Desserts - General & Miscellaneous, General & Miscellaneous U.S. Cooking, Chocolate

Chocolate American Style

Name: Chocolate American Style
Author: Lora Brody
ISBN: 9781400045976

by Lora Brody

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Overview

A chocolate lover born and bred, Lora Brody knows better than anyone that when the urge to splurge strikes, there
is no substitute for rich, silky, sumptuous chocolate in one of its many delectable guises. Chocolate reigns supreme on a short list of national treasures, ranking right up there with Ted Williams and Mickey Mouse. Add a dose of American ingenuity and you've got the perfect recipe for indulgence.

In this lovingly compiled collection of sweet treats both plain and fancy, Lora Brody builds an irresistible case or eating chocolate morning, noon, and night. In chapters entitled The Candy Store, Comfort Me with Chocolate, Chocolate for Breakfast, Isn't It Romantic?, and more, she presents the stuff of which a chocolate lover's dreams are made. Start the day with Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Chocolate Butter or Chocolate Monkey Bread, perk up a lunch box with homemade Whoopie Pies or Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake Brownies, or take a trip down memory lane with Tunnel of Fudge Cake and real Boston Cream Pie. Set a festive mood with White Chocolate Heath Bar Cheesecake or Chocolate Raspberry Torte. There's even a section of fun-to-make chocolate favorites that are perfect for kids. Whether the occasion is a formal celebration requiring a showstopper, a casual meal with family, or simply an after-school snack, there is a chocolate indulgence to make the moment that much sweeter. Lora Brody's always letter-perfect recipes guarantee this is a collection chocolate lovers will return to time and again.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Early on in her celebratory recipe collection, Brody (Growing Up on a Chocolate Diet) addresses the difficulty of cooking with chocolate and explains the tools and procedures necessary for success when attempting her recipes. No chocolate snob, the author favors quality ingredients but minimal fuss for her desserts. Her credo is "Lemme at it" instead of "It's much too pretty to cut." Brody's first chapter lays out the differences among unsweetened, bittersweet and semi-sweet; simplifies a method of chocolate preparation called tempering; and distinguishes between "natural" cocoa powder and "Dutch process" cocoa. Brody's attention to detail makes a few of her recipes longer than usual. Later chapters deal with candy making, holiday baked goods and introducing kids to cooking with chocolate projects. Brody believes Americans "boldly weave what we learn from the world's greatest cooks with our own dining experiences to produce singular expressions of our chocolate love," and supports her point in nearly 120 recipes. There are clever cake and pie makeovers, in which she "Americanizes" international favorites like biscotti, chow mein noodles and Linzer Torte with chocolate. Brody's democratic approach embraces the plain (e.g., Coke Cake and Chocolate-Covered Cape Cod Potato Chips), the luxe (e.g., White Chocolate-Coconut Milk Cr me Br l e) and the downright odd (e.g., Chocolate Chile Cake). Her can-do writing style invites novices to give all these desserts a go and should appeal to home chefs with a sweet tooth and average culinary skills. Agent, Susan Ginsburg. (On sale Apr. 13) Forecast: National publicity and author interviews out of Boston and New York might hook readers. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Growing Up on the Chocolate Diet was one of Brody's first cookbooks, and 30 years later, chocolate is still one of her favorite indulgences. She even likes chocolate for breakfast-Chocolate Caramel Sticky Buns, perhaps, or Chocolate Chip Muffins with Chocolate Butter. There are recipes for special occasions, such as Best Birthday Cake, and for chocolate comfort food, like Chocolate Cream Pie, along with candies and other confections, drinks, ice cream specialties, and more. Brody's all-American chocolate book is a good companion to Alice Medrich's recent Bittersweet, a "chocolate memoir" with more classic European-style desserts and sweets. For all baking collections. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.