Sweets: A Collection of Soul Food Desserts and Memories (Hardcover)

by Patty Pinner (Author) "When I was a little girl, my cousins and I loved spending Saturday nights in the old neighborbood with our grandparents..." (more)
Key Phrases: church divas, pie crust preheat, prepared casserole dish, Big Mama, Aint Helen, Aint Betty (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this sweetly sentimental cookbook, Pinner shares "plain old down-home confections" and her childhood memories of the lively women who created them: Mama, "My My" (her grandmother), "Aints" Lula and Pinky, "Cud'n" Flossie and more. In addition to the standard pound cakes, fruit cobblers and cookies of most home-baking books, she relates some truly original recipes, like Cud'n Bertise's Mashed Potato Fudge and Cud'n Merle's Mississippi Bean Fudge, which "doesn't taste one bit like beans," she assures. The exhaustive section on pies includes Egg Pie, Old-Fashioned Sugar Pie, Cantaloupe Pie, Butter Bean Pie, White Potato Pie and others, proving that one can make a pie out of just about anything-or even a Little of Nothing (the name for a pie that calls for only milk, sugar, flour, vanilla, butter and cinnamon, whose recipe came from Miss Nellie, the only white woman among Pinner's pantheon of cooks). The recipes and story snippets are punctuated with snapshots of family gatherings in small-town Michigan and Pinner's concoctions, making this a nice, nostalgic collection of desserts.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"An appealing collection of rich Southern desserts that are the pretext for a loving memoir of a large African-American family that moved from Mississippi to Michigan." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 166 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press; illustrated edition edition (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580085210
• ISBN-13: 978-1580085212
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #132,253 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How About 6 Stars?!, March 4, 2006

By	Anna V. Carroll - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This isn't just a cookbook, it's a national treasure! Over the last few years I have purchased numerous cookbooks that center around Southern cooking or Soul Food. This one tops them all. From cover to cover it is a joy to read. The photographs are awesome. This book took a great deal of time to write. Perhaps 100 years. The recipes date back that long. It is a story of families, American families, that we all need to read, enjoy and praise. The recipes are wonderful, homey, comforting, easy to make. I LOVE this book! If you buy only one cookbook this year, Patty Pinner's book is THE one! Thank you Ms. Pinner for sharing your incredible family with the world. I am overwhelmed.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the Best, July 2, 2007

By	Tracy D. Slinker "Tracy Slinker" (Redondo Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sweets: Soul Food Desserts and Memories (Paperback)

I got this book & read it cover to cover. I have over 250 cookbooks, and I am a snob when it comes to good cookbooks. Out of all my cookbook, I'd say that this is in the the top 5. It takes me back home to KY, and my grandmother kitchen. And reminds me of all the wonderful food that we ate at home & at the church revivals. All the women would try to out cook each other. The recipies in this book, are almost word for word & step for step what I remember watching my grandmother & the other ladies I grew up watching cook. Patty, you call this Soul food cooking. But to me & everyone raised in the south. It's just really good/great home cooking. I'd love it if you came out with a cookbook on veggies & meats etc. Bless your heart for writing this book. I thought I lost the chance to make several of the dishes listed in your cookbook. I lost my grandmother, and her recipies with her. I'd only remember some of them. So now, I have them back, and I've already started using your cookbook. Amazon will only let me give you 5 stars. But if I could I'd give you 100. Yes people the book is that good. I cook on the side for a living, so I know what I'm talking about!!!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting to know food all over again!!!, February 23, 2007

By	Cardona "Cosmopolitana" (Santa Cruz,CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweets: Soul Food Desserts and Memories (Paperback)

This magnificent book is a peek into comfort food that is also a family treasure.I have tried the buttermilk pie and oatmeal cookies with excellent results and look forward to trying them all. The recipes are not usually found where I live so my friends are blown away by some of the flavors, eg the buttermilk pie!