Have you ever heard of cookie bread? Two of my favorite carbs, one delicious item? You know I had to see what Ppang Bakery was baking up.
Another trip to the Schenectady Greenmarket, another great local business I couldn’t wait to try! Sookyung Lee of Niskayuna is the owner and founder of Ppang Bakery. During quarantine, she was trying to find the right recipe to match the milk bread she remembered from South Korea, according to the Daily Gazette. “She came to the United States with her family in her late teens and moved throughout the country before settling in the Capital Region. For the past 20-plus years, she’s been a stay-at-home mom, raising three children.”
Lee makes the popular milk bread as well as other Asian-inspired goodies and sells them as a preorder pop-up at the Schenectady Trading Co. as well as Saratoga Tea and Honey. Now, she’s offering them at the Schenectady Greenmarket.
In regards to her cookie bread, I had to do a bit more research to figure out exactly what it was. She posted on Facebook, “Cookie bread is made of a sweet bread topped with a thin layer of cookie dough. It is called concha in South America for its seashell shape and in Japan, it is called melon pan because its crackling cookie shell resembles a musk melon. This pastry is widely popular all over Asia.” I was excited to try it myself. Imagine a delicious chocolate chip cookie on top of a sweet bread. It sounds strange at first but it was so right.
I also ordered Mochi Crunch Chocolate Chip Cookies: “Mochi crunch is a Japanese rice cracker snack which adds a hint of umami flavor to the cookies. These are a fun twist on your classic chocolate chip cookies- they’re sweet with the perfect amount of saltiness and crunch!” I loved the added crunch to the already delicious chocolate chip cookie. If you want to get any of this at an upcoming Schenectady Greenmarket, make sure you get there early, she sells out quickly. Otherwise, you can preorder a pick-up for the Schenectady Trading Co.
