Chocolate, Chocolate & More Chocolate!

No matter how it’s prepared—in a Chocolate Lava Cake or a bite-sized Orange Liqueur Praline —nothing says decadence like chocolate. For anyone who can’t get enough of this most delicious of all ingredients—and that’s EVERYONE, of course—this cookbook is absolute heaven! With more than eighty recipes for chocolate truffles and ganache, candies and cookies, sheets and other treats, you can open up a whole new world of deliciousness.

Create chocolate bars with mint, nougat, caramel, or rum raisin and hazelnut. Put a chocolate pencil inside a kid’s lunch bag as a surprise. Celebrate with a Champagne or Dark Rum Truffle; it’s the perfect sweet for any special occasion. Make the holidays merry and bright with a Christmas log. Delight guests with something unusual and awe-inspiring like a Palet d’or, a creamy disc covered in shiny gold leaf. To round out the dessert menu, there are also ice creams and popsicles, éclairs, soufflés, tarts, brownies, biscuits, macaroon hearts (for Valentine’s Day), and much more. And to help anyone, even beginners, handle all the necessary techniques, master baker Elie Tarrab gives easy-to-follow instructions on melting and tempering, crystallization, dipping and enrobing, molding, and creating a hollow figurine. With stunning pictures to teach and tempt you, you’ll soon be in chocolate ecstasy!Chocolatier Tarrab introduces several types of chocolate treats, including bars, truffles, popsicles, cookies, and cakes. Split nearly equally between confections and desserts, his recipes pair chocolate with popular additions such as fruit, nuts, alcohol, and tea. Tarrab wisely employs conventional equipment where possible—for instance, chocolate pencils are molded in plastic straws, then sharpened—but readers will still need some specialty items. Step-by-step photographs accompany explanations of essential techniques. VERDICT Although Tarrab's cookbook includes some fun projects, it is less precise than Peter P. Greweling's Chocolates and Confections at Home with the Culinary Institute of America and Andrew Garrison Shott's Making Artisan Chocolates: Flavor-Infused Chocolates, Truffles, and Confections.
-Library JournalElie Tarrab is a lover of all things chocolate. He has studied at the Valrhona gourmet chocolate manufacturer in the pastoral Rhône Valley in France. Elie’s passion for chocolate dates back to his childhood in Haifa, Israel, where he tasted his first, unforgettable chocolate delicacies. In 2006 Elie opened a chocolate boutique in Tel Aviv called Cardinal where he makes pralines, bonbons, desserts, chocolate bars, and other treats.Peppermint Chocolate Bars
One of the ways to enrich chocolate is with different essential oils. These can be purchased in health food and specialty stores in a variety of flavors, such as grapefruit, orange, lemon, lavender, mint and ginger. Be sure to purchase pure, high quality oils.
 
Makes 5 bars
 
17 ½ oz. dark chocolate (65-75% cocoa)
5-15 drops peppermint essential oil
 
1. Melt and temper the chocolate, as described in Melting and Tempering on page 10.
2. Add the peppermint essential oil to the chocolate and mix well.
3. Once the chocolate mixture is ready, you can use it in one of two ways to create bars:
            A. Pour the chocolate into a chocolate bar mold. Tap the mold against the countertop to release air bubbles between the mold and the chocolate. Leave to set in a cool room for 2 hours. Remove chocolate from the mold and serve.
            B. Alternately, pour a thin layer of chocolate onto cellophane, parchment paper or silicone baking sheet. Allow to set for 1 hour in a cool room. Break and serve.
4. Peppermint Chocolate Bars may be stored in an airtight container, at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.