Customer Reviews

Somersize Desserts

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been Somersizing since January of this year, and have seen incredible results. I bought all three of Suzanne's books and would recommened them to you all. The recipes are easy and clear and are delicious and satisfying. The desserts are sinfully wonderful. The best part is knowing you can eat them and still lose the weight.
I therefore was excited to hear of this new book, just filled with desserts, yet after looking through the book I was left disappointed. Some of the recipes you can not substitute her Somersweet product with saccharin, which could be a problem if you can not afford to buy Somersweet. There are not many Level One desserts, unless you enjoy her cheesecake, which she gives two new variations.
I understand that to make a dessert fit into the Somersize program can be difficult, but compared to her other projects I feel this one falls short.
I would though recommend this book to all who Somersize or those who are trying to maintain their weight.

Somercize Desserts is a slim volume of 30 desserts accompanied by sumptious photographs! These are not diet desserts. They are made with full fat cream cheese, heavy cream, egg yolks, and chocolate. However, if the desserts are eaten according to the Sommercize rules of food combining you can enjoy them and lose weight! If they are eaten whenever, you could gain weight.
The rules of combining are explained in Suzannes other books, Eat Great Lose Weight, Eat Cheat and Lose and Get Skinny on Fabulous Food. The rules are not explained in the Somercize Desserts book. She does however indicate, to those familiar with Somercizing which desserts are Level One and which are Level Two.

The book includes both new treats and desserts previously published in her other books. Most of the recipes include a sugar substitute Suzanne has developed called SommerSweet. She also gives substitutions using real sugar or saccharin. The SommerSweet product is available from her website and is quite pricey. Two small cans with shipping runs $24 plus.

One of the recipes in her book is for Truffles. She also sells the Truffles at her website for around $20 plus shipping. I purchased the Truffles from her site and enjoyed them. My husband who appreciates very fine chocolate found them to have an aftertaste. No one felt they were as good as a real truffle with sugar. But you can't have it all I guess. I decided to make the truffles with her book and found the recipe easy to follow but the end result was not as tasty as the ones she sells.

Aside from the Sommersweet, other recipes call for ingredients including whole vanilla bean, wonton skins, phyllo dough, and whole wheat PASTRY flour. These items are not always easy to find. In addition one recipe calls for a springform pan and several call for an ice cream maker.
By the time I purchased her book, the springform pan and the ingredients to make the chocolate layer cake, I figure I had about $75 invested!

Other recipes in the book include, peach sorbet (ice cream maker needed) orange souffle, decaf coffee granita, creme brulee, steamed chocolate pudding, and asian napoleons.

The directions are easy to follow and the ingredients are clearly listed along with the serving size. Fats, fiber, calories, and carbohydrate information is not included. Book lies flat for cooking ease.

The book is lovely with the tempting color photographs and the recipes I have tried all turned out well. BUT considering the hard to find ingredients and the fact that the book contains only 30 recipes, its one pricey piece of cake!

I have been following the Somersize Plan for 13 weeks, and while I have not lost much weight (about 10 lbs), I haven't had the blood sugar swings and digestion woes that were normal for me. My mother, stepfather and husband have all lost weight with this plan, and I feel that it is a good lifetime plan for those of us who have insulin resistance problems.

While I have enjoyed many of the recipes in this dessert book and the other Somersize books, I have found some of the recipes to be lacking in flavor or sweetness. The Somersweet equivalents to sugar do not seem correct to my tastebuds, especially after baking, making it even more expensive to sweeten desserts with this sweetener. Only after combining Somersweet and Splenda in these recipes can I get the sweetness that I would expect from using sugar.

Another problem with the Somersweet, is that it causes a burnt aftertaste when it is baked, as in creme brulee or cakes. The longer that the sweetener is baked, the more likely I will have the aftertaste. My husband, who happens to be a chef, and I do not notice the aftertaste when we use Splenda instead. Now, the vanilla ice cream recipe was wonderful with the combined sweeteners, and better than the premium brands, but I doubled the vanilla and tripled the sweetener. I've learned that my tastes, and the tastes of my friends and family, require much more sweetness than these recipes have, so I've tripled the sweetener called for in all of the ones I've tried.

Therefore, I removed 2 stars from my rating of this dessert book, mainly due to the unsweet taste of the recipes as written. After all, who wants dessert recipes that aren't sweet enough?

First let me say, that I love all of Suzanne's cookbooks. I have lost all of my baby weight (36 pounds) in 3 months! Her food plan is the best. I bought this book in hopes that I could bring sweets back into my diet without cheating on my diet.

The recipes are "ok"- which this pains me to say as all of her other recipes are out of this world delicious! The Somersweet product doesn't compare to sugar. I recommend passing on this cookbook. Once you lose the weight, you can incorporate small amounts of sweets into your diet. I have found that I don't want to do anything to gain the weight back- so even "real" desserts aren't worth it.

Somers' diet plan is very much in keeping with all the various low-carb and sugar-free programs out there such as the Zone, Protein Power, Atkins and Sugarbusters. I myself follow Atkins and very much enjoy sweets, so this dessert cookbook is a happy find for me.

The recipes in this book are almost gourmet, calling for fancy, often expensive ingredients and special cooking pans, but the recipes are all relatively simple, without a huge list of ingredients or elaborate preparation requirements, and the results are extremely tasty. Examples of the recipes include: decaf coffee granta, creme brulee, orange souffle, raspberry sorbet, New York-style cheesecake, caramel cheesecake, steamed chocolate pudding. All of the recipes call for Somers' expensive new sweetener, Somersweet, which is sold on her website. However, since her cookbook indicates substitutions for it, you don't have to use it. She doesn't list Splenda as a substitute for Somersweet, but it works well in recipes like pudding, sorbet and cheesecake. (I don't recommend it in cakes and cookies--they get really dry.)

In addition to the excellent contents, this 75-page book is gorgeous, with beautiful photos, glossy paper and a lovely layout design. As such, it would make a great gift.

I have followed Suzanne Somers diet plan for some time and find it easy to follow. The only thing I hated to give up was desserts. Having a sweet tooth makes you long for a little something sweet after a meal. Her previous book was a start with some good dessert ideas. Now with this new book dealing only with desserts it has filled this void.

The photography by Jeff Katz were excellent, makes you want to try each and every one included. My only complaint was not to include more baking projects like cookies, there were only 32 recipes included but of the ones I have tried were delicious.

Suzanne also is promoting her new sweetener called SomerSweet, which may soon be available in many grocery stores. It is available on her Web site. These desserts sound heavy in fats but if you follow her diet plan it all works and you feel great.

You do not have to use Somersweet for these desserts, they work well without it, but Somersweet IS A GOOD THING! I've used it well, and everyone else has enjoyed the desserts I've made, too. I love the ones I've tried, the cappuccino cheesecake, the lemon-scented ricotta (works great with lime, I always add more, though), the lemon zablagione. . .this is a really good dessert book.

I know that Suzanne doesn't believe in the concept of low fat but this book was just too over the top for me (or anyone) to believe! Yes I tried the creme brulee and it was good. But 6 egg yolks and over 2 cups of cream. That would be a whole days worth of fat allotment on a "heart healthy" program and 2 DAYS of saturated fat. Of course this is not in the book nor is the fact that the creme brulee is still over 500 calories, without the sugar. This just convinced me she is too off base. I doubt SHE eats many of these. And all the recipes are this way. I guess this is what I should have expected. But did she have to purposely choose the HIGHEST of the high fat recipes to simply take a little sugar out and call that amazing. That is not amazing and neither is the cost of the Somersweet. Again if you think you can eat all the fat you want without consequence the stuff does taste good. But for my money I prefer the other book I ordered from Amazon called "UNBELIEVABLE DESSERTS WITH SPLENDA". It also features low to no sugar recipes - over 75 not 30 - and they are ALSO low in fat and under 200 calories per serving. They taste fabulous (which is unbelievable) and I am so much more comfortable knowing I am not only cutting the sugar but the fat and calories too. I know I will use this book SO much longer and that the desserts can be enjoyed by everyone no matter what their diet. Think about that.

I have tried a couple of desserts and they worked great. I used Splenda as sweetner with no problem. I also substituted lower fat dairy products. I love this book.

First off, if you use Somersweet in any of the frozen desserts, you get a rock hard, nasty tasting concotion. It doesn't freeze well at all.

It also has a strange aftertaste that isn't natural at all.

This being a review on her book and not the Somersweet though I have to say, for the recipies that don't require Sommersweet OR if you sub your own preferred substitute, (I love Wheylow) there are some fabulous ideas to work with.

I really like the way the recipes are layed out in the book and the color photographs are beautiful. Something to aspire to. I love the Way Of Eating and I am greatful for all that Suzanne has put out in the market, I just don't think all of it is that great.

This book is good, but small. I have used it, but I could live w/o it.