Great Chocolate Desserts, Book

I must disagree with the review posted by jerry i.h.in Aug 2004. All of the sins of omission that he mentions are covered in great detail in the ingredients chapter. For example, there is one page on sifting and measuring flour, a paragraph on egg size as it applies to the way Heatter writes recipes, and a page on beating egg whites. Ms Heatter is known as one of the "Three Fussbudgets" at my house (Rose Levy Berenbaum & Lynn Rosetto Kasper being the other two) because her instructions are sometimes detailed to the point of being fussy. Her directions yield beautiful results however, and provide techniques that can be used in other recipes to good effect. (Her pan-lining trick for bar cookies comes to mind.) The Palm Beach Brownies have become the only brownie I bake now as they are so wonderful. Her detailed instructions yield a reliably, decadently fudgy brownie, with a marvelous espresso kick. I would buy this book if only for this recipe. (Incidentally, versions of this recipe are available on the internet, but they modify the ingredients and skip significant portions of the instructions such that I cannot believe a comparable brownie would result.)

I've had this book for 20 years and made nearly everything in it. The only recipe which I think must have a mistake in it is the "pepper" brownies. I've never been able to make them come out, and I've varied the cooking times, the tempetature, the ingrediants etc.Ok, my favorite is the "French Chocolate Mint Truffles." You can vary this one to your heart's content. First, you can roll the results in "dipping chocolate" get a bar of high quality chocolate heat on a double boiler and use a fork to dip the cured truffle, place on wax paper to cool. Second, you can use almost any flavoring, almond, coconut, orange, lemon, peppermint, etc. Third, you can use milk chocolate, if the the mix starts to thin when you heat it, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar. Fourth you can use white chocolate although this is tricky and requres a lot of powered sugar to get it to "set" like a 3 to 5 tablespoons of powdered sugar. (With the coconut ones I mix in a 1/4 cup of grated coconut.)Ok, then the basic brownies, ooooh you'll never buy a box mix again.Then the flourless cakes, so rich, its incredible.On to the "Pots of Creame" Yum, you'll have people begging for more. The trick here is to use a pan to hold the pots in, put the pan with the pots in it in the oven, then add "boiling water" and cook for exactly 22 minutes. The centers will be smooth and look runny but they'll finish cooking as they cool. Also be very careful getting them out of the oven, hot water will go right through your oven mitts. I use a canning jar lifter to get the pots of creame out of the pan. But in any case please be careful the burn you could get is bad.I could go on and on, but if you can follow directions they all seem to come out fine.

I've baked quite a few of the cookies and cakes from this book and they've always turned out great! The directions are always clear and Maida introduces each recipe with some background information, telling the story of how she came upon the recipe, what the finished product looks like, serving and storing suggestions, etc. These descriptions help when trying to decide which chocolate dessert to make when choosing from such a wealth of choices.I love the orange chocolate loaf cake and since Maida says the recipe can easily be doubled I always do. This cake goes quickly and it pays to have a spare! A friend of mine gave one of these recipes to her caterer for her wedding cake -- people are still talking about that incredible cake!

I have yet to fail at reproducing a Maida Heatter recipe. She brought me from being a non-baker to a supremely confident baker. This book, as are all of her books, is a must-have for the beginner.