[.ca] The Lady & Sons Just Desserts: More than 120 Sweet ... (ISBN 0743224841)

From Amazon.com:
Warmly effusive and dear yet gritty, Paula H. Deen seems mythically Southern. But this cooking luminary, proprietor of Savannah, Georgia's Lady & Sons restaurant, is the real thing. The Lady & Sons Just Desserts, her all-sweets follow-up to The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook and The Lady & Sons, Too!, celebrates the Southern sweet tooth with 120 recipes, including traditional formulas for the likes of Brown Sugar Pound Cake and Lemon Chess Pie as well as best-loved restaurant innovations like Turtle Cake, Lemon Curd Pudding, and Gooey Butter Cake. ("These are very, very rich," Deen advises, "and a little goes a long way--even for piggies like me!") Lovers of the restaurant--which grew to prominence from $200 and lots of determination--as well as those seeking easy-to-fix temptations should put this book to happy use. Among its wide-ranging recipes, Desserts offers Carolyn's Jell-O Cheesecake, Lauren's Chocolate Drizzle Pie, and Hidden Mint Cookies--recipes based on cake mixes and other convenience foods. These creditable sweets are of course work saving, but are perhaps better viewed as solidly characteristic of their time and place. Equally particular are candies like Mamma's Divinity and Uncle Bubba's Benne Candy, and "other sweet things," as Deen dubs them, such as Banana Split Brownie Pizza, Easy Homemade Oreo Ice Cream, and Fresh Apples with Butterscotch Dip. With asides by Deen family members, including son Jamie's "Food Is Love" ("I am right this minute 20 pounds over-loved," he writes), useful tips (Deen provides an "emergency" recipe for sweetened condensed milk), and plenty of piquant anecdote (after Deen had rattled on endlessly to her grandmother about her intention to open a restaurant, the older woman paused and replied, "Paula, have you lost you damned mind?"), the spiral-bound book is not only full of delectable eating, it's lots of fun. --Arthur Boehm

Easily Made Southern Comfort Desserts, Achingly Sweet:
If you have seen a few episodes of Paula Deen's Food Network show, then you will know exactly what is in this book, as many of the recipes in the book have been done on her show. For those who have not seen her show or know of her background, Paula Deen owns and operates a well regarded restaurant in Savannah where her cuisine in the restaurant and on her show is pure southern comfort food, plain and simple. More exactly, it is white southern comfort food. You will find relatively little overlap with the dishes of Edna Lewis but much overlap with the dishes in the southern cuisine cookbooks done by James Villas and his mother. With regard to this particular book, the 'southern comfort' easy living theme appears in spades. Paula Deen is not a baker and her dessert recipes are not something you would find in books by Gail Gand or Nancy Silverton or even Maida Heather. The first thing you notice is that virtually every recipe is loaded with sugar, butter, cream, cream cheese, chocolate and eggs, whole or yolks. And, aside from the occasional appearance of peaches (obligatory for a Georgia girl), bananas, and cherries for garnish, there are very little fruit products, aside from lemon juice and lemon zest. Before the recipe chapters is a very good short chapter on Hints and Tips. At the beginning of each chapter there are additional hints and tips for the type of dessert featured therein. Almost all suggestions appear to be sound, but may not go far enough. The claim that normal cocoa power can be substituted for Dutch Process cocoa may not pass muster, especially if baking powder is used to leaven the product. The recipes in the book are divided into chapters for: Cakes, which depend heavily on boxed cake mixes Pies, which depend heavily on frozen, store bought crusts. Cookies and Bars Puddings and Custards Candy More Sweet Things I find the instructions for making pie crusts to be inadequate. There is simply not enough detail in the instructions for keeping the ingredients cold, for resting the dough, or for chilling or freezing before blind baking. The technique Paula uses to blind bake also seems a bit idiosyncratic, using a quick run under the broiler for a few minutes instead of the more elaborate blind baking technique I have seen everyone else use. Paula cites a case where her recipe directions were inadequate for a recipe tester (an inexperienced teenager) and properly noted the correction; however, I found a few other recipes where the instructions simply left important steps out. I have done several of Paula Deen's dessert recipes and, as indicated by the list of most prominent ingredients, you should not be surprised to hear that I find them tooth achingly sweet without a lot of variety in texture. The typical French, Viennese, or Italian sweets shop would have a much greater variety of tastes and textures. All this doesn't mean this is a bad book. If you want a really good collection of recipes of the type you would get from Aunt Edna or her church lady friends, this is your book, especially at a list price under 17 dollars. Almost all recipes are really easy to make, although some minor pitfalls have to be avoided. The homey stories about Paula's career and her sons makes entertaining reading. If you are more adventurous and wish to try something with more challenge, go to Wayne Harley Brachman's new book on American Desserts. I highly recommend that book.

Wonderful dessert cookbook!:
This is a great cookbook if you want good, but not complicated recipes. The Not Yo Mamma's Banana puding is so good and so easy. The book is charming as is it's author. I plan on trying many of the recipes.

Very good book...:
Simple and good recipes with a lot of interesting comments and stories. Recipes are easy to follow. A word of caution, however...a lot of the recipes are high calorie and rich (which I like!). Be sure to try the "Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding" as it is very pretty and tasty.

Simple Southern Sweetness:
Ms. Deen has put together a simple yet delicious group of desserts that ooze Southern charm. A lot of these I remember from growing up and others just look delicious. I have made the signature Gooey Butter Cakes and many of the cookies. The Stick To Your Mouth Chocolate Cookies are sinful! Anyone interested in either Southern Desserts or just easy to prepare, delicious ends to their meals must purchase this book. You won't be disappointed at all.

Pure and plain country cooking:
If I had to make a choice of all my cook books,and belive me I have a few, Paula Deens three cook books would be the one I would keep. I watch her on the cooking shows and ever thing she cook's is in her books. Now if you get mad when you cook cause you don't have every thing a recipe calls for and it just don't sound like it would be good .You flat want feel that way about Paula's. Shucks just reading what goes in it you could tare the page out and eat it right then and there. So if you are southern are not and like really easy recipes and very good ones you try Paula Deens books, all three. you want be sorry. Paula also tell about things that happend to her and how she came to cooking and I tell you I read every bit of it. The women kept me tickled all through it. Now I can go about this lady,s books but if you try them your self I promise you want be sorry. You go girl, love you Paula. Elouise