The Essence Of Chocolate

The first cookbook from America's premier chocolate makers, Scharffen Berger Chocolate, features more than 100 spectacular--and often simple--recipes drawn from the company files and two dozen top pastry chefs.

A compact connoisseur's guide, with recipes, to today's cutting-edge array of chocolates and chocolate makers from former Chez Panisse pastry chef David Lebovitz. In this compact volume, David Lebovitz gives a succinct cacao botany lesson, explains the process of chocolate making, runs through chocolate terminology and types, presents information on health benefits, offers an evaluating and buying primer, profiles the world's top chocolate makers and chocolatiers (with a whole chapter dedicated to Paris alone!), and shares dozens of little-known factoids in sidebars throughout the book. The Great Book of Chocolate includes more than 50 location and food photographs, and features more than 30 of Lebovitz's favorite chocolate recipes‚ from Black-Bottom Cupcakes to Homemade Rocky Road Candy, Orange and Rum Chocolate Mousse Cake to Double Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies. His extensive resource section (with websites for international ordering) can bring the world's best chocolate to every door. A self-avowed chocoholic, Lebovitz nibbles chocolate every day‚ and with The Great Book of Chocolate in hand, he figures the rest of us will too.

The most stylish, approachable, and mouth-watering chocolate cookbook ever, from award-winning chocolatier Fran Bigelow In 1982, Fran Bigelow proudly opened the doors to Fran’s Chocolates, a boutique storefront styled after European chocolate salons, where she could showcase the pure flavors of the exquisite confections she had spent years perfecting. Chocolate lovers in Seattle immediately beat a path to Madison Street to taste desserts as wonderful as anything in Paris or Belgium. Over the past two decades, Fran Bigelow has grown into a world-class chocolatier, operating two elegant shops that enjoy cult status in Seattle and beyond, by way of her mail-order and Internet business. Now, in her debut cookbook, Fran reveals the magic behind her addictive creations: how she manipulates a few ingredients—butter, cream, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, and nuts—to create sublime textures and highlight pure flavors in her elegant modern desserts. The seventy-five recipes included here range from extravagant celebration cakes and holiday specialties (White Chocolate Torte or Souffléd Chocolate Mocha Roll); to European style fruit and nut tarts (Chocolate Cherry Tart or Milk Chocolate Crème Fraîche Tart), soufflés, cheesecakes (White Chocolate Brie Cheesecake, a Fran specialty), homemade ice creams (Dark Chocolate and Ginger Bombe), and extraordinary renditions of American classics, including brownies, chocolate cookies, the ultimate hot fudge sauce, and a chocolate milkshake that will instantly transport you back to childhood. Fran also tells you everything you need to know about chocolate, from the different styles of chocolate-making employed in Europe, South America, and the U.S. (and how each result in different flavors), to deciphering labels (which ingredients enhance meltability, for example), and how the amount of cocoa in different brands and styles of chocolate influences the final taste of a dessert. You will learn how to taste a truffle—preferably in two bites—and the language of chocolate “signs,” the squiggles atop candies. Recipes for some of Fran’s award-winning confections are also included here: chocolate cherries and nut clusters; chocolate stuffed fruits; easy cocoa-dusted truffles; and more ambitious dipped truffles featuring liqueurs, coffee, vanilla, and other chocolate-friendly ingredients; and chocolate fondue, a perfect party dessert for children and adults alike. Whether you are a cocoa connoisseur or devotee of the cacao bean with cravings that won’t quit,Pure Chocolateis a must-have for any chocolate aficionado.

A timely book about how it feels to be teased and taunted, and how each of us is sweet and lovely and delicious on the inside, no matter how we look. The boy is teased for looking different than the other kids. His skin is darker, his hair curlier. He tells his mother he wishes he could be more like everyone else. And she helps him to see how beautiful he really, truly is. For years before they both achieved acclaim in their respective professions, good friends Taye Diggs and Shane W. Evans wanted to collaborate on Chocolate Me!, a book based on experiences of feeling different and trying to fit in as kids. Now, both men are fathers and see more than ever the need for a picture book that encourages all people, especially kids, to love themselves.

Treat yourself to 77 true stories that celebrate life and capture the essence of what it means to be a woman. Like chocolate, these stories soothe, satisfy, and delight -- better yet, they're good for you! Written by and for women, here are heartfelt insights on commitment, compassion, work, marriage, friendship, motherhood, love, courage, spirituality, passion, and dozens of other topics. Contributors share their most personal experiences -- funny, poignant, powerful, and uplifting -- as they inspire you to jump-start your own life, discover your talents and vocations, overcome old fears, find love, and let your dreams take flight. Like a box of chocolates, this book can be enjoyed in one sitting, or you can pick out treats at random and savor them one at a time. Whether you want a good laugh or need a good cry, the perfect "chocolate story" is right here, waiting for you!

AAH! CHOCOLATE by Celebrity Chef Sanjeev Kapoor will make chocolate lovers gush and go all dreamy. The content for each recipe in this book is written keeping in mind the wonderful things that chocolate can do. Cooking with chocolate is not that difficult as one would imagine and on reading the recipes in AAH! CHOCOLATE even young cooks will feel encouraged to try their hand at creating some comforting chocolate delights. So if your world is ruled by luxuriously wicked chocolate, indulge in a beverage like Spiced Hot Chocolate; gift a few Millionaire Chocolate Brownies, or then please your friends and loved ones with boxes of Caramel Centered Chocolates and Pralines. All-time favourites for avid bakers like Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chocolate Macaroons are guaranteed to cause great thrill! Desserts and mithais like Chocolate Kulfi and Chocolate Chikki demonstrate how well Indian food takes to chocolate and, the cherry on top of the cake, is the choices for chocolate lovers who could even start their day with chocolate! Yes, there are breakfast options like Chocolate Pancakes, Chocolate Danish...few of many people’s favourite things! Treasure this collection of chocolate recipes for all times to come... for this sweet little confectionery is here to stay and we will have numerous occasions to rejoice...

Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf? Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He's fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would. Vivian's divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either. What is she really--human or beast? Which tastes sweeter--blood or chocolate?

Renowned French pastry chef Pierre Hermé displays his artistic mastery in this homage to chocolate through recipes that highlight the diversity of the world’s favorite ingredient in all its forms. Nicknamed the "Picasso of Pastry" by Vogue magazine, master pâtissier Pierre Hermé has revolutionized traditional pastry-making. Insatiably creative, in this new volume Hermé returns to his first passion—chocolate. Retracing his passionate love affair with the versatile cacao bean, this work reveals daring creations that display the celebrated pastry chef’s signature innovative style, which has transformed the realm of pâtisserie. It includes thirty-five recipes, from original combinations such as chocolate, banana, and ginger cake or chocolate and lemon madeleines to rich, iconic desserts like his Infiniment Chocolat Baba Cake, Infiniment Chocolat Macaron, or yuzu-flavored Éclair Azur. Following an intense, synergetic collaboration with photographer Sergio Coimbra, this unique book pays homage to the purity and simplicity of chocolate and its diverse forms and textures. Under Coimbra’s lens, every facet of chocolate is captured in its essence, tempting the reader to enjoy the myriad delights that constitute Pierre Hermé’s extraordinary chocolate repertoire.