If you’ve been here before, you know I’m a chocoholic and you may have even seen my first attempt at making my own chocolate (the second try over here). When I did that, I had no recipe to follow – I tried to find
some info online, but it was rather conflicting and very confusing,
and I didn’t know who to trust, so I just proceeded with the good
old trial and error (or taste and mix) method.
But now
I’ve found this book, Chocolate Making Adventures. The ebook
happened to be free on Amazon, so I quickly grabbed it. Now that I’ve
had a good look at it, I can say that this is the book I’m going to
turn to when I need help with chocolate making.
The author
starts by explaining the ingredients you need for making chocolate.
This is a very useful section, because you learn the differences
between, e.g. various sweeteners you can use. There’s a section
about the tools and equipment you need, and the methods are explained
thoroughly. Instructions range from how long you can store home-made
chocolate to how to attractively package and/or gift wrap them.
There’s an appendix with conversion
charts (very useful!) and another about
troubleshooting. The instructions are clear, easy to follow, there’s
a bit of humour while the author clearly knows what she’s talking
about. And the recipes!
Such intriguing flavour combinations that
you can’t wait to try them... plus things like truffles, pralines, fondant eggs etc. What’s
more, the recipes are also inspiring:
I started coming up with my own ideas for
flavour combinations.
Oh, and
there are gorgeous pictures!
I haven’t
tried any of the recipes yet, but I’m particularly interested in
those for home-made milk chocolate. So far, I’ve only made basic
dark chocolate (with dried fruit and nuts). While that’s delicious,
I’d love to see how milk chocolate turns out! However, I’ve only
made the simple sort of chocolate where you just melt the cocoa
butter, add the other ingredients, and pour the chocolate into molds
to set. The instructions in this book include the method of heating
the chocolate, cooling it (by working it on a slab with a scraper)
and again heating it. I’ve always been intimidated by the idea of
this complex process, and I don’t even have the equipment and tools
needed for it. However, I’d like to try that some day, and then
I’ll definitely turn to this book for advice.
Chocolate
Making Adventures is a great info package, much more than I ever
imagine I’d get from an ebook. The author also has a blog where you
can find some recipes, beautiful pictures (oooh, chocolate porn!) and even
links to where to buy ingredients for chocolate making.
If you want to try making delicious chocolate treats but don’t know where
to start, or if you want to learn more about the art of chocolate making,
I’d recommend this book.
