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Give This Detroit Pie-Baking Cookbook as a Holiday Gift, New York Times Suggests

December 02, 2018, 2:15 PM by  Alan Stamm

Detroit entrepreneur and first-time author Lisa Ludwinski earns timely respect Sunday in The New York Times. Her two-month-old "Sister Pie" book is among 11 cookbooks recommended as holiday gift choices.


The 256-page book came out in October.

"The conversational instructions are steady guides," writes Christine Muhlke of Manhattan, a Bon Appétit magazine contributinhg editor. "Even I, a lifelong crust-bungler, ended up proudly Instagramming the hell out of my lattice."

Ludwinski, a 2014 Hatch Detroit winner, opened Sister Pie at Parker and Kercheval in West Village, in 2015 -- three years after starting from her parents’ Milford kitchen. 

The 256-page hardcover book, subtitled "The Recipes & Stories of a Biug-Hearted Bakery in Detroit," starts with 13 memoir-like pages of reflection on the owner's background -- how "I got distracted by food," how she became "exhilarated by the challenge of baking on a large scale" and how she developed the mission and culture of "a people-first business."

It's available at the bakery, at Pages Bookshop (19560 Grand River Ave.), Source Booksellers (4240 Cass Ave.) and from you-know-which online giants.  

The brief review in a two-page roundup by Muhlke, co-author of two cookbooks, says in part:

The pies are of the bakers-in-cute-bandanna moment: seasonal, experimental and over-the-top delicious, with zero nostalgia.

Why make pumpkin pie when you can serve cardamom tahini squash or buttermilk pumpkin streusel? Apple? So basic. Try apple sage gouda. Rhubarb meets rosemary, blueberries get balsamic and peach-ginger pie is topped not with crust but with cornmeal biscuits. . . .

There are also savory hand pies, alt-grainy cookies and treats (the buckwheat chocolate chip cookies are exceptional) and pretty breakfast ideas like jasmine crème fraîche scones.


Lisa Ludwinski shares "the joy, terror and confidence I've found." (Instagram photo)

Here's a bit of what Ludwinski writes in her prologue:

I wrote this manuscript over the course of one year, sending out recipes to testers each month and camping out at my computer whenever I wasn't at the bakery. . . . I struggled and stressed to find time. Even when I could pull myself away, I couldn't shift gears. My creativity and focus were at an all-time low. . . .

I began to resent the project and cursed myself for not waiting five more years, by which time things would almost certainly have settled down. (Don't quote me on that.) Finally, I decided to do the unthinkable: take one month off. I knew that if I could physically remove myself from the daily operations of the bakery, I could make my deadline. Thankfully, the 14 other women who run Sister Pie were up for the task of covering the day-to-day without me.

I'm grateful for this opportunity to capture and preserve the spirit of our young, wide-eyed pie shop, reflect on our beginnings and experience, and share the joy, terror and confidence I've found.

-- Alan Stamm


Read more:  The New York Times Book Review


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