A professional pastry chef for twenty years, Janice Feuer has translated delicious, traditional American and French bakery and sweet favorites into healthier, sugar-free alternatives while maintaining the excellent taste, lightness, texture, and appearance one would expect in fine baked goods.

Everyday favorites to celebration specialties are included, from the classic American Beauty Apple Pie, Cranapplenut Muffins, and Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread to the rich, tempting Black Forest Torte, Stawberry Custard Cake, and Raspberry Cream Roll. 

The author provides over 150 recipes for pies, cakes, muffins, breads, and pastries, sweetened only with natural, nationally-available fruit sweetener and prepared using unbleached whole wheat or rice flour and fresh fruits, berries, and nuts.

Many of the recipes have nondairy options and are low in cholesterol. 

Clear directions explain the tips and techniques of professional chefs to guide both the novice and the serious cook to successful results guaranteed to please both the sweet-tooth and healthy conscience in us all 

Average Customer Review: ( 12 customer reviews )
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While some people complain that they cannot fine the fruit juice concentrate she uses, one can easily substitue any concentrated fruit juice, as she clearly explains in the brilliant introduction. I live in Israel and have had great success with the concentrates I can find here. Even die-hard sugar fans wouldn't guess that some of the cakes I have made are sugar free. A great cookbook!

17 of 17 found the following review helpful:

Culinary masterpiece!May 29, 2002

My wife and I keep this cookbook handy in the kitchen at all times, where it can be easily reached when we feel the desire to whip up a tantalizing and healthy dessert. After sampling these recipes, we could never go back to sugar! The Very-Berry syrup is a delight on waffles, pancakes, and French Toast, and the Cranberry Banana Walnut bread graces our table every Sunday morning.

The author explains how to acquire commercially made fruit sweetener, or if one prefers alternative frozen fruit juice concentrates, there is an excellent explanation in Chapter 1, "The Fine Art of Baking", on how to prepare them. We found that chapter to be enlightening and inspirational, and it sets the tone for the entire book.

13 of 13 found the following review helpful:

Good book but you need to experiment with substitutionsDec 04, 2001

I wanted a book that would give me ideas about how to cook without sugar - the proportions one would need of a liquid ( of any sort) that would replace dry sugar in a recipe. I have not used the sweetener the author uses but substitute what I can find - i.e. apple butter, fruit sweetner from Black River in Mississauga, Ont, Canada (comes in small 500 ml sizes for about $5.00 bottle)and the recipes have turned out very nicely. I would love to try her sweetener too but oh well..
This book was a good introduction to how to cook without sugar- if you like experimenting with anything sweet that is not straight sugar. You just need to be a little inventive and use her proportions!

13 of 13 found the following review helpful:

What a fabulaous cook book!Apr 13, 2000
By Windy
I have owned this cook book since 1994. The recipes are easy to follow with good instructions and illistrations. I really enjoy the Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and the American Beauty Apple Pie. You cannot tell that there is not refined sugar in them. I have taken many items to work and social occasions, with rave reviews. I gave up refined sugars in 1993 and I feel better and have more energy. This book made the transition easy. I would love to find a Volume 2 available.

15 of 16 found the following review helpful:

For the Apple Pie AloneAug 09, 2006
By Rebecca W.
For the Apple Pie alone I would recommend this book to anyone interested in reducing the amount of refined sugar in their diet. Her recipe is one of the best I have tried and her pie crust was better than many I have tried.

Others have complained that fruit sweetener was expensive and hard to come by. I will admit it is more expensive than sugar, but I have never had trouble finding it and given that it is concentrated you use less of it than you would refined sugar; typically about half as much.

The only reason I did not give this book a 5 star rating is because I would have liked it better if the author had included other sweetener alternatives because I don't find fruit sweetener compatible with all flavors. For instance it works well in fruit desserts, but I did not care for it as a sweetener for pumpkin pie; for that I would prefer something like brown rice syrup.

Overall though the book is very well written, the instructions are very detailed and the author covers a wide range of desserts. It remains one of my favorites.

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