Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate

This book is not primarily a cookbook as it tells the wonderful story about the Scharfenberger Chocolate and chocolate itself. I had to add this book to my library after having trouble putting it down when I visited my sister out of state.The book is wonderfully laid out and makes an excellent presentation. A visual feast. The recipes are set up uniquely from the most intense chocolate to the subtle.The book is encyclopedic in its discussion of chocolate from the plant to the plate. The recipes were not just created some are from well known chefs who contributed.It is too bad that Sharfenberger sold out to the big corporate world. I was introduced to their chocolate when they were a small successful company producing an excellent product. Regardless, I have enjoyed reading this book as it is a wealth of information on chocolate from the fruit to the finished product.

`The Essence of Chocolate' by Scharffen Berger Chocolate founders, John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg is a `culinary memoir duet' where the principal authors take the roles more of `Executive Producer' than true writer or even editor. Most of the recipe writing chores are assumed by a fairly large stable of well-known chocolatier practitioners such as Alice Medrich and David Lebovitz plus a number of other culinary luminaries such as Rose Levy Beranbaum, Michael Chiraello, Michael Richard, Jacques Pepin, Thomas Keller, and Rick Bayless. Most of the yeoman's work on the book appears to have been done by Suzie Heller (a collaborator with Jacques Pepin and Thomas Keller), the recipe tester and (I suspect) editor, Ann Krueger Spivack (a collaborator with Cat Cora and Michael Chiarello), and `Bouchon' photographer, Deborah Jones.Scharffenberger and Steinberg are former vintner physician respectively, who joined up in the early 1990s to create what has become the only native American producer of very high end chocolate. Scharffenberger contributed a knowledge of the food business and Steinberg primarily contributed the scientific background which enabled these two chocolatier newbies to make a go of it in a small space with a small budget and with practically no experience in the chocolate business. Their most substantial contributions to this book are memoirs on how they got together and got into this business, plus essays on the future of cacao agriculture in the primary cacao sources in Central America.I was just a bit surprised that the more technical culinary content of this book is as light as it is. There is discussion of the more difficult subjects such as tempering chocolate, but other books, such as Alice Medrich's excellent `Bittersweet' book on chocolate is actually a better source of both understanding and technique for the really serious chocolate baker.What this book provides is a great collection of recipes specifically designed to work with the kind of high end chocolate you can get from Scharffen Berger and the big European sources such as Vahlrona. Even better is the fact that the book doesn't go off on a tangent and deal only with fancy recipes. Rather, it provides a great source for a wide range of sentimental favorites based on really relatively easy recipes. The book includes great recipes for a simple chocolate cake, S'mores, fudge, egg cream, brownies, chocolate ice cream, chocolate mousse, and the humble chocolate syrup. What's better, these recipes are divided up in a rather unique manner, in three (3) great chapters covering, intense, basic, and `hint' levels of chocolate. Samples of the `intense' recipes are fudge, brownies, and truffles. Samples of the `basic' recipes are S'mores, egg creams, and biscotti. Samples of the `hint of chocolate' are gingerbread, white velvet cake with chocolate icing, and chocolate chunk muffins. In fact, the authors make a point to say that when you are dealing with really good chocolate, you don't want to muck things up with a lot of ingredients and thereby detract from the virtues of the complex chocolate flavor. This is quite understandable, in that chocolate is easily one of the most complex `raw' ingredients. I suspect it is even more complex than most wines and very old balsamic vinegar.I invariably give a good rating to books that come up with at least one surprising and surprisingly good idea. The `signature' idea in this book is the pairing of fine chocolate with single malt scotch, taken together. This notion is so good, I'm surprised the authors didn't give a recipe to pair the two, as with a scotch filled bon-bon. I guess they left that to the imagination of the reader.All the little things I like about culinary books are on the mark here. The book begins with an excellent table of contents, including an entry for every recipe. The price is `standard' at $35 list, for a culinary book. And, the book includes not one but two bibliographies, which are just one more way of showing that the book is as much about the economics and `culture' of chocolate as the recipes. I'm just a bit surprised that the book contains no history of chocolate, but then, several other good books, especially the chocolate book from David Lebovitz already covers this territory.This is not an `essential' book for all foodies, unless you happen to be a chocaholic and like to bake with chocolate often. This will give you more than enough reasons to do this even more!

This is a beautiful, thick book; full of wonderful recipes and fascination information about chocolate that, I am sure, most of us would not have known, before reading it here. The book has been described as a "coffee-table" book, an attractive book you might place in a prominent location for a guest to look through. It serves as a sort of informative decoration, in that capacity, and is certainly suitable as such. But, it's main use will always be in the kitchen, for all of us chocolate lovers, providing us with a plethora of delicious chocolate recipes.

I remember when the Chocolatiers first published this book, I was new to artisanal chocolate and Scharffenberger was just starting their stride. It maybe helped they were local to my regional mindset out of Berkeley while I lived in the Napa Valley. At the time however, I could not justify the expense of the retail issue, and perhaps discounted in my mind what value I could gain from having the document in my library. Now that I do have it, I highly recommend the benefits. The recipes are clear and showcase the nuances of chocolate. The story of the founders and their journey is enchanting. This is a book easily picked up and read straight through.

The subject of chocolate is SO much more than yummy treats to eat. It's also about a very cool history and an agriculture that's fascinating!I teach the subject of chocolate for a living, I use this book to tell the story of chocolate and how it's processed from tree to bean. So the recipes are a wonderful bonus! I can't tell you if the recipes are good, but, hey, it's chocolate, so how bad can they be. Essence of Chocolate makes a great coffee-table book that will generate really cool conversations if your guests actually read the words!

This cookbook is one of the most beautiful, delectible, irresistable books on chocolate I have ever seen. The photographs are stunning and the recipes are to die for. I just received it and can't wait to make wonderful treats for my family. You can tell the author's have a special passion for what they do. It is evident even in the quality of the paper used in this book. It is truely a work of art, even if all you do is dream of making the many wonderful recipes. I have many cookbooks but this one is my new favorite!! Purchase and enjoy!!

great cookbook. Not all chocolate is chocolate

What a beautiful book! I pretty much collect cookbooks and I definitely have my favorites. I had my eye on this one but I stopped myself from making the purchase (well... at least for a while). I am glad I did finally break down and buy it. Besides it being a truly beautiful book, it is filled with the inspiring story of how one can turn a tragedy around and how 2 people could do so much in such a short period of time (in the chocolate world). The recipes and pictures are truly inspiring. A lot of love went into this book!

What a fabulous book, full of delicious-looking recipes. I can heartily recommend That Chocolate Cake, on page 47!!!! There is loads of information about cocoa and chocolate, but I'm afraid I haven't read it yet, I was too busy baking that delicious cake!!This is a second hand book, formerly from a library, and I love to think about everyone who has read it before me, and possibly baked the same recipes too.