Customer Reviews

Chocolate American Style

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In a review of Alice Medrich's book, `Bittersweet', I said:

"No one should try to do any serious work with chocolate without reading this book or another equally good book on the subject. One of the first things you learn in this book is that there are as many, if not more subtleties and ambiguities in the marketing of chocolate as there are in just about any other basic food product such as flour or olive oil."

This book has an equally skillful introduction to dealing with chocolate. I even believe this book is a better introduction to working with chocolate than the title from Ms. Medrich due to Ms. Brody's exceptional ability to explain potentially difficult techniques. She is especially candid in saying that the first time you try some techniques like tempering chocolate, you may simply not succeed. But, she insists that you keep trying and with due diligence, you will succeed. This combination of clarity and honesty is worth a lot.

This book is similar to Gale Gand's book `short + sweet' in the way it finds a place for itself in your daily family activities with partner and kids. It is also similar to Karen Baker's new book `Sweet Stuff' in its claiming to evoke a homegrown, American style of chocolate. All three books are worthy purchases that largely meet their objectives. But, they are not the kind of book which grabs you by the lapels and shakes you up with it's enthusiasm or insights or inspiration like, for example Wayne Harley Brachman's `American Desserts' or Sherry Yard's extraordinary new book `The Secrets of Baking'.

The first crack in the premise of `Chocolate American Style' is the suggestion that Americans eat more chocolate than anyone else in the world. I just saw a statistic that indicates the English eat three times more chocolate then we colonists eat. Another lapse in the book's premise comes when the author devotes an entire chapter `Old World - New World' to chocolate laden versions of European classics such as Mandelbrot, Rugelach, Biscotti, Scones, Panini, and the quintessentially Austrian Linzer Torte. Various other recipes also cite French inspirations and how they can show us colonials a thing or two. The final indignity is the recipe devised to immortalize Russell Crowe, which incorporates as many Australian products as the author could fit into one recipe.

Like Karen Baker's `American' baking book, a whole lot of the recipes in this book are author's originals rather than traditional American classics. In fact, one reality of contemporary cookbooks peeks out from some pages of this book in that it becomes clear that a lot of the recipes in the book are neither traditionally American nor written by the nominal author. Several recipes are original contributions by Susan Schwartz who is primarily credited in the Acknowledgments with Emmy Clausing as someone who researched, tested, and fine-tuned recipes.

None of these pet peeves diminish the quality of the book. It is not the best book you can get on chocolate, but it is very good in general and especially good for working with families. Like Gale Gand's book, it includes a chapter of recipes specifically written for kids to make. This alone may be worth the price of admission. In fact, it would have been much more appropriate to entitle the book `Chocolate Family Style'. The kids chapter includes recipes such as chocolate-covered graham crackers, chocolate cereal treats, peanut butter cups, and chocolate caramel popcorn. Makes you glad that chocolate is actually good for you. All the recipes taste very, very good and the author has a genuine, well-recognized talent for communicating them to you.

The book does include a number of genuine American classic recipes such as chocolate chip cookies, ice cream cakes, and chocolate ice cream sundaes. Yes, the book also includes recipes for ice cream.

Recommended. Some recipes are tough going simply because chocolate is just downright finicky. The author gives you the confidence to believe it will all come out in the end.

I am a serious baker and possess many chocolate books. Some of the ancient ones are fine books written by Austrian women with an empathy for the ingredient. Most of the more recent ones are rather pedestrian, pandering to passing (and passe) fashion and are not worth much more than a cursory glance. Some even try to make chocolate recipes low fat!! I must immediately exclude Nigella Lawson from those categories!

This book, however, is a tantalising work of art, and indeed literature. I have been reading it compulsively since I got it a few days ago. I have tried several of the amazing recipes and they are even better than imagined. I fell priveleged to share the recipes that the author has collected over her wondrous career. BUY IT!!

Everything I have made so far has been incredible. The chocolate cheesecake recipe has to be the best cheesecake recipe in existence. However, you'd have to have a mighty big bread machine to make the recipes which say they can be made in a bread machine. So that technique hasn't worked for me, there was so much dough it really gummed up my machine. Otherwise, wow!!!

There have already been two very descriptive and detailed reviews on this book, so I shall limit the length of my contribution. I tried two of the recipes this week - the chocolate filled monkey bread, and the chocolate caramel sticky buns. Both were out of this world. The recipes were fine to follow; my only gripe is the shameless product plugs she inserts into them (Ms. Brody sells a dough relaxer that is listed as a requirement of her bread recipes).

We have only made a handful of these recipes so far, but every single one of them has been out of this world amazing. The chocolate chip muffins with coconut-brown sugar topping were so delicious - the perfect combination of muffin and chocolate chip cookie. Everyone who tasted them couldn't stop talking about how wonderful they were.

i would say that this book lives by its name. it is definitely chocolate, american style. there are recipes for everytihng from souffle to brownies, to moon pies. i'd buy this for a chocolate lover anyday!

This is a wonderful book to add to your collection. There are many enticing chocolate recipies; so much so that you just might want to start making a shopping list and preheating the oven as soon as you start reading. The recipies are easy to follow for most kinds of cooks; and of course it helps tremendously to use really good, high quality chocolate. My favorite so far is the warm chocolate rice pudding...OMG! Serve this with warmed whipped cream. The chocolate monkey bread is fun to make and unbelievably delicious. I had made a mistake reading the recipe and added 3X the amount of butter in the bread dough...no harm done here - albeit you might needs a dose of Lipitor to bring your cholesterol down. Enjoy this book!

This is attractive book featuring traditional as well as innovative recipes. Lora Brody's expertise in the science and art of cooking with chocolate is clear. The book holds forth on technical aspects as well as ideas and recipes. Its a good gift idea because it will work as a cookbook as well as coffee-table eye candy.

The only reason I did not give it 5 stars is because it lacks nutritional information. Also (IMHO) its about time cookbooks started to offer online resources where users can rate recipes/ include possible modifications and meal ideas.

This is one of the few cookbooks where I think almost all the recipes are good ones. Sadly, this book is so fraught with mistakes, peculiar things, and shortcomings that I cannot recommend it. It has all the hallmarks of an author who rushed the manuscript to the publisher in order to meet a deadline before it was ready. `Detail oriented' is not one of the phrases I would use to characterize the author's efforts. I realize that the author is rather famous and well respected, but, this is a rather inadequate effort. OTOH, if you are an experienced hand, the mistakes the author makes are rather obvious, and you ought to be able to correct her faulty recipes without much trouble; in this case, I do recommend it quite highly (I have a few other presumably professional-caliber B&P books that suffer from a similar shortcoming, and I use those all the time).

Things I liked;
-flour measurements are listed in both volume and weight
-frequent use of white chocolate
-explicitly mention which brands of chocolate were used to develop the recipes
-the beginning of each chapter has a list of all recipes therein; pity they did not include the page numbers

Things I did NOT like:
-(p.10) chocolate `in contact with even a small amount of water, it becomes impossible to use, so throw it away' is simply NOT true. True, seized chocolate no longer can be used for molding, but it can still be used; just make fudge sauce or truffles or something; sheesh.
-2 methods of tempering chocolate are presented (seeding and microwave). While both are technically correct, the author leaves out a couple of important steps.
-oddly, the author consistently specifies extra-large eggs rather than the standard, easily available large eggs. No instructions for conversion are given for those who are unable to obtain extra-large eggs. The author does not give a reason for this unusual decision.
-too cute chapter titles so you do not know exactly what is in that chapter.
-Chocolate Mousse uses raw eggs. The author inveighs: `To avoid salmonella, it's essential to use clean eggs that come from a reputable farm'. This advice is simply not true. You have 2 choices: 1-do not make/eat that recipe, or 2-use eggs that have been pasteurized in-shell (essential, since the author asks you to separate these eggs). Good luck on #2, since pasteurized in-shell eggs were available in the supermarket for only a brief period and even then, only for the large eggs, and NEVER for the extra-large eggs the author calls for.
-each recipe has a chatty intro; pity the Tunnel of Fudge credits neither Ella Rita Helfrich or the Pillsbury Bake-Off; her recipe bears no relation to the original.
-author makes numerous references to recipe testing/testers. Forgive me for doubting that this process was as thorough as it should have been.
-I would have preferred that the author spend less time with anecdotal homelies and more time perfecting the recipes.
-`Easy Fudge Sauce'?? Apparently not. The author says: heat choc and butter in a pan (really good way to burn your chocolate), add liquid, then dry. The correct procedure, of course, is: liquid and dry, stir, boil, heat off, stir in chocolate and butter. There; how hard was that????
-the cooking instructions for pizzelle are not correct. It would be helpful if the author had mentioned exactly which commercial model (make and model #) she used to develop her recipe.
-in Chocolate Linzer Torte, `...you'll be happy to see the method I've devised that makes it a no-brainer'. Sadly, her innovative approach is `...weave the strips into a lattice top'. Huh? OK, but how??
-all recipes use a stand mixer or food processor, so do not even think about buying this book if you do not have both. Worse, the author does not reveal what brand of mixer she uses, nor bothers to mention if she is using the dough hook, leaf, or whisk. The only info she gives is `mix for 5 minutes at medium speed'.
-Toll House Cookies are different from the official Nestle recipe; the author is, therefore, NOT entitled to use the title she uses.
-in general, the recipe directions tend to be didactic and desultory. Being a B&P pro, this was no problem for me, but what about the majority of you duffers, who have NOT been trained under the patient eye of a certified chef instructor??
-I am also bothered by the inconsistent recipe procedures. Some are OK, others are terse and desultory, and totally inadequate unless you have professional training.
-her recipe for home made creme fraiche leaves out important information
-the author speaks enthusiastically about flavorings from a specific company; IMHO, this is because the author has knows the people therein. While it is decent, I recommend that you look for a better supplier.
-p. 234 `you may strain the pureed mixture to remove some of the fig seeds if you wish. I like the slightly crunchy texture they give, so I leave them in'. Well, this tells me that the author did this recipe exactly once, and she either forgot to strain out the seeds or did not wish to spend the time to do the recipe a second time.
-Molten Chocolate Cakes uses the cheater-mo-beater method of sticking a frozen truffle in the cake, rather than the original method of simply under-baking a cake; neither could the author be bothered with giving credit to the creator (Vongerichten).

There is one truly brilliant recipe, and for this alone is this book worth the entry fee. I herein paraphrase it:
CHOCOLATE BUTTER
-1 stick unsalted butter
-1.5 oz confectioner's sugar
-2T dutch cocoa
-pinch of salt
combine ingredients in a food processor. Shape and wrap in wax paper, chill until firm.

Ditto for `Instant Chocolate Croissant':
-slice a stale croissant in half
-stuff chocolate into the middle, smush it back together
-bake until chocolate is warm and melty

I was excited when I saw this book and couldn't wait to add more chocolate creations to my repertoire. However, I soon got over my excitement. Although the recipes were not bad they were neither exciting nor unique nor uniquely American. Furthermore, I found the design of the book itself lacking in many ways: WAY too much blank space where more photos could have placed, the use of dark (chocolate) colored pages with light text was interesting visually but not conducive for ease of use while trying to bake, many recipes that could have fit on one page (which is an ideal I have for any cook book) carried over to another page (or over 3 pages) because of too much blank space and unnecessarily large font size and line spacing, etc. I think I may use a couple of the recipes from the book but this, in my opinion, is not a "keeper" on my shelves. I have found that "Pure Chocolate" by Fran Bigelow is a much better chocolate cook book.