The Red Truck Bakery Farmhouse Cookbook: Sweet and Savory Comfort Food from America’s Favorite Rural Bakery

Noyes (The Red Truck Bakery Cookbook), owner of the Virginia bakery that gives his book its name, returns with a delectable odyssey through the flavors of the South. When the author, a California native who spent childhood summers with his North Carolinian grandmother, left publishing to pursue his passion for baking, he took to heart her credo that “cooking was about creating comfort, not just feeding people” and showcases that sentiment with recipes inspired by his love of the region’s bounty and rich culinary history. Alongside lush photographs of Virginia’s verdant countryside are dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner: among the standouts are an amped-up version of a Southern standard—“Gussied-Up” hush puppies with country ham and pepper jelly—and an excellent marrying of two Southern favorites in fried green tomato sandwiches with pimento cheese. Vegetarians will devour the “Beetloaf” sandwiches on whole wheat focaccia, a “meatless but meaty” spin on the classic, and a customer favorite. Dessert fiends, meanwhile, won’t be left wanting by the hearty sampling of sweets, including an innovative vegan and gluten-free coffee cake that Noyes developed with Virginia’s first lady through email exchanges during the pandemic. A lively tools and tips section, and vivid instructional photos, round out Noyes’s dazzling volume. This is a must-have for lovers of Southern cooking. (Aug.)