Marcel Desaulniers
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Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> Chocolate
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> Cookies
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> Desserts
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Whimsical Desserts 3 out of 5 stars.
28 of 36 people found this review helpful.
I use the word "whimsical" in the negative sense, as something amusing, unusual, or humorous that most people will not be interested in. So it is with Desaulnier's recent cookbook of "totally over-the-top recipes" (to be fair, though, they are not as outrageous as in some other books). In the end, I suggest that you steer clear of it.One can criticize this book on several grounds, but the most serious involve the recipe instructions. Almost all of them contain at least a few parts that are either incomplete or downright wrong. This is rather disappointing, as the author has a facility dubbed "Ganache Hill" that is devoted to testing recipes for his cookbooks. For example, his instructions for making an Italian meringue ("Honey, I'm on Cloud Nine" Icing) are too vague for this rather tricky procedure. The eggs for Schnappy Chocolate Cake did not whip properly. The cake layers for his version of Black Forest Cake should be soaked with syrup just before you assemble the cake, not just before you store it the refrigerator (they will get soggy and impossible to handle, I think). The author also states that the flour is "pre-sifted", yet he calls for the flour to be sifted after measurement; he also makes the mistake of not giving weight measurements for flour. One of the cookie recipes ends up as batter rather than a dough, and spread too much on the cookie sheet.
Another objection involves his use of non-standard baking pans: you will need a bewildering array of them, and it is unlikely that you will have any of the; you will have to purchase them specially for a specific recipe. You will also need 2 ovens to bake off the three half-sheet pans (10 x 15) for "Chocolate Hazelnut Christmas Tree Stump"; all the batter must be baked off right away, and cannot be stored while you bake one or two sheet pans. You will also need a true jelly roll pan, and three 9-inch cake pans, rather than the usual two. You will also need some disposable gloves, as some recipes require you to manipulate doughs that are very sticky.
Also note that a large stand mixer is required. There are no alternate instructions for either hand-held mixers or using a plain hand whisk. The times given for the mixer are also rather problematic, as he gives just an amount of time in minutes, which is fine if have the same mixer he has. There are insufficient indications in the recipes as to what to look for when executing a step using the mixer; "until soft" is not an adequate instruction.
Another problem I encountered is that some of the recipes are either time consuming or difficult to execute properly, as many of them rely on expert decorative touches. There are no indications in the recipes to alert you to this. The unwary home baker can easily stumble into a recipe that is either beyond his/her scope or available time.
On the plus side, there are a couple of recipes that are valuable to have. "She Ain't Heavy" Chocolate Cake is one of the richest and chocolate-laden I have tasted, and plan to keep as part of my repertoire of standard recipes (although it shrinks quite a bit when it cools). You will also find a recipe for a whole-egg butter sponge cake, also known as a genoise, flavored with chocolate: Old-World Cocoa Sponge Cake. While this is a standard professional recipe, it is also a valuable recipe for the home baker. There is also a rare recipe for homemade marshmallows; I found the flavor a little too intense compared to the one I usually use (the one in the old version the Joy of Cooking).
Editorial Review:
Who can resists the lure of chocolate? In this rich new cookbook, America's No 1 expert, award-winning pastry chef Marcel Desaulniers, offers the biggest and best collection of chocolate desserts available - dozens of incredible treats of every variety, from cakes to cookies and puddings pops to pies. Going beyond ordinary desserts, CELEBRATE WITH CHOCOLATE includes such decadent delights as Truffle Tart, Chocolate Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cookies, Chocolate Grasshopper Ice Cream Sandwich, Cocoa Roll, Chocolate Brioche French Toast, and more. With expert instructions and an informative section on equipment, ingredients and techniques, CELEBRATE WITH CHOCOLATE is a chocoholic's dream come true - the ultimate must-have cookbook for every aficionado's shelf.
