Cook It Light Desserts

Jones, a newspaper columnist (Cook It Light) and the author of other books in the similarly named series, offers a collection of 200 mostly standard desserts whose fat, calorie, cholesterol and sodium contents are reduced by fairly well-known means. Fruit desserts include a fruit gazpacho and microwaved peaches served with a ricotta-based ``pastry cream.'' Among the pie recipes are buttermilk pie, with a crust made using reduced-fat Bisquick; and cinnamon apple tarts, in which phyllo sheets, lightly coated with vegetable oil spray, enfold apples poached with sugar and spice. Cakes and cookies often substitute such pureed fruits as prunes and apples for shortening; her strawberry cake is based on white cake mix; cranberry bars call for canned whole-berry sauce. Jones includes calorie, fat-gram, cholesterol and sodium analyses per serving of each recipe; serving sizes are generally small. While most of the recipes are reduced-calorie versions of fat-filled familiars, two interesting low-cal exceptions are gingered bananas and a marsala-laced peach granita. (Nov.)