Absolutely Chocolate: Irresistible Excuses to Indulge [Hardcover]

Fine Cooking Magazine (Editor), Editors of Fine Cooking (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2009

For years, most cooks only worried about choosing between semi-sweet and milk chocolate when whipping up chocolate creations. These days, however, it's vital to know the origins, varieties, and unique characteristics of chocolates available. The experts at Fine Cooking magazine have taken the guesswork out of making more than 125 scrumptious sensations from layer cakes, tarts, and pies to muffins, cookies, and brownies to candies, sauces, and hot cocoa. Each recipe features must-know tips on choosing and buying just the right chocolate; step-by-step, cant-fail instructions; and authoritative advice from America's most respected experts. In other words, Absolutely Chocolate is absolutely fabulous!

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Absolutely Chocolate ($29.95, Taunton Press) from the editors of Fine Cooking is an absolute must for chocolate lovers. This new cookbook, filled with tantalizing color photographs, makes you want to dive into a bowl of chocolate and never come up for air. It’s a breathtaking, mouthwatering look into the world of chocolate. I’d like to start at Page 1, making every recipe in the book. It’s not too often I make such a strong recommendation." --Anne Braly, Chattanooga Times Free-Press

"Absolutely Chocolate, explains not just the painstaking process from bean to brownie, but offers a crash course in which baked goods taste better with cocoa powder and which benefit from chocolate. The virtues of high-quality bittersweet versus a semisweet are covered, and tips such as adding a little cocoa powder to mousse for extra flavor are provided."  --New York Daily News

 

"This amazing collection of 125 recipes covers cookies, brownies and bars, pies, tarts, frozen desserts, candies, sauces and more. The options are endless and the photographs are so luscious, that it's easy to miss all the valuable information scattered throughout. There's information on how to choose the right chocolate for your baking needs, how to taste chocolate, how to decipher labels, getting perfect results when making chocolate chip cookies, and plenty of wisdom and techniques for perfect results."  --Modesto (CA) Bee

About the Author

Filled with pages of inspiration and information for cooks of all skill levels, Fine Cooking magazine features hands-on, how-to advice and recipes from America’s culinary experts. Visit Fine Cooking’s Web site www.finecooking.com

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Taunton Press (October 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600851339
• ISBN-13: 978-1600851339
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 1.1 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #41 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Chocolate

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It Inspires Me! October 27, 2009

By B. Davis

Format:Hardcover

Oh my goodness! I'm so excited about this beautiful cookbook! If you are a chocoholic and love divine chocolate desserts, you will love this book as much as I do. There are 55 full-color photographs throughout, along with 125 mouth-watering, company-perfect, holiday-delicious recipes. The book offers recipes like: Chocolate Chunk Scones; Brownie Cream Cheese Bites; Chocolate Orange Biscotti; Chocolate-espresso Mousse Torte; Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes; Fastest Fudge Cake with Ganache Drizzle; and soooo much more. This is a big, beautiful cookbook that inspires me to make lots of wonderful treats. (My family is going to love me!) It would also make a nice holiday gift for a home baker.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite chocolate cookbook! April 14, 2010

By H. Grove TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Absolutely Chocolate is filled to the brim with cookies, brownies, cakes, pies, puddings, mousses, ice creams, candies, sauces, and more. There's the usual section at the front about chocolate, but I have to say it's better than most. For example, there's an incredibly useful sidebar on the cocoa content of your chocolate, how it will affect your recipes, and how to alter your recipes if you're going to use chocolates with unusually high cocoa contents. There's also an extended section on the difference between using cocoa and chocolate in cooking.

I've tried a handful of chocolate cookbooks, and this is one of the ones I'd recommend most highly. While the "Death by Chocolate" series is great for folks who enjoy serious kitchen time and complicated recipes, Absolutely Chocolate has plenty of simpler recipes as well. The results are amazing and impressive, and there's a fantastic array of recipes to choose from. There's a limited number of photographs (there certainly isn't one for every recipe), but they're gorgeous and evocative. Recipes are clear and well-ordered, and often include extended sections of tips and instructions to help you out (such as tips for a perfect pots de creme). The cookbook is large, hard-backed, with glossy pages, so it should stay open fairly easily and stand up to much use.

[NOTE: review book provided by publisher]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic! September 6, 2010

By somebodyoranother

Format:Hardcover

I borrowed this from the library but now I want to buy it! I made the port wine soaked cherry brownies for a friends' birthday and they are the best brownies I've ever had. Highly recommend this book.