Desserts LaBelle: Soulful Sweets to Sing About by Patti LaBelle is a collection of the singer's favorite dessert recipes including a chapter on diabetic-friendly treats. With moving personal stories from her career and life along with photographs of her and her family, this is the most personal cookbook the singer has written.

Unless you have never heard of YouTube, you probably have viewed the Sweet Potato Pie video uploaded by a fan which resulted in the infamous Sweet Potato Pie flying off the shelves at Walmart. We knew Patti could cook from her prior titles - especially those written after her diagnosis of diabetes - but this is her first book devoted to desserts!

The chapters are set out as follows 1) Patti's Kitchen (everything the author recommends you know and have to make the recipes in this book), 2) Fancy Cakes, 3) Make it Quick...Breads, Muffins and More, 4) The Cookie Jar, 5) Love me Tender Pies, Cobblers and More, 6) Dish-it-up Puddings and Custards, 7) Breakfast Time, 8) New Attitude Desserts and ending with 9) Baking, Patti-Style: Tips, Tricks and Techniques. 

Patti states she is a natural born baker with this trait being passed down by the generations before her - hence the last chapter filled with professional tips to help those who don't have baking powder in their DNA. With regard to the recipes, all the classics are covered such as Hummingbird Cake, Millionaire's Shortbread, Blueberry Muffins and of course that Sweet Potato Pie everyone is raving about (and one certain gentleman singing about). There is also a selection of unique to me recipes - Jammin' Blackberry Jam Cake with Caramel Icing, Lemon Meringue Cake, and Patti's Perfect Pineapple Pudding Pie that are tempting.

There are photos of the food and of Patti's family intertwined with stories that give the reader and fans a taste of Patti's life. You know me and my issues with cake mix recipes - so I had to check - there is one recipe entitled Patti's Perfect Pouilly-Fuissé Cake which uses a cake mix (and wine and breadcrumbs - interesting) but almost everything else is from scratch. 

Thanks to Patti and Grand Central Life & Style for sharing a recipe for Sprinkledoodles with our members. I think these would be great mixed up with red, white and blue sprinkles for American holidays, pastel colors for Easter, and so forth. Be sure to head over to our contest page to enter for a chance to win one of four AUTOGRAPHED copies of Patti's book! 

Sprinkledoodles 

Snickerdoodles are very easy cookies-make balls of dough, roll in sugar, and bake. They are usually flavored with cinnamon, but I love my spices, so I also add some nutmeg and cloves. The only problem with them is that they look a little plain. So to jazz them up, I roll them in colored sprinkles. Hence, sprinkledoodles. It's a simple trick, and you can change the colors for various holidays-red and green for Christmas is a no-brainer. 
Makes about 3 1⁄2 dozen cookies

2 3⁄4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 
2 teaspoons cream of tartar (see Patti's Pointers) 
1 teaspoon baking soda

11⁄2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1⁄2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 
1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1⁄4 teaspoon ground cloves 
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 
11⁄2 cups sugar 
2 large eggs, at room temperature 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
About 2/3 cup multicolored sprinkles (jimmies), for decorating

1. Sift the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cloves together. Cream the butter and sugar together in a medium bowl with an electric mixer set on high speed. One at a time, beat in the eggs and then the vanilla. Gradually stir in the flour mixture. Cover and refrigerate until the dough is chilled, at least 1 hour or up to 2 hours. 


2. Position racks in the top third and center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Have two large ungreased rimmed baking sheets ready. 

3. Using a tablespoon for each cookie (a 1-tablespoon portion scoop works best), shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Transfer the balls to a baking sheet and freeze until chilled, 10 to 15 minutes. (This trick keeps the cookies from spreading too much during baking.) 


4. One at a time, press one side of a dough ball into the sprinkles, being sure they adhere. Reshape the dough into a ball. Place, sprinkle-side up, on a baking sheet. Repeat, spacing the balls about 2 inches apart on the two sheets. Bake, switching the position of the baking sheets from top to bottom and rotating front to back halfway through baking, until the edges of the cookies are barely browned, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire cake racks and cool completely. 

Patti's Pointers: This is an old cookie recipe, and before folks could buy baking powder easily in stores, they used a combination of cream of tartar and baking soda as leavening. If you don't have cream of tartar (and not everyone has it in their pantry), substitute 1 tablespoon baking powder for the cream of tartar and baking soda mixture.

Excerpted from the DESSERTS LABELLE by Patti LaBelle. Copyright © 2017 by Pattonium Inc. Reprinted with permission of Grand Central Life & Style. All rights reserved.
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