Food Editore

What a lovely little book, chock full of delicious sounding recipes & mouth-watering photographs... all made with CHOCOLATE! This is one of the books I'll be using as a prize for the Books 4 Cooks Food Challenge. Every recipe has a nice color photo to go with... problem for me? Some of the photos look better than the actual recipe ingredients... LOL!

The contents are: Introduction; Dark Chocolate (Cakes, Desserts, & Tiny Treats); Milk & White Chocolate (Cakes, Desserts, & Tiny Treats); Cooking Techniques (but the page says Basic); Basic Tools; & Index. All this makes for over 378 pages of fantasy come to life happiness.

Dark Chocolate, a sampling:

Cakes: Apricot/pine nut cake w/ chocolate sauce; Bitter chocolate & almond torte; Flourless chocolate cake w/ Rum jelly & eucalyptus foam (? Thankfully the foam is served on the side); Spicy chocolate cake (chile flavored chocolate); Dark chocolate torte w/ almonds;Ricotta tart w/ chocolate; Apple cake w/ chips; & Pastry roses w/ chocolate cream.

Desserts: Strawberries on (chocolate covered) brioche w/ creme anglais; Spicy chocolate frappe; Chocolate pumpkin souffles; Mocha panna cotta; Ricotta & panettone pudding; Chocolate, coffee & almond trifle; Chocolate zuccotto; Chocolate honeycombs w/ pineapple & oragne sabayon; chocolate shells w/ vanilla cream & caramelized bananas, and dark chocolate mousse w/ sweet cream foam & mandarin sauce......

Tiny Treats: Muesli cookies w/ chcolate glaze & ginger; Chocolate vanilla caramels; Chocolate-covered cherries; Chocolate creme cookies; Rum-chocolate cups w/ mascarpone cream; Baked chocolate nut truffles; Sweet ravioli; Mini citrus yogurt cups; Mini layered cream tarts; blueberry & chocolate pastries; and chocolate covered torrone.

Milk & White Chocolate a sampling:

Cakes: white chocolate cake w/ pears; Citron & chocolate cake w/ white chocolate sauce; Carrot & pistachio cake w/ white chocolate-limoncello frosting; Carrot, chocolate & coconut cake; Ricotta tart w/ gianduiotti; chocolate hazelnut cake w/ dates & whipped topping; and milk chocolate citrus cake.

Desserts: Milk chocolate mousse; coconut granita w/ milk chocolate sauce; White chocolate mousse w/ lemom jelly (yum); Coffee Bavarian creams w/ two chocolate sauces; Jasmine infused white chocolate cream; White chocolate Bavarian cream w/ raspberries (I'd use blackberries); Blackberry cake w/ milk chocolate sauce; White chocolate coffee sauce; White chocolate & ginger sorbet w/ red currants; and Coffee cream millefueilles.

Tiny Treats: Eggplant & white chocolate mousse cups (? Really?); Milk chocolate cupcakes w/ honey, white rum & pistachios; Soft hazelnut torrone; Mini goats milk cheescakes; meringue & rum truffles; Chocolate wafers w/ white chocolate cream; Chocolate beignets w/ white chocolate mousse; Armagnac chocolates; White chocolate hazelnut cookies; Mixed berry tarts w/ white chocolate cream; and Miniature chocolate diplomat cakes.

Just a lovely book.... Makes me happy just to look at the photos & read the recipe names!… (mer)