Kristina Cho grew up in Cleveland, but her grandparents lived in the heart of Chinatown there, and that’s where she spent her weekends. She grew up surrounded by amazing food, helping out in the kitchen, eating at local Asian restaurants, and shopping at Chinese bakeries. She went to school to be an architect, but she just kept getting pulled back into food. She would cook and bake, explore Asian grocery stores, and eventually started a food blog. Now, she’s taken all that knowledge and infused it into a cookbook, so that she can share her memories and recipes with us.
Mooncakes and Milk Bread is a primer in Chinese baking, both savory and sweet. It is an exploration of Asian-American culture from a smart woman who grew up connected to both cultures. But most of all, it is a love letter to the food of her family, to the breads and buns, the cakes and cookies that have always brought her back home, no matter if she was around the world or just around the block.
If you’re not familiar with Chinese baked delicacies, Cho walks you through what you need to know to get started, from how to shop at Chinese stores and bakeries, how to buy and use Asian ingredients, and what special equipment you will need to create the variety of baked goods you can create with these recipes. I came to this cookbook with very little experience in Chinese baking, and with Cho’s detailed descriptions, her careful instructions, and all the photos, I feel like I could tackle these recipes with a decent amount of success (except the Mooncakes, usually made by masters. I’d want to work my way up to those).
She starts with some basics—Milk Bread and Steamed Buns—before moving on to show how to shape and fill them buns, and offers up ideas of creams, jams, and even tasty pork fillings. From the Deep Dish Pepperoni Bread to the Almighty Pineapple Bun, the Hot Dog Flower Buns to the Hong Kong-Style French Toast, the Tuna Buns to the Crispy Panko Pork Chop Sandwiches, these recipes work well for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and even snacks.
There is the sponge cake recipe, which bakes up into the Lemon Sponge Cake, Shiny Fruit Cream Cake, and the Chocolate and Salted Peanut Crepe Cake. Or do you go with the Chinese Puff Pastry, which you can use for the Classic Egg Tarts. Or do you prefer cookies? There are Goong Goong’s Almond Cookies, Pistachio Palmiers, or Fried Sesame Balls. The breadth of possibilities in this cookbook are impressive, from sweet to savory and back again.
As someone who is not all that familiar with Chinese pastries, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with this cookbook. But as I paged through these recipes, I found so much more than new recipes and flavors to play with. Cho offers readers a chance to see into a different culture, a way in the door for those of us who are on the outside. And for those who are already a part of Asian-American culture and who grew up on these flavors, they can find a way to create their own favorite pastries and pass on the recipes and the memories with this cookbook.
Egalleys for Mooncakes and Milk Bread were provided by Harper Horizon through NetGalley, with many thanks.
