Customer Reviews

Chocolates and Confections at Home with The Culinary Institute of America

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have a lot of cookbooks, many of which are candy and dessert books. I've been freelance (just do it!!) cooking for most of my life, including having made pull-taffy with my mom as a child. Over the years, I have had good and bad luck with various attempts at candymaking. Some of my divinity comes out perfect, some is dry. Pralines that are creamy, some that are grainy. Fudge that is perfectly made and some that is hard and short. What gives? This book does. It has a full explanation of all techniques to be used at the beginning of each chapter, before you even get to the recipes. This is great because it helps you resist the temptation to just jump into trying something; after all, it must be important for you to know a technique if they tell you before they give you the recipe in which you will use that technique. It actually repeats everything for you because before the recipes, it goes through the entire process without measurements so that you can't make it at that point! I found that I actually read the entire book, cover to cover, before even attempting anything. My chocolate tempered perfectly, which was the first thing I did. Next will be either cherry cordials or maybe more divinity.
I feel much more confident in my ability to create perfect confections. Perfect every time. There are also a lot of recipes for confections I'd never considered, as well as ones I'd never heard of. All because I don't just know what I want to do, but how to do it, and why it works. Lots of history, interesting asides, and very clear instructions. All in all, a definite must-have.

just love love my new chocolate and confections book.
the pictures are so real you want to just eat the page the beautiful confections are on.
have been a chocolatier for over 20 years and yet there are so many tricks in this book i have just learned.
the recipes are so well explained and simplified that any home confectonier will excell in candy making with this wonderful book.
i have many many chocolate books and this is now my favorite!

I'm a candy-making noob, but this book enables newbies like me to turn out professional-looking treats. The sections are logical, easy to follow, and provide all manner of tips and scenarios to head off potential disasters. I've tried four recipes so far -filled chocolates, divinity, rochers and Turkish delight- ; only the delight defeated me (I'll be trying again to get it right, but the waste of pistachios made me weep). The other three turned out perfectly. I won't say the feeling was like the high I got when I baked my first loaf of bread, but it was close. I'll be going through all of the recipes eventually. This is a great cookbook!

This book is very easy to understand. I am able to make anything in the book at home. Many of the books I have seen call for ingredients that are very hard to get or some of the steps are missing vital parts. This book has all of the little steps you need to do to ensure that the recipe comes out great. The pictures are also very nice. As a chef I am very happy that I have this book in my collection.

I highly recommend this book. Besides the great recipes and plenty of beautiful photographs, this book explains what to do when things go wrong. While other books I have also explain how to temper chocolate, they end with "test for temper". This book goes into what to do when the chocolate is NOT tempered and how to easily fix it.

The first recipe I tried was the peanut butter cups (level 3 in difficulty) and they came out beautifully the first time. My family loved them, although they do not like Reese's peanut butter cups. They really noticed the difference in flavor when quality ingredients are used.

If I could only have one chocolate book, this would be IT.

On a little side note, before I started making chocolates, I was concerned about the amount of wasted chocolate, but I solved the problem by "cleaning" my chocolate bowl with hot milk--delicious. Also, leftover peanut butter filling tastes wonderful over vanilla ice cream.

Just checked this book out at the library and was very impressed - it has really neat candy recipes in it that I haven't seen anywhere else (hard-candy covered fruit, meltaways, pectin jellies, nougats, sugar confit fruit, taffy, etc), very good descriptions and helpful tips.

This book simplifies making chocolates and confections for the nonprofessional home candy maker who does not know or much care to know about the chemical reaction on a molecular level of chocolate or sugar while trying to make something that looks and tastes good. It is a beautiful book.

I bought this book mostly for the various truffle recipes it contained, but I'm very excited about all of its offerings now that I've had a chance to glance through it. Each section has a great introduction which includes detailed instructions about the techniques involved in the recipes that follow. In fact, using the tempering instructions in this book, I have finally been consistently successful in tempering my chocolate!

Even if you don't need a lot of new recipes, the techniques alone would make this a good book, but who can resist peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate (Buckeyes), candied fruit (which I never even thought about trying before, but now I'm excited to make), green tea truffles, etc. Such a good book!

I just picked this book up a few days ago specifically for chocolates and truffles. I found the techniques and instructions very clear and easy to follow. This is not a normal cookbook in that the first part of the book covers the techniques and the overall "whys" of how to make candy. Just before you get into any recipes, the author goes over all the techniques that would be required and what to do when there are mistakes, as well as covering some of the pitfalls. Each recipe is very thorough and easy to follow. At the end of the recipe there are also some "troubleshooting" and tips. So if you find yourself in a situation like the single reviewer that rated this book poorly, the answers are in the book and clearly explained prior to the recipes. I have yet to move on to the nougats and other recipes in this book but after trying out 3 of the recipes for truffles, I can only imagine how awesome the other recipes will turn out.

Of ALL the chocolate books I have; this is the best I how have.
Very easy to follow, great varity in types to make. If you are a chocolate lover, maker, this is one you MUST have. How can you go wrong with the CIA.