She’s My Cherry Pie: Abi Balingit Transcript
Jessie Sheehan:
Hi, peeps. You are listening to She's My Cherry Pie, the baking podcast from The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. I'm your host, Jessie Sheehan. I'm a baker, recipe developer, and author of three baking books, including my latest, Snackable Bakes. Each Saturday, I'm hanging out with the sweetest bakers around and taking a deep dive into their signature bakes.
Today's guest is Abi Balingit, the blogger and self-taught baker behind The Dusky Kitchen website and Instagram account. Abi is also the author of the new book, Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed. Abi joins me today to talk all things bibingka, the Filipino rice cake made with coconut milk and baked in banana leaves. We go step by step through her recipe for horchata bibingka, which you can find in her book. Abi shares the tips, tricks, and ingredients you need to make this delicious treat. Stay tuned for my chat with Abi.
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Now, let's check in with today's guest. Abi, so excited to have you on She's My Cherry Pie.
Abi Balingit:
Oh, thank you, Jessie. I'm so excited to be here.
Jessie Sheehan:
I have read that you started baking at 13 due to your deep love of The Food Network, and that the internet was essentially like your recipe box as it were.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Now, I also read that you had a special affection, which I totally get, for All Recipes back in the day.
Abi Balingit:
Oh, yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
First of all, and if you don't know what All Recipes is, Abi's going to tell you, but also tell me about the beginning of that. I loved that.
Abi Balingit:
Oh, my god. Yeah, so I feel like All Recipes was a community site and still is active with everyone who can post whatever they're making. Also post the actual straight up recipes, ingredient list, directions. I used to love being on there just to review recipes. I wasn't a poster. I was a lurker and enjoyer, and that's where I kind of learned how to bake for the first time was really just prowling on those recipes and just talking in that community.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my gosh, I love that. What kinds of desserts at that time were you gravitating towards?
Abi Balingit:
Oh, yeah, I think these were mostly cupcakes. I think there was one burnt sugar cake recipe on there that I loved, the Moist Hershey's Special Black Magic Cake recipe, which is honestly, the holy grail, I think of chocolate cake recipes.
Jessie Sheehan:
I could not agree with you more. For peeps that don't know, there's an incredible, basically one bowl chocolate cake, right?
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
On the back of the Hershey can of cocoa and this incredible frosting that goes with it.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
That cake is incredible.
Abi Balingit:
So good.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. You weren't yet embracing Filipino ingredients necessarily in your baking, kind of sticking to what All Recipes was showing you?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah, yeah. I think I was mostly motivated by Food Network stars and Ace Of Cakes, and I guess Candace from Sprinkles Cupcakes was a huge influence, where I just wanted to make things that I saw on TV.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. Then at 17, you got your first Kitchen Aid.
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Then did the desserts get a little more sophisticated, or it was just that your arm wasn't as tired from all the whisking, et cetera?
Abi Balingit:
I think both of those things. I truly was excited because I think it was the first time I could try macarons, and I think that was a huge thing in that timeframe, like 2013, 2011, 2012, it was so exciting to dive straight into that. My parents got it for Christmas, I think it was, and I was so grateful because I just never thought I could get one of, it was just one of those things you saw at Costco. I was like, it's so expensive, and when you're 17 you have no money. I'm like, what money do you have?
Jessie Sheehan:
There are all these great little essays throughout your new cookbook. In one of them, you describe yourself as the dork who could bake. I think you're describing a story of when you were making a bunch of mini cheesecakes in high school. Was that sort of the beginning of the kind of slightly older Abi trying her hand at more sophisticated desserts, or was that just par for the course, cheesecakes?
Abi Balingit:
I think that was honestly just par for the course, just straight up strawberry cheesecakes that you'd find online. This was a lot of just making it for friends and also for family. I really was just in AP classes, taking my SATs, doing all those things that were so stressful at the time. I think baking was really the outlet that was like, I want to de-stress and be relaxed, and that was baking for me.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. You started your blog in the summer of 2020, Dusky Kitchen.
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
In your tiny Brooklyn kitchen. You had said that before the pandemic started, a baking blog had been one of your goals, but it kind of took the beginning of the pandemic to get you motivated?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. Yeah, I definitely got the domain, I think December of 2019, and I knew I wanted to do it, but it was just a matter of sitting down, actually going on WordPress, actually committing, because of the pandemic, of having time in quarantine to sit and reflect on what I really wanted to do. I think that's when I really dove headfirst into baking.
Jessie Sheehan:
Baking during the pandemic was sort of your entry into making Filipino food at home? Can you talk about that a little bit?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah, I think it was a point of also desperation, sadness, just really missing my family. I think that was the motivation of trying to involve more Filipino flavors and concepts into what I was making. I was nervous because I think my parents never really gave me recipe books, honestly. It's a very common problem that we come across with children with immigrants of always just being like, "Please help," and it's a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and just look at it by sight.
I'm just like, "I have no instinct for that." I think power to our parents for really being intuitive cooks and bakers, but for me, I was just like, "This is hard when you've never done it before." I was really relying on both FaceTime and also just on the internet, again, researching a lot of Filipino baking blogs. A lot of Filipino cookbooks helped me get to this point. I think one of my favorite bakers who also did a blur for my cookbook was Michelle Lopez from Hummingbird High. Biggest inspiration, I feel like in the Filipino-American face for sure.
It was just exciting. Her blog along with just looking at cookbooks like Filipinx by Angela Dimayuga and Ligaya Mishan all are really huge influences for me. Because they were doing it, I felt it was more feasible for me to also do the same thing, but in my own way, but just getting the building blocks from them.
Jessie Sheehan:
Amazing. When you first started baking and posting things on the blog, I read that you would describe it as fusion, Asian American and Filipino kind of fused together. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the things you made?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah, I think initially, one of my first recipes was a pork floss miso brownie, and that was one of those things where again, not necessarily is Filipino, but a lot of Chinese influence there. Then for the first Pasalubong treat box, I also had horchata bibingka, so I don't want to spill too many beans, but that is definitely a Latinx/Filipino fusion, for sure.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. That's a great segue to talking about your boxes. You started selling your Pasalubong boxes, which were your Filipino American fusion box of desserts in about August of 2020?
Abi Balingit:
Yes. August, 2020,
Jessie Sheehan:
Creating of the boxes in your idea for them was influenced by the Bakers Against Racism bake sales. Is that right?
Abi Balingit:
Yes. Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Can you tell us about that influence and how it got you motivated?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. Paula Velez was on this pod as well, but she's a huge influence of, at the time, especially in 2020, the despair that I was mentioning before was also motivated by politically, everything going on, Black Lives Matter. I wanted to do something to help. I think because Paula had started this with Bakers Against Racism, it felt, again, more feasible and you could do it too.
That's when I demonstrated and was like, "I'm scared of showing people what I'm making and for people to actually taste it that don't know me." I think people really latch onto good things for good intentions and good purposes. I was really excited that people did want to try what I was making, even though I've never done this before.
Jessie Sheehan:
It's amazing. Can you tell us what Pasalubong means in English or how you translate it and what language it's from?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. It is actually Tagalog, and the best way to describe it as a souvenir from when you're traveling. If I'm going out and about my day, okay, I'll get some black and white cookies here from New York. I'll get some rugelach. Then if I'm going back to the Philippines, then I'll bring that to my family and friends. This is Pasalubong, from where I'm from. It is really fun to do that exchange back and forth, because so much of our family, the diaspora is so large that you're always traveling and always giving back to the people that you love.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love the idea of sweets that kind of represent where you're from. Then tell everyone about that Timeout article. Didn't that kind of blow up those boxes?
Abi Balingit:
It's so wild, because I think that was two days within announcing that kind of box. My now friend, Emma Orlow, who wrote that piece and was like, "Hey, this is so exciting. Do you want to talk about it?" Being in New York is a huge part of the magic of being a baker in food, especially here. I think that was the first media experience I'd ever had.
Since then, it's blown up, of course, and I'm very grateful for Emma for calling, at least funny, I don't even know how she found me. I think it's just Twitter, again, Instagram, and the magic of the algorithm. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but in this case, good.
Jessie Sheehan:
She basically wrote a little piece in Timeout Magazine announcing that the boxes would be sold that weekend and where people could go if they wanted to find them. Is that what it was?
Abi Balingit:
Correct. Yeah. She interviewed me a little bit. And then also just put a spotlight on, "Hey, look at these boxes. They're benefiting Bedstuy Strong," which is a mutual aid organization in my neighborhood. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. It's so cool. I feel like that was such a hard time, obviously, but also such a really special time, because I do feel like there was a lot of lifting up of people and of recognizing cool things that people were doing and wanting to get the word out. I just remember we were all, every time I heard there was a popup or a this or that, I was like, "Oh my God, I have to go." It was, right?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
We were so tired of being by ourselves, and I wanted to try all the things that everyone was making and get that opportunity. I love it that she did that for you, and that article came out, and then from then on, they kind of sold out, right?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. Ever since then, I think it was 30 minutes sold out, and I don't make that many, I think up first 50 about. Yeah, it's always limited spaces, and I think the pre-order system works really well, just so you know how to anticipate how much to make. Also it's kind of like people are going to go and be active and actually want to go to your pop-up, then they will pre-order, and then they will show up and put that money forward, which is really crucial in buying ingredients and all that stuff that you have to do for bake sales like this.
Jessie Sheehan:
I think that's really important. I'm so glad you mentioned that. For people wanting to do something like what you did, what Abi's saying is that you make sure that the people can order what they want before the pop-up happens, which is great. Then do you have any boxes there that somebody you just stopped by could grab, or not really?
Abi Balingit:
Oh, my gosh. I think of all the times I did it, maybe six rounds of Pasalubong boxes that rarely anyone has left behind a box, but if they did, then we would sell that and give that whoever who wants it. The embarrassing thing is that one time I miscounted, and the way that I oversold. I was just in shambles, and my family from Jersey came, and I was like, "Is it okay if I give away your books to someone?" Just because it's like, you can't disappoint strangers, and I feel like your friends and your family are really nice, but I felt terrible. That was the worst. That was the worst.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh, I feel like that would be me every week. I'd be like, "Oh, no."
Abi Balingit:
It's funny, because bakers are supposed to be good at math and science, but I'm like, "Math and science are the worst subjects."
Jessie Sheehan:
I know.
Abi Balingit:
When you're in the moment and you're doing volume baking and you get it, Jessie ...
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes.
Abi Balingit:
... It's really hard to keep a straight head on when you have so many moving parts all the time. That was one of the times where I was like, "Oh," and you learn from that.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes.
Abi Balingit:
I learned very hard way from that. Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
For the listeners who are interested in writing cookbooks or write them themselves, tell us how the boxes led to a cookbook.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. I would post every dessert from the treat boxes. Just after it happened. I'd be like, "Okay, well, here's the recipes that I used.", Then I would just post the pictures. I think for one time I was just again, baking for fun, nothing wild. It wasn't even the treaat box, I was just, again, baking. It was the burnt sugar cupcakes with the five spice type brittle and Lao Gan Ma chili crisp on top. Then that was when my literary agent Emmy reached out to me and was like, "Hey, I love what you're doing. Are you thinking of writing a cookbook?" I was like, "No." I was like, "Oh," in my head I was like, no, I'm not, but now that you mention it.
I was just like, "I'm in my plotting era." Yeah, I think that was the jumping point where the internet has opened so many doors for me, first from Emma interviewing me for Timeout, and then to my agent finding me on Twitter. It's astounding how that translates into in-person connections. I have not met my agent in real life yet, but again, the book is in your hands now, so it's worked.
Jessie Sheehan:
We'll be right back. Peeps, Cherry Bombe Magazine subscriptions are back. The most beautiful food magazine around is now published four times a year, and you can have issues delivered direct to your door. If you've never seen or read Cherry Bombe, you will love it. It's not like any other food magazine out there. Cherry Bombe is printed on gorgeous, thick paper, with lush color photos. It includes the season's best recipes and great profiles, features, and essays. Visit cherrybombe.com/subscribe to learn more or to subscribe.
Now, back to our guest. Now, it is time to discuss horchata bibingka. I read that rice and coconut milk are actually cornerstones of Filipino desserts. I thought this is so great, because this is the perfect dessert for us to chat about with you, since it includes both of those cornerstones. First things first, could you describe a traditional bibingka for us?
Abi Balingit:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Basically, it's like a coconut milk rice cake, and it's baked in banana leaves. There's usually a salted duck egg on top, and also cheese, usually edam cheese, which is the Dutch cheese, but we call it queso de bola, and it's through trade, I think that's how we ended up getting this cheese. It's a huge part of Filipino desserts. I feel like everyone uses it for toppings, for different types of breads and pastries.
Jessie Sheehan:
Is a bibingka slightly savory, traditionally?
Abi Balingit:
Yes, slightly savory. I's funny because I feel like now I've been known to do sweet and savory, and for this recipe, I'm eliminating the savory and putting for more sweet. That's like the fun part about playing around with recipes. You just really get to do whatever you want with whatever instance that you're trying to make.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. You also did something interesting with this recipe, as I think you do with all the recipes in the book, but this particular recipe marries flavors from your favorite beverage, horchata.
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Could you describe that beverage for us?
Abi Balingit:
Oh, yeah. I grew up in Stockton, California, San Jose, California. Being in California, you're always around a lot of great Mexican restaurants, a lot of great burrito spots, and I would always get horchata with a burrito, honestly. That's like my go-to meal. Horchata is just this really delicious rice cinnamon drink, and it's present in other Latinx countries. I just love it. It's kind of a little bit thick, but not too thick. I think they just obviously strain out all the rice and everything, but it still has this viscosity that I really love, and its flavor is just so rich. I think it's just cinnamon is just so good.
Jessie Sheehan:
Well, also, it's such a lovely idea to combine that. It's already, we're going to talk about the ingredients of the horchata, so don't worry, peeps. I love the idea of there's already, there's rice in that drink, and then the cinnamon with the coconut must be so delicious. It just sounds like, yum.
Abi Balingit:
It just came naturally to me to be like, oh, horchata has rice, and I love bibingka. It also has rice, so maybe we add coconut milk to the horchata, and then make it feel like a new thing.
Jessie Sheehan:
Brilliant. So smart. First things first, for this recipe, and I think this will be happening the night before, you're going to make your horchata.
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
You're going to place some long grain rice, and I think you say jasmine rice?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah, I just have a lot of jasmine rice. I feel like you use any long grain, but I always have jasmine rice.
Jessie Sheehan:
You're going to have your long grain rice, jasmine, and a cinnamon stick. Is there a brand of cinnamon or cinnamon sticks that you're ...
Abi Balingit:
Oh, I do feel like I just randomly had McCormick when I was making this. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
I have to say I use McCormick.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah, it's just there.
Jessie Sheehan:
It happens.
Abi Balingit:
Highly available.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes. We have our long grain rice, jasmine. We have a cinnamon stick. We put that in a small bowl and pour some boiling water on top, and just let that kind of sit overnight on the counter. Yes?
Abi Balingit:
Yes. You're kind of softening up the cinnamon stick, also the rice. Overnight, it just ends up being easier to blend later.
Jessie Sheehan:
Love. The next day, you're going to strain out the rice and the cinnamon stick?
Abi Balingit:
First, you actually blend it, just so you get ...
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh, the blending happens first. Okay.
Abi Balingit:
... Flavor incorporated, and then you strain out all the gritty stuff. It's still, it remains hard even overnight after soaking. It is important to get rid of that.
Jessie Sheehan:
You blend the cinnamon stick as well?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. You blend.
Jessie Sheehan:
Wow, oh. So cool.
Abi Balingit:
Yes, I know. I feel like it doesn't seem intuitive at all, but then you go ahead ...
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, it's probably softened a bit overnight, so it's not quite as hard.
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
You blend those two things together, then you strain that and then you cook it with some coconut milk.
Abi Balingit:
Yes. I definitely want to strengthen the flavor and the resulting glaze, and by thickening it up and basically reducing down that mixture with coconut milk, it's first incorporating the flavor of the coconut from the coconut milk, but also just having a bit of oomph instead of just straight up just that thin liquid from the horchata.
Jessie Sheehan:
You're going to cook that until reduced, and then you're going to cool that to room temperature.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. Yeah. It's cooling while you do the next step.
Jessie Sheehan:
Perfect. Perfect. Now we're going to make the cakes, and I have to say, and I say cakes because it's cupcakes, essentially.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah, yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Although, do people make this as one big? Yeah.
Abi Balingit:
Yes. You traditionally would just have in a bigger, I would say I usually do it in cast iron, and if it was a large size bibingka, but it's nice, I wanted to do some that were individual servings. Yeah, bibingka come in all different sizes, but I just wanted these to be handheld, single servings.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. I also love that the cakes, these little cupcakes are almost one bowl, because I love a one bowl recipe, basically to clean. Then I also love that there's no stand mixer.
Abi Balingit:
Oh, yeah. No.
Jessie Sheehan:
Even though I love that you've had your stand mixer since you were 17, I'm also happy to see it not being used in this recipe.
Abi Balingit:
Oh, no. I know. I don't want to make anyone wash more dishes than they have to.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. We're going to heat the oven to 350 degrees. What's super cool about this recipe is that rather than use cupcake liners, you're using banana leaves.
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Just so I understand, if you were making bibingka, let's say, in your cast iron as you said, would you just have one huge banana leaf underneath it?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. A lot of times too, I feel like it depends. Which banana leaf, you get the shape of it. Sometimes you have to layer them a bit just to get full coverage of the cast iron. For this recipe specifically, you cut out little rounds, and so that you can actually have little cups basically for each one.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love it. I guess you buy, do banana leaves usually come frozen?
Abi Balingit:
Yes, usually come frozen. It's really hard. I don't know where you can find fresh banana leaves in the states. It's definitely more of a southeast Asian tropical environment type of good to have. Usually, you just thaw it out and I like to wipe it down just because it might be a little dirty still.
Jessie Sheehan:
I was going to ask you, because I know there's the direction to wipe, and I wasn't sure if you were wiping away moisture or if you're wiping away ...
Abi Balingit:
Both of those things.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Okay.
Abi Balingit:
You just want to make sure it's a clean service and it becomes a bit more pliable instead of just, it's hard to cut when it's still frozen.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Where would we find banana leaves?
Abi Balingit:
I usually find them in the frozen section. I've luckily been able to find it in not just a Southeast Asian specific grocery store, but literally SeaTown here and Food Emporium here. A lot of times, it's with, the Goya section has a lot of different, not just banana leaves, but they have frozen passion fruit pulp and frozen, all these things that get in that one frozen section right there.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's great. That's great. Is there a favorite brand, or is there usually one brand of banana leaves when you go?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. In this case, if you're trying to go to a general store, it might not always be a Southeast Asian brand or anything. I would typically, in shortness of time, there's Goya, but also there's this Filipino brand called Tropico, and they have banana leaves. I love them too, but it's more of just like I have to actively find them. Whatever banana leaves you can get, I hope you can find it somehow.
Jessie Sheehan:
You cut them into these five inch circles, and by this time, they've softened enough that you can poke them down into your cupcake tin or your muffin tin?
Abi Balingit:
Yes. Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay, perfect. I haven't baked with banana leaves before. I wondered, what are they adding to the recipe? Is it flavor?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. I think the flavor. It's undeniable that there's something earthy and smokey. When it comes in contact with oven heat, it definitely emits something that is, it adds to the taste of the actual bibingka. If you can't find banana leaves, parchment paper is fine, or muffin liner is fine, but it is a totally different kind of dessert without it. I definitely would say, yeah, there's something about banana leaves and you can't eat the banana leaves.
This is a natural thing from this earth, and you just use it as a liner versus getting paper or anything else. This is definitely a use case of it being just part of just whatever pantry that someone has. You have access to this in the Philippines so easily. Banana leaves are everywhere. Just cut up one up and go use it.
Jessie Sheehan:
You're going to brush the banana leaves with some melted coconut oil?
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
I had two questions. One, is there a favorite kind of pastry brush that you use at home that you would recommend? Then I also wondered if you had a favorite brand of coconut oil that you wanted to share.
Abi Balingit:
Ooh, yeah. I do feel like I have the Oxo one. I love that one. That's a great pastry brush, but also coconut oil, I do feel like randomly there's like the Target generic brand. I don't know if it's Good and Gather or something. They definitely have coconut oil that I use for sure.
Jessie Sheehan:
Great. Now, we're going to whisk together some rice flour and some glutinous rice flour. I wanted to know, first of all, if there's a brand of whisk that you love, would that be Oxo again or something else?
Abi Balingit:
I actually have a lot of these material whisk. Oh, they had this amazing one that is very large. I don't even know, what is that one shape, Jessie? This is very niche now, but it's not. It is like balloon, but it's so great. It has a lot of sturdiness to it.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's good. You can say sturdiness too. I like that.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah, yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Then what about the rice flour and the glutinous rice flour? Is there a brand of those that you like?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. Yeah. Actually, again, by sight, I know it most, but it's called Erawan. It's Thai brand again, of rice flour. One of them is green and one of them is red. You will specifically see something that has to say glutinous rice, and other thing, it's just regular rice.
Glutinous rice flour kind of adds to the chewiness of desserts. Anytime you had mochi or anything like that, it uses glutinous rice flour. Sometimes mochiko is another alternative you can use.
Jessie Sheehan:
I was going to ask you what it was adding.
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
I wondered if it was like the chew.
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
We're whisking our rice flour, our glutinous rice flour together with granulated sugar, with baking powder, with kosher salt, and with ground cinnamon. You're whisking together your dry ingredients, then you make a little well in the center. Listeners might know, but a well is just when you move your ingredients away into almost create a little hole or a little well in the center of the bowl.
You are going to add some lightly whisked eggs and melted unsalted butter, unsweetened coconut milk, which is nice. That's going to pick up from the horchata as well. I love that.
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Then some vanilla. Is there a brand of vanilla that you like?
Abi Balingit:
It's funny, because I had so much of Kirkland vanilla. Also from doing everything in bulk, especially with the treat boxes, it lasted me like a year. I'm like, "No other vanilla extract is going to do that for me unless I spend $40 or something." It is a cost-effective, but great vanilla extract, I think.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's fantastic. You're going to whisk that together until smooth. Then it's just about three tablespoons of batter into each cavity?
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Each banana leaf lined cavity, baking for 20 to 22 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
I wondered if you had a favorite cake tester? I love using long wooden skewers. Sometimes people like using a little pairing knife. Is there something that you like specifically?
Abi Balingit:
I think because these are only three tablespoons of batter, so typically if it's a higher cake or something, I would use a long cake tester, but toothpicks are just fine because of the height that these are, maybe three inches maybe. It's fine.
Jessie Sheehan:
Do they rise to the top of the cavity, or are they sort of a shorter cupcake?
Abi Balingit:
They are, I would say, a little bit of a shorter cupcake. When the next step, whenever we do the glaze, you can have a bit of it where it pools, and so it's not necessarily running off the edge, if that makes sense.
Jessie Sheehan:
It does, it does.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
We let our cupcakes cool, and you just leave them in the tin in the banana leaves while they cool?
Abi Balingit:
Usually for at least a few minutes or so. You can easily use the banana leaves and take them out and place them on the wire rack.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Abi Balingit:
I think sometimes, that's honestly when I, it's a time kind of thing. It's funny because in the cookbook you have to be very specific about these things, but I'm like, "It's fine." Obviously you don't want the residual heat to overcook it too much, but I think it's going to be okay.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Abi Balingit:
It won't get over overcooked that way, I don't know.
Jessie Sheehan:
It is hard to learn how to be so precise about the directions when you're writing a cookbook with baking recipes. I'll just say whisk until smooth, and then the editor will be like, "How many seconds?"
Abi Balingit:
I don't know.
Jessie Sheehan:
Then you have to go back and make it again, or just be like, "40."
Abi Balingit:
No, I know. Yeah, so for this case, if you have the time, ideally just take them out and put them on the wire rack. Again, if you're running low, just put the tin on the wire rack, it's fine.
Jessie Sheehan:
You're going to serve them in those little banana leaves, correct?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. Now we're going to make the glaze. There's going to be a sprinkle of coconut flakes on top. Yes. I was going to ask, is there a brand of coconut flakes that you like?
Abi Balingit:
Oh, yeah. It's like that one that's like a blue bag.
Jessie Sheehan:
Bakers?
Abi Balingit:
Bakers, yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes.
Abi Balingit:
Thank God. Thank you for this, yes. Honestly, yeah. That one's a great, I always use that one.
Jessie Sheehan:
It's sweetened coconut that you're putting on top?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah, this one is sweetened coconut. I do think it's not necessarily, again, traditional topping for the bibingka, but I just love that it is, first, common to find. I think it's sometimes harder for people to find unsweetened sometimes in the store. I think that's the first thing I'll see at any grocery store. Yeah, I do like that adds a little extra sweetness again with this recipe.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love coconut, sweetened coconut or coconut flakes. I love it all.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
You say to toast them in a sauce pan, is that toasting maybe on the stove top in a cast iron, or do you like to put them in the oven? How do you like to toast?
Abi Balingit:
Oh, we have this one really large sauce pan at home that is not cast iron, but it's non-stick, even, and it's quite large. Maybe I'm doing this motion, not that it helps on the podcast, but I'm holding around my 20 inches maybe diameter. I do using that, just because you can usually use your spatula to move it around quite easily.
Jessie Sheehan:
Nice.
Abi Balingit:
You can see.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that you're doing it on the stove top. I'm always sticking it in my toaster oven or I'm putting it in my, if I'm preheating my oven anyway, I'll stick it on a cookie sheet in the oven.
Abi Balingit:
Oh, wow.
Jessie Sheehan:
Then just shake the sheet maybe halfway through to move it around a little. When you do it on the stove top, what's nice is you are using a spatula and you're moving it around all the time. Even in the oven, it works.
Abi Balingit:
Oh, thank you, Jessie.
Jessie Sheehan:
You're welcome.
Abi Balingit:
It's a good tip. I'm nervous about that sometimes though, because I feel like I don't pay attention sometimes and ...
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh, I know.
Abi Balingit:
If you don't look away and then you have to open it.
Jessie Sheehan:
I can't tell you how many times I've burnt coconut or burnt nuts in my toast oven or in the oven. You're like, "What's that smell? Oh, no."
Abi Balingit:
I think nuts are harder because they're so much more expensive and it pains me,
Jessie Sheehan:
It's so painful when you forget, but then you're worried if I put them in anyway, are they going to make everything taste burnt?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. Honestly, at that point, it's really not worth it, unfortunately. That's when you know how to call it. I feel like that's the hardest thing, because I feel like everyone who bakes and is intimidated by baking, it's the waste that happens when you make a fatal mistake. Sometimes it happens, and you have to move on, and don't be too hard on yourself. It has happened. Browning butter, browning, toasting, anything, it can go awry really quickly.
Jessie Sheehan:
It's so hard. Also, I think to some degree, all of us bakers are very anal and rule oriented and following direction oriented. It always seems out of character to us. How did I mess that up?
Abi Balingit:
I know.
Jessie Sheehan:
I'm usually on top of it.
Abi Balingit:
You're baking for years and years. It doesn't even matter. It doesn't happens to the best of us.
Jessie Sheehan:
It doesn't. It doesn't. We are going to finish up this recipe, but I did want to mention, since we're kind of talking about it, you have a great essay, I think. Maybe it's in a head note in the book, but just talking about your preoccupation with perfection that you have figured out how to deal with.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah, I think it's a thing about letting go a lot. I think, I love control. I want to control everything about my life and every little aspect of it. I think getting older, it's every year I realize that's impossible to do. Some things are out of your control, and other things you can obviously check the oven and make sure, oh, it's too brown, then I have to take it out. Especially with baking, I feel like because I started and I didn't know anything when I first started to bake, and now I feel like I know so much more and I'm continuing to learn so much more, I think it's that appreciation for not knowing is a good thing.
I guess no matter how long I bake for, years and years of my life, there's still things I will not know until maybe I'm 70 years old and I'm in the kitchen. I'm like, "Wow, that's a good new technique I've never heard of." That's the exciting part. I think that's, for me, being a perfectionist now, I'm trying my best to still say that I value good work and my work ethic and all that stuff, but I still want to have fun. I still want to enjoy baking. I think there's this balance that you have to do. That's where I'm at is always learning how to balance and juggle.
We're at the air conditioning section of just homeostasis or whatever it is is you're always trying to reach this point, but it's okay if you're not at that point.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. I love that. Thank you for inspiring us mid-recipe. Now, we're going to make the glaze. We toast the coconut, and then you're going to whisk some sifted powdered sugar, some kosher salt, some ground cinnamon, the horchata ...
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
... That you made the night before and finished up that morning, and your vanilla until smooth. Then drizzle the glaze. Should the cupcakes be room temperature by the time you ...
Abi Balingit:
Oh, yeah. I think by that point, it should be room temperature, especially since you were toasting the coconut after that.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, and then you're kind of drizzling the glaze on top?
Abi Balingit:
I love to just literally take a half tablespoon, and just pour it on top, and let the dome kind of just let it fall through. I think because of your banana leaf liner, it catches whatever doesn't run off of it. I love doing that method. It's just easy. Just like scoop, scoop, scoop.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yep. Does it also, it sounds like it's pretty moist. Does it kind of absorb the glaze as well?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. I think because this glaze is a little, I wouldn't say on the thick side, and I do prefer that just because I think visually, it looks a little bit better. I think you get that too. If it's too thin, then you can't really even see the glaze.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Abi Balingit:
What I also really is adding the toasted coconut on top is kind of like a dam. I put a lot of coconut, I don't even know what I said in that recipe. I just sprinkle as much as I, because there is a lot of coconut yield in that. Put as much coconut as you want, and it just settles the glaze.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. Then serve immediately.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Best enjoy.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Perfect. Perfect. I love that. I can't wait to make that, sounds so delicious. I just wanted to talk about a couple of other amazing recipes from the book, Halo-Halo baked Alaska with ube jam, because that is the recipe on the cover of the book. It looks like heaven to me. It's a baked Alaska, but it's with the flavors of Halo-Halo ...
Abi Balingit:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
... Which is, I think I read this, the bite that's most emblematic of Filipino cuisine? It means mix-mix?
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. Yeah. It's because of Philippines, it's so hot. It's a tropical environment. I love the shaved ice desserts that you get. It's very refreshing. A traditional Halo-Halo, there's like Sweden red bean, there's jackfruit, there's like these coconut gel, there's evaporated milk, and ice cream, and lecha flan. You have a bite of everything all at once, and you get to mix it all in your bowl.
Then for the baked Alaska, just translating those flavors, I wanted, again, the ube mango ice cream, but also I make a granita with jackfruit steeped in evaporated milk. Then I add in the Halo-Halo mix that you get. All the beans that I mentioned, the coconut gel, all that stuff is inside the dome of the baked Alaska. Then there's a coconut sponge at the very bottom, and so just torching that. I still think it's emblematic, hopefully, of the original recipe or dessert, but just in a different way.
Jessie Sheehan:
The granita is the shaved ice.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that, so it's like different but the same.
Abi Balingit:
Yes. I also like that it's a combo, it's not necessarily easy, but you're not asking people to make ice cream.
Jessie Sheehan:
No.
Abi Balingit:
There's like a shortcut-ish written into the recipe, which is nice. Yeah. Yeah.
It's funny, because if you had chosen that, Jessie, I feel like we would be here a little while, just because I know it's not necessarily, again, a hard recipe, it's just time intensive.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes.
Abi Balingit:
Yeah, the steps hopefully are digestible for everyone, but it is a long recipe.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Abi Balingit:
The longest in the book, for sure.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, I love that. I loved baked Alaska, so I love any kind of twist on that. Then finally, I wanted to mention the Filipino flag cookies.
Abi Balingit:
Oh, yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Can you tell people about those?
Abi Balingit:
I feel like not a lot of people ask me about them, but they're basically inspired by black and white cookies here in New York, but instead of chocolate and vanilla, one of the colored sides is actually jasmine extract flavored. The Filipino national flower is the Sampaguita, which is a family of the jasmine flower. I wanted to put that. Also, it's like red, blue, and yellow and white, the colors of the Filipino flag. I just love them. I think it's so whimsical.
Then Katie, my food stylist for the book, she added the little fresh jasmine on top, and it's just stunning. I think in the book, that is one of my favorite recipes to look at just because, and I also like the taste, but it's also just a great recipe, I think.
Jessie Sheehan:
I also think it's a wonderful mix of Abi, because it's like Filipino, but it's also American with the black and white cookie. It's like, that's such a cool mixture there. Thank you so much for chatting with me today, Abi. I just wanted to say that you are my cherry pie.
Abi Balingit:
Oh, Jessie, I love you so much. Thank you for everything. Thank you.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's it for today's show. Thank you to Plugra Premium European style butter for their support. Don't forget to subscribe to She's My Cherry Pie on your favorite podcast platform, and tell your baking buddies about us. She's My Cherry Pie is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network, and is recorded at CityVox Studio in Manhattan. Our producers are Kerry Diamond and Catherine Baker, and our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu. Thank you so much for listening to She's My Cherry Pie, and happy baking.