It all began with a big move, a general idea, and the open arms of home. To the countless good folks of the great Midwest, from my closest family members to generous strangers, who inspired and informed this book along the way, thank you for your kindness and never-ending lists of recommendations. I am honored to be one of you.
To my agent, Judy Linden, thank you for always being equal parts advocate, discerning editor, therapist, and cheerleader. Your belief in me is a treasure.
With this book, I am thrilled to join the roster at Running Press. Big thanks to the warm, smart, creative team who brought it to life. My editor, Kristen Green Wiewora, is a gem of a woman and a brilliant culinary editor—thank you for making this book shine. Susan Van Horn lent her mad design skills and I am so grateful to have her artistic touch on these pages. Thank you to Amber Morris for your razor-sharp production management, and Iris Bass for your eagle-eyed copyediting. To the marketing and publicity team of Seta Zink, Cassie Drumm, and Jessica Schmidt, thank you for spreading the Midwest love far and wide.
To my brave brigade of testers, thank you for your time, insight, and making these recipes as good as they can be, especially Megan Swearingen, Kate Leahy, Alana Chernila, Sally Theran, Erin Wilk, and Annelies Zijderveld.
I couldn’t be more in love with the photos in this book, and I have a marvelous team of people to thank for them. Paul Strabbing, your talent, humor, and willingness to try just about anything I threw at you—be it a photo concept or a taste of something—is a rare gift. The perfect punctuation on every image came courtesy of Johanna Lowe, who generously provided artistic guidance, excellent libations, and the most beautiful, inspiring shooting locations. To Jane Katte, I would have fallen into a heap without your mad pastry skills, strategic thinking, and enthusiasm—thank you for being a gold-star food styling teammate, and I’m looking forward to seeing your star rise.
Sara Schilling deserves all the cake for her willingness to do whatever it took to keep me sane, including pep talks, testing recipes, style advice, and extra photo shoot help (even lending us your kids!). Everyone should be so lucky to have a friend like you.
I was fortunate enough to encounter some wonderful people who are as passionate about baking and midwestern foodways as I am, and shared their insight without hesitation to help me fine-tune this book and support the journey of making it. Thank you to Ellen F. Steinberg, Gina Guth, Paula Haney, Mindy Segal, James Pelinski, Jessie Sheehan, Jocelyn Delk Adams, Alejandra Ramos, Ann Gray, Brian Hart Hoffman, John Becker, Shauna Niequist and family, Cindy Bendsten, Hannah Agran, Edd Kimber, Amy Thielen, Tracy Weiss, Sara Nelson-Carlson, Luisa Weiss, Trine Hahnemann, Beatrice Ojakangas, Nancy Wall Hopkins, Jan Miller, Irvin Lin, Erin McDowell, Stella Parks, Jennifer Russell, and Zoe Francois.
Huge thanks to Olga Massov for lending your keen editorial eyes to the manuscript right at the finish line—you made this book better, my friend.
To everyone who followed along with #theheartlandbaker and #midwestmade-baking on Instagram for more than three years during the development of this book, I am so grateful for your enthusiasm, good cheer, and patience. I hope this book feels like a triumphant end to all that teasing and waiting.
And lastly and mostly, to Scott, Caroline, and Andrew—thank you for your love, support, understanding, both savage and loving criticism, and endless sweet teeth. I love you so much.