I was wandering around the cookbook section of Bandi & Luni's the other day and found two new veg-friendly baking books that I hadn't seen before! Progress!!!
This first one, whose title basically translates to "Cook 'n' Book's Sweet, Natural Baking " is actually written by 전수미 (Jeon Su Mi), the lovely lady who I took a few baking classes from about 2 years ago. I'm thrilled that she has come out with her own recipe book because she's super nice, talented and has an eye for beautiful table art & food styling. Check her website/blog here. It seems that she's even gone and opened up her a new coffee shop/baking studio in Hongdae, so props to her! I plan on visiting her shoppe soon~
The cover says "No butter! No egg!." Many of her recipes use soymilk and tofu, but a few of them still include dairy, so the book isn't totally vegan. However, it's still very vegan-friendly, and it's just awesome to see recipes like tofu chocolate icing, or avocado chocolate muffins, which I bet are pretty new concepts for Koreans.
The book is choc-a-block full of gorgeous color photos, and the table art is simply impeccable. Every page is a sight for sore eyes.
Here's another new baking book entitled "Kind (Good), Eco Bread ," by 김영인 (Kim Young In) and 김영신 (Kim Young Shin).
This one is special indeed: "No wheat flour, egg, milk, butter, or additives." Wow~! It's the very first totally gluten-free, vegan baking book I've seen in Korea.
I quickly browsed through some of the recipes and saw that instead of wheat flour, it uses rice and bean flour (no spelt flour), which is totally cool! I have close to zero experience with gluten-free baking because many recipes I've seen call for spelt flour, which I haven't found here in Korea. Besides, I also don't have a sensitivity towards gluten, so it's really not an issue for me. However, for those who are struggling with being gluten-free here in Korea, just knowing that this book is in mainstream bookstores should give a little hope! :)
Vegan, gluten-free, smiley-face cookies? Yes please!
So there you have it. Two new (to me at least) vegan-friendly, Korean baking books. Cool, huh? Korea definitely has a ways to go when it comes to veganism, but it's encouraging to see that progress is being made. Even though veganism as a philosophy/lifestyle isn't well-understood here, "well-being" food is a huge trend right now, so I think many women will be interested in these books for those reasons. Anything that introduces people to alternative, more compassionate methods of baking, is good in my books. :)