Six years ago, Maria Bruscino Sanchez opened a bakery in her hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut, to satisfy the ever-increasing orders for her cookies and cakes, baked from handed-down recipes. Today, Sweet-Maria's is a booming business that has garnered terrific reviews, numerous baking awards, and a passionately devoted clientele. This book collects 65 of Maria's most asked-for recipes. Line illustrations.

Sweet Maria's Italian Cookie Tray presents sixty-five recipes for the delicious, festive cookies that brighten every Italian home, at the holidays and all year-round. Maria Bruscino Sanchez opened Sweet Maria's bakery when she was just twenty-six years old, specializing in authentic Italian cookies and cakes made from handed-down family recipes. The result has been a booming business, and this very special cookbook. The irresistible reciples range from drop, molded and filled cookies; biscotti; taralle and biscuits; pizelles, and more. Easy to prepare and perfect for any occasion (or no occasion at all) they include: Chocolate Almond Macaroons, Pignoli Nut Cookies, Amaretto Biscotti Sesame Cookies, Almond Crescents, Lemon Drop Cookies, Chocolate Puffs, Florentines, Lady Fingers, Sweet Ravioli Cookies, Christmas Honey Clusters, Angel Wings, Cinnamon Nut Bars, and more. Whether you grew up in an Italian home or just wish you did, this wonderful collection is sure to become a cookie lover's favorite--one you will return to again and again.

For a sweet snack or a delectable dessert, Maria Bruscino Sanchez, baker and author of three previous cookbooks, offers this cookie collection of family recipes, popular bakery treats, classics, and variations on familiar favorites. Cookies and cookie-lovers come in all shapes, sizes, and tastes, and this book has something for everyone, including Cappuccino Drops, Cheesecake Squares, Amaretto Biscotti, Chocolate Nutella Sandwiches, Italian Love Knots, classic Chocolate Chip, and a selection of low-fat, low-sugar, and gluten-free cookie recipes. Complete with information on ingredients, kitchen equipment, as well as baking tips and techniques, this collection of easy to make recipes is sure to produce tasty results. Whether you like your cookies dropped, rolled, filled, piped, or fried, Sweet Maria's Cookie Jar has the recipe you're looking for, and more than a few you'll be thrilled to discover.

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. "In her latest endeavor, Sanchez serves up enticing recipes for Italian and Italian-American specialties, including the ubiquitous cookies as well as cakes and tarts."--Publishers Weekly

The author of Sweet Maria's Italian Cookie Tray shares her simple secrets for making bakery cakes at home. Sweet Maria's is an amazingly popular bakery that brings together family recipes, and contemporary favorites. Now, those of us who aren't lucky enough to drop by Sweet Maria's can make wholesome, delicious bakery-style cakes at home to celebrate a birthday, get-together, fresh pot of afternoon tea, or any other cakeworthy occasion. Basic enough for beginners but creative enough to satisfy experts as well, Sweet Maria's Cake Kitchen collects 65 of the bakery's most popular cakes, including: Almond Pound Cake, Orange Plum Loaf Cake, Amaretto Apple Cake, Tiramisu Cake, White Chocolate Ganache Wedding Cake (it's easier than it sounds!), Mini Chocolate Mocha Loaves, Cappuccino Chiffon Cake, and many more, plus bakery secrets for prepping the ingredients and decorating with simple panache.

A lovely and tantalizing presentation of recipes for the versatile and glorious Italian cookie. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

For a sweet snack or a delectable dessert, Maria Bruscino Sanchez, baker and author of three previous cookbooks, offers this cookie collection of family recipes, popular bakery treats, classics, and variations on familiar favorites. Cookies and cookie-lovers come in all shapes, sizes, and tastes, and this book has something for everyone, including Cappuccino Drops, Cheesecake Squares, Amaretto Biscotti, Chocolate Nutella Sandwiches, Italian Love Knots, classic Chocolate Chip, and a selection of low-fat, low-sugar, and gluten-free cookie recipes. Complete with information on ingredients, kitchen equipment, as well as baking tips and techniques, this collection of easy to make recipes is sure to produce tasty results. Whether you like your cookies dropped, rolled, filled, piped, or fried, Sweet Maria's Cookie Jar has the recipe you're looking for, and more than a few you'll be thrilled to discover.

There's nothing subtle about Sicily. From the towering cake known as the Triumph of Gluttony to the pert cherry-topped pastries called Virgin's Breasts to puckery, palate-tingling ices made from the island's luscious lemons and tangerines, Sicily is known for its audacious -- and delicious -- desserts. Pastry chef and food stylist Victoria Granof has traveled throughout Sicily learning sweet secrets and local lore from the island's pastry chefs and home bakers, and the result is Sweet Sicily, a lushly photographed exploration of authentic Sicilian pastry-making. For more than two thousand years, Sicily has been coveted for its fertile land and unique location in the Mediterranean. The Greeks, Romans, Normans, Austrians, French, Bourbons, and Saracens have all landed on its shores, and in turn left their imprints on its food. Granof's magical tour takes us to Modica, where Franco and Pierpaolo Ruta of the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto create chocolate pastries using a five-hundred-year-old recipe that originated with the island's Bourbon conquerors, and to the Baroque town of Noto, where master pastry chef Corrado uses jasmine blossoms planted by Saracens more than a thousand years ago to flavor his jasmine gelato. Granof goes on a quest to find the most authentic ingredients and recipes, including delectable homemade ricotta made from the milk of sheep that graze on fragrant herbs and pistachios that grow in the shadow of Mount Etna, the island's still active volcano. In Sicily, every holiday and festival has its proper sweet accompaniment: marzipan lambs at Easter, honeyed pastry fritters at Christmas, crunchy, clove-scented cookies called "bones of the dead" for All Soul's Day. Granof explores these customs and festivals, gathering heirloom recipes, along with local anecdotes and advice. In addition to sweets that are already familiar to Americans, such as cannoli, cassata, and lemon ice, she introduces us to dozens of delectable pastries, confections, and cookies that are destined to become favorites as well. With a guide to festivals and pastry shops throughout the island, and nearly one hundred recipes formulated for use in American kitchens, Sweet Sicily is an unforgettable exploration of the desserts of the world's most beguiling island.

Collects recipes for Italian desserts and pastry, including chocolate and cherry cake, Italian peach cookies, and custard tarts.