I love chocolate. I am not going to lie – I am a chocovore! I always wonder what the world would look like without chocolate. I also have a fetish for cook books, not just to try new recipes but also to read and to learn as much as I can about food. Recently, I have delved into many forms of chocolate and chocolate-based desserts. So I’ve really given a lot of thought on how to make sweet creations with chocolate. I came across Chocolate by Trish Deseine sometime ago and have so far tried several recipes from her book.

When I opened the book I was tempted beyond my ability to say ‘no’ to many recipes. The first recipe to try was The Best Brownies (p. 10). In my opinion, everyone should have a good chocolate brownie recipe and it should be the richest, gooiest chocolate brownie, so you don’t have to eat too much of it (yeah, I know). And this recipe was just that – the richest, moistest, most decadent brownie you could ever imagine.

I also tried Natalie’s Melt-in-Your-Mouth Chocolate Cake (p. 14). The decadent, almost flourless, chocolate cake was timeless, elegant and made you feel so good. It was even more perfect with some good accompaniments found in p.12 to cut through the sweetness. Her recipe for Triple Chocolate Brownie Crunch (p. 94) is so fabulously divine. This is a dish you won’t just stop at one helping. I made one change to the recipe; I used added Khalua to the milk chocolate sauce.

So far recipes for Banoffee, Emmanuelle’s Chocolate Cookie Cake, Jean-Francois’s Stuck Cake and Butterfly Cupcakes have kept me busy. If none of those interest you then there are others that will inspire you to search for chocolate. I must admit that all my attempts so far at making Triple Chocolate Pavé (p. 22) resulted in failure – I was never able to get the consistency of the white chocolate layer right.

Trish Deseine provides 100 or so simple and very do-able recipes, each one accompanied by stunning photographs (more like chocolate porn). The recipes are categorized into practical groupings, such as Chocolate with Crunch, Chocolate for Kids, Chic Chocolate and Chocotherapy. For some, working with chocolate could be an intimidating task. So the book also includes a section on the tricks and techniques and the various tools used in professional kitchens to carve, mould, melt and form chocolate to suit every possible need.

Verdict: This book has become my favourite chocolate cook book because recipes in it are magnificent creations that make me and many of my friends very happy. The book lives up to Trish Deseine’s media hype but that fact does not undervalue its credibility. Chocolate by Trish Deseine was ranked 4th among the 50 best cook books by The Independent in 2008.

4.5 Stars out of 5.

Publisher: Whitecap Books Ltd. (January 1, 2010)

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