''More a story of the pleasures of real dessert-making than anything yet written.''--M.F.K. Fisher For this monumental collection, Richard Sax devoted more than a decade to searching out and perfecting more than 350 of the world's most beloved desserts, ''the ones made at home by mothers and grandmothers rather than by professional pastry chefs.'' Every uncomplicated homespun classic is here: cobblers and crisps, cakes and cookies, puddings and souffles, pies and pastries, ice creams and sauces--nineteen chapters in all. Sax's versions are justifiably legendary among accomplished bakers: Traditional Two-Berry Buckle - Chocolate Cloud Cake - Bon Ton's New Orleans Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce - Reuben's Legendary Apple Pancake - Best-Ever Pumpkin Pie - Schrafft's Hot Fudge Sauce. Sidebars with every recipe--profiles of cooks, engaging recollections of favorite desserts, quotations from hundreds of literary works, and excerpts from old recipes--show how sweets are indelibly woven into the texture of our lives.