Accessible Chinese breads, buns and delicacies.

I have never really made Chinese milk bread, steamed buns or even the iconic egg tarts, but this book made me think I could. Reading this book brought back fond memories of visiting China Town on Mauna Kea street in Honolulu to pick up egg tarts and "triangles" pie crust filled with char-sui. I enjoyed the stories, the history lesson and how well thought out the recipes were. I will definitely try to make the egg tarts, the savory pancakes and possibly attempt mild bread. I also have anew appreciation for moon cakes and their unique molds.

Recommend.

Kristina Cho’s Mooncakes and Milk Bread is a spectacular cookbook. It has gorgeous photography, clearly explained recipes, and threads that tie her upbringing in Cleveland, Ohio to the greater Chinese diaspora.

Cho grew up in her family’s Chinese restaurants. Initially, she wanted to be a chef, like her grandfather, but instead studied architecture, eventually creating a food blog as a release for her love of cooking. Mooncakes and Milk Bread works as an introduction to Chinese baking (and steaming and pan frying). She clearly explains ingredients, techniques and methodologies so that an interested learner doesn’t feel lost in the unfamiliar. She provides some foundational recipes like the Mother of All Milk Bread Dough and then riffs off of them throughout the book, in ways that make me feel like I could take that basic recipe and apply my own creativity.

There are so many bun recipes in this book. steamed buns, baked buns, plain buns, sweet buns and savory buns. Some buns are traditional (Pineapple Buns and Char Sui Bao), use traditional Chinese ingredients in in non traditional forms (Milk Bread Donuts with Salted Egg Yolk Cream), or incorporate other American ingredients into traditional bun styles (After School PB&J Buns and Thanksgiving Leftovers Gua Boa).

I became absorbed in the bun recipes, but the book is stuffed with cakes, pastries, tarts, cookies (no fortune cookies), dumplings, and breakfast. I loved that Cho showed how to make a variety of mooncakes, including how to makes some adorably shamed mooncakes without a mooncake mold.

My only frustration was that I wasn’t able to test recipes. A combination of health issues and work demands ruled out a trek to the store and playing with recipes. I can’t wait to get my hands on a paper copy and my self into the H-Mart.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Horizon for the advance reader copy. My opinions are my own.

I don't bake. So why did I choose to read this book you ask. Because I LOVE milk bread. I long for this wonderful pillow-soft buttery bread. Since there's no Asian bakery in my little town, I better learn to make this bread myself. Surprisingly, most ingredients are already in the pantry. Baking is intimidating for me, but I will be making this Mother of All Milk Bread. 🍞😍

Mid-Autumn Festival, and of course mooncakes. Perfect timing too. I love the name and aren't they just pretty? Let's just say they are lovely to look at, but to eat? Red beans and nuts aren't my kind of dessert. I'm impressed really to know people do make this at home.

There are also no-bake recipes like dim sums, crispy scallion pancakes and potstickers. I don't like sesame seeds, but these crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside sesame balls look pretty darn good!

Thank you Harper Horizon and Netgalley for my ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley for a tasty ARC to review!

Wow, this was delicious to peruse, all puns intended. Filled with gorgeous, mouthwatering pictures and warm prose explaining Cho's memories and inspirations for recipes, I found this a wholesome and useful cookbook!

There was youtiao, steamed buns, and mooncakes, all of which I was familiar with from Chinatown and Hmart bakery runs, but there was so much more. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and dessert recipes! Those delicious cream fruit cakes you see on asian dramas! Explanation of some more unfamiliar ingredients like white pepper! I just really loved how thorough the book was, and how infused it was with Cho's care for the food and family memories.

This gets a super charming five stars.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This cookbook is also part autobiography with wonderful stories of growing up in tight knit community and how they taught and influenced her cooking. I love when the authors include the how and why they put a recipe in the book. I also love whenever there’s insight behind how and why something is made in a particular order - such as, do this to get this texture or shape. In this case, in addition to lots of walk through, it came with lots of photos of both her past and how the pastry should look in process or completed.

If you’re new to baking or this is a new style of baking for you, this is a great book to add to your collection as not only does it come with clear directions, it also comes with a list of substitutions for harder to find ingredients.

This book was a joy and contains recipies not generally found in your standard cookbook of Chinese food. I am part of a facebook group called British Born Chinese Food - members had been sharing photos of mooncakes, snow mooncakes, pineapple buns, chiffon cakes all of which inspired me to bake these items however recipies are not easy to find. Kristina's book covered all these and have been able to satisfy my cravings for chinese baked goods!
The most intersting aspect for me was the section on mooncakes - these are traditionally gifted around Autumn moon festival (15 August in Chinese calendar) and are very expensive. Whether this is because of the ingredients (traditionally lotus bean paste and salted egg yolk) I am unsure, what I do know now is that they are incredibly easy to make as long as you make a small investment for a mooncake mould. Kristina provided an alternative to the tradional recipie using pistachios and honey which was lovely, perhaps more to Western tastes.
Delve into a different baking style (should be on Bake off) I would recommend this book.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for access to this ARC.

Bring on the bao!!! I am so excited to try these recipes. My kids are pretty adventurous eaters so it will be so fun to work our way through this cookbook!

But this book is more than just recipes. The stories are wonderful and give the book so much meaning and importance. And the pictures are gorgeous. Some recipes won’t be easy for a novice but most are easy to follow instructions.

This was so different from other cook books that I have read recently. I discovered a whole new range of breads and cakes that I have been expirementing with.

Fully recommend this.

I was given an advance copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own

This really is the perfect cookbook. I've been a fan of Chinese dishes my whole life, but I've never seen a book with every single recipe I could want in one place...until now.

I like that most of it is from scratch, so you can really have fun with it. And when you make dough for one thing, it can also serve as dough for several other things as well, so it's not as complicated as it may seem at first glance.

Some recipes require more time than others, like the "White Pizza", but I have no doubt they're worth it.

So far I've only tried two, the Strawberry Jasmine Milk Tea and the Chocolate and Salted Peanut Crepe Cake.

I'm not huge on fruit in teas, but this one was quite nice.

And the cake? Pure perfection. It's soooo delicious. I made a tiny one for myself and left the rest of the batter for another day. You can bet I'll spend the next few days snacking on that.

Every recipe also has accompanying pictures, so you know what it's supposed to come out as, and how you're supposed to get to that point (for example how to properly fold buns).

And, there's a lot of history, about the author's family, other families with similar baking/restaurant backgrounds in different cities, as well as the origins of the recipes themselves. Like I said, perfect cookbook.

I can't wait to have this on my shelf so I can just pop it open and try something new whenever I have time.

*Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I did not read Mooncakes and Milk Bread by Kristina Cho through an educator lens

Mooncakes and Milk Bread by Kristina Cho was stunning - from the amount of directions (both written and visual), the various recipes and the photography. This cookbook is a must have and one to definitely make everything from. I was really impressed with her attention to detail and the visual directions when baking are super helpful. I cannot wait to get a copy of this one for our house!

Beautiful book with great recipes.
Well done and very informative.
A stunning book for everyone that wants something a bit more unique and special.

This one's got a lot of new ideas I am so dying to try! Like have you ever heard of Mushroom Mushroom Buns? Please make sure you're not hungry while reading this book or have a snack by your side.

In addition to all of the wonderful recipes found in this book, this book also tells a story. The way it is written makes you feel like you’ve known the author your entire life!

Moon cakes and Milk Bread is a excellent book which exposed me to the world of Chinese baking. The recipes are well explained and are accompanied by a background story. I’m sure to try out these recipes in future.

Thanks to netgalley , the publisher and the author for this ARC!

Really, if you’ve ever wanted to make those mouthwatering Chinese buns and pastries, this is the book to get. The author is a recipe developer who dedicate her days cooking up a good variety of foods which are then taste tested by friends and family. The recipes are very detailed and are always accompanied by at least a photo of the finished product so you know how yours should look. I like that step by step pictorial instructions or diagrams are given whenever they’re called for, such as how to mold your moon cake or fold your rose siu mai.

I enjoyed Ms Cho’s nostalgic and well written food stories of her family and friends and her features of the indomitable Chinese community of bakeries.

I’m on a therapeutic low carb diet and so can’t eat almost all the food here. I’ll admit to requesting for this book to see if I can tweak the recipes so that they are compliant to my way of eating!

Pros: I spent my childhood in Singapore and was drawn to this book because of my memories of mooncakes at Chinese New Year (even though I remember not loving the taste of them at them time). My mom has a mooncake mold at her house, so I’m interested in attempting to make mooncakes in the future.

I appreciated the background information given in this book—specifically the part about ingredients and how there are many types of flour, sugar, etc. The section about shopping at an Asian grocery store was also helpful because I’ve never visited one even though there are several within a few miles of my house. (My dad has been plenty of times to stock up on his favorite sauces and condiments.)

There are so many recipes in this book that I want to try immediately—especially the savory dishes. If I’m honest with myself, mooncakes might be a bit aspirational for me to attempt, but I think I might be able to make milk bread! The crispy Chinese sausage and cilantro pancakes look and sound amazing . . . as do the youtian, the brown sugar shao bing, the mo, and all the pork buns, to name a few. One of my favorite things about this cookbook are the fantastic photos—the food looks delicious, and I love having something to compare my cooking attempts to.

I would love to see an episode of the Great British Bake Off/Baking Show feature some of these recipes!

Cons: I’m guessing these recipes are more complicated that they seem at first glance. I might need to watch some YouTube videos to see someone form dumplings, shape bread, and make mooncakes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Horizon for the opportunity to read this book!

After seeing Cho’s tiktoks and instagram Reels I knew I had to read this book! I’ve always been compelled to make mooncakes but felt they were so intimidating. This book will increase that need but will take away the intimidation! I haven’t made one of the mooncakes but I did attempt to make the pineapple bun!

Really fun recipes if you love the asian bakery around the corner and want to recreate!

I haven’t finished this book yet, since I’m enjoying each word and recipe included. But so far, is sooo good, that I decided to leave a review now and update it later.
Since my family roots are Cantonese, getting my hands in a book with recipes you don’t usually find is a real treat. It has great recipes, the directions are clear and easy to follow and there’s something for each level of confidence. It has sweet, savory, basics, twist, adaptations, so you will find something.
Edit. I’ve already tried my hand at the White Pizza and it was exactly what we've been looking for!

When I think of desserts, my brain doesn’t usually consider Chinese cuisine but this author shows us that Chinese cooking includes some delectable sweets things and that makes this cookbook unique and interesting.

Cho begins by telling us the brief history of her family coming to America from Hong Kong and explains her grandfather’s journey toward being the proud owner of multiple restaurants. Cho went to college to become an architect but has found her way to her dream job of blogging and writing about food (she has a substantial following on social media as well).

This cookbook includes lots of information about ingredients and tools (thank you for finally explaining that scallions and green onions are the SAME THING!). This book is laid out very well including easy to follow recipes and diagrams and pictures of the process as well as the finished product. I don’t see myself trying to master all the techniques shown here but I would be thrilled if I could make a good milk bread and a scallion pancake!

Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Horizon, and Kristina Cho for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved experimenting with the recipes lovingly shared in this book! I have had little to no experience with Chinese bakery items, so this was a welcomed experience. I treasured the introductions up front so a greater appreciation could be had for Chinese American shops and bakeries. Ingredients for a Better Bake was helpful because I have to acknowledge that food from another culture will be created differently than food from America. The chapter How to Shop at an Asian Grocery Store was truly enlightening. Since I live in a big City where these stores are available, it was cool to be able to practically use these tips. Hands down though, the best part of this book is the recipes provided. I cannot express how helpful the pictures were and the photography was inspirational. My eyes were opened, and my palate satiated. Thank you, Kristina, for sharing your heart, your heritage, and your kitchen in such a real and tangible manor.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley and all opinions expressed are solely my own, freely given.