Customer Reviews

Death By Chocolate Cookies

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a beautiful book. The photography is truly amazing. However, I have found a number of inconsistencies and what can only be called mistakes in the recipes themselves. For example: in the Chocolate Caramel Puffs, the recipe claims that 1/8th of a teaspoon of lemon juice will make 1/2 cup of sugar look like "wet sand." Go ahead... measure it out and try it. As this is somewhat a central part of the recipe (and affects the caramelization of the sugar) the alterations necessary to achieve the desired consistency make following the recipe a bit difficult. I have noticed similar problems with other recipes, particularly ones that call for chocolate ganaches. I recommend it with hesitation, and should only be considered by expert cooks with a LOT of equipment.

I have read the previous reviews and I am puzzled. I do not like this book at all. I have never written a review before but this book drove me to it. I am an experienced baker and tried two recipes following the instructions carefully. Both failed miserably and I am not willing to waste the butter, or more importantly, the chocolate, to try another.
My first attempt was the Paisely Brownies. The recipe called for 12 ounces of butter (yes, ounces, not tablespoons). While nervous about 3/4 of a pound of butter going into essentially a double batch of brownie batter, I forged ahead. What I got was incredible greasy brownies with a gummy raspberry topping. I figured the butter amount must have been a typo so I tried again with 12 TABLESPOONS of butter and while the brownies were less greasy, they were still mushy in the middle with a gummy raspberry topping. Next I tried the Topsy Turvys (didn't even get around to making the sorbet or the pineapple topping). Each attempt to mold the baked cookie into bowl shapes yielded greasy messes on my counter. Perhaps I got the two dogs out of the whole bunch but as I have said before, I'm not willing to waste any more butter, chocolate, parchment paper, etc. on any of his recipes.

Yes, you do need equipment. Yes, you do need to know what you're doing. The results are fabulous, though. The Chocolate Dalmatians instantly became my favorite chocolate chip cookie (don't even think of trying them unless you have a heavy-duty countertop mixer -- these babies will tax the best hand-held model). I've always made good cookies, but these are incredible!

Such beautiful pictures, and they are great inspiration. Makes you want to spend the day in the kitchen. There it ends. I tried the white chocolate-candy cane recipe twice. It just doesn't work. We (I have a professional kitchen) added flour to make a manageable batter, but after baking could not get them off the baking sheet. More adjustments, and finally succeeded in making a cookie that no one liked. We also tried the two layer desert with brownie bottom. Expensive mess. The beautiful photographs are worthy of framing or put the whole book on your coffee table.

I LOVE this book. It has become, over the years, one of my favorite dessert books. There are several recipes that I (or my girls) have made over and over and they have now become favorites. My kids' teachers drool over the cookies in their lunch boxes, and have requested them for their class parties. Some of our "tried and true" recipes include the Road Trip Cookies, Chocolate Oatmeal Roundup Cookies, Chocolate Boulders, Mrs. D's Chocolate Chip Cookies, Franny's Big Bottom Pies (which I also made ice cream sandwiches from), White Chocolate Snow Caps, and Chocolate Hazelnut Espresso Biscotti. I have had only one recipe to be a total bust, and that was the fudge. All in all, though, I feel confident that when I try a new recipe, it will work. My only caution would be in his recommendations for salt--to my taste it is a little too much and I usually cut the amount called for in half and I find it to be just right.

I've had great success with the "Chocolate Crack Ups" and the Bengal cookies BUT have been stymied by the "Chocolate Caramel Puffs". Such an alluring recipe but the puff dough recipe is either way off (typo in the book?) or the instructions are incomplete. It turns out as a thin batter which couldn't possibly be spooned onto a cookie sheet in twelve level tablespoons without immediately creating one level lake of batter (not "dough" as it's described) on said cookie sheet. I've looked up "choux pastry" in another book and it shows a photograph of a shiny dough which holds its shape and the ingredients had proportionately less liquid. So disappointing!! I'll keep trying but what a waste of good butter and eggs! Still, I think this book is certainly worthwhile. I just wish I could find a corrections and ammendments page on the web for it.

I purchased this title 3 years ago, and have made several of the recipes. I found that in each recipe Marcel included useful tips for streamlining construction, as well as for storage and selection of utensils. While I am not an accomplished chef, I can say that I have had a lot of success (based on feedback) in getting people to delight in the results of my labor. The person who wrote about inconsistencies in a few of the recipies refered to recipes I have not tried. I was surprised to read that criticism, because all the recipes I tried came out wonderful (if not looking exactly like the pictures in the book!) I would highly recommend this book. An easy recipe that is always a winner is for the Black Gold cookies.

I agree with Noah S Selsby that there could be some mistakes in the instructions. I tried out the Road Trip Cookies whereby one is told to use '3 heaping tablespoons of dough for each cookie'; a bit sceptical, I only used 1 heaping tablespoon for 1 cookie. I still got around 18 cookies,as mentioned in the recipe. So I think it was really '3 heaping teaspoons',not tablespoons.And the cookies ARE 'hefty' as warned in the book; 8 tablespoons finally filled the whole baking sheet! Imagine if I had used 3 tbsp instead! I only own 2 baking sheets, so cooking time was long. Agree totally with Noah S Selsby that recipes are good for a serious baker (meaning (s)he must own LOTS of equipment!) However, I am still a great fan of Mr Desaulniers' books and shows;been hooked on since I saw his creations on TV years ago!

We're talking Ecstasy on a platter. We're talking heaven itself. it can't get any better than this, and you'd better not be on a diet. As the author says, "if you should not be eating this, don't." But if you can, now, this is an experience worth every calorie and then some. Believe me. Try one recipe. You'll see I'm right!

Marcel Desaulniers has been kind enough to bequeath on the chocoholics of the world three divine books devoted to it: "Desserts to Die For" (which also, admittedly, has non-chocolate desserts), "Death by Chocolate Cakes," and this one, "Death by Chocolate Cookies." Chocolate lovers everywhere should count themselves lucky to have Mr. Desaulniers' sumptuous recipes at hand.

Desaulniers owns and runs Trellis, a southern restaurant at which he goes through more than three hundred pounds of chocolate (not to mention two hundred pounds of nuts) on a WEEKLY basis. He knows whereof he speaks, so listen up! It's important to read "Notes from Ganache Hill," which opens the book, and which has Desaulniers giving us the benefit of his experience on everything from butter vs. margarine (use butter, please, preferably unsalted), ovens and other equipment, and, of course, the different types of chocolate.

I love Desaulniers' sense of humor and imagination in naming his recipes: Chocolate Crack-Ups, Franny's Big Bottom Pies, Black Magic Cookies with Blackstrap Icing, and (my favorite) Successively Excessively Crunchy Peanut Butter Brownies. I can highly recommend my most favorite of all recipes in the book: the Black Gold Cookies. These have something like four teaspoons of chocolate for every 1 teaspoon of flour in the recipe! They are divinely, richly chocolatey and people sort of lose their minds eating them, recovering later only to whimper, "Wh--what happened? Where am I?" That's the sort of effect a Desaulniers dessert recipe will have on you.