Customer Reviews

The Art of Chocolate: Techniques and Recipes for Simply Spectacular Desserts and Confections

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When I got interested in learning how to work with chocolate I bought a few books and some video tapes about it. This is by far the best book I bought. It is so simple to understand and it took away my fears of tempering. All the supplies you need are listed here, as well as where to get them. I purchased items from one of the suppliers in the book and found some great prices! I would say this is a must have for anyone who likes to work with chocolate!

First, let me be clear as to what this book is not. It is not a basic cookbook full of recipes for toll house cookies, fudgey brownies, or chocolate birthday cakes. It certainly is not a cookbook for the casual cook who wants to make a chocolate dessert for an informal Sunday dinner. It is a mostly reliable instruction manual for producing impressive and artistic chocolate creations.

This book is an excellent introduction to the fine art of chocolate patisserie. It will lead the motivated reader to produce elegant presentations, table centerpieces, etc. It will be a great advantage if the reader is already an accomplished home baker. If you are, the procedures can be successfully followed. The recipes and instructions are clear, and give you all of the detail and explanations you need. Do not be fooled, however: the recipes require time, patience, and lots of practice. In the end, you will be able to create products that can be sold at the local bakery, and you will be able to fool people into thinking that you are a professional pastry chef.

On the other hand, this book does have a few flaws. All the recipes depend on presentation and looks; therefore, all recipes should have a picture to show you what your end product should look like. Several recipes (including Mouse Truffles, Twig Basket, Teardrop Dessert Cups), however, do not have any pictures, and the reader is mostly clueless as what the recipe should look like. At one point, the author states that one should start with the easier projects. Unfortunately, none of the recipes are rated as to which ones are hard, and which are easy, nor is there a list of recommended recipes for beginners. Also, several procedures, such as chocolate roses and chocolate birds, describe fairly complex procedures, and need a series of detailed pictures to illustrate the steps described in the recipe, but none are forthcoming. The last chapter on basic recipes for cakes, frostings, and sauces should be the first chapter.

There are also a couple of interesting points. It is the only source I know of that has substitution lists for substituting cocoa powder or unsweetened chocolate for semisweet chocolate. It also is the only cookbook that consistently recommends chocolate substitutes when it is necessary and produces better results than ordinary chocolate.

The book contains the following sections: 1) Ingredients and Tools, 2) Melting and Tempering Chocolate, 3) Spectacular Chocolate Confections, 4) Chocolate Magic Tricks, 5) Spectacular Chocolate Gifts, 6) Spectacular Chocolate Cakes and Desserts, 7) Basic Cakes, Fillings, Frostings, and Sauces.

All things considered, it is an impressive instruction manual that is a reasonable substitute for taking a course in chocolate patisserie at the local JC or cooking school. If it had a few more pictures (like Jacques Pepin's "Complete Techniques) I would be happy to call it a textbook destined for immortality.

It should be noted that the author is a genuine chocolate expert. She teaches master's classes and leads chocolate tours to the cacao plantations in central and south america. She is not just another cookbook author who has decided to add a chocolate cookbook to her resume (which is a defect of several popular chocolate cookbooks, including "Chocolate Ecstasy").

Buy the book and necessary supplies, follow Elaine's expert instructions, and you can develop into a master chocolate maker. The book is a masterpiece in itself. It encapsulates Elaine's 20 years of experience and knowledge with very detailed instructions, beautiful pictures, invaluable references, and scrumptious recipes.

She starts with the basics explaining types of chocolate, ingredients and tools, then goes into the details of various tempering methods. With these basics behind you, you then progress into chocolate confections including medallions, caramel pecan patties, truffles, dipped strawberries, peanut butter meltaways and butter pecan toffee - of course, all include ample amounts of chocolate.

Next comes more than a dozen chocolate magic tricks including molding chocolate, chocolate plates, shells, bowls, boxes, cups, leaves, bows, flowers, tree bark and cutouts. Then, building on these tricks, she makes even more exquisite chocolate art into baskets, decorated boxes, fancy eggs, and fabulous centerpieces.

She shows you how to make your chocolate cakes and desserts even more spectacular by combining various colorings and chocolate shapes creating new art forms. Then she includes a great selection of high-quality recipes for cakes, fillings, frostings, and sauces.

Then, if that's not enough, there's a complete bibliography, glossary, mail-order sources, and several conversion charts customized for chocolate. Everyone who's serious about removing the mystery of chocolate art should certainly have and use this book. Elaine, thank you for inspiring and releasing some of my hidden artistic talents.

The Art of Chocolate is a beautiful and well written book. The techniques used make is simple for anyone interested in learning the art and science of working with chocolate a breeze. Bravo Elaine!!!

As a pastry chef I too can learn from such a great and wonderful book! Elaine does it all in this easy to use and follow book! I recomend it to all my students! Cant wait for another book!

This book takes you to new heights in learning how to create with chocolate. There has always been a great love of chocolate by all people. Ms. Gonzalez helps us all love it more.

This is a great book for the chocolate lovers out there. Great instructions and explanations with lots of wonderful photographs. List of suppliers of chocolate at end of the book.

I tried The Chocolate Lovers' Cookbook, a compilation by Juliet Cobb and ever since then, a great Chocoholic. As some ingredients were not available in town, I grabbed this book 'Art of Chocolates: Techniques & Recipes from a friend. The books says in detail:
Start to Finish -
Ingredients and Tools
Melting and Tempering Chocolate
Spectacular Chocolate Confections
Chocolate Magic Tricks
Spectacular Chocolate Gifts
Spectacular Chocolate Cakes and Desserts
Basic Cakes, Fillings, Frostings, and Sauces

Easier to go through step by step with simple Instructions. The magic tricks are great I like most because once you make a chocolate, the appear has to be cool. So here's a mould,chocolate plates, bowls, boxes, cups, leaves, bows, flowers, tree bark various cutouts.Chocolate baskets, decorated boxes and various tricks is sure catchy. Of coz, some ingredients fall short in India, there's always some substitutes to use and I find it much easier to try my hand on one or two recipe but yeah, reading is cool n the taste touches the sweet tooth jes seeing the pics. A good pick.

I am very happy with this book. I want to work more with presentation, and make my product more eye-appealing. The instructions in this book are pretty clear. However I, like another reviewer, would have liked to have seen more pictures of the completed project. I am still very happy with this book.

This is the only book I've read that absolutely takes the mystery out of tempering chocolate. My many questions about tempering were not answered by other books or research on the Internet. The author's description includes three methods and, most importantly, the rationale for using each one. She gives important information which is the culmination of years of experience. This book and The Chocolate Bible by Christian Teubner are the essentials for anyone interested in learning how to work with chocolate.