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| Sweet Sicily: The Story of an Island and Her Pastries | 
 enlarge | Author: Victoria Granof
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $11.51
You Save: $23.49 (67%)
New (25) Used (11) from $7.03
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 204701
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 8.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060393238
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.865
EAN: 9780060393236
ASIN: 0060393238
Publication Date: September 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New, unread, publisher over-stock copies. Ships out by NEXT Business Day. We have shipped TWO MILLION+ Amazon orders to-date. 100% Satisfaction Guarantee!
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 8 | | NEXT » |
 Great stories and nice pictures December 24, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Here I am. It's Dec 23. I'm trying to make some pastries for Christmas eve dinner. I just found out the hard way that the recipe for "Pasta Frolla", is garbage. 'Garbage' is not the word I would normally choose given my level of anger and frustration, but I'd like the review to stand so others know not to follow in my footsteps. If Hurricaneman can make it following her recipe, I bow to his superior skillz.
Her recipe calls for 5 cups flour to 1 cup butter. All the recipes I find in a brief online search have a ratio much closer to 3:1. I didn't even finish adding all the flour before my "soft dough" was a bowl of fine powder.
Being full blooded Sicilian myself, I have a feeling that these bakers who she "sweet talked" gave her bogus recipes just to get this woman out of her hair. I know that's what I'd do and I know plenty of Sicilians who would resort to similar tactics to protect their trade secrets. :-)
 Excellent Book and A Must-Have March 14, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I can tell you from experience that this cookbook is much more than just a cookbook. It's a manual for creating authentic Sicilian pastries and desserts. I learned many guarded secrets working for an Italian Bakery in my youth, and can say that this book should have never been published. Now all the secrets are out.
Some reviewers have complained of typos in the book. If there are any typos, I believe contacting the publisher and author could easily clear the air and correct any mistakes. The author went through a lot of trouble flattering her interviewers and humbling herself before others to obtain these recipes, I'm sure she would want purchasers of her book to be successful creating these masterpieces. She even went so far as to list suppliers for hard to find items. Personally, I've noticed NO TYPOS!
Buy this book, you'll never put it down.
 Not so Sweet December 10, 2003
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
The history in this book is wonderful. However, the recipes are very inconsistent. Missing ingredients, etc. make it impossible to use this cookbook. I tried twice to make the Little Tea Cookies (pg.70) with no success. The dough would never come together (obviously some ingredient is missing).
Beautiful book February 26, 2003
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
This is a fantastic book! The recipes are great and the photography is really beautiful. The history of the island is so fascinating and is covered well in this book. It is a nice set up to the recipes... its wonderful to get some background on why Sicilian pastries are the way they are. I also enjoyed learning which pastries are associated with religious observences. This book also brought back great memories. The Ricotta Turnovers in the book are very similar to the "Cassateddi" that my Sicilian grandmother loves. The author does an excellent job of providing mail order resources for some hard to get ingredients and provides infomation on how to make a reasonable approximation of other components yourself. (like Fresh Ricotta) I would also like to clear up a misconception. Two previous reviewers indicated that there was a typo on the Chewy Pistachio cookie recipe just because flour was not listed. It is NOT an ingredient in the cookie. If you read further and pay attention to the instructions, flour is not called for. Not every cookie has flour and not every cookie is made like Americans make things. As for the person who said that the picture showed flour... rest assured, the cookie is dusted with powdered sugar which is in the recipe (and much tastier than dusting it with flour). No typo there, just a different (and delicious)type of cookie.
A beautiful book January 11, 2003
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful book to enjoy and to give as a gift. This pictures are lovely. The history included makes it all that much more interesting.
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