mochi brownies
helloo is this thing still on? it’s been a minute — or to be precise, just over three months since my last post. as i searched for the right words to say in the wake of the protests for george floyd, breonna taylor, and the many more black lives that have been lost , i was overwhelmed with the sense that nothing was enough, frustrated with #blackouttuesday and the feeling that it was more distraction than positive action, then encouraged by reminders that a revolution has many lanes, and to keep your foot on the gas. i found my lane in the form of a @bakersagainstracism post about an upcoming virtual bake sale to raise money for radical change against systemic and structural racism.
thankful to have found a practical outlet for my procrastibaking skills and desire to do more, i sped into planning and asked a couple baking buddies to join for the ride. the #blm sohntaste samplers included chocolate chip cookies, black sesame cake, macarons by kusina harina, and last but not least - these lovely mochi brownies that my butter half and quarantinemate amelia was gracious enough to make as well as provide the recipe in this post. we spent the week leading up to the bake sale rigorously testing brownies (aka chasing bottomless brownies with fresh coffee). i thought i’d exceeded my brownie quota and wouldn’t want to even look at another until 2021 but the mochi keeps me coming back for mo.
despite my fears that the bake sale would turn out to be a bake fail, i was proven otherwise by the generous support of friends and strangers who helped raise $1400 for surj bay area’s emergency relief fund. though this is just the first among many efforts to being a better ally for the bipoc community (stay tuned for more blm bake sale boxes to come), i hope this post serves as a reminder for myself and others that this movement is a marathon, not a sprint. while our news and social media feeds may seem to be returning to “normal,” the reality is far from that - the police officers responsible for breonna taylor’s death have yet to be charged, covid continues to exacerbate racial disparities, protesters are getting teargassed, violently beaten, and arrested at the hands of violent police officers protected by qualified immunity. my friend yurie kwon perfectly articulates the shift that has happened over the last few weeks:
I’ve realized how short my own natural attention span is, how easy it is to go back to posting “normal” things from my everyday life online, how much effort it takes to continue to pay attention (which includes remembering that my ability to be forgetful is yet another indicator of my non-Black privilege). Odell spells out the tension I’ve been wrestling with over the past month, explaining that “there is no such thing as voluntary sustained attention. Instead, what passes for sustained attention is actually a series of successive efforts to bring attention back to the same thing, considering it again and again with unwavering consistency.” I see a very literal embodiment of this in Instagram Stories, which are designed to be ephemeral, and which consequently require us to keep posting new content, over and over again, in order to keep our collective attention sustained on the same thing. Like I said, this takes effort. I’m learning not to take for granted the emotional labour that goes into information sharing and educating on social media, and I’m grateful for the people I follow online—both friends and public figures—who take on that labour consistently. Theirs is the example I look to in the daily work of deepening my attention (ironically, within the very realm of the “attention economy”), and their efforts a reminder that the work is not only doable but necessary. And this is what I hope for all of us, that we keep posting, and sharing, and reading, and engaging, and donating, and petitioning, and protesting, and marching, that we keep making successive efforts to bring our attention back to the same thing, back to the epidemic of racism and police brutality in this country, forcing ourselves and those around us to consider these things again and again with unwavering consistency until something at last changes within ourselves and within the system.
with that, here’s a shortlist of some resources that i’ve been consuming like carbs to fuel my marathon training:
justice in june - lesson plan for learning how to be a better ally that work with
campaign zero - HOW TO TAKE ACTION AT THE LOCAL, STATE, AND FEDERAL LEVELS + TRACKER FOR PROGRESS IN DIFFERENT AREAS
asian-american guide to dismantling anti-blackness - lessons to keep in mind on the lifelong journey to being anti-racist
anyway, i hope i still have your attention. this post has been on my mind for a long time. i’ve struggled to find the right things to say, but i’m learning to let go of the fear of saying the wrong things, and that it’s better to start imperfectly and learn from your mistakes than do nothing at all.
ps. mila also supports #blacklivesmatter.
mochi brownies
recipe adapted from butternut bakery for the brownies and lady and pups for the mochi.
ingredients:
mochi
100 g mochiko flour
45 g sugar
145 g water
1 teaspoon grapeseed oil
brownie base
113 g chocolate
100 g butter
1 Teaspoon grapeseed oil
3 large eggs
175 g sugar
50 g brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
70 g AP flour
1 Tsp corn starch
instructions:
prepare the mochi: whisk mochiko, sugar, and water in a glass bowl and microwave covered for 1-2 minutes. stirring halfway through until it’s sticky and doughy. fold in oil with spoon. this makes enough for two pans of brownies.
prepare the brownies: melt chocolate, butter, and oil in microwave for one minute, stir, then microwave another 45-60 seconds more or until smooth, let cool. in the meantime, whisk eggs, sugar, and salt until frothy, then whisk the cooled chocolate mix into the egg mix. sift flour and cornstarch together then gently fold into the eggy chocolate mixture until just mixed.
preheat the oven to 350°f. layer half of the brownie batter into a greased & parchment paper lined 8x8 pan. oil your fingers, then add globs of mochi to the pan. cover the globs with the remaining brownie batter.
bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, then let cool completely (at least 1 hour - good things come to those who wait) before cutting into it. wipe off the knife in between each cut to get those clean cuts.
