Chocolate recipe book reviews is a bit of a misnomer really. I just liked the snappy title. They are all cookbooks; they are even all of the same size, but there the similarities end. The fact that all of them contain recipes for chocolate is, of course, a given.
I can’t resist a book about chocolate. In fact I have a whole shelf of them. They’re mostly recipe books, but some are just about this seductive food of the gods and some are pure fiction. I have a few chocolate recipe book reviews in my post, latest editions to my chocolate bookshelf. And here are just a few more.
Chocolate at Home by Will Torrent
Instagram is a wonderful thing. It gives a real insight into what’s important in people’s lives. It’s so visual and so immediate, it has become a firm favourite with me. It was here I first came across the talented pastry chef, Will Torrent. Will may not love chocolate more than I do, but he certainly knows a lot more about it and has the expertise to fashion it into all sorts of wondrous creations.
Chocolate at Home is a cookbook of sorts, but it’s really a guide on how to master the art of chocolate. Having said that, there are a whole heap of exquisite chocolate recipes to try.
Chocolate at Home
Will kindly sent me a copy of his recently published, Chocolate at Home: step by step recipes to help you master the art of chocolate to review. As you can probably tell from the book’s subtitle, simplicity and clarity are the keynotes of the book. Will tells us that we can all make our own masterpieces at home, with a little help from him.
Looking at some of the recipes in the book, I’m rather hoping he’s right, they are original and exciting – peanut butter & raspberry jelly truffles anyone?
After a brief introduction, including where chocolate comes from and how it’s made, Will mentions the dark arts of tempering. I have struggled with tempering since I first tried it. It’s been a rather hit and miss affair.
Will makes it sound rather simple and gives illustrated step by step guidance on the different methods of achieving tempered chocolate. He then goes on to cover moulding, dipping and making ganache. It is then the recipes commence. And oh, they do sound good.
Truffles
The chapter on chocolates and truffles starts with a classic truffle, followed by champagne truffles and then goes on to all sorts of more unusual delights. Whiskey and ginger barrels were just what CT and I needed when we were ill for so long over Christmas, I’m sure they would have sorted us out.
Amaretto and toasted marzipan truffles sound too good not to try and Earl Grey and orange marmalade truffles would be perfect for my mother.
Baking
The next chapter is all about cookies, biscuits and bakes; it includes tried and tested favourites such as chocolate chip cookies, novelties such as roasted cacao nib & lavender tuile shards and twists on some classics.
White chocolate & passion fruit ‘custard creams’ sound quite exotic and on another plain entirely from the rather humdrum custard cream biscuit we all know so well. My eye is very firmly on a recipe for spiced white chocolate & blackcurrant crumble cake which would be a brilliant vehicle for my chilli blackcurrant jam.
Puddings & Desserts
Such delights as white chocolate, coconut rice pudding with caramelised mango await in the chapter on desserts and puddings. Sophisticated apricot & rosemary délice resides alongside the more humble steamed chocolate pudding & custard. Comfort food par excellence.
The last chapter is on drinks and ice creams. As soon as I opened it, I wanted to rush down to the kitchen to make gingerbread hot chocolate. What could be more enticing on a cold and grey winter’s day? The ice cream, I find less enticing at this time of year, but I’m sure warmer weather will soon come and I’ll be keen to try out Will’s recipe for white chocolate, orange & cinnamon sorbet.
Photographs
The photographs from Jonathan Gregson, are the sort that make you want to lick the page. Or is that just me? Gorgeously dark, but so inviting, they capture the essence of chocolate compulsion.
We’re doubly blessed. Not only are the pictures art in their own right, but there is, unusually, one for every recipe in the book. Pictures of chocolate in its various forms abound, with molten chocolate flowing in sensuous and copious quantities.
What Did I Try?
I dived in soon after receiving the book and made a chocolate layer cake. It was fabulous. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to decide what to make next. I can’t help it, I do like a good cookbook. And this is one I’m very pleased to add to my collection.
Chocolat by Eric Lanlard
The subtitle of this book, seductive recipes for bakes, desserts, truffles and other treats says it all really. If you know anything about Eric Lanlard you will know that moderation, when it comes to ingredients, is not his strong point – something I heartily approve of.
Last month’s We Should Cocoa was all about making chocolate cakes for £1. These recipes go to the other extreme. The book screams indulgence and my goodness what a lot of mouth watering recipes there are.
Eric starts off with a brief history of chocolate. Given the extraordinary and long history of chocolate, this one page summary really is rather brief,. But it will no doubt be interesting to those who have little knowledge of it. In the context of this work, it’s absolutely fine; it’s a book of recipes not a treatise on chocolate.
Next up is a short section on working with chocolate which includes melting and tempering. Again, there isn’t a great deal of detail given, but the basics are there.
The main part of the book is divided into four chapters: From the Bakery, Desserts & Puddings, Truffles & Treats, Drinks, Spreads & Sauces.
Chocolat Recipes
Here are some recipes that took my fancy: white chocolate and passion fruit cheesecake would make a perfect dessert for a dinner party; salted butter caramel cake is on my absolutely must bake list; pink fizz champagne truffles are surely an essential for any wedding and I’m planning on drinking my way through the swathe of cocktails, shakes and hot chocolates.
As you can imagine, the photographs look absolutely sumptuous and I was pleased to see there were a lot of them. Not every single recipe has an accompanying picture, but the vast majority of them do. I defy anyone not to crave something dark and decadent after viewing any one of them.
I’ve made a number of recipes from this book and they’ve all proved to be a rip-roaring success. Last year I made the dark chocolate moelleux for a Liskeard event and it was one of the first cakes to disappear. It’s a large rich, dark and very tasty chocolate sponge. There’s chocolate buttercream in the middle and dark chocolate ganache on the top. You can then top it with as much summer fruit as you want.
For the same event I adapted Eric’s recipe for white chocolate strawberry tarts. These also proved to be extremely popular and disappeared rather fast. I’d already played around with making some white chocolate raspberry tarts based on the same recipe, so I knew they were good.
An enriched sweet pastry is filled with strawberry compote, topped with a white chocolate Chantilly cream and then decorated with strawberries. The Chantilly cream works wonderfully with fruit and I’ve used it on a number of occasions since.
White chocolate and lemon madeleines are another recipe I’ve tried. Like the others, I never got around to writing them up. Oh the life of a busy chocolate blogger! Again the recipe worked extremely well. Not only were they very tasty, but they had the classic foot too, which isn’t something that always happens with madeleine recipes in my experience.
Everyone needs a book of indulgent chocolate treats I reckon and this is one well worth having. This 176 pages of sumptuousness is published by Octopus Books as a hardback and retails at £18.99
Chocolate by Jennifer Donovan
Compared to the previous book, the recipes and photographs in Chocolate are more restrained and less extravagant. The subtitle, heavenly recipes for desserts, cakes and other divine treats is still highly applicable though.
I’d not come across the author Jeniifer Donovan before receiving this book, so I was interested to find out about her. She was born in in Australia, but now teaches cooking in London. She has written several cookbooks including The Big Book of Chocolate – gosh!
The introduction briefly describes what chocolate is, how to store it and how to cook with it. Tempering is mentioned but not described, which seems a little strange for a book all about chocolate. This is followed by a few basic recipes such as shortcrust pastry, chocolate custard and caramel sauce.
Chocolate Chapters
The main recipes are divided into seven chapters: Quick-Fix-Desserts, Chocolate Heaven Desserts, Cakes & Bakes, Pastries & Puddings, Ices, Chocolate Treats & Drinks and Sauces, Icings & Frostings. After the index there is a handy page to make your own notes on, something I’d find useful as I don’t like to spoil books by scribbling all over the recipes. I am a Librarian by training after all.
As I haven’t had the book as long as Chocolat, I’ve only made a couple of the recipes so far. I have, however bookmarked many of them. I made chocolate scotch pancakes for Pancake Day. They worked well and were thoroughly delicious, especially smothered, as they were, with maple syrup and nectarines.
Recipe Update 2022
I’ve subsequently changed the recipe entirely and they are now vegan chocolate banana pancakes. They’re just as good though, if not better than the original.
Chocolate & chestnut mess sounds like an excellent alternative (or addition) to the Christmas Day pud and one that I might be trying this year. A handy tip for making some rather striking mini white chocolate cheesecakes is to line a muffin tray with a strip of paper so you can lift the finished cheesecakes out easily without damaging them. I absolutely have to try the chocolate ricotta cake I spotted.
I’m still unsure as to the combination of dark chocolate and lemon, so I might need to make the tangy lemon and chocolate tarts to help me decide. Chocolate sorbet, however, has long been on my to make list, so I was pleased to see a recipe for it in the Ices section.
Peanut butter & milk chocolate truffles sound quite unsophisticated compared to the cranberry & port truffles, but just the thing I’d find quite scrumptious. In my book, you can never have too many sauce and icing recipes, so chocolate rum frosting here I come.
If you like coconut, as we do, these chocolate cherry macaroons are rather moreish, though the glacé cherries did make them quite sweet. This was the first time I’ve every made coconut macaroons using coconut cream. This gave an extra dimension to the general coconuttiness and made these macaroons more sophisticated than your average.
I was surprised to see that the recipes in this book have no introduction. This is something I take as a given in any serious cookery book. A little note from the author giving some background information or stating why they like a particular recipe makes a big difference when choosing a recipe to make. It also personalises the book making it an interesting read in its own right, rather than just a collection of recipes.
This is a good book for cooks who have some experience but want to increase their recipe repertoire.
Published by Duncan Baird in 2013, this is a hardback with 207 pages and retails at £14.99.
Paris Pastry Club by Fanny Zanotti
Whilst not exactly a chocolate book, this is all about the sweet stuff and does include a fair few chocolate recipes. Sumptuous was the word that sprang to mind when I first saw the book.
Like Eric Lanlard’s Chocolat, the recipes are rich and indulgent and the photographs leave you in no doubt of this fact. I guess it must be that French love of butter, cream and other naughty fare – oh la-la!
I can’t be far wrong because the subtitle here reads: a collection of cakes, tarts, pastries and other indulgent recipes. Fanny is a pastry chef who grew up in France, has travelled the world and now lives and works in London. This is her first book.
As you can see from the front cover, Fanny has a sense of fun. I found it quite a delightful read. The book is “served” by the author with the following recipe:
- 150g kneading
- 100g piping
- 120g whipping
- 100g drinking
- 2 tsp talking
- a fat pinch of laughter
- a pinch of crushed delight
Not quite sure I’d like my delight to be crushed, but you get the gist. Fanny speaks throughout the book conversationally, with verve, passion and a large pinch of poetry. The book offers an insight into the psyche of a French artiste.
She starts by reminiscing on how she learnt to bake in her grand-mère’s French kitchen. A few pages of ingredients and equipment follow. The ingredients are all standard apart from when she talks about ice-creams when suddenly dehydrated glucose and stabilisers come into the equation.
The list of equipment used is really quite scary. How many kitchens have a blowtorch, metal rings and acetate? Or is it just mine that’s lacking?
This is a book for browsing and reading before going to sleep at night rather than a systematic approach to the subject. I can’t see any logical order for the organisation of the recipe chapters. However, they obviously mean something to the author. Nor are the headings necessarily explicit; anything could come just about anywhere.
- Classics (everything a girl needs to know).
- Some Thing Are Bound to Happen (like chocolate cake on a rainy day).
- Break-up Menders (treats for one).
- Breakfasts of Kings (or anyone you want to wake up next to).
- Lazy Summer Sweets (for glittery days and balmy nights)
- Dinner Party Desserts (the perfect end to a perfect evening)
Fanny demonstrably has a very sweet tooth. Whilst ricotta & honey doughnuts sound delicious in the extreme, I can’t see these making their way to my puritan breakfast table any time soon. However the almost-instant chocolate fondant cake is a must. Pistachio nougat sounds delicious, but it is one of those things you really need a stand mixer for and I don’t have one, so this will have to wait.
Vanilla ice-cream with olive oil is a completely new one on me and now, of course, I have to try it. The deconstructed pumpkin pie really isn’t my thing, but I guess all chefs have to have a go at this trendy style.
Spicy chocolate pots-de-crème are definitely on my to make list, especially after the recent success of my Amaretto pots au chocolat. I do adore spices so I’m keen to try these luscious desserts as they are flavoured with cardamom, star anise, cinnamon and chilli.
I had a go at making an adapted version of the banana split(isn) sundae in the Treat for One section. Despite the chapter’s title, the recipe stated that it served two.
According to Fanny “my super-decadent treat is to layer some better-than brownies cookies in a tall glass with caramelised banana, vanilla ice-cream and an insane chocolate fudge sauce. The perfect break-up cure”. Well I hoped breaking up wasn’t on the cards but went ahead and made it anyway.
I opted for fresh strawberries and whipped cream instead of the bananas and ice-cream, but I made her cookies for the base and insane chocolate sauce to drizzle over it all.
The quantities seem a little off, I halved the amounts given for the sauce and there was still plenty left over, not that I’m complaining. Unsurprisingly, it was very good indeed, a real treat, although vraiment I wouldn’t say the cookies were anywhere near as delightful as a brownie.
Published by Hardie Grant in 2014, this is a hardback with 160 pages and retails at £20.
Keep In Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. I do hope you enjoyed these chocolate recipe book reviews. If you get hold of any of the books, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Have you any recommendations? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more recipe books for your bookshelf, you might like to take a look at some of my other book review posts.
Choclette x
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Chocolate Recipe Book Reviews Disclaimer
Thanks to Will Torrent and Ryland Peters, Octopus Books, Duncan Baird and Hardie Grant for copies of these books. I was not required to write positive chocolate recipe book reviews and as always, all opinions are my own.
Choclette says
Thank you Michaela, which one did you like the look of best?
Nayna Kanabar says
Wow what a lovely collection of cook books. I would love to own some of those since I have taken to baking a lot more than I used to.
Choclette says
Interesting Nayna, what’s bought on the baking do you think?
Vohn's Vittles says
Stop bringing me such lovely chocolatey ideas Choclette! I’m trying to stay off the choccies! I particularly like that pastry book – sounds sumptuous. x
Choclette says
Ah but this is why books are good Vohn, you can look but don’t have to do anything more 😉
Katie says
Wow what a whole feast of chocolate dlights. I’ve never come across the Chocolate by Jennifer Donovan book, sounds great. Will have to keep an eye out. Lovely review
Choclette says
Thanks Katie. I haven’t done a good bake-up for a while. I can feel a tea party coming on …
celia says
Three good ones to look out for! Thanks for the review, Choc! xx
Choclette says
Thanks Celia, it doesn’t seem to matter how many good recipes we already have, it’s always good to look at new ones :-/
Heidi Roberts says
Great cookbook roundup. Like the ‘chocolate’ theme!!
Choclette says
Thanks Heidi, it’s odd but I seem to have quite a few chocolate themes going on here 😉
ManjiriK says
Lovely post , I have Eric Lanlard’s book but am eying Jennifer’s book with great envy , I have a weakness for coconut macaroons, they are soo soo divine hot out from the oven crumbly and warm and great with a hot cuppa!
Choclette says
Thanks Manjirik. I’m rather fond of any type of macaroons. Have you made anything from Eric’s book?
Hayley Warren says
Wow, I think I need these books! The front cover of the first one is making me drool.
Choclette says
Thanks Hayley. I’d love to create something like that, but suspect mine wouldn’t look nearly as good.
Kate Hackworthy says
Great reviews. Sounds like you’ve been in chocolate book heaven!
Choclette says
Thanks Kate – my collection is steadily growing 😉
Jennifer Ferris says
Very nice reviews! I am happy that I just ate or I would be digging for something chocolate right now.
Choclette says
Now that sounds the right way to go Jennifer, I should make note to have eaten before I start looking at food blogs.
Janelle Shank says
I need more chocolate in my life!
Choclette says
Haha Janelle, it’s possible that I get too much chocolate in my life 😉
Dannii Martin says
Those white chocolate strawberry tarts look perfect. Definitely my kind of dessert.
Choclette says
Thanks Dannii. I’m a sucker for a nice tart, but am not keen on making pastry – probably just as well!
Karen S Booth says
GREAT reviews for all of them but I must say I am VERY taken with Paris Pastry Club by Fanny Zanotti and I will look out for that one! Karen
Choclette says
Yes Karen, I think you might like the Paris Pastry Club – the photos are fabulous too.
Bintu @ Recipes From A Pantry says
I alternate between envy that I don’t have these books on my shelf and being glad that I don’t as I might not stop making things from them.
Choclette says
Haha Bintu, there is always that danger. Though I haven’t made nearly as many things from them as I’d like.