Subtle Asian Baking creator and author of ‘Modern Asian Baking at Home,’ Kat Lieu shares a holiday-ready cookie inspired by her mother’s recipe.
At the start of the pandemic , like many of us , Kat Lieu had a craving for her favored comfort foods . With a darth of Asian bakeries in her Seattle neighborhood and no fortune of travel to her beloved food hub — Tokyo , of course — Lieu involve to the net . Her first occlusive : the Subtle Asian Treats Facebook page .
But Lieu notice the lack of Asiatic baking banter . As she dove deeper into comfort baking , she was inspired to create theSubtle Asian Baking(SAB ) Facebook mathematical group . She began sharing recipeson her bloginspired by everything from her February 2020 trip to Tokyo to her mother ’s Cantonese Black Sesame soup .
“ A huge part of our crime syndicate is food and feeling . It ’s our love voice communication as cliche as that sound , ” says Lieu , who learned how to break through an testicle , time of year food , frost a cake and pick the pure longan during summers claver her Vietnamese grandmother , who live in Montreal . Combining the city ’s Gallic influence with their traditional Asiatic preparation style , Lieu ’s grandmother made recherche chiffon cakes , durian ice cream , slob - shaped mooncakes and theperfectmeringue .
Kat Lieu and her Black Sesame Crinkle Cookies.|Art by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist, (photos courtesy Kat Lieu).
Lieu credit herah mafor exposing her to so many flavors . “ I had matcha when I was plausibly six years old , ” she remembers . “ It really intrigued me and so I ’ve always have a go at it those insidious leafy flavour . ”
Lieu ’s SAB Sir Frederick Handley Page organically grew to have over 60,000 fellow member by December 2020 . ( With recipes like Korean Fried Chicken Macarons , we ’re not surprised ! ) Not too long after , Lieu was proposition to make a cookbook : Modern Asiatic Baking at Home . “ I asked if they ’d rather see a Japanese Curry Bread or a Chinese Pineapple Bun , so that all the members feel that they ’re a part of this . It ’s not just one culinary art that we ’re focused on , ” stress Lieu .
“ People are realizing that there ’s more than just matcha and boba , ” Lieu deposit . Flavors such as pandan , which some people have dubbed “ the vanilla of Asia , ” are becoming more intimate . Still , Lieu would wish to see folks move by from calling it that “ because pandan on its own tastes like more than just vanilla extract , it has all these leafy flavors and elusive promissory note of young coconut . ”
There ’s many and more Asian flavors to highlight in her script , but Lieu ’s favorite , and perhaps most nostalgic flavor visibility , is black benne . It ’s why she make up one’s mind to recreate her mother ’s famous stunner into a parched good .
“ People are realise that there ’s more than just matcha and boba . ”
“ For me it has always been this magical constituent , ” reminisce Lieu . Her mom made the sesame from scratch , mixing it with rice pulverization and boiled water for an evening treat . “ think ingest chalk emollient after dinner party , but rather of that we had a sweet soup , ” explain Lieu . “ It ’s not too sweet , it just has this buttery , daft , toasty , yummy flavor . ”
While the soup can be dish hot or cold , Lieu ’s passion for baking and dear for cooky promise her to make it on the whole her own . “ It lets my mom see , ‘ Hey appear , your favored recipe gave me so much comfort and it has inspired me to make a cookie that has a like smell that now my husband and Word can enjoy . ’ ”
Chock full of pistachio and cranberries , resembling a ball of snow , Lieu’sThick Black Sesame and Miso Crinkle Cookiesare sure to be a whizz on every vacation table . She feels it beguile the black sesame flavor perfectly , with a morsel of sum up sweetness and in a form that mass who do n’t care sweet soups will delight . She even suggest dipping your biscuit into the soup .
“ To me it ’s not just a cooky . I think it really be me as an Asian American . It ’s not 100 % Asian but it ’s not 100 % all - American . It ’s like my duality living in America , ” says Lieu . “ It ’s subtly Asiatic just like me . ”
Black Sesame Miso Crinkle Cookies
Yields : 12 to 16 cookies
Ingredients:• 1/4 cup ( 55 g ) butter , softened• 1/3 cup ( 67 g ) brown sugar , packed• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar•1/2 to 1 tablespoonful miso• 1 teaspoon lemon zest , optional• A generous smattering of dry cranberry , chopped• A generous smattering of deshelled pistachio , chopped• 1 large egg * , about 50 g• 3 to 4 tablespoonsblack sesame paste• 170 g all - purpose flour , sifted• 1 teaspoonful bake powder
Dough Balls Coating:• 1/2 loving cup ( 60 GB ) confectioner ’ sugar , in a bowl• 1/4 cupful grain sugar , in a bowl
Directions:1 . Preheat the oven to 350 ° F with a rack in the center . Line two large baking sheets with sheepskin paper.2 . In a stand mixer fit with the boat paddle attachment , cream the butter , sugars , miso , and optional lemon gusto until paler in semblance and fluffy , a few mo . Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.3 . bestow the egg and disgraceful sesame spread . Mix until incorporated.4 . Tip in flour and bake gunpowder and premix until just combined.5 . Fold in the chop up pistachio and cranberries.6 . Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 time of day or overnight . If you ’re in a rush , you could make these cookies without chilling the shekels .
set up the cookies:1 . Scoop 1 1/2 tbsp ( ~30 g ) of cookie dough . Shape the dough into a fluid , firm bollock . Toss into the bowl of granulated simoleons , coat with a sparse bed of sugar before cast out into the arena of confectioner ’ sugar to coating thoroughly.2 . Transfer to a prepared baking sheet . provide space between each dough formal . repetition until you have 12 to 16 cookie balls.3 . Bake for 15 Amoy or until the edges have set and brown slightly . The cooky centre should be voiced but not runny.4 . nerveless on the baking sheet for a few minutes before cool off completely on a conducting wire rack .
