cover image Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-Standard Recipes from America’s Favorite Rural Bakery

Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-Standard Recipes from America’s Favorite Rural Bakery

Brian Noyes, with Nevin Martell. Clarkson Potter, $25 (224p) ISBN 978-0-8041-8961-3

Noyes, owner of rural Virginia’s celebrated Red Truck Bakery, presents house specialties in this collection of popular Southern-style treats. In 85 recipes straight from what Travel + Leisure called one of “America’s Best Small-Town Bakeries,” Noyes draws inspiration from local ingredients, weaving them into breakfasts, sweet/savory pies, cookies, cakes, breads, and condiments. He shares secrets of biscuit-making (“the foundation of Southern baking”) and includes recipes for his blackberry and blueberry pie in a cornmeal crust, and layered sweet potato pecan pie, which President Obama once praised on his Facebook page. A twist on spoonbread features figs and mascarpone; boozy confections include a bourbon sarsaparilla cake, as well as a double chocolate moonshine cake made with small-batch whiskey. Bakers will appreciate lists for pantry, tools, and local producers. Throughout this inspirational book, Noyes recalls his journey from a small town baker (he won four prizes in the Arlington County Fair for his peach and ginger jam) to national attention via coverage in Esquire, Southern Living, and Oprah. Noyes’s enthusiasm for baking is infectious, and this volume will prove to be one bakers turn to time and again. (Oct.)