BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts

As if it's not impressive enough that Stella Parks whips up her own Twinkies and animal crackers, Snickers and sprinkles, she can also tell us who invented them, when, why and how.
Few recipe writers are as precise as Stella Parks, a former pastry chef whose instructions always fill me with a sense of clearheaded confidence.--Tejal Rao
One of the most engaging baking books to be published in years... Parks adds a remarkable new voice to the world of baking books. Combine smarts with whimsy and you get delicious results.
Parks uses [food science] to give people new tools to become better bakers, a better understanding of baking, and an emphatic reminder of why every one loved these cookies, cakes, and other sweets in the first place.
Lushly illustrated recipes. . . Parks is a serious cook, interested in the history of how those desserts became iconic, and one who applies her serious culinary education to what others might consider frivolous ends.
Wonderful fun to read. A coveted gift for anyone whose ears prick up at the jingle of an ice cream truck.
I was consumed by all the information on its pages. I read it like a book, absorbing the information, some of it new to me, and much of it debunking commonly held beliefs about cooking and baking.--David Lebovitz