Pros: Delicious; delightful; beautiful photos
Cons: FATTENING
Rating: 5 out of 5
Review book courtesy of Ten Speed Press.
When The Ghirardelli Chocolate Cookbook crossed my desk, I did virtual cartwheels. I love chocolate in general, and Ghirardelli is one of the better brands out there. Thus I had little difficulty making some recipes to test out this cookbook!
The cookbook is presented beautifully. Many of the recipes come with lovely photographs, and the recipe layout is extremely clean and easy to read. The shape of the book is conducive to lying flat easily, which makes cooking simpler, and the glossy pages are easier to clean if necessary than thinner, flatter pages. It’s a very attractive book. In fact, it puts me in mind of the quality gift-worthy Chronicle cookbooks that I’ve often lauded.
The true star of this cookbook, however, is the results. The recipes perform flawlessly. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are simply to-die-for. The double-chocolate banana bread is perhaps the first banana quick bread I’ve had that used enough banana for a noticeable banana flavor—and it’s also one of the first double-chocolate recipes I’ve had that wasn’t overwhelmingly chocolaty.
As awesome as those recipes were, however—and believe, me they’re amazing—they’re nothing compared to the chocolate bread pudding. Pardon me; I must swoon for a moment at the memory and attempt to forget that there’s more in the fridge so I don’t have a midnight snack.
These recipes are hardly what I’d call good for you, but many of them are easy enough to transport (meaning you can make them before you visit friends and split the badness across many people!) or make in small sizes (like small cookies or mini-loaves of bread, so you can have a little at a time). And they don’t tend to gratuitously use large amounts of, for example, butter, when they can get by with less; they use enough to ensure a delicious recipe without overdoing it.
In short, if you love chocolate, buy this cookbook! It has recipes for chocolate-lovers of all kinds, including some wonderful white chocolate delicacies (cupcakes, mousse, and more!).
Dear Ghiradelli Cookbook,
Go directly to wishlist! Do not pass go! Do not collect $200.
Love, Dewey
dew: Muahaha! I heartily recommend it. I wish I didn’t have to watch my fat intake so carefully or I’d make something out of this every weekend! As it is we froze most of the banana double choc bread (the recipe even noted it froze well, which is cool) and plan to take it with us to friends’ this weekend.
Oh, that looks wonderful! I love the fact that your major CON is fattening – but how could it not be?
Stephanie: Hehe, true. Which is why, naturally, I subtracted no points from my rating. Such awesome special occasion recipes, though, even if you do need to watch what you eat!
Oh my. That cookbook looks too dangerous to come into my house. I’ll bet I’d gain five pounds just looking at the photos!
Oh yeah. I definitely need to stay away from this one!! Like I need anymore chocolate in my life! Especially now, after Halloween!!
Okay, THIS one is going on my Christmas list!
stefanie: I agree—the photos themselves are enough to cause damage!
Stephanie: Lol, at least it’s better quality than the Halloween stuff (and you’ll have trouble going back to candybars afterwards. 😉
Bellezza: Woot! I hope you’ll come back and tell me what you thought of it!