Lieu Kat - Modern Asian Baking at Home Essential Sweet and Savory Recipes for Milk Bread, Mooncakes, Mochi and More

Essential Sweet and Savory Recipes for Milk Bread, Mochi, Mooncakes, and More

Inspired by the Subtle Asian Baking Community

Kat Lieu

Founder, @subtleasian.baking

Id like to welcome you to the extraordinary world of modern Asian baking. Wait. Lets start over. I want to thank you for welcoming this book and me into your home. Its an incredible honor to be here. My eyes are flooding as I write this because I still cant believe Ive authored an entire cookbook on Asian baking! But youre not classically trained, Kalai, my mom said to me in Cantonese when I told her I had a book deal. Shes right (and when is she not?). Im just a self-taught home baker with an insatiable thirst for learning and improving, and hey, Im proud of that fact.

I have another confession to make. As a child, I thought Asians didnt bake. Clean pots and pans were permanent residents in our oven. Whenever my mom made Chinese sweets and desserts, she steamed, boiled, or fried her ingredients. In 2009, when my parents sold the house where we lived for more than two decades, the oven was pristine. I kid you not.

For more than thirty years, I called South Brooklyn my home. Theres at least one Asian bakery or restaurant on every block of 86th Street by Bay Parkway. Now settled in the quiet suburbs of Seattle, Ive driven long distances to buy my favorite Asian comfort foods. Its quite a bummer because I dont particularly like to drive. Having a kitchen big enough to allow my oven to be used as an oven instead of storage space, I felt a strong bite from the baking bug. I dreamed of baking everything I loved to eat but found challenging to easily procure locally: milk bread, mooncakes, mochi, and of course, the notoriously difficult-to-perfect Japanese cheesecake.

I wanted to, no, needed to bake (dont laugh) the Asian way. Dazed in my then-empty kitchen, I had no idea where and how to begin. What Asian goodies should I bake first? Where could I find high-quality Asian baking recipes? I scoured the web for a comprehensive collection of Asian baking recipes; alas, my searches came up short. I had hit a roadblock to Asian baking. My first bake in my new kitchen was a Western creation. If you guessed banana bread, youre right. Cue the eye roll.

I saw a need for an online community where beginner and experienced home bakers could share, search for, and obsess over Asian baking. I knew I had to build this community, one that would bridge cultures and help people collaborate, innovate, learn, and get instant inspiration. On May 24, 2020, I launched Subtle Asian Baking (SAB), an inclusive and diverse Asian baking group on Facebook. SAB welcomed more than 100,000 members worldwide within ten months of inception. SAB members have curated and shared thousands of essential Asian sweet and savory baking recipes, along with countless heartwarming stories.

And why did I name the group Subtle Asian Baking?

One, because I love the Subtle Asian communities online. And two, because there are so many clever, subtle methods and techniques to baking the Asian way.

Subtle Asian Baking is no longer just a small community of bakers swapping recipes, but a movement for culinary innovation.

JESSICA WEI EATER.COM

Thanks to the SAB community, I have grown tremendously as a home baker and recipe developer. Im thrilled to share what Ive learned with you in this book. The recipes Ive included are a mix of my inventions and inspirations from SAB members. Some recipes are unique and brand-new, such as my Dreamy Matcha Basque Cheesecake (). All the recipes come from our hearts and homes. I sincerely hope this book brings you joy as you bake delicious and crave-worthy foods to enjoy at home and share with your neighbors and loved ones.

Whether youre a new, experienced, classically trained, or self-taught home baker (like me!), and regardless of whether youre Asian or not, youll find a recipe to obsess over, and at least one (or two, or three, or more) that youll make over and over again. Let this book be your baking buddy as you work with transformative ingredients from East and Southeast Asia, such as matcha, black sesame, and ube. With matchas subtle nutty and bitter notes, well make not-too-sweet and umamiful desserts, such as Monstrous Matcha Miso Cookies ().

Exciting ingredients, different techniques, and interesting textures differentiate Asian baking from Western baking. Have you ever chewed boba and felt an ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) level of satisfaction? Boba pearls with a hearty chew are QQ, a darling texture and mouthfeel of Taiwan. (QQ is possibly short for kiu, a word that means bouncy in the Taiwanese dialect Hokkien.) If youve never had boba (doubtful, but possible), dont worry! Well make homemade boba using just three ingredients (), youll see how easy it is to achieve the remarkable and alluring texture that is QQ.

Another Asian baking textureand this one is a favorite of mineis airiness. Youll know youre having an Asian cake when you sink your teeth into my favorite dessert of all time, the light Cottony Japanese Cheesecake ().

I hope youre excited and ready to steam, fry, boil, and bake your way through this straight-from-the-heart collection of recipes. Have fun, get a little messy, and splatter batter and condensed milk all over this book! Its meant to be scribbled on, dog-eared, and stained. Writing this book, I imagined it to be your loyal companion and a guide as you embark on a baking adventure full of innovation and discovery. Youll add mochi boba to ice pops ()!

Roll up your sleeves, take off your shoes, and explore the magical world of modern Asian baking. The best part? No passports or packing required when you can bake the Asian way, right at home.

Some ingredients used in this book may seem unfamiliar. Luckily, in our modern world, you can easily find these ingredients online or at your local Asian market or grocery store.