Mooncakes and Milk Bread: Sweet and Savory Recipes Inspired by Chinese Bakeries

Mooncakes and Milk Bread: Sweet and Savory Recipes Inspired by Chinese Bakeries by Kristina Cho, creator of the popular food blog Eat Cho Food, is an award-winning celebration of Chinese bakery traditions, nostalgic comfort foods, and contemporary Asian American baking. Published in 2021, the book introduces home bakers to the distinctive breads, pastries, buns, cakes, and treats found in Chinese bakeries and cafés, combining traditional recipes with approachable techniques and personal storytelling.

The collection spans sweet and savory baked buns, steamed breads, cookies, cakes, dumplings, breakfast dishes, and beverages, with recipes including Steamed BBQ Pork Buns, Pineapple Buns with Butter, Chocolate Swiss Rolls, and Silky Milk Tea. Cho provides detailed instruction on essential techniques such as kneading dough by hand, creating light and fluffy steamed buns, infusing custards with tea, preparing dumpling dough, and mastering traditional dumpling pleating. Throughout, she makes Chinese baking accessible to beginners while offering experienced bakers opportunities to explore unfamiliar ingredients, textures, and methods.

Winner of two 2022 James Beard Awards for Baking and Desserts and Emerging Voice in Books, and named one of the year's ten best cookbooks by The New York Times and The New Yorker, Mooncakes and Milk Bread is especially appealing for Chinese and Asian American food enthusiasts, adventurous home bakers, bread and pastry lovers, and cookbook collectors interested in the culinary traditions and cultural significance of Chinese bakeries.