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

A stunningly photographed ode to pan-Asian flavors, this mouthwatering collection of over 75 sweet recipes and drinks from Oakland’s Bake Sum Bakery demystifies the techniques and flavors behind all your favorite desserts.

Organized by level of difficulty, the book guides readers through classic Asian puddings & jellies like Almond Jello, Mango Pudding, and Taho (sweet silken tofu), before moving on to the bakery’s famous sesame-studded and matcha scented cookies, beautiful layer cakes, tarts and pies of all kinds—from an Egg Custard Tart to Miso Apple Turnovers–and eventually lands in bread, then laminated pastry. Learn the secrets of the bakery’s NYT-lauded Croissubi, a spam musubi-croissant hybrid, how to make a perfect milk bread, and how to work with ingredients and flavors like yuzu, black aesame, ube, pandan, and hojicha.

Peppered amongst the desserts, snacks, and drinks are essays on the migration of culture and taste through food. Learn how the concha traveled from North America in the Gold Rush era to Hong Kong and became what’s now known as a Chinese pineapple bun, plus recipes to make hybrid versions full of ube pastry cream and red beans that burst off the page.

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.