Author Steven Raichlen has put his classical French training to delectable use in the service of low-fat bliss for health-conscious dessert lovers, miraculously transforming such naughty pleasures as Chocolate Silk Pie, Lemon Poppy Chiffon Cake, and Balinese Banana Split into healthy delights. As always, Raichlen provides complete nutritional analyses and careful instructions, so you'll be sure to have picture-perfect desserts every time.

Forget the awful title and the frequently nauseating recipe names. Simmons, of diet and exercise fame, has perfected a reduced-fat and reduced-calorie formula that home bakers and cooks will line up for in the library. In fact, few other culinary authors can rival his appeal: saucy prose, gastronomic information geared to the ordinary person, and 75 recipes with color photographs and instructions a baby could follow. Straight-talking introductory materials are contained in the first chapter--about equipment, ingredients, and the various processes of reducing fat and calories. Naturally, nutritional analyses for both new and old versions are featured, along with his indications of the quantities of fat and calories 'saved' from, say, the s'mores or chocolate mousse pie recipes. But what, you ask, would a Richard Simmons binge on? The last chapter--and its six recipes--yields some surprisingly just desserts.