In this beautiful hardcover edition of The Lady & Sons Just Desserts, Paula -- author, restaurateur, and Food Network star -- devotes her trademark southern charm to a tempting collection of more than 120 delightful recipes, guaranteed to indulge any sweet tooth. Whether you're baking for the holidays or an after-dinner treat, there are crowd-pleasers here for any occasion.

These are the classic down-home recipes that have made Paula beloved to her fans everywhere, from her signature Gooey Butter Cake and Key Lime Grits Pie to Pecan Shortbread Bars, Hidden Mint Cookies, and Iron Skillet Brownies. Whether you're whipping up an Old South Jelly Roll Cake for a weekday treat or baking the Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie or Christmas Nut Pie for a holiday celebration, these treats are as easy to create as they are to enjoy. The Basic 1-2-3-4 Cake -- in coconut (Jamie's favorite), caramel (Bobby's favorite), or chocolate -- makes a wonderful birthday surprise, and the Tennessee Banana-Black Walnut Cake with Caramel Frosting is a southern favorite sure to become one of yours as well. There is also a wide array of cookies, bars, and candy, including Savannah Cheesecake Cookies, Orange Brownies, Chocolate Brickle, and Creamy Caramels. Even the most time-pressed cook will find it a snap to create these from-scratch recipes, using Paula's tips for reliable convenience ingredients and time-tested shortcuts that will impress and delight family and friends.

Filled with warm baking memories and family stories, The Lady & Sons Just Desserts is already a kitchen classic. There are also helpful baking tips for measuring ingredients, storing leftovers, and even cutting a few calories, as well as tasty flavor variations and unique serving suggestions throughout. So bring the folks together to create your own memorable meals and occasions and remember to save room for dessert!


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