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Art of the Chocolatier


RWood

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Digging around on Amazon and found a new chocolate book. Still listed as pre-order, no release date.

It has a look inside option, and shows everything from pate de fruit charts to making chocolate showpieces. Looks like another to add to the list :).

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  • 5 weeks later...

The table of contents is available through the "look inside" feature at Amazon.

I'm in the midst of packing up my bookcases, so my copy went into one of that day's boxes. From the quick glance I gave the book before packing it into a box very carefully labeled "Chocolate Books", one of the interesting things about the book is that it has measurements to suit anyone's taste (weight in grams and ounces, and by volume).

I remember chapters on chocolate flowers, modeling chocolate, and building showpieces. There was also a 40 page appendix with templates that could be traced and enlarged for use in making showpieces.

One thing that rather tickles me was that in a section on alcohol flavorings, I remember seeing only three types: rums, fruit brandies, and Baileys.

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After a quick once over it appears to be the most comprehensive single book I have seen. It covers tempering well, dipping, molding, making transfer sheets (though not silk screening), caramel, cornstarch molding, chocolate decoration from simple curls to cigarettes, piped forms, all the way up to elaborate flowers. It covers molding techniques to add color, texture, and relief. Then there is the section on modeling chocolate and show pieces. There are a few truffle recipes, but it's more a technique manual than a recipe book.

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Thanks for the comments. Interesting that it seems to be more of a "technique" book rather than "recipe" - I wonder if people are changing their approach to chocolate writing given how many good books have come out in the last few years.

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  • 3 months later...

Lior - I've been reviewing my copy for a while now and I'm starting to use several of the formulas. In particular, the tropical fruit bon bon is a very nice center. Notter uses a dark chocolate shell for this milk/dark chocolate flavored ganache. I'm using banana puree in place of fresh banana for the consistency of flavor and putting it into a white chocolate shell which shows off the decoration very nicely.

Steve Lebowitz

Doer of All Things

Steven Howard Confections

Slicing a warm slab of bacon is a lot like giving a ferret a shave. No matter how careful you are, somebody's going to get hurt - Alton Brown, "Good Eats"

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Hello Gap! DId you get the book? I am thinking of ordering it and was wondering what you thought.

Hi Lior - I haven't bought the book but I did see a copy at the local bookstore just yesterday. As others have said, lots of technique stuff and some recipes at the start. My guess is it would be a good book for someone who wanted to advance their techniques and already knew the basics but I only had 5 minutes to look through it.

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Thanks Steve and Gap. Steve didnt you once make your own fabulous banana bonbon? I wonder because I get stuck on a certain recipe that I invent and then am always on the lookout for ways to perfect it...

I guess I will order the book. Here I cannot go to my bookstore to take a look, nor order it through some amazing library system...

On a related topic:

How do you remember what you liked in a certain book? I get confused and then spend hours going through my books looking for something I remember vaguely in one of these books. Then I go off on tangents of course, which is why it takes hours. Any good system?

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Yes, I had tried to fashion a "Bananas Foster" bon bon, and while I liked it, it didn't sell very well. It was more of a banana caramel with toasted walnuts and rum. I'll go back to it someday and see if I can reformulate it and make it better.

Steve Lebowitz

Doer of All Things

Steven Howard Confections

Slicing a warm slab of bacon is a lot like giving a ferret a shave. No matter how careful you are, somebody's going to get hurt - Alton Brown, "Good Eats"

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