Book Review – Crave – A Passion For Chocolate

Possibly The Best Book About Chocolate, by Maureen McKeon

Nov 3, 2009

Can't figure out what gift to buy the chocoholic in your life? Crave: A Passion for Chocolate will delight fans of the cocoa bean with chocolate recipes, info and tips.

The author herself perhaps says it best when she writes, 'Nothing stirs the senses like chocolate. The original soul food, it makes us feel good, appeals to the emotions, provides comfort and lifts the spirits. Certainly it is an absolute delight, and worthy of the passion people have felt for it over the centuries.'

Types & Techniques

Chocolate is a fickle mistress. For those who understand the dark bean's many moods it can be a pleasure to handle, but for others, it can be rather intimidating. In Crave, McKeon aims to demystify cooking with chocolate. The book therefore opens with a techniques section that explains the various types of chocolate, how chocolate is made and offers helpful hints for working with chocolate and notoriously tricky mixtures like meringue. It also gives useful information on other ingredients and the bakeware and equipment required for the recipes in this book, and offers a few general techniques and tips for baking and how best to store the fruits of your labour.

Recipes

Crave contains some 150 recipes for delicious desserts, cakes, biscuits and cookies, ice creams, confectionery and puddings, as well as fillings, frostings, sauces, and chocolate decorations. The book has recipes for every occasion and for both novice and advanced cooks. The recipes range from McKeon's own family favourites such as Auntie Annie's Hedgehog bar cookies, Cocoa Banana Cake and Lamingtons to recipes for special celebrations such as weddings, birthdays and holidays, including Chocolate Pavlova, Pistachio Souffles with Milk Chocolate Ganache Centres, Emma's Chocolate Almond Wedding Cake and Apricot and Pecan White Christmas Cake.

About the Author

Maureen McKeon's professional culinary career has included teaching home economics and French cuisine, developing recipes for the the advertising industry, and working as a food stylist. Her particular area of interest and expertise is chocolate.

Photography

Adrian Lander has done a fantastic job at transforming every recipe into what could be described as edible porn. His photographs really do makes you crave... Ideally there would have been a photo for every recipe, but more than enough glossy colour photographs are given to whet the appetite.

Chapters

The Bottom Line

Crave is a beautiful book that places chocolate squarely in the spotlight. It contains plenty of mouthwatering recipes, stunning photography and useful hints on how to work with chocolate. The must-have book for every chocoholic.

Try a Recipe from the Book:

The copyright of the article Book Review – Crave – A Passion For Chocolate in Home Decor/Cookbooks is owned by Karin Engelbrecht. Permission to republish Book Review – Crave – A Passion For Chocolate in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.