Baking With Licker: Home Baking With Asian Accents

Jason Licker, whose previous Lickerland earned him a James Beard-award nomination, turns his considerable experience as a pastry chef working in Asia to a collection of baked goods that draw on flavors from a variety of cuisines there.

It’s worth noting that while this energetic and detail-oriented book proclaims that it’s for home baking, it is inescapably the work of a pastry professional. Measurements are almost entirely by weight in grams and many of the desserts are assembled from several separately prepared component. None of which detracts from the considerable imagination on display here from the very first recipe: chocolate chip cookies flavored with a dose of Japanese ponzu sauce. As Licker says the savory flavors “are precisely what will accentuate the sweet and fatty chocolate chip cookie base without altering its basic foundation.”

And so he’s off, galloping across traditions, mixing things up, but always able to explain exactly why he’s doing what he’s doing when he adds sesame mousse to a Black Forest cake, swaps sake for rum in his babas, or spiking his corn muffins with togarashi spice mix.

This will get you out of any baking rut you’re in.

Paperback. Color photographs throughout.