Best-Ever Chocolate Desserts [Paperback]

Rick Rodgers (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 163 pages
• Publisher: Contemporary Books (February 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809240289
• ISBN-13: 978-0809240289
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 7.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,894,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rick Rodgers is one of the most versatile professionals in the food business. Through his work as a cooking teacher, food writer, cookbook author, freelance cookbook editor, and radio and television guest chef, his infectious love of good food reaches countless cooks every day.

Rick has been guest chef on the national television shows Today, CBS Morning Show, Good Morning America, Cooking Live with Sara Moulton, Food Network Challenge, and many others, including media appearances in every major local market.

Rick's combination of down-to-earth humor and solid information brought him the prestigious Bon Appetit Food and Entertaining Award for Outstanding Cooking Teacher. In addition to his publishing work, Rick teaches sold-out cooking classes from coast-to-coast, as well as the occasional international stint (including Korea and France) and he is a speaker at many festivals and seminars.

Rick lives in the New York City area. His website is www.rickrodgers.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most-used book in my kitchen, January 12, 2002

By 

Larissa B. "Larissa" (OR, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best-Ever Chocolate Desserts (Paperback)

This cookbook is wonderful - get your hands on a copy! It made a dessert chef out of me. I'm now known for my annual Cranberry Chocolate Cheesecake that I make every Thanksgiving. The author explains in easy terms how chocolate behaves in the kitchen and how to handle it, so your work looks like it came out of an expensive bakery.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre Chocolate Dessert Cookbook, November 7, 2003

By 

jerry i h (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Best-Ever Chocolate Desserts (Paperback)

This was a rather disappointing cookbook. The author is a professional baker, and this book is very good collection of recipes. Due to the incomplete/wrong recipe procedures, however, I advice you to avoid this one.

When it comes to ingredients, there are several errors. Cocoa powder is usually not 25% cocoa butter (though it can be; American ones tend to be 10-20%). USDA grade A eggs are hard to find in my area, but AA eggs can be substituted without problem, though the author does say anything about this. "Unbleached flour" is not 14% protein; he is probably thinking of bread flour. The advice to line baking pans with wax paper is bad; sometimes you can do it, but it depends on the brand; it is better to use just parchment paper (if you do not have it and do baking, then you need to buy some before you do any more baking). Several recipes require peanut butter, but he does not state if he is using salted or unsalted; the taste of the final product changes dramatically depending on which one you use.

The procedures for the recipes are also problematic. Many recipes require folding, but the author does not have a description on how to do this critical step. He sometimes advices adding liquid to "reach the desired frosting consistency", but does not say what this means. His pound cake recipe is the goofy one that uses a French meringue (even though he does not say so, that is what the recipe is attempting to describe). His instructions for melting chocolate are not detailed enough for the beginning home cook. He says to bake several recipes to a "moist crumb", but never describes what this means. Sacher torte should never be refrigerated. The instructions on baking a Dacquoise (meringue disk) are too vague. Ganaches and puddings that use cream should never be stored at room temperature overnight; either use them that day, refrigerate them (they can always be warmed up to soften the next day), or throw them out. The recipe for Rigo Jansci is missing a step, and also uses a non-standard size jelly roll pan, and the author does not state how to convert the recipe amounts to a standard size. Tart crusts that have chocolate are almost impossible to tell if they are "lightly browned" by just looking at it, and the author does not give an alternate method of testing doneness. Chocolate Walnut Torte filling is a caramel, but the author does not give adequate instructions or precautions for this dangerous step.

It contains chapters on: old fashioned cakes, miscellaneous sweets (including a couple of candy recipes), european things (my personal favorite chapter), recipes that made the author a famous caterer (some of these I plan to put into my personal private repetoire), and soda fountain treats (the most valuable, as the author was a soda jerk at the legendary and now defunct Blum's). It contains many of my personal favorits, like rocky road and a chocolate cake that you mix right in the baking pan (look, ma, no dishes!).

In the end, I like this collection of recipes very much. The ones I tried were very good, and there were only a couple of outright failures. Because the instructions are not reliable, however, I recommend that you avoid this book. If you are an experienced home baker or professional, then go ahead and get it; the mistakes the author makes are fairly obvious and easy to correct. You will also end up with a paperback book filled with many recipes that you will want to try.