Kitchen test days are varied. Some days the recipes are a one and done (woo!). Other days the testing goes on for months. When I first started Little Moon Bakehouse (formerly Annie's T Cakes), some of my first recipes were ready surprisingly fast. The Taiwanese pineapple cake only took three tries (and that was making it vegan and gluten free). The mooncakes took a couple of weeks of cranking out multiple batches of mooncakes a day until they stopped looking like Red Lobster biscuits.
But so far, nothing has compared to the process of developing our now famous Almond Cookie. From start to finish--counting breaks where I just totally gave up--this cookie took almost one year to perfect. And had I not been working on it for so long, I would never have been ready for the opportunity to make the almond cookies for the premier of Everything Everywhere All At Once in San Francisco in 2022.
How it Started: Oily and Bitter
One of the first test batches of almond cookies in 2020.
My mission starting this business was to recreate vegan versions of nostalgic Asian pastries I grew up eating. Since I'm Chinese American, a lot of those nostalgic pastries for me were Chinese grocery store and Hong Kong style bakery items. The almond cookies were high on the list of snacks I grew up eating.
My first batch of almond cookies were so bitter and (as you can see from the picture) very oily. There was too much baking soda and they were also coming out much crispier than they should.
Another early 2021 attempt at an almond cookie and also an assortment of other goodies.
Over the course of nine months in 2021 I tried 16 [documented] test batches. In January 2022, I was over it. I decided I needed to move on with my life. There were other pastries that needed attention! But two months after I thought I'd left the almond cookie behind, I got the chance of a lifetime.
When Opportunity, Luck, and 16x Preparation Meet for the Weekend
In March 2022, a friend invited us to the San Francisco premier of Everything Everywhere All At Once. A few months before, I had just worked with the local Emeryville AMC and the Alameda Theater to sell our pineapple cakes for the premier of ShangChi. So movies were on my mind. By chance, I saw that one of the nonprofits helping to organize the EEAAO premier was one I had already been chatting with to discuss work together. So I reached out and asked if they were looking for any dessert catering. As it turns out, the studio had been looking for a local baker to recreate the smiley almond cookie that appeared in the movie. And so the team at A24 asked if I could make them for their attendees.
Here I was, the week before the premier, never wanting to see another mound of almond cookie dough again. The baker that had recently told herself to move on from this recipe. And so naturally I said "I'll get back to you on Monday." And then I was off to set up my stand mixer.
Over the weekend, I poured over my previous 16 attempts, trying to find the key to the flavor and texture I needed. Over two and a half days, I cranked out at least six more batches of almond cookies, each one less bitter than the last.
Groggy and sick of cookies, by Sunday afternoon I had done it. I had a workable almond cookie recipe. The relief was palpable! And now I could sign on to make cookies for the premier.
From Zero to 850 in Three Days
"Can you make 850 cookies by Thursday?" the team asked me that Monday. And like anyone running their own business I said, "No problem!" while internally dry heaving at the mountain in front of me.
The first two days full of making 900 cookies were testament to me that you don't need 10,000 hours, you might just need 900 back to back trials to perfect something. The first cookies were noticeably uglier than the last ones.
To the Red Carpet
Some BTS from the premier
Blog Cover Photo Credit: Dana Mariko Chang