Sweets: A Collection of Soul Food Desserts and Memories
Sweets: A Collection of Soul Food Desserts and Memories book cover

Sweets: A Collection of Soul Food Desserts and Memories

Hardcover – March 1, 2004

Price
$16.80
Format
Hardcover
Pages
166
Publisher
Ten Speed Press
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1580085212
Dimensions
7.5 x 1 x 10.25 inches
Weight
1.85 pounds

Description

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. PATTY PINNER was raised in a large extended family in Saginaw, Michigan. In between earning her master’s degree in education and working for the USPS as a training and development specialist, Patty makes time to work at her family’s restaurant, Ern’s Seafood Restaurant. Patty lives in eastern Michigan. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Features & Highlights

  • Growing up in a large African-American family in a small town in Michigan, Patty Pinner spent her childhood helping the women of the house-the Queens of Soul Food-whip up the sweet treats that crowned family dinners, neighborhood gatherings, and church socials. In SWEETS, Patty shares her family's stories, maxims, and magical desserts, many named after family members like Cud'n Daisy, Aint Sug, and My My, her beloved grandmother. Part recipe book, part family history, this sweet-as-can-be cookbook is a heartfelt tribute to women who ruled the home and the kitchen with their wisdom, hearts, and cooking.
  • From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(163)
★★★★
25%
(68)
★★★
15%
(41)
★★
7%
(19)
-7%
(-20)

Most Helpful Reviews

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A Family Tradition

Memories! The cover of the paperback edition has a strawberry, pink, cake on the cover. The minute I saw the cover I was taken in and once I opened the book to a random page and got a glance of the recipes inside, I was immediately transported back to my childhood and my family. Standing there in the bookstore, I immediately wanted to run home and begin baking these delectable desserts. I bought the book and I love the recipes and its contents. Ms. Patty Piner needs to take things a step further and write a Novel. I adored reading the stories about her family. The feeling I get reading it is just as fantastic as the recipes!
By far, the best and most complete soul food dessert book I've ever seen.
All of her "Ainties, Uncles and Cudn's" brought those stories to life.
I will be getting the hardcover version of this book as well as purchasing it for gift giving! Update: Made the "MY-MY'S" cake and it was delicious! Moist, tasty, makes a great birthday cake. The frosting given with the cake was also unique and tasty, albeit, labor intensive as some of the recipes are, but I think that's what gives the book its charm. (After all, they lacked modern appliances). I also tried the recipe with my own version of vanilla frosting, umm good! I've made this cake 3x in less than a month.
18 people found this helpful
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The Most Unique Cookbook I've Ever Owned

I own a lot a cookbooks and have even written one of my own, but I have never seen anything quite like Sweets. The family stories were so captivating I could not quite reading them. What a truely unique and beautiful family Ms. Pinner is blessed with. In addition to the book being absolutely charming, the recipes are good too! I'm going to give a copy to my best friend for her birthday nex month.
10 people found this helpful
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Remembing the Good Old Days

Good old family recipes that we all can relate to with the family history and old wisetales. Looking forward to more from Patty Pinner. Thanks Allison B.
8 people found this helpful
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Sweets Is Sweet Indeed!

This book is a family album, it is Afro-Americana story-telling at it's finest and it is also a damn fine collection of dessert recipes.

Add to that accomplishment the beautiful style in which it is all done and you have a must have book for your cooking shelf and a gift all women of color will smile about full of sweet, sweet memories.

dw
8 people found this helpful
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This is so much more than a collection of wonderful desserts. Mrs

This is so much more than a collection of wonderful desserts. Mrs. Pinner includes lots of family photos and stories; auntie's favorite treats for church sales, grandma's grand finale when company comes for dinner, sweets for when the budget is hurting and the family needs cheering. I'm white but these stories remind me so much of my own growing up days. Oh, and the desserts are not the kind to send you running to the grocery for ingredients you never heard of.
7 people found this helpful
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Words Can't Describe It

This book is so awsome!!! I bought it at a school book fair and I fell in love with it the minute that opened it. My kids and I try a new recipe at least once every other week. I can't get enough of it. I strongly encourage anyone (especially African-American families) to have one of these cookbooks in their household. I almost wish that I could have grown up in the Pinner family so that I could have enjoyed all of that good cooking! This book is truly a keeper!!!!!
7 people found this helpful
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"Sweets": A Collection of Soul-Food Deserts...

Thoroughly enjoyable reading and baking! Patty spins a yarn as well as she stirs-up a cake batter. The recipes are delicious and virtually fool-proof. The stories are heart-warming, and nostalgic. This cook-book / family album is well written, and lavishly illustrated. The stories are reminiscent of the ones I used to hear sitting around my grandma's kitchen table. If the recipes don't hook you, the stories will! I found myself laughing out loud at the antics of Patty's "aunts" as they vied to out-do each other at the family gatherings. Patty has put together a golden treasury of her families' prized desert recipes, and told some pretty good stories about them along the way. "Sweets" is a truly unique protrait of a small-town family who made their deserts the "crowning point" of the family dinner.
P.S. This is the one you'll want to set out when company's coming!
7 people found this helpful
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An excellent cookbook and more!

The recipes I've tried so far are delicious. The stories are warm and funny. I especially like reading about some of the southern traditions and superstitions.
5 people found this helpful
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Sweets: A Collection Of Soul Food desserts And Memories

Sweets is an outstanding cookbook. I love the stories as much as I do the recipes. This book is much more than just a recipe book.
I look forward to hearing more from this author.
3 people found this helpful
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Sweets, Sweets, and more Sweets

Thanks to author, Patty Piner, who in 1954 assembled recipes and stories from family and friends that have withstood the test of time and enjoyment!
2 people found this helpful