The snacking cake—a single-layered, lightly topped charmer—has been getting a lot of attention lately, and with good reason. Unassuming and inviting, the cake sits on the counter ready to go when a kid comes home from school, a neighbor stops by, or someone walks through the kitchen looking for a …
Bethany McCall could talk about bread all day long. “Bread is my forte, where my true passion lies,” she says. This is good news for those who step through the doors of Bent Willow Baking Co., McCall’s bakery in downtown Franklin, North Carolina, where she sells her artisan sourdough, croissants, …
“I often substitute sorghum syrup for other sweeteners in our recipes, but this is not one of those times; only dark molasses will do here,” says Brian Noyes, founder of Red Truck Bakery in Marshall, Virginia, and author of the new Red Truck Bakery Cookbook. “The tar-thick syrup has a pleasant bite …
“My early memories are baking with a babysitter with boxed cake mixes and cans of frosting,” Stella Parks says of her pre–culinary school training. Later, using her grandmother’s old cookbooks and cooking magazines, the Kentucky native began experimenting with recipes and decorating techniques. …
Every other Saturday morning, bread lovers wind through the cattle-dotted Shenandoah Valley to Season’s Yield Farm for “Bread Day” at the farm, bakery, and home of Daniel and Fawn Shear in Raphine, Virginia. Since the couple launched the bread-centric community gathering event last January, it has …
“These yogurt-based biscuits border on cake because they’ve got a little more sugar than most and, more notably, because they’ve got berries stirred into the dough. When baked, the berries’ sweetness and flavor intensify. I like to serve these at breakfast with butter and jam, but they can also …
Appalachian Apple Stack Cake is communal cooking at its finest. Originally, each layer was baked at home by individual cooks, likely in cast-iron skillets, then brought together and assembled for church suppers and gatherings. Instead of the spongy cakes we’re used to today, these layers are more …
There’s a certain popular brown sugar breakfast pastry that was my constant companion through years of riding horses and hot days at competitions. I kept packets in the trunk of my car for plummeting blood sugar moments, but also because they were a food filled with memories, a childhood favorite …
An abundance of freshly picked apples at farmers’ markets across the South often serves as the harbinger of autumn, and if you’re searching for creative ways to utilize this fall bounty in your baking, try this fritter recipe from Maegan Brown’s new cookbook, Brilliant Bites. “These bites are crispy …
“A pandowdy’s a pie that’s got only a top crust, often one made of odd-shaped pieces of dough,” writes the author Dorie Greenspan in her new cookbook, Baking with Dorie. “The dessert was probably created to put pastry scraps to good use. My favorite way to make it is to cut triangles of pie dough …
Eddie Hernandez is the master of meshing the food of his childhood in Monterrey, Mexico, with the traditions of the South, and sweet potato is an ingredient that bridges the cultures especially well. “In Mexico, it’s very common to make roasted or baked sweet potatoes, and it’s an everyday thing to …
“Thick brown molasses is central to Southern soul food, where it was once a prized sweetener saved for special occasions,” writes Tanya Holland in her new cookbook, Tanya Holland’s California Soul: Recipes from a Culinary Journey West, which explores her family’s migration from the South and …
Why does the chef Cynthia Wong loathe pumpkin pie? Is it the texture? The one-note flavor? The humdrum color? Its propensity for soggy crust, perhaps? “It’s all of the above,” says the founder of the Charleston, South Carolina–based Life Raft Treats, which is known for their playful desserts. But …
Apple pie is a staple at the Atlanta-based Southern Baked Pie Company, according to owner Amanda Wilbanks. She says they often receive questions from customers about their flaky pie crust and how to find the perfect mix of sweet and tart. Now, Wilbanks is sharing her secrets through a tutorial on …
You might know Gigi Butler for her cupcakes. In 2008, the Nashville-based baker launched Gigi’s Cupcakes, now a dessert empire that stretches across the country from Tampa, Florida, to as far afield as Fargo, North Dakota. And although she’s made her name on little cakes topped with towering, …
