Chocolate

Today is National Chocolate Day.  I am sooo craving it after writing this post and looking at all these books! 

The Art of the Chocolatier: From Classic Confections to Sensational Showpieces by Ewald Notter - A must-have guide to chocolate making and chocolate showpiece design, from renowned confectionery expert Ewald Notter.
Covering the full spectrum of chocolate work--from the fundamentals of chocolate making to instruction on advanced showpiece design and assembly--The Art of the Chocolatier is the most complete and comprehensive guide to chocolate making on the market. The book covers basic information on ingredients, equipment, and common techniques in the pastry kitchen, while also offering clear, step-by-step instructions on creating small candies and large-scale chocolate pieces.
This is the ideal book for pastry students enrolled in chocolate and confectionery courses, as well as working professionals and even serious home confectioners who want to improve their skills in advanced chocolate work.

Bean to Bar Chocolate: America's Craft Chocolate Revolution: The Origins, The Makers, and the Mind-blowing Flavors by Megan Giller - Author Megan Giller invites fellow chocoholics on a fascinating journey through America’s craft chocolate revolution. Learn what to look for in a craft chocolate bar and how to successfully pair chocolate with coffee, beer, spirits, cheese, or bread. This comprehensive celebration of chocolate busts some popular myths (like “white chocolate isn’t chocolate”) and introduces you to more than a dozen of the hottest artisanal chocolate makers in the US today. You’ll get a taste for the chocolate-making process and understand how chocolate’s flavor depends on where the cacao was grown — then discover how to turn your artisanal bars into unexpected treats with 22 recipes from master chefs.

Chocolate Cakes: 50 Great Cakes for Every Occasion by Elinor Klivans - Beloved baker Elinor Klivans, author of the best-selling Cupcakes! and Cupcake Kit, has dedicated her new cookbook to the stuff of chocoholic fantasy: chocolate cake. There's something for bakers of every skill level in the 50 recipes included here, from fast chocolate fixes like the Hot Chocolate Pudding Cake to more elaborate recipes like the Mocha Whipped Cream Truffle Cake. This book is certain to be celebrated by chocolate lovers everywhere. And how will they do that? With cake, of course!

Chocolates & Confections: Formula, Theory, and Technique for the Artisan Confectioner by Peter Greweling - Candymaking is in the midst of a revolution. The public is increasingly hungry for hand-crafted chocolates and confections, heightening appreciation for the work of artisan confectioners who use traditional techniques and fine ingredients. Now, master confectioner Peter Greweling of The Culinary Institute of America has at last produced the bible of artisan confectionery—a comprehensive guide to the ingredients, theory, techniques, and formulas needed to create every kind of chocolate and confection.
Illustrated throughout with nearly 200 striking full-color photographs and illustrations, Chocolates & Confections provides a comprehensive foundation in confectionery, offering accessible explanations of theory as well as illustrated step-by-step guidance on technique, from tempering chocolate to candying fruit. It also includes helpful charts that pinpoint common candy-making pitfalls and how to avoid them, guides to the best quality chocolate and other all-natural confectionery ingredients, as well as information on packaging and storage.
Chocolates & Confections features chapters on every confectionery type—cream ganache, butter ganache, non-crystalline sugar confections, crystalline sugar confections, jellies, aerated confections, and nut centers—and includes nearly 150 formulas for classic confections, such as marzipan made using fresh almonds, as well as contemporary variations such as Madras, a coconut curry butter ganache. From truffles, butter ganache confections, hard candies, brittles, toffee, caramels, and taffy to fondants, fudges, gummies, candied fruit, marshmallows, divinity, nougat, marzipan, gianduja, and rochers, it demonstrates how to produce world-class confections and provides the in-depth background information candy-makers need to formulate their own signature creations.

Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight: New Science Proves You Should Eat Chocolate Every Day by Will Clower - An innovative plan that teaches readers how to lose weight by indulging in a "guilty" pleasure: chocolate. Dispelling the myth that chocolate is just a "junk food," Dr. Will Clower uses cutting-edge research to highlight the health benefits of consuming chocolate on a daily basis. Readers will learn how the antioxidants found in chocolate can boost metabolism and how, by eating chocolate in specific ways, they can pull their "sweet tooth" so they eat less sugar and control cravings. Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight features the Chocolate Challenge--an 8-week, science-based plan designed to help readers relieve stress, promote heart health, lower blood sugar, stop cravings, increase metabolism, and shed pounds. Featuring a 6-week meal plan and more than 50 delicious chocolate recipes, Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight contains meal options for days when readers can't get enough of their favorite flavor, as well as times when they may want to hide chocolate in other foods while still taking advantage of its health benefits. The book also includes information on which chocolate provides the most health benefits and weight loss and the optimal amount of daily chocolate intake. Complete with stories and tips from real people who have tried the plan and lost more than 75 pounds, readers can finally have their chocolate and eat it too!

The Ghirardelli Chocolate Cookbook: Recipes and History from America's Premier Chocolate Maker by The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company - America is experiencing a chocolate renaissance, and the epicenter is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Ghirardelli has long been the standard-bearer for great chocolate. Domingo Ghirardelli first began making chocolate drinks for miners during the Gold Rush. In the more than 150 years since, the chocolatiers who have carried on the company's grand tradition have made Ghirardelli the leading premium manufacturer in the country. Growing consumer demand for higher-quality cacao and specialized chocolate products prompted the experts at Ghirardelli to revise this collection of classic cookies, bars, cakes, and drinks. The recipes range from simple sweets to show-stopping desserts, while a special section on hosting a chocolate party comes just in time for holiday baking and entertaining. A stylish revision of the classic cookbook from America's longest continually operating chocolate manufacturer. Includes more than 80 recipes, a primer on chocolate varieties and uses, and more than 25 full-color photographs.

Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams by Michael D'Antonio - The name Hershey evokes many things: chocolate bars, the company town in Pennsylvania, one of America's most recognizable brands. But who was the man behind the name? In this compelling biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D'Antonio gives us the real-life rags-to-riches story of Milton S. Hershey, a largely uneducated businessman whose idealistic sense of purpose created an immense financial empire, a town, and a legacy that lasts to this day.
Hershey, the son of a minister's daughter and an irresponsible father who deserted the family, began his career inauspiciously when the two candy shops he opened both went bankrupt. Undeterred, he started the Lancaster Caramel Company, which brought him success at last. Eventually he sold his caramel operation and went on to perfect the production process of chocolate to create a stable, consistent bar with a long shelf life...and an American icon was born.
Hershey was more than a successful businessman -- he was a progressive thinker who believed in capitalism as a means to higher goals. He built the world's largest chocolate factory and a utopian village for his workers on a large tract of land in rural Pennsylvania, and used his own fortune to keep his workers employed during the Great Depression. In addition, he secretly willed his fortune to a boys' school and orphanage, both of which now control a vast endowment.
Extensively researched and vividly written, Hershey is the fascinating story of this uniquely American visionary.

Small Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers by Debby Maugans - No one can resist the allure of home-made chocolate desserts--but when recipes yeild a full dozen or more, we often eat more than our serving size. In Small Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers, acclaimed food writer Debby Maugans solves the problem by crafting irresistible recipes perfectly suited for two. Ideal for the single gal, small family, retiree, or bride-to-be, the book features over 120 cookie, cake, pie, tart, muffin, and scone recipes, over-the-top and lavishly loaded with chocolate of all kinds. There's a dessert in this book for every occasion: a fool-proof birthday chocolate cake recipe, a chocolate orange tart for Valentine's Day, or when you're in the mood for a little self-indulgence a chocolate souffle sized for one. ; your sweetheart (and your waistline) will thank you!

The True History of Chocolate by Sophie D. Coe - The story begins some 3,000 years ago in the jungles of Mexico and Central America with the chocolate tree, Theobroma Cacao, and the complex processes necessary to transform its bitter seeds into what is now known as chocolate. This was centuries before chocolate was consumed in generally unsweetened liquid form and used as currency by the Maya, and the Aztecs after them. The Spanish conquest of Central America introduced chocolate to Europe, where it first became the drink of kings and aristocrats and then was popularized in coffeehouses. Industrialization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made chocolate a food for the masses, and now, in our own time, it has become once again a luxury item.

Vegan Chocolate: Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy-Free Desserts by Fran Costigan - It can be difficult to find truly indulgent vegan desserts--especially chocolate. But for the first time, chocolate cakes, brownies, truffles, puddings, ice creams, and more are within reach: dairy-free, organic, fair-trade, and sublime.
Author, baking instructor, and vegan powerhouse Fran Costigan has dedicated years to satisfying her sweet tooth while keeping it vegan. Through experimentation and long hours in the kitchen, she's recreated some of her favorite chocolate desserts as better-for-you interpretations that pass the taste test: Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles (with a variety of flavor variations), a Brooklyn Blackout Layer Cake, a Sacher Torte, even chocolate Moon Pies! Her detailed instructions make for professional-quality outcomes every time: it's like a personal baking class, right in your kitchen.