Authored by Lori Longbotham, a former food editor at Gourmet magazine, Luscious Chocolate Desserts more than lives up to its name with a mouthwatering collections of recipes accompanied by gorgeous photography (courtesy of William Meppem).

Many is the chocolate cookbook that I look through thinking that many of the recipes are uninspired and were things that I would never make myself. Not so with this gem, which includes recipes for chocolate bread pudding, chocolate jelly, and what may become my new favorite chocolate ice cream made with creme fraiche. ...

Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Cake (p45)

At a list price of $19.95 (but available for less through Amazon.com, click the ORDER NOW link below), and weighing in with over 70 recipes, this book delivers a lot of value at about thirty cents per recipe. Organized into eight chapters spanning Cakes, Special Favorites, Puddings, Cookies, Confections, and more, Luscious Chocolate Desserts has a recipe for just about every chocolate taste imaginable—though there is a complete lack of white or milk chocolate in the recipes. In her Introduction, Lori declaims any interest in milk chocolate at least in baking because for her, milk chocolate is about the milk, not chocolate, and the flavor is never forceful enough.

Chocolate Panna Cotta (p87)

Many cookbooks of this genre suffer from trying to do too much, especially when it comes to providing an overview of chocolate itself. In this area, the book stumbles, but generally gets it right. True, many of the misses are ones that only someone with a lot of knowledge would catch - for example Lori writes “Bacteria and yeasts present in the air multiply on the sugary pulp, causing it do decompose into acetic acid [...] and turn to alcohol.” In fact, fermentation is a two-step process, the first stage being anaerobic where the sugars in the pulp are turned to alcohol; in the second or aerobic stage of fermentation, the alcohol is converted to acetic acid. I don’t think it’s chemically possible to turn vinegar into wine.

However, Lori gets it right when she points out that while a Trinitario might at one time have been a cross between a specific Criollo and a specific Forastero, today there can be no such certainty, with Trinitario now being a general term for any hybrid (whether occurring naturally or propagated intentionally by man) of a Criollo and a Forastero. (Cacao plant genetics is very confused - because of the way the tree is pollinated not only is it possible to have more than one hybrid on the same tree, it is also possible to have multiple hybrids within the same pod).

All in all, the factual errors are few and relatively technical in nature. Luscious Desserts is a “Should Have” for your bookshelf. The book is an easy read, the recipes are varied and most are easy enough for even the most timid weekend chef to master, and the pictures are just as luscious as the recipes. What stops this from being a Must Have is that even though there is some information about chocolate in general, it’s not comprehensive enough in its coverage of the topic to earn that final star. This is a book I would not hesitate to give as a gift and would be very pleased to receive as a gift (except of course that I already have a copy).

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