When Nancy Baggett set out to find the best homemade desserts in America, she knew just where to look. She turned to small-town cooks who are locally famous for their specialties, innkeepers and bakers whose treats lure guests back year after year, and church and bake-sale ladies whose creations are always snapped up at events.
Many of Nancy's finds have never been published, or even written down, before. Some of the local treasures include * an irresistibly easy blueberry buckle from a Vermont bed-and-breakfast * a tender peach cobbler from a home cook in the Ozarks who learned it from her mother * a lusciously thick chocolate-banana malted from a celebrated soda fountain in St. Louis * a supremely moist chiffon cake with a zingy orange glaze from Nancy's grandmother's "receipt" box * big, soft, glazed gingerbread cookies that were a huge favorite at a former diner in Washington, D.C.
* creamy chocolate-dipped caramels, the proprietary secret of the guild members of a New Mexico Episcopal church "Although I've been baking and writing about sweets for more than three decades, time and time again I found myself thinking, 'What a great idea! I'd never have thought of that," Nancy writes in the introduction.
Nancy has tested and retested each recipe in her own kitchen, so that you're assured of a flaky, easy-to-roll pie crust, a brownie with a perfect fudgy center and a deep chocolate aroma, and a silky-smooth cheesecake every time -- even if you've never baked before. Since the most memorable desserts are often the ones you make with your children, this book features plenty of projects for the whole family: rock crystal swizzle sticks, caramel apples, graham cracker "gingerbread" houses, and gifts such as brownie bars in a jar and quick heavenly hash fudge. The All-American Dessert Book tells the intriguing story of America's fascination with sweets, complete with regional legends, behind-the-scenes recipe stories, fascinating snippets of baking history, and words of kitchen wisdom from cooks of the past.
Many of Nancy's finds have never been published, or even written down, before. Some of the local treasures include * an irresistibly easy blueberry buckle from a Vermont bed-and-breakfast * a tender peach cobbler from a home cook in the Ozarks who learned it from her mother * a lusciously thick chocolate-banana malted from a celebrated soda fountain in St. Louis * a supremely moist chiffon cake with a zingy orange glaze from Nancy's grandmother's "receipt" box * big, soft, glazed gingerbread cookies that were a huge favorite at a former diner in Washington, D.C.
* creamy chocolate-dipped caramels, the proprietary secret of the guild members of a New Mexico Episcopal church "Although I've been baking and writing about sweets for more than three decades, time and time again I found myself thinking, 'What a great idea! I'd never have thought of that," Nancy writes in the introduction.
Nancy has tested and retested each recipe in her own kitchen, so that you're assured of a flaky, easy-to-roll pie crust, a brownie with a perfect fudgy center and a deep chocolate aroma, and a silky-smooth cheesecake every time -- even if you've never baked before. Since the most memorable desserts are often the ones you make with your children, this book features plenty of projects for the whole family: rock crystal swizzle sticks, caramel apples, graham cracker "gingerbread" houses, and gifts such as brownie bars in a jar and quick heavenly hash fudge. The All-American Dessert Book tells the intriguing story of America's fascination with sweets, complete with regional legends, behind-the-scenes recipe stories, fascinating snippets of baking history, and words of kitchen wisdom from cooks of the past.
