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Crisscrossing her home state of North Carolina over the course of six tasty years, Foy Allen Edelman visited families in their own kitchens and communities and discovered a treasure trove of delicacies. Sweet Carolina offers the recipes for more than 220 of these confections, along with their cooks' equally flavorful reminiscences, tips, and instructions for successfully creating desserts and candies that are bound to become favorites all over again in the Old North State and beyond.

From easy apple dumplings, black walnut pound cake, Cherokee persimmon cake, and Miss Peach's sweet potato pie to lemon squares, coconut melt-away cookies, buttermilk pie, vanilla ice cream (or try the peach), old-fashioned butter mints, and five-minute fudge, this cookbook features many desserts as familiar as old friends--and some new and surprising delights, like the lazy day sonker (a deep dish pastry served with flavors such as peach, cherry, or sweet potato). As many of the contributing cooks point out, the use of seasonal and local ingredients is prized in these wide-ranging and mouth-watering recipes.

An invitation for home cooks of all levels of experience to get into the kitchen, this cookbook will satisfy more than the sweet tooth. From the mountains to the Piedmont to the coast, Sweet Carolina preserves a significant record of North Carolina and southern culinary traditions.