The Lady & Sons Just Desserts : More than 120 Sweet Temptations from Savannah's Favorite Restaurant (Plastic Comb)

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Key Phrases: more cookie sheets, handheld electric mixer, invert onto cake plate, Gooey Butter Cakes, Clint Eastwood, Cool Whip (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

Product Description

A Seriously Sweet Southern Dessert Extravaganza

The queen of Savannah's The Lady & Sons restaurant, Paula Deen knows how to please a hungry crowd. In The Lady & Sons Just Desserts, Paula shares the down-home recipes that made her famous, including her signature Gooey Butter Cake (with luscious variations). Peach Cobbler, Turtle Cake, Sweet Baby Carrot Cake, Lemon Curd Pudding, and Pecan Dreams.

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Product Details

• Plastic Comb: 192 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743224841
• ISBN-13: 978-0743224840
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #237,539 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The details you want about this book! Right here...., March 10, 2006

By	K. Corn "reviewer" (Indianapolis,, IN United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Okay, folks, here it is, the info you need to know whether to buy this book:

1. First off, there are sections full of family stories. If you like cookbooks which contain slices of the cook's life and you already are intrigued by Paula and her sons (aren't they handsome?!), then you'll get more info in this book. She doesn't explain how her sons manage to eat such rich desserts and stay thin and handsome but perhaps they'll come out with another book about that.

2. The recipes are excellent, from Gooey Butter Cake to Banana Cream Pie. Yes, they ARE rich and very sweet, so if you're dieting or watching your carbs, this isn't for you.

3. Finally, to really get a feel for the book, use Amazon's "Search Inside the Book" Function. Read some of the anecdotes, look at the Index. It provides valuable info about this book. Use it.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Desserts - It's The Best, December 1, 2002

By A Customer

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.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Simple Southern Sweetness, February 1, 2004

By	M. D. Thomas "ReadingSailor" (New London, CT) - See all my reviews

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.