Greweling's "Chocolates and Confections at Home"

[Beth Wilson]

I was browsing through some confectionery books on Amazon and was excited to see a new book coming out with Peter Greweling - Chocolates and Confections at Home with the Culinary Institute of America.

http://www.amazon.ca/Chocolates-Confections-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/0470189576/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256174107&sr=1-17

Finally something to put on my wish list!

Edited October 22, 2009 by Beth Wilson (log)

[Darienne]

Just broke my cardinal rule and bought the book!!!!

[Kerry Beal]

Love to see how it compares to his other book.

[CKatCook]

Yeah, no kidding, I plan on buying it.

[Gingersnap]

My copy of Chocolates and Confections at Home just arrived, quite unexpectedly. I had pre-ordered it in October, but a recent email from Amazon had said that it would arrive January 4, 2010.

I'll be taking it with me in case I find some time to read over the next few days.

Edited December 23, 2009 by Gingersnap (log)

[Darienne]

My copy of Chocolates and Confections at Home just arrived, quite unexpectedly. I had pre-ordered it in October, but a recent email from Amazon had said that it would arrive January 4, 2010.

I'll be taking it with me in case I find some time to read over the next few days.

Hooray for you. I've now had two messages in the last week promising it to me " Estimated arrival date: January 25 2010 - February 10 2010" I live in Canada, so it's bound to be later than in the States. I too pre-ordered it in October.

How does it look on first view?

Edited December 23, 2009 by Darienne (log)

[emmalish]

oh no... how did I not see this earlier?

[choux]

I just got a notice from Amazon.ca saying mine has shipped.

[emmalish]

I've ordered mine from Chapters – they say I should have it by the 30th. Do you think it means anything that the threads I'm most active in are either baking/confectionary related, or the weight watchers thread? Do you think they're related in any way?

[Darienne]

I just got a notice from Amazon.ca saying mine has shipped.

Ditto for me. Just five minutes ago.

[MReichle]

Has anyone seen the new Chocolates and Confections at Home? Amazon says they have it in stock, but we can't peek inside (yet), so I can't see the table of contents or index. I would like to know how it differs from the earlier pub.

I'm just getting into candy making. Which one would be best for a beginner?

Thanks,

Michael

[lebowits]

I received my copy a few days ago. At first glance, it looks to be a good introduction for someone who wants to do candy making at home. Many of the techniques are the same as in his first book, but the formulas have been scaled down to smaller, more manageable sizes for home kitchens. Further, each topic and formula discusses the "level of difficulty" on the 3-point scale; easy, medium, and difficult. While many of the confections are in the first book, there are a number of new twists or variations as well as some updated discussions of some of the topics.

My first summary thoughts were that this looks like it would be fun to work through some things in these smaller batches with the new descriptions of the methods. I'm expecting that I may pick my first project this weekend.

[Darienne]

O.K. I have just unwrapped my new copy of Greweling's Chocolate and Confections. I WILL be back with my impression very soon.

[emmalish]

Mine was just delivered this morning. Love love LOVE it!

First impression – it's a beautiful book. Lovely typography and photography, beautiful colours, nicely laid out. It's the type of book that I enjoy curling up with and just flipping through (as I'm doing now).

Content – it's definitely aimed at people who have no formal training. And as someone who's completely self-taught in chocolates and confections, who has had to scour the internet for information, I can already see this book answers a lot of questions I had in the past in a clear and concise manner, in most cases well-illustrated with step-by-step photos of the process. I know I will learn a lot of new things from this book as well. I'm looking forward to experimenting.

Recipes - Keeping in mind I haven't actually tried any recipes (I've only had the book for about 1/2 hour so far), they look easy to follow, with all the different steps explained in detail. They also show a difficulty rating, in many cases they list variations, and also list point form "keys for success". It's been mentioned up-thread that many of these recipes are the same as in the previous Chocolates and Confections. I haven't compared for content, but Chocolates and Confections is geared to professionals, and the recipes skip over steps and explanations with the expectation that the reader already understands the process.

I don't know that I'd recommend this book to a professional (I'll let them chime in with their reviews), but I'd definitely recommend it to someone like myself, or someone who wants to try their hand at chocolates and confections for the first time.

[mukki]

I've only spent a small amount of time with it, but I'm disappointed. Too many recipes I'm not interested in (rock candy, chocolate-covered pretzels, etc). I also don't like the fact that he uses sweetened condensed milk and a lot of corn syrup in his caramel recipes.

[Darienne]

Haven't gotten far in the book yet...life will intervene...but I can say that I would have killed for this book two years ago. Now I have quite a large library of 'confectionery' books and this is just 'one more'.

It's very well written, in a very professional manner. Utmost clarity. I suppose I missed the less formal anecdotes that one finds in most candy books, like Ruth Kendrick's Candymaking and PastryGirl's (Anita Chu) Field Guide to Candy: How to Identify and Mike Virtually Every Candy Imaginable. I love reading the historical and ethnic bits of information.

And it's a small shock to read Greweling talking about using compound chocolate. And to read his 'Resources' chapter which included Candylandcrafts, Wilton and others like that. But hey! he is writing the book for those who know little or nothing about the subject.

I bought Greweling's Chocolates and Confections long ago and read the entire book out loud to my husband on one of our Moab-Ontario trips, learning, learning, learning, as I went along. That book is a gem in all ways. A tour de force. (I also read Andrew Shott's Making Artisan Chocolates on another trip. It's an excellent way to learn and for unknown reasons my DH loves to listen to me read.)

I'm not sorry I bought this book. I haven't really given it a chance yet. These are just my first impressions.

But as a first candymaking book, I cannot imagine a better one to own.

Edit: typo only

Edited January 1, 2010 by Darienne (log)

[Darienne]

Second Impression:

First impression was not strong enough. This is NOT just one more candy making book. Sorry I spoke too soon. It is an incredible book.

The explanations are pure Greweling and as I read them and recall the agonies which I went through trying to cope with his professional chocolate book...how I would have loved this book.

It's true...it does lack a certain charm perhaps, but if I had only one candy book, I think this might be the one.

ps. I still haven't gotten at even one recipe.

[hansjoakim]

I think I would be very interested in this title also. As I'm Euro-based, it's pretty essential for me that cookbooks contain metric weight measurements. Does this title provide this? What about Greweling's other, more comprehensive chocolate book; are there metric weights in that?

Thanks

[John DePaula]

I think I would be very interested in this title also. As I'm Euro-based, it's pretty essential for me that cookbooks contain metric weight measurements. Does this title provide this? What about Greweling's other, more comprehensive chocolate book; are there metric weights in that?

Thanks

Yep, metric, US ounces and percentage are given for all recipes. I use the metric, myself.

[Darienne]

I think I would be very interested in this title also. As I'm Euro-based, it's pretty essential for me that cookbooks contain metric weight measurements. Does this title provide this? What about Greweling's other, more comprehensive chocolate book; are there metric weights in that?

Thanks

Yep, metric, US ounces and percentage are given for all recipes. I use the metric, myself.

There are NO metric/Celcius measurements in Greweling's new book. Chocolates & Confections at Home.

Greweling DOES use Celcius/ Metric/ American/percentages in his other book Chocolates and Confections:formula, theory, and technique for the artisan confectioner. He includes a page of justification for using both metric and US measurements on p.x

[hansjoakim]

Alright, thanks so much for that, Darienne!

The "...at Home" part of the title got me wondering...

[iguana]

This is a great book-- it finally got me over my fear of tempering chocolate!

Jen

[takomabaker]

Two things made this book worth the money:

1. His suggestion to use commercially available marshmallow cream as an easy substitution for frappe. THANK YOU!!!! It is a HUGE PIA to go through the trouble when you only need an ounce or so for a recipe.

2. His directions to make fondant in a KA. It was a "duh" moment for me. I have made my own using his agitation process from his professional book -- time consuming and messy... and then started buying it in bulk from Albert Uster which really was too much fondant for my limited use. I feel kind of stupid that I never thought of using a KA for agitation.

I like this book. It's a nice companion for his professional book, and has good solutions (like the ones above) that can cross over into other professional books in which a small producer might not want to make 10 lbs of frappe (or something similar) to use a few ounces for a filling. Some of Wybauw's, for instance.

[moldy]

Hi there - I'm new to this wonderful forum. I'm a home cook, and have recently developed a fascination with the idea of working with chocolate. From this post and others, it seems like this is a very good book. Could somebody confirm whether they think that this would be the best book to buy, in terms of instruction and recipes, for a beginner - or whether his other book would be better in the long run. And, what types of things, if any, are covered by the first book, but not the second.

I have also read a lot of posts about scaling the images down from the first book, and wondering if the opposite (ie, scaling up) could be true of this book?

Any information would be greatly received, and I look forward to meeting you all in my adventures.

Kind Regards, Richard Mold.

[Darienne]

Could somebody confirm whether they think that this would be the best book to buy, in terms of instruction and recipes, for a beginner - or whether his other book would be better in the long run. And, what types of things, if any, are covered by the first book, but not the second.

I have also read a lot of posts about scaling the images down from the first book, and wondering if the opposite (ie, scaling up) could be true of this book?

Kind Regards, Richard Mold.

Welcome Richard Mold to eGullet. It's a terrific forum...like no other.

Because I don't know how to link stuff properly yet, I am copying my earlier post from this topic on the 'Greweling at Home' book.

"This is NOT just one more candy making book. It is an incredible book.

The explanations are pure Greweling and as I read them and recall the agonies which I went through trying to cope with his professional chocolate book...how I would have loved this book.

It's true...it does lack a certain charm perhaps, but if I had only one candy book, I think this might be the one."

So that's one person's opinion.

As for scaling up...it's something which I would not do unless I could find a Greweling or other expert recipe which called for a scaled up version. Some recipes will even tell you not to double the batch, but to make two separate batches. I don't have enough experience to know when I can and when I can't change a confectionery recipe.

The first Greweling book is of course much larger, covers many more recipes in each category, and has much more complicated and professionally oriented text. The text in the 'at Home' book is much simpler for the novice, easier to follow.

Good luck.