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.

Okay but......

Since I love her other two books I finally bought this one to complete my collection. I was a little disappointed to find that at least 5 of the recipes could be found in my other two cook books by her. However, being a big fan I'd have to say that is my biggest complaint. Otherwise, I've never taken home any leftovers when I bring one of her desserts to potlucks or work and always get asked for the recipe. I'm pretty well rounded as a cook so if you like to "create" fresh desserts from scratch, this isn't the book for you. There's a lot of desserts made from convenience foods (cake mixes, prepackaged cookie dough, etc). It works out for me though because I get great results with little effort...(important when you work full time and have a little baby!). My advice would be to start with her other two cookbooks first and buy this one last.

Just Desserts - It's The Best

This is an excellent book for anyone who loves to create desserts. Presented in the friendly, southern Savannah style, it's fun to read, and even more fun to cook from. Filled with delightful human interest stories to accompany the recipes, it's entertaining reading even for those of us who just want to "get to the recipe, already".

As one would expect from a recipe book from this Savannah epicurian restaurant, the book contains many elaborate recipes for delectable confections. The pleasant surprise is that it also contains a wealth of simple desserts, many from just the ingredients typically found on the pantry shelf. What dessert cook is not always looking for special, easy-to-prepare dishes to delight the sweet palette.

Paula Deen does a great job of taking restaurant quantity recipes and cutting them down for home use. In fact, the quantities tend to be small, so feel inclined to double the batch size, because whatever is prepared from this book won't last long.

The book contains:
* Introduction and Family Story
* Hints & Tips (very good info for even the seasoned chef)
* Cakes
* Pies
* Cookies & Bars
* Puddings & Custards
* Candy
* More Sweet Things
* Metric Converter
* Good Index (very important, and annoying when missing from a book)

Bon appetit.

Wonderful!

I can't stop reading this book. Great recipes from a real Southern Lady. She has giving us all her best desserts with instructions anyone can follow. I can't wait to start trying them. I have all her cookbooks.