Sweet Maria's Italian Desserts: Classic and Casual Recipes for Cookies, Cakes, Pastry, and Other Favorites

From Publishers Weekly
In her latest endeavor, Sanchez (Sweet Maria's Cake Kitchen and Sweet Maria's Italian Cookie Tray) serves up enticing recipes for Italian and Italian-American specialties, including the ubiquitous cookies as well as cakes and tarts. Sanchez's spirit is casual, and her recipes rely on readily available ingredients as is typical of Italian dessert making, which is often improvisational in spirit. Ricotta and citrus, nuts and fresh fruits are showcased in their full, tasty glory. There are Fig and Walnut Biscotti, perfect for dunking in wine or espresso; Chocolate Calzone, little pockets of chocolate dough enclosing a chocolate and nut filling; and, of course, Italian Ladyfingers, essential for Tiramisu. There are nut cakes and rich chocolate cakes with chestnut cream or Polenta Cake topped with sour cherry filling. An Italian cheesecake features ricotta and is scented with amaretto. Bountiful fruit tarts include fig, pear and pine nut. There are traditional favorites, such as cannoli as well as sweet breads, for Christmas and Easter. The treats beguile but what may be even more appealing is the atmosphere they createAcoffee on the porch and Sunday dinners with the whole family. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Sanchez is the owner of a bakery in Waterbury, CT, and the author of two earlier baking books. Here she focuses on the desserts she grew up with, treats baked by her mother, grandmother, and extended family (several of her aunts work at the bakery today): Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti, Tuscan Harvest Cake, Panettone. Nick Malgieri's Great Italian Desserts (LJ 12/90) includes recipes for many of these, as does Michele Scicolone's La Dolce Vita (1993), but Sanchez's earlier books have proved reasonably popular. For area and other larger collections. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
All but the most disciplined vegetarians relish sweets of any sort, especially desserts. Maria Bruscino Sanchez follows her two earlier treatises on Italian cakes and cookies with Sweet Maria's Italian Desserts . Although most dinners in Italy typically close with fresh fruit, the Italian kitchen has produced beloved dessert classics on the order of cannoli, cheesecake, and gelato. Visitors to Sicily remember fondly the pound cake and ricotta layers of cassata spiked with local liqueur and robed in dark chocolate. More spectacular still are those Italian cakes based on devastatingly rich chestnuts blended with cream and served with flourless cake turned ebony with massive amounts of bittersweet chocolate. The Italians have also perfected a dessert called semi-freddo, a "half-frozen" version of ice cream much less laborious to prepare at home. Sanchez's apricot-almond version may convert even the most obstinate gelato mavens. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Sweet Maria's Italian Desserts is baker Maria Bruscino Sanchez's loving tribute to the desserts her family has enjoyed for generations - desserts you'll find in Italy and in Italian-American homes on special occasions and, in many cases, any day of the year. These are festive favorites like Traditional Cannoli, Espresso Cheesecake, Tiramisu, Amaretto Chiffon Cake, Spiced Gelato, and many others. The result of years of baking in Italy, in her popular bakery, and in the kitchens of her grandmother, mother, and aunts (many of whom do the baking at Sweet Maria's), the book includes cookies, cakes, pies, tarts, pastry, sweet breads, frozen desserts, fruit dishes, and other specialties-all made with warmth, tradition, and a love of great desserts.

Presented with simple instructions, tips from the bakery, and a dollop of background information on the customs and history of the desserts, these creative, top-notch recipes will bring delicious favorites to your kitchen.



About the Author
Maria Bruscino Sanchez is the owner and baker at Sweet Maria's bakery in Waterbury, Connecticut. She is the author of Sweet Maria's Italian Cookie Tray and Sweet Maria's Cake Kitchen, the latter of which was included in The Best American Recipes 1999. She is at work on her next book.



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Sanchez is the owner of a bakery in Waterbury, CT, and the author of two earlier baking books. Here she focuses on the desserts she grew up with, treats baked by her mother, grandmother, and extended family (several of her aunts work at the bakery today): Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti, Tuscan Harvest Cake, Panettone. Nick Malgieri's Great Italian Desserts (LJ 12/90) includes recipes for many of these, as does Michele Scicolone's La Dolce Vita (1993), but Sanchez's earlier books have proved reasonably popular. For area and other larger collections. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\


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