Bake Sum: Asian American Pastries, Breads, and Other Treats

A stunningly photographed ode to all the flavors of Asian Americana, this collection of 75 recipes and drinks from Oakland’s Bake Sum bakery demystifies the techniques and flavors behind all your favorite desserts.  

Bake Sum guides readers through classic Asian puddings & jellies like Almond Jello, Mango Pudding, and Taho (sweet silken tofu), before moving on to sesame-studded and matcha scented cookies, beautiful layer cakes, breads, the bakery’s famous laminated pastries, and tarts and pies of all kinds?from an Egg Custard Tart to Miso Apple Turnovers. Learn the secrets of the bakery’s New York Times-lauded Croissubi, a spam musubi-croissant hybrid, how to make perfect milk bread, and how to work with ingredients and flavors like yuzu, black sesame, ube, pandan, and hojicha.    

Between the bakes are thoughtful essays on culture―learn how the Chinese pineapple bun is actually a relative of the concha, and how Shokupan evolved from American-style white bread and became the cottony milk bread that we know today.  

Whether you come to Bake Sum with a deep nostalgia for its flavors, are curious to try a mooncake for the first time or want to learn how to laminate a croissant at home, this is the book for you.