Perfect Pies: The Best Sweet and Savory Recipes from America's Pie-Baking Champion: A Cookbook

Glorious recipes , need I say more? If you love your pies this is one book you shouldn't be without. This will be on my bookshelves for MANY years to come...... You can't resist looking at it, baking with it and eating and planing the next one with it ! Don't miss this one. Lovely recipes

Michele Stuart is a multi-award winning pie maker. This book presents an assortment of her pies. They all seem wonderful and the recipes good. The ones I have made have turned out delightful --raspberry crumb pie, maple walnut pie, which I have also substituted other random varieties of nuts in and it has been fine, chocolate-peanut butter dream pie and the ham and pie quiche where I shaved Spam as a substitute for ham and everyone still loved it.As I look through the ingredients of many of the recipes, they are not that different from the pie recipes I normally use. She does have 2 pies that are sugarless using Splenda, which taste very good and are a huge boon for diabetics and those trying to cut down on calories.Only a few recipes have pictures, the ones that are done are wonderful. A few sentences describing each pie and what awards it won, if any and an introduction is included for each section. Types of pies and recipes included are: crusts and toppings, farm stand pies, nut pies, cream pies, party pies, savory pies and toppings like caramel sauce, hot fudge sauce, chocolate whipped cream and a yummy bourbon sauce.An introduction to Michele Stuart and her successful pies is included. Kitchen tools and basic ingredients are explained. Each pie is divided into degrees of difficulty: easy =1hour or less prep time, moderate=1-2 hours, difficult=2 hours or more. Tips are added throughout: baking with tapioca, light corn syrup vs. dark corn syrup. Very good pictures and instruction are shown for making a lattice crust and putting the shell into the pie dish.I was disappointed that she did not have a modern version of chess pie or some of the other old-fashioned type pies. This is still a good book for those who wish to make pies and have some nice recipes.