Review: This One's a Keeper
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 3, 2012
There's a nice introduction telling us about the author and why she chose to write about pies.  There's a hyperlinked table of contents that works with the Kindle menu.  These are both positive marks!When reading the TOC, I see a mix of traditional recipes and some that aren't as familiar to me...pineapple cranberry pie, mayonnaise pie crust, and plum glazed cheese pie.The hints and tips section is clean and provides helpful information; some of it falls into the "common sense" category, but sometimes common sense is just plain lacking.  The information on pie crusts appears to be consistent with my other cookbooks and my own experience, and I like having a large variety of pie crust recipes right at my fingertips.I am a bit hesitant about the topping on the Apple Crisp, which calls for Crisco rather than butter.  When I make crumb-style toppings, I've never used anything other than butter.  However, I suppose I would try it once, since it's going over a pie crust; I'd be interested to see what happens, and my husband loves it when I perform "science" experiments because it means he usually gets some treats out of the deal.When reading through the recipes, I notice terms available in the glossary are linked; clicking on "flute" takes one to the definition, clicking on meringue topping takes one to that recipe, which is kind of a nice touch.The format is clean and easy on the eyes, with each recipe appearing on its own page.Recipes generally call for real ingredients - real fruit (not canned), cream and butter.  I did see one recipe calling for a pudding mix, but I usually only start objecting when entire cookbooks are written using such things to make "homemade from scratch" pies.All in all, I liked this book quite a bit and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to someone interested in making pies.  I will be keeping it and using it (soon, hopefully).