Kelly Fields, the New Orleans chef who presides over the restaurant Willa Jean, is a peach-pie purist who licks pudding off the spoon. But don’t be fooled by all the y’alls and the folksy headnotes that top the recipes in “The Good Book of Southern Baking” (Lorena Jones, $35), written with Kate Heddings. Under all those stories is the work of an adroit chef with years of tricks up her sleeve. Her pancakes get tang and loft from buttermilk, sour cream and stiff egg whites. She goes deep on the art of the hand pie, and patiently explains how to make a variety of Southern cakes.

Source: New York Times September 29, 2020 14:26 UTC