Pros: Wow. Delightful, hard-working recipes that showcase the best of chocolate.
Cons: Sugar, calories, fat, calories…
Rating: 5 out of 5

Review copy courtesy of The Taunton Press.
Also posted on Epinions.com.

Hi, my name is Heather, and I’m addicted to chocolate. I prefer dark to milk, although the new “deep milk” is good, and I’m picky about my whites (most brands taste chalky, but that’s why I stay stocked up on Green & Black’s). I love trying out new and wacky flavor combos like bacon-chocolate, or chocolate with almonds and sea salt (Vosges makes an awesome bar of the latter); or good old-fashioned pairings like chocolate and coconut. Above all, I like to cook with it. My husband and I always keep a few bars around to break up and whisk into a hot mixture of milk and half-and-half, maybe with a dash of liqueur, for hot chocolate, but it’s fun to go wild sometimes instead. And believe me, if you want to go wild with chocolate, this cookbook put together by the editors of Fine Cooking magazine, Absolutely Chocolate: Irresistible Excuses to Indulge, is perfect.

(more…)