Customer Reviews

Spago Chocolate

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

 

 

Mary Bergin has a real winner on her hands. This book sticks to its subject, chocolate! The recipes, most accompanied by great pictures, are written to be realistic for the home cook. She rarely strays away chocolate-intense recipes, unlike some recent books which include almost-impossible-to-do-at-home and white chocolate recipes (yechh! ). Recipes include the presently popular chocolate lava cake, chocolate bundt cake, cookies, and a chocolate chiffon cake that is used in a number of ways. This would be a great present for the chocolate-lover dear to your heart.

This is a great book to have if you're looking for a variety of chocolate desserts. The restaurant Spago has always been well known for their desserts and what makes their dessert cookbooks so appealing is that the experienced home cook can execute these recipes so long as they can access the ingredients and cooking equipment. However, it's important that the home cook have some experience with the science of baking and tempering before attempting these desserts.

The desserts I tried were Chocolate Chiffon Cake, Special Occasion Mascarpone Layer Cake and Fudgy Chocolate Cake. The Fudgy Chocolate Cake took almost an hour and a half to bake (the book instructed just 45 minutes and at that point, only the top and sides were cooked) resulting in a very dry, dense cake that desperately screamed "Got milk?"

For the Mascarpone Layer Cake, the mascarpone filling asked for two gelatin sheets. There were two problems with the gelatin sheets. One: It was almost impossible to dissolve two gelatin sheets into just two tablespoons of warm liquid. And the recipe did not instruct us to presoak the sheets. Two: Two gelatin sheets were not enough. The filling was too runny. I had to use an additional two.

As with any cookbook, carefully read through the ingredients and actual execution of the recipe. It may not turn out just right the first time, but if you're willing to take notes and attempt the recipe again, it'll be a piece of cake.

The hardest part of this cookbook for me is deciding what to make from it! From the versatile chocolate chiffon cake to the incredible mocha mousse, this cookbook is devine. The Florida chocolate dipped coconut patties have become one of my standbys. I have made tons of recipes from this book, and not only have I never had a problem with them, they are the recipes my guests clamor for again and again!

I don't know how these recipes turn out at Spago, but I don't believe they were ever tested in home kitchens! I've tried three different recipes and each had problems. The chocolate peanut butter brownies overflowed my 8-inch pan (you would think that knowing there was so much batter, the authors might have specified a larger or higher pan). The Marbled Pound Cake was dry beyond belief, and half of the Fudgy Chocolate Cake remained stuck to the bundt pan, despite proper buttering and flouring. When I made it a second time in another pan, it was still difficult to remove because it was so fragile.

It's a shame, because that same fudgy cake had delicious batter, and some of the ideas are fabulous. But I don't have time to experiment with very expensive ingredients. Or spend money on a book full of expensive ideas, rather than recipes.

If you like the idea of using Mary Bergin's recipes, try to get them off the internet. I made the chocolate truffle cake off a Food Network recipe (she was a guest chef) and it worked out very well. I tried to make it again using this book and it did not work.

For the marble pound cake, the instructions indicated that a double recipe would work in a 10 inch bundt. There was way too much batter - so much that it would not even fit in the pan so I used about 2\3 of the batter. Also, the instructions called for twice the amount of cocoa in the chocolate part than should be suggested. If I had used the suggested amount, I would have had pound cake mixed with brownies. Finally, the temperature suggested was too high for a cake that dense. The top burned and the center was raw when I removed it from the oven. There are serious deficiencies in this book - I suggest you find another chocolate recipe resource.

If this book could receive a zero star rating, than that would more accurately reflect my personal rating. I have attempted many of the cake recipes in this book. While the directions seem to be clear and complete, the end results are disasterous. In one recipe, I have tried this 4 separate times following the directions as instructed but all 4 attempts have had bad results. I have tried other recipes in this book for cakes with poor results as well. I have taken several cooking and baking classes so I am confident that it is not my technique and that something is amiss with either the directions or the ingredients. This is the only cookbook in my collection that has been permanently discarded.

Desserts at Spago are a very big deal. This cookbook is a collection of the more popular chocolate desserts translated for the home kitchen by Spago's executive pastry chef. On the whole, the author has done a pretty good job of adaptation. The result is a decent, but not exceptional chocolate cookbook.

The gold dust jacket and famous name of this book at first made me skeptical. I was impressed, however, by the well chosen selection of recipes. Virtually all of them are good ones that are worth doing; there are very few bad ones that are to be ignored. The only ones I had trouble with were the ice creams, since I do not have an ice cream machine. One can quibble here and there (chocolate mousse without gelatin; some of the candies were terrible), but the overall quality of the recipes is very high. Each recipe has a list of equipment that is required, and also a note as to where the stopping points are.

It has the following chapters, each with about a dozen recipes: cakes; small cakes, crepes, and pastries; cookies and candies; pies, tarts, and cheesecakes; souffles, brulees, pots de cremes, and other creamy desserts; frozen desserts; fillings and sauces.

On the negative side, there are a surprising large number of deficiencies. A large stand mixer and food processor are required; there are no alternate instructions for manual mixing and preparation. Some of the recipes are simple, while others require a fair amount of skill; some sort of rating system would be helpful for the home cook. The food styling in the photos often do not match the decorating instructions in the recipes, such as a Gateau St. Honore pastry tip used to decorate the photo of the Meringue Napoleon. Many recipes require whipping egg whites or folding, yet there are no detailed instructions for the home cook as to how to do these things. About half of the recipes are lax when specifying when something is finished baking or properly whipped; the cooking instructions for sauces in the last chapter are particularly large offenders in this area. The chapter on cakes seems to imply that regular and non-stick cake pans are interchangeable; they are not, since the oven temperature and baking times will change. It would also be nice to know what brands of chocolate were used in developing the recipes. Information about flour measurement, egg size, and cocoa type is in a small section buried at the back of the book that is easily overlooked (where you will also find a very good list of equipment needed to do the recipes in the book). Also absent is information on how to cut the various baked goods: serrated knife, French chef knife, wet knife, dry and hot knife, angel food knife, etc.

I've made quite a few desserts out of this cookbook and they were all fabulous. The Fudgy chocolate cake is so incredible. You have to be precise and follow the recipes perfectly to get the end result, but when you do they are wonderful. The chocolate mousse, chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter brownies are to die for. I have to say I made some goof ups on some first tries and learned from my mistakes. For example, the peanut butter brownies overflowed the first time. I put a little less batter in the second time. The Fudgy Chocolate cake should not jiggle when you take it out of the oven. One of my pans seems to cook to the temp/time given and another you have to cook it about 10 minutes longer to get the same result. I now have four kids under the age of four and now find myself using the Cake Mix Doctor more to make cakes, but long to cook one of my favorite recipes out of this book.

This is one of the best dessert cookbooks I have in my library. I've been baking since I was five when I started out cracking eggs in my Grandmother's restaurant. She taught me much about patience and paying strict attention to detail. She also taught me that if it was a humid day that I needed to be more careful and selective about what I wanted to bake that day and how to buy the very best and freshest flour and other ingredients. You must start with the very best ingredients to do these recipes justice. Before attempting the more difficult or unfamiliar recipes in this cookbook, one must really be familiar with all the basic baking techniques. If you use a measuring cup meant for liquids to measure out your flour you are headed for disaster. Yes, these are simple, well known rules but it is surprising how a litle mistake can mean the difference between success and failure. You should also know how to buy, store and temper chocolate for the recipes you are making. This is not a cookbook for the faint of heart but if you are willing to dive in and indulge yourself this book can be great fun. If you don't enjoy this cookbook and aren't successful with it, sell it back on Amazon and move on. Spending precious energy beating a dead horse doesn't help you and won't effect the sale of this book. Try another book:-)

This is one of the staples in my baking cookbooks. We have never found a chocolate cake as good, moist and easy to bake and modify as this one. My husband calls out for this cake. The other recipes that I have tried are also quite good. The only other cake cookbook that I would recommend is the Cake Bible, which is superb.