there’s more to come in 2026!

When I posted my Aperol Spritz Rainbow Cookies on Instagram and TikTok earlier this month, I asked if the audience wanted other booze-inspired rainbow cookies, such as espresso martini or negroni. The response was an overwhelming yes, and you guys had so many other good ideas: limoncello, paper plane, hugo spritz… I could go on.

The espresso martini variation seemed extremely primed for New Years Eve, so I decided to put a rush order on these and get one last recipe in under the wire for this year. I hope you have time to make them — and if not, Valentines Day is just around the corner.

To learn how I like to bake all the layers at once, take a look at my “Frankenpan” set up from my Aperol Spritz Rainbow Cookies earlier this month.

Ingredients

Read more

At a certain point in December, posting holiday recipes is just diminishing returns. By this time, most people have planned out their recipes, swapped all their cookies, and are already on the other side of half of their festive commitments. But I’m going to slide these under the wire anyway. Here are two partner recipes from years past that I just never got around to posting on here or the website. I thought I would resurface them for you all in case you’re last-minute searching for holiday recipes to make for company or bring for a crowd (that aren’t cookies!)

with Mascarpone Whipped Cream

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (293 grams)

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoons baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (160 grams)

• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 5 teaspoons ground ginger

• 2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 3/4 cup olive oil (177 milliliters)

• 3/4 cup unsulphured molasses (255 grams)

• 1/2 cup hot water

• 2 large eggs

• 8 ounces cold mascarpone cheese

• 2 tablespoons honey (42 grams)

• 3/4 cup cold heavy whipping cream (177 milliliters)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare a 9×5-inch loaf tin by greasing with butter or baking spray. Line it with parchment paper so there’s an overhang on the long sides. This makes it easier to lift out of the tin.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. To a small mixing bowl, add the sugars, cinnamon, ginger, eggs, olive oil and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.

4. Combine hot water with molasses until mixed.

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and, using a flexible rubber spatula, fold the them together. Continue mixing, ensuring you’re scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl, until the last streaks of flour disappear.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. With a butter knife, draw a line, lengthwise, down the middle of the batter. This encourages the bread to crack down the center as it bakes and rises.

7. Bake on the middle rack for about 20 minutes then turn down the temperature to 350°F and bake 30-35 more minutes or until the top is deep golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs. The internal temperature of the loaf should be between 200-210°F.

8. Let the loaf cool in its tin for 5 minutes, then lift it out using the parchment and transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

9. Make the mascarpone cream. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or using a hand mixer, stir the mascarpone with the honey just to loosen it up slightly.

10. With the mixer running on medium speed, pour in the heavy cream. Continue whisking just until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Do not over-whisk or you will curdle the cream.

11. Top slices of the loaf cake with mascarpone cream. Drizzle with olive oil.

Ingredients

French Toast Bake

• 1-lb. loaf challah or brioche bread

• 1 cup whole milk

• 1 cup eggnog

• 3 large eggs

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• Cinnamon sugar (optional)

Crème Anglaise (optional)

• 3/4 cup eggnog

• 1/4 cup whole milk

• Seeds from half a vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

• 3 large egg yolks

• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

• Pinch salt

Directions

1. Butter a 2.5-quart baking dish.

2. Cut the bread into slices about 1/2-1 inch thick and arrange in the dish so they overlap.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, cinnamon and nutmeg. Then mix in the milk, eggnog, sugar, and salt.

4. Allow the bread to soak up the mixture for 15-30 minutes or allow it to sit overnight (this is best when done with stale or day-old bread). Preheat oven to 325°F.

5. When ready to bake, sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top just enough to cover the ridges of the bread. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the tops of the bread are crisp, and you can see no liquid in the bottom of the dish.

6. Allow to cool slightly before cutting and serving.

7. While the french toast bake cools, make the crème anglaise. In a medium saucepan, heat the eggnog and milk over low heat on the stove.

8. Meanwhile, vigorously whisk the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla until totally combined.

9. Once the milk and eggnog come to a very gentle simmer, remove from the heat. Slowly pour in a few tablespoons of the hot milk into the egg mixture, stirring the egg mixture constantly. Then, continuing to stir, gradually stream in more hot milk, a little at a time, until it’s gone. Return the sauce to the pan and cook over low heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens slightly. Immediately remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl or pouring vessel.

This year’s cookie box bonanza wrapped on Wednesday evening and since then, we’ve been in distribution mode. You might think spending almost three days of your life on seven different cookie recipes to fill 17 cookie boxes is the hardest part about this holiday tradition. It’s not. The hardest part is hand-delivering to and coordinating pick-ups with the box recipients when no one has a car or everyone is leaving town! My friends were great this year and helped a lot by coming to me :) When is a gift not a gift, right?

At a recent holiday party, a friend told me, “You must get a lot of joy out of doing this every year!” And I just had to laugh. I do make them as a nice gesture for my loved ones — and I wouldn’t do it if I hated it — but I responded, “It’s not joy, it’s a sickness.” The word “passion” is Latin for “to suffer.” When Olympic athletes win a gold medal, many of them experience a mental health decline. They’re at their best when they are striving, and now they have nothing to strive toward. The saying, while oft found on HomeGoods decor, is sadly true: It’s the journey, not the destination. In a way, that’s how I feel about pushing myself to the limits by making intricate pies on Thanksgiving or hundreds cookies in December. The end goal wouldn’t be worth achieving if it wasn’t for the struggle — not the other way around.

That being said, I feel a small amount of peace and contentment now that they’re done. I’m usually not someone who can relish their own accomplishments. Having a career steeped in the grind of social media and the content mill, it’s like a hamster wheel. It can feel as though even when you’ve completed something, you’re still not done. Maybe everyone feels this way. But every year, this exercise — with late nights of baking, frosting, packaging — brings a sense of closure I seldom experience.

Before you continue, you might want to read my deep-dive “How I Make My Cookie Boxes” for all my tips and tricks on planning, timing, what recipes to include, packaging and more. Also above, watch my cookie box vlog where I documented the whole the process (with Part 2 Coming tomorrow!).

Passionfruit Pâtes de Fruit

For a few years now I’ve wanted to add a gel or gummy element to my cookie box. With a pack of frozen passionfruit puree taking up space in my freezer, I knew this was the year to make it happen.

These little “fruit pastes” are made by cooking sugar, fruit puree and liquid pectin to make small gems that are a cross between jello and a gumdrop. I used a pinch of citric acid in sugary coating to make them very tart. Get the recipe on America’s Test Kitchen.

Stamped, Glazed Soft Gingerbread

These made an appearance in last year’s cookie box, and because I ordered two new cookie stamps from Etsy earlier this month, I simply had to make them again. (My other stamps are from Nordic Ware.) The recipe comes from my trusty copy of Tartine, Revisited by Liz Prueitt and Chad Robertson but can also be found here. I also make a couple regular cutout shapes to decorate with buttercream or royal icing.

Holiday Sugar Cookie Cutouts

I agonized over this recipe when I was developing it years ago, trying to nail down a sugar cutout shortbread that would taste buttery, not floury, but still hold its shape in the oven. As for the accompanying buttercream recipe, it crusts over to maintain the integrity of your designs, but still stays creamy. Also, it keeps the cookies fresh for days.

I made two batches of this dough about a week in advance, sheeted it between parchment paper, placed the sheets in a zipper bag, and froze them. Then I cut out and baked them off the morning before pick-up day, and frosted them the morning of pick-up day.

Peppermint Bark Toffee Crackle

This recipe is probably the highest reward to lowest effort ratio in the whole box. I mean, it combines two holiday favorites: peppermint bark and saltine toffee. Of course, I had pretzel thins on hand, and while they were a little tougher than saltines to get in one layer, it worked beautifully. This keeps so well you could make it two, even three days in advance.

Matcha Whipped Shortbreads

My first foray into piped shortbreads didn’t go as well as I wanted. I used this recipe from Camilla Wynne and added about 2 tablespoons of matcha to the dough (it probably only needed about 1.5). As a result of either the added matcha or my kitchen temperature, I needed to thin out the dough with some heavy cream to get it to pipe and I added too much. This caused a lot of the definition, especially in the rosettes, to melt away in the oven. The squiggles held up much better though! To finish them, I brushed on a lemon juice-butter glaze from this Yossy Arefi recipe.

Ginger-Molasses Cookies

The cookie recipe that will send my friends into a revolt if it’s not included in the boxes every year. It’s chewy. It’s spicy. It’s sparkly. It’s crackly. It’s the ginger-molasses cookie on easygayoven.com. I prepped, portioned and froze this dough about a week ahead of time and baked them off the day before box pick-ups.

Aperol Spritz Rainbow Cookies

I forgot to mention these in both videos and in this post originally. It's not their fault! I just forgot about them because shhhh I froze them when I developed them earlier this month and then thawed them to include in the cookie box. They freeze very well, I can now attest. Here’s the recipe!

Okay, that’s all until next year…. or do I have another cookie recipe in me to squeeze in before the holidays end? I guess we’ll find out together!

In 2019, I made my first cookie box. And then I stopped. As in, I stopped at one box. I carefully tucked the cookies in some nice Harry and David packaging my parents had lying around. And I don’t think I packaged up any to bring to neighbors or family. Whoops! This was right around the start of NYT Cooking’s era of increasingly-hyped Cookie Weeks, and I was excited to join in on the fun.

We’ve come a long way in the last six years! (You can watch last year’s video of me rating all my cookie boxes below.) And today? We are at peak cookie box fervor in the United States. Most baking creators and recipe developers are churning them out this time of year, and I see no problem with that except now … I have to up my game.

@easygayovenRating 5 Years of My Holiday Cookie Boxes — Part 1 #cookiebox #holidaycookies #christmascookies #cookierecipes

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

I get so many questions in my DMs and comments when I post about cookie boxes, and I’m so grateful for them. I’m going to attempt to answer most of them in this post. So here they are: my tips for prepping, making, filling, packaging, and more!

Start earlier than you think you need to.

If you’re starting now, like I am, you’re already late. (Kidding, sort of.)

1. Make your list of recipients, check it twice.

2. Buy your boxes/tins early, especially if you’re shopping in person. I’ve been disappointed by stores selling out! Dollar stores and vintage/thrift shops are a great place to find cheap cookie tins. Your local baking or restaurant supply store should have them, too.

3. I usually buy 6x6-inch boxes for single folks and 8x8-inch boxes for couples or roommates. Scale up from there.

Do what is realistic for you.

1. Don’t look at what’s happening on social media and think that’s what you need to be doing. Mentally ill people like me who have chosen to compete in the Sugar and Butter X GAMES every year like this devote up to three or four full days to make these things happen.

2. If this is your first year, start out with three or four cookie offerings. I even recommend finding a shortbread recipe that you can make into several cookies and flavors. Jillian Barreca has a great one.

3. Make sure that for every recipe you make, there will be enough for everyone in the household to have one or at least half of one. I’ve seen people fight over one ginger molasses cookie.

Use the Cookie Box Matrix

While gaming out my cookie boxes last year, I was very concerned with variety. I wanted a visual way to organize my cookie offerings by flavor and texture to help me narrow down and decide on what made it in the box. An hour spent on Canva later and the Cookie Box Matrix was born!

On the X-axis, texture. On the Y-axis, flavor. The idea isn’t to get a cookie in every slot; more-so to make sure all your cookies aren’t in the same slot. And the most important thing is to remember that… this is all made up! You can read more about the Cookie Box Matrix here, but I’ll leave an example and a downloadable PDF for you to print out below. You can also use this Canva template I made to fill out or create your own version.

Easygayoven Cookie Box Matrix

39.8KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Read more

Any time I let the haters and the phonies get me down, I just take a look at the notes from folks on why they decided to become paid subscribers to EGO. And then I feel better! I already went off on my Instagram Stories about this, but whenever one of my recipes get a lot of attention, folks who don’t follow me get upset about the paywall before most recipes. I get it — especially if you’re not expecting it, the paywall can be a letdown. And I also understand that many people do not have the money for boutique recipe/newsletter subscriptions right now.

As I explained yesterday on IG, there’s two ways the economics of this can work… for me… at this juncture. I can either do a lot more sponsored content with brands I don’t really love or don’t align with (one day I will tell you guys just how much work I turn down) and provide all my tips and recipes and writing for free. That also means I’m more beholden to algorithms and being “brand-friendly”. Or I can build up this community and make more of my income directly from the folks who want to support this operation, while still providing some free work.

Most of you probably understand all this, but I just want to be as transparent as I can with you all since there’s a lot of, let’s say, ~tension~ regarding “creators” right now. Ad fatigue is setting in thanks to the firehose of the holidays, but I hope cookie box fatigue holds off a little while longer because the next post is all about that… so stick around.

EGO Got a Facelift!

Notice anything new around here? Over the last few months, I’ve been working with the lovely folks over at Wonderly to answer the question, What if, after six years, easygayoven finally got a logo? And we didn’t stop there! Christmas came early and now I’m playing with my new toys (several assets in .png files). And I reserve the right to change any of it so don’t get too comfortable! Take a look around and tell me what you think it’s giving in the comments.

Two New Recipes that Aren’t Here

The holidays mean an influx of partner posts. I was glad to be able to work with two brands I use all the time, Kerrygold and Grey Poupon, on two new recipe videos. They may never appear on the Substack, but they are both great holiday appetizer recipes, herby cheesy star bread and mini croque monsiuers with cheese sauce, so you should at least check them out!

Like many of my recipes, I had been sitting on this idea for more than a year! Italian rainbow cookies, tri-color cookies, Venetian cookies, seven-layer cookies— whatever you call them, they were just never my culture growing up. They were never included on the cookie trays of of my no-Italian-American-heritage-having family. But if made well? These are a textural delight: a snappy, creamy chocolate topping, three thin layers of plush almond cake, and a sticky jam keeping everything moist and together.

Here, we’re doing a crossover episode with another Italian specialty: the Aperol Spritz. My dream is to eventually transform rainbow cookies into other cocktail flavors, too: espresso martinis, negronis, etc. Let me tell you what I changed…

Read more

Merry Holiday Season to you all. Here’s my Christmas music playlist. And also on Spotify.

I know the people reading this likely are the baker in their lives, but you can use these as ideas for aspiring bakers you love, inspiration for your wish list — or just go shopping for yourself like everyone else reading gift guides this time of year.

It’s tough trying to buy stuff for hobbyists. Because they are the expert on their *thing* they really know what they want, what they don’t want, and what they already have. So try to do some recon or think about what they might already have based on where they are in their baking journey.

Most of these items are very practical (my favorite type of gift) and things I use in my kitchen all the time. But there are also some non-baking ideas toward the end. Some of these are affiliate links and some aren’t!

Kitchen Stuff

A Chic Olive Oil Cruet
Holcomb Studios sent me this one this year. I love the Space-Age-y design and and chrome finish.

Accessories for Souping Up a Stand Mixer
A beater blade for their Kitchen-Aid is the easiest way to say, please keep baking for me. These scrape the sides of the bowls to make sure everything gets incorporated. For bowl-lift models (check to make sure it’s the right compatibility with the model) and tilt-head models.

Or help them upgrade their entire mixer with this set, including a tilt-head lift handle, work surface mat, and ingredients chute.

A Kitchen Torch
Here’s the thing. I use the big torch you can find at Home Depot for roasting meringue and melting the crackly tops of creme brûlée, but I probably only need a small one like this.

A Cadillac of a Cutting Board
I’m planning on riding my IKEA cutting board I got 10 years ago until the wheels fall off. Until then, I’ll be looking at this one from John Boos (or this one, in end-grain, which absorbs more water but is supposed to be easier on your knives’ edges).

A Very Fun Whisk
From Material Kitchen.

A Rolling Pin for Every Task
I firmly believe you need two pins. A french, tapered style for wrestling pie crust and pastry, and a dowel style with guides for evenly rolling out sheets of cookie and tart dough. Find out which pin they don’t have.

A Cover for Their Half-Sheet Pans
It took me too long into my baking career to realize these exist. Buying two for my various half-sheet trays has saved me a lot of grief (and aluminum foil) trying to keep cookies, cake, etc fresh. Nordic Ware also makes my favorite pans across the board. Get them in the half sheet or quarter sheet sizes.

An Easy Way to Decorate Cakes and Cookies
I use pastry bags now but when I was a kid, we’d use squeeze bottles like these to frost holiday cookies. They’d be especially good for beginners, or kids.

A Great Spatula
If I had to choose one spatula forever; for transferring delicate cookies, flipping burgers, even lifting cakes, it would be the super-thin, flexible, slotted fish spatula. Here’s one from OXO, or a fancier one from Material Kitchen.

Good Chocolate
Get them some nice semisweet, dark, (strawberry?) white, or milk chocolate from Valrhona or Callebaut.

Good Vanilla
I have gotten vanilla beans and vanilla bean paste as a gift and it’s the perfect balance between stuff you’d get for yourself but never do because they are pricey. Vanilla bean sugar and powder would also be welcome in my stocking.

Stuff I Want

So, like, why wouldn’t other people want it too?

An Amazing Candle I Found in a Restaurant Bathroom — “Wood Cabin”

A Cute Matcha Set — I like this one, this one, and this one, all from Etsy.

A Real Alarm Clock — by Loftie

A Way to Fight Phone Addiction — called “Brick”

Subscriptions

Don’t know what to get them? Since the mainstream media landscape is on fire, how about a subscription to some great independent news outlets!

Zeteo

Hell Gate

Dropsite News

Or a great food creator! Substack lets you gift subscriptions, by the way! Here are some that I personally would pay to subscribe to!

Kitchen Projects — Nicola Lamb

Playing with Food — Paris Starn

Have a Little Something — Yossy Arefi

The Boy Who Bakes — Edd Kimber

All Day Cake — Sophie Bamford

How I Cook — Ben Lippett

Tasting Notes — Erika Kwee

easygayoven — Eric King :)

Gift an easygayoven Subscription

I know it’s Orange & Brown Food Season. I know we’re a few days out from Thanksgiving. I know you want stuff with pecans and pumpkin and that kind of uh… stuff! Well, I’m counter-programming.

At every Friendsgiving, every cookie party, you know what goes first before the pumpkin pie and the shortbreads? Chocolate chip cookies. I speak from firsthand experience! They’re just less of a commitment after a plate full of starch, they’re uncontroversial, and you don’t need a plate and a fork to eat them. I hate to say this! So listen, stick them between the pies at Thanksgiving, and be a hero — or save them for your cookie swaps in December, and be a hero. Obviously, these are extremely souped up chocolate chip cookies.

The problem with s’mores cookies? The marshmallows always freak out. They explode and splooge out the sides, or they disintegrate and evaporate, turning into a sugary puddle. I had read somewhere that one way to prevent this freakout from happening in the oven, bakers should use vegan marshmallows. And, well, it worked! I imagine that it has to do something with the lack gelatin, which is what sets regular marshmallows.

If you can’t find vegan marshmallows, or you want to take this recipe all the way to its peak-evolution-final-form, you can make your own marshmallow. It’s not as hard as it seems! You just need gelatin, a digital/candy thermometer, and a stand mixer. Once the cookies are cooling, we pipe on a dollop of mallow, smear it and toast it with a kitchen torch.

Leave a comment

The thing that makes these s’mores cookies — and not simply chocolate chip cookies with marshmallows — is the graham cracker butter ripple running through each cookie. These cookies really didn’t taste like actual s’mores until I added it. The good news is we’re adding ground graham crackers straight into the dough (with some whole wheat flour), so we need to use the food processor anyway.

If you don’t have a food processor to make the graham cracker butter, you can crush them very finely in a plastic zipper bag with a rolling pin and use a hand mixer to beat it together. It won’t be the same but it’ll be close.

Ultimate S’mores Cookies

Makes 16 cookies

Ingredients

Read more

Below is the voice note I received from a friend about these muffins.

Here’s what she actually said: “ I have to send you a voice note because you just slayed so hard.”

Her girlfriend: “Yeah, girl!”

Friend: “What is it? Slap my ass like a damn drum? No for real this muffin, oh my god. Like the hint of orange, the burst of the cranberry…”

GF: I never knew I liked cranberries.

Friend: You’re changing minds.

I started developing these early this year when I was working through leftover cranberries and I’m so glad I remembered to come back to them. I chop up the cranberries, which is a bit of an annoying task but I think it stops the super sour sensation that sometimes plagues me when I get a big hunk of cranberry with no sweetness to offset it. Orange zest is subtle but makes it feel even more festive. It would be *so* crazy to use the juice to make a little glaze to go on top of these (not that they need it.)

This is a one-bowl recipe thanks to a technique I learned from Deb at Smitten Kitchen. By mixing our sugar, butter, spices, flour and leaveners, reserving some of that and then thinning out the rest with the dairy and eggs, the crumble topping is already built into the batter recipe. How convenient!

Leave a comment

My favorite muffin tips for you all:

1. Fill every other well. This helps circulate more heat around the outsides of the muffins, cooking their exteriors faster and sending the batter inside soaring upwards, creating the dome we all want.

2. Chilling/resting your batter. Even one hour in the fridge will help the batter relax and allow the liquids to more fully hydrate the flour. This will result in a better rise and texture.

3. Start it off hot and then cool it down. I start these muffins’ bake at a high temp and then turn the oven down halfway in. This means that you’ll get optimal “oven spring” from the initial blast of heat, and so that they cook all the way through and their insides can set, without burning.

4. Fill those tins all the way up. The best way to get bigger muffins is to…. use more batter.

   Keep reading by becoming a paid subscriber today!

Cranberry-Orange Crumble Muffins

Makes 12 regular muffins or 6 jumbo muffins

Ingredients

Read more