Customer Reviews

The Art of Chocolate: Techniques and Recipes for Simply Spectacular Desserts and Confections

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First, let me be clear as to what this book is not. It is not a basic cookbook full of recipes for toll house cookies, fudgey brownies, or chocolate birthday cakes. It certainly is not a cookbook for the casual cook who wants to make a chocolate dessert for an informal Sunday dinner. It is a mostly reliable instruction manual for producing impressive and artistic chocolate creations.

This book is an excellent introduction to the fine art of chocolate patisserie. It will lead the motivated reader to produce elegant presentations, table centerpieces, etc. It will be a great advantage if the reader is already an accomplished home baker. If you are, the procedures can be successfully followed. The recipes and instructions are clear, and give you all of the detail and explanations you need. Do not be fooled, however: the recipes require time, patience, and lots of practice. In the end, you will be able to create products that can be sold at the local bakery, and you will be able to fool people into thinking that you are a professional pastry chef.

On the other hand, this book does have a few flaws. All the recipes depend on presentation and looks; therefore, all recipes should have a picture to show you what your end product should look like. Several recipes (including Mouse Truffles, Twig Basket, Teardrop Dessert Cups), however, do not have any pictures, and the reader is mostly clueless as what the recipe should look like. At one point, the author states that one should start with the easier projects. Unfortunately, none of the recipes are rated as to which ones are hard, and which are easy, nor is there a list of recommended recipes for beginners. Also, several procedures, such as chocolate roses and chocolate birds, describe fairly complex procedures, and need a series of detailed pictures to illustrate the steps described in the recipe, but none are forthcoming. The last chapter on basic recipes for cakes, frostings, and sauces should be the first chapter.

There are also a couple of interesting points. It is the only source I know of that has substitution lists for substituting cocoa powder or unsweetened chocolate for semisweet chocolate. It also is the only cookbook that consistently recommends chocolate substitutes when it is necessary and produces better results than ordinary chocolate.

The book contains the following sections: 1) Ingredients and Tools, 2) Melting and Tempering Chocolate, 3) Spectacular Chocolate Confections, 4) Chocolate Magic Tricks, 5) Spectacular Chocolate Gifts, 6) Spectacular Chocolate Cakes and Desserts, 7) Basic Cakes, Fillings, Frostings, and Sauces.

All things considered, it is an impressive instruction manual that is a reasonable substitute for taking a course in chocolate patisserie at the local JC or cooking school. If it had a few more pictures (like Jacques Pepin's "Complete Techniques) I would be happy to call it a textbook destined for immortality.

It should be noted that the author is a genuine chocolate expert. She teaches master's classes and leads chocolate tours to the cacao plantations in central and south america. She is not just another cookbook author who has decided to add a chocolate cookbook to her resume (which is a defect of several popular chocolate cookbooks, including "Chocolate Ecstasy").

Buy the book and necessary supplies, follow Elaine's expert instructions, and you can develop into a master chocolate maker. The book is a masterpiece in itself. It encapsulates Elaine's 20 years of experience and knowledge with very detailed instructions, beautiful pictures, invaluable references, and scrumptious recipes.

She starts with the basics explaining types of chocolate, ingredients and tools, then goes into the details of various tempering methods. With these basics behind you, you then progress into chocolate confections including medallions, caramel pecan patties, truffles, dipped strawberries, peanut butter meltaways and butter pecan toffee - of course, all include ample amounts of chocolate.

Next comes more than a dozen chocolate magic tricks including molding chocolate, chocolate plates, shells, bowls, boxes, cups, leaves, bows, flowers, tree bark and cutouts. Then, building on these tricks, she makes even more exquisite chocolate art into baskets, decorated boxes, fancy eggs, and fabulous centerpieces.

She shows you how to make your chocolate cakes and desserts even more spectacular by combining various colorings and chocolate shapes creating new art forms. Then she includes a great selection of high-quality recipes for cakes, fillings, frostings, and sauces.

Then, if that's not enough, there's a complete bibliography, glossary, mail-order sources, and several conversion charts customized for chocolate. Everyone who's serious about removing the mystery of chocolate art should certainly have and use this book. Elaine, thank you for inspiring and releasing some of my hidden artistic talents.

When I got interested in learning how to work with chocolate I bought a few books and some video tapes about it. This is by far the best book I bought. It is so simple to understand and it took away my fears of tempering. All the supplies you need are listed here, as well as where to get them. I purchased items from one of the suppliers in the book and found some great prices! I would say this is a must have for anyone who likes to work with chocolate!

I am very new to candymaking. This book provided the whys and hows - including what equipment to use (I did invest $15 in a chocolate thermometer), what to shop for and where to find it! I made hand-dipped truffles for valentine's day as gifts - and boy were they a hit. The author makes it easy and non-threatening.

This is the only book I've read that absolutely takes the mystery out of tempering chocolate. My many questions about tempering were not answered by other books or research on the Internet. The author's description includes three methods and, most importantly, the rationale for using each one. She gives important information which is the culmination of years of experience. This book and The Chocolate Bible by Christian Teubner are the essentials for anyone interested in learning how to work with chocolate.

The explanations are clear and the ideas are great, but there are few photos that show the step-by-step of the confections. It is a pity!

I bought this book to get a better knowledge on handling chocolate. I had some practice before, but was still pretty intimidated with the whole process of tempering and molding chocolate. After receiving this book and taking the time to read the very informative basic instructions, I decided to give it a try. I ended up with a beautiful chocolate bow to decorate a cake with. Yes it took time, and no, it wasn't that easy for a novice, but the way the author describes everything made it a succes. She has really found a tone in writing that is very encouraging and friendly. I will definately work my way through the book with growing confidence.

I just received my copy of The Art of Chocolate. There seems to be a lot of information, great receipes and "projects" in the book. The problem I have is that there aren't enough pictures showing how the items are made and constructed. In some cases there aren't even picutres of the finished product so you can't tell if your constructing it correctly. To add insult to injury, I bought the book from Stone-Creative which arrived missing pages 19 through 22 which had the tempering information needed for most of the receipes in the book. You may want to keep this in mind if you're considering ordering anything from them.

A good guide for home cooks with the time and interest to play with chocolate artistically. Great overview of equipment and terminology. Inspiring photos. Thanks Elaine!

As a pastry chef I too can learn from such a great and wonderful book! Elaine does it all in this easy to use and follow book! I recomend it to all my students! Cant wait for another book!