Brian Noyes - Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-Standard Recipes from Americas Favorite Rural Bakery

In a family of seven, Im the oldest of four kids all with the same birthday (were two sets of twins born exactly three years apart), so Ive learned a thing or two about sharingheck, I never had my own birthday cake until I moved out of state in my twenties. Ill be the first to admit that I need to share the credit of writing a book about my rural Virginia Piedmont bakery with the folks who helped me down this path.

Hearty thanks start with our recipe wrangler, Nevin Martell, an always-excited and upbeat food and culture writer based in Washington, DC. He first wrote about us for the Washington Post ; that work grew into a friendship with a guy who keeps shaking my shoulders to remind me of what exactly the Red Truck Bakery has accomplishedsomething Ive been too busy to see until forced to put it all down in writing. Nevins enthusiasm took many of our good recipes to star status: who wont swoon over a Peach Milkshake Cake? Our mutual thanks go to his wife, Indira, and son, Zephyr, for letting him spend so much time in someone elses kitchen.

Nevin brought in our literary agent, Howard Yoon of the Ross Yoon Agency, and Howards calm shepherding took this project painlessly from concept to an offer from Clarkson Potter to publication. Our mutual love for good whiskey and his wifes Ice Cream Jubilee sweetened the process.

Before I was a baker, I was an art director, and I worked with some of the best editors in the country. That, thankfully, continued on this book, with editor Amanda Englander at Clarkson Potter, who understood the Red Truck Bakery the minute she bit into our bourbon cake. (A gift for Derby Week? Are you going to send us a cake for every holiday? I wouldnt be mad.) Ive always been reluctant to turn my design projects over to another art director, but Stephanie Huntworks award-winning portfolio quickly assured me that the book was in good hands and I could get back to making pimento cheese. Bringing food photographer Andrew Thomas Lee and his stylist, Angie Mosier, into the project was Stephanies best decision; that duos work is gloriously symphonic, and standing back and watching the shoot was so darned pleasing for me. Book designer Ian Dingman, who realized quickly that he and I were both type snobs, captured the feel of my bakery even better than I did. Thanks, too, to Danielle Daitch, Cathy Hennessy, Kevin Garcia, and Jana Branson on the Clarkson Potter team, who reminded me of the most enjoyable parts of my publishing days. Additional appreciation was earned by our recipe testers; I hope it was delicious work.

Lots of advice bubbled up as soon as the project was launched. Ronni Lundy, the author of the doubleJames Beardwinner Victuals , told me to write about what I dont know: Not what are grits, but why are grits. Dig deep and tell a story. Our loyal customers wanted to make sure their favorite recipes were part of the book, and an old-timer from The Plains, the next town over, offered up the legendary Mrs. Beaverss Caramel Cake hoping we could resurrect the decades-old recipe (I think we did well). Nevin and I took road trips through the Shenandoah Valley to chat with our tomato growers, peach farmers, and moonshine distillers on their turf. Theres something humbling about standing in a Mennonite familys sorghum field a million miles from the city watching the children hand-crank the juicing pressits easy to take for granted the backbreaking work behind the unique local products in our pantry.

My deepest gratitude and love, however, goes to Dwight McNeill, who introduced me to the South thirty-three years ago. He designed both of our bakery locations with only coffee and sandwiches as payment, kept me buoyed during the worst of times, and never lost faith in a guy who ditched a successful publishing career to sell his own baked goods out of an old red truck in the middle of nowhere.

Endless thanks to my earliest tutors, supporters, discoverers, writers, reviewers, artisans, and investors, including (in no real order) Mark Ramsdell, Connie OMeara, Tommy Hilfiger, Marian Burros, Scott (Scooter) and Lynne Johnson, Carey Winfrey, Sandy Gilliam, Terri Lehman, Robert and Joanie Ballard, John and Beverly Sullivan, Jean Perin, Gardiner Lapham, Ken and Mary Thompson, Chuck and Dee Akre, Jim and Mai Abdo, Jonathan OConnell, Alan Zuschlag, Nancy Raines, Mary Carroll Platt, Jon Meyer, Gurvir Dhindsa, Scott and Barbara Harris, Martha Toomey, Carter and Kathleen Nevill, Nancy Pollard, Darla Noyes, Molly Bland, Richard Moe, Faye Richardson, Eric Brace, Shawn Ireland, Daniel Johnston, Karen Wicker, Dot Long, Noel Mays, Franny Thomas, Ian Boden, Aaron Deal, Carla Hall and Matthew Lyons, Diane Flynt, John T. Edge, John Currence, Allan and Sharon Benton, Frank Stitt (who didnt mind that I stole his Highlands Grill lemon chess pie recipe), Claire Lamborne, Robert and Luciana Duvall, Jenny Marie and Rutger de Vink, Bill and Jeri Jackson, Jeremy Noel, Sheila Johnson and the Hon. William T. Newman Jr., Barry Dixon, Will Thomas, Jane Black, Jane and Michael Stern, Andrew Zimmern, Oprah Winfrey, George Stone, Lynn Nesmith, George Eatman, Allan Gurganus, Jennifer Maddox Sergent, Kathleen Penny, Haskell Harris, Erin Parkhurst, Francine Maroukian, Phyllis Richman, Tom Sietsema, Joe Yonan, Bonnie Benwick, David Hagedorn, Laura Hayes, Carol Joynt, Sherri Dalphonse, Ann Limpert, Lou and Ellen Emerson, Karen Hunsberger Adam, Kate Reynolds Ludwig, David DiBenedetto and all of the Garden & Gun staff who heartily embrace and celebrate small artisans, Vivian Howard, Justise Robbins, Adam Rapoport, Carrie Morey, Jene Libby, Matt Lee, Ronni Lundy, Elaine Chon-Baker, Claudine Ppin, Jacques Ppin, Jura Koncius, John McDonnell, Sally Quinn, Haden Polseno-Hensley and the Red Rooster Coffee team, Neal and Star Wavra, Doris Elam, Mary Putnam, Chris Ambrose and Laurie Fenton, Sandy Bieber and Linda Rosenzweig, Ben Cooper and Polly Gault, Abigail DeLashmutt, Jeff and Jamie Hedges, Mark Hyson, Scott Kasprowicz, Stephen Lofaro, Yak and Claire Lubowsky, Suzette Matthews, Mary Leigh McDaniel, Peter Schwartz and Anna Moser, Andy Martin, Rob and Stacia Stribling, Harry and Julie Bologna, Ryan Glendenning, Kristi Faull, Kevin Powers, Lauren Lee, Janis Golden, Caron Higashi, Jan Pouzenc, Judy Gutierrez, Liz Hottel, Lissa Muscatine and Brad Graham, Senator Tim Kaine, Governor and Mrs. Ralph Northam, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Cody Keenan, and Barack Obama: Yall know why.

Compass Winds Sorghum

At the top of a rise in the road wending its way through the fields blanketing Mennonite-settled Dayton, Virginia, youll find the Burkholder family farm, Compass Winds. Here Joseph, his wife, Margaret-Anne, and their three young children craft award-winning sorghum syrupand help keep alive a centuries-old Southern tradition. Traditional dying arts fascinate me, says Joseph. Im doing things now pretty much the same way theyve always been done. After shirt-pocket level stalks of tall sorghum grass are harvested from the land surrounding the farmhouse, the sweet juice is extracted using a hand-operated antique press. Its then boiled down to create a golden nectar unlike any other sweetener out there. Its smooth and sugary with a slight grassy undertone, which lends it a profound earthiness. This complex flavor adds a touch of Virginias terroir and a mellow depth to baked goods, like our Southern Shoofly Pie with Sorghum ().