Tuesday, December 31, 2013

first cookbook review

A few years ago in a kitchen shop in Wyoming my mom bought me this cookbook:


Rather than just a collection of recipes this book is an education in candymaking of many kinds. The book starts out describing the ingredients that will be used and explaining how to select quality ingredients.  Seven pages alone are devoted to chocolate.

The author then goes on to talk about the tools and equipment that are used in candymaking. She follows that up with a chapter on techniques.

Next she gets to the recipes.  Each recipe chapter has its own index of the candies found within that chapter.  Following the index is a page or two talking about the candy type found in that chapter.   The first recipe chapter is on truffles and there are recipes for 26 different truffles.  Each recipe has several variations using different chocolate.  The first truffle recipe classic chocolate truffles is made with bittersweet chocolate but there are instructions to make a white chocolate version as well as a milk chocolate version.

Following the chapter on truffles is a chapter on more chocolate candies, a chapter on caramel candies, as well as chapters on nut brittles, marzipan, fudge, nougat, divinity and fruit candies.

The title page of each recipe chapter has a full page photo of a candy from that chapter and there are other full page photos as well within the chapter.  The photos are beautifully styled usually depicting finished candy but occasionally a step in the candymaking process is shown.

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