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I'm in a used bookstore on a Sunday afternoon, guiltily perusing the cookbooks ("I have more than 30 already; I really shouldn't be 'window shopping' for more!"). Then I open this one to find a trove of decadant chocolate recipes, with lots of great facts about the science behind baking with chocolate, which sets my baker's heart aflutter. Plus, it's authored and signed by Marcel Desaulniers, the "Guru of Ganache." How can I resist? Well, I should because I always buy these things and then never have the time/money/etc. etc. to actually use them to their full potential.
Clearly, I have no willpower. How to justify the purchase of yet another cookbook? By devoting one day each week to crafting one of the best chocolate recipes from it, and documenting it all here.
Blog purpose
- An excuse to bake something chocolatey on a weekly basis
- A diary of baking adventures
- An amateur, but hopefully entertaining, resource for like-minded chocoholics and bakers (I'll let you know what works and what doesn't so that you can glean from my findings)
- Bake/make one recipe per week (excluding vacations and unexpected life events)
- Start with the basics/easy stuff, work up to the ultimate: Death by Chocolate Cake
- Document the process - from the masterpieces to the total flops - it should be a good read when I screw something up!
- Share the recipes with you here
- I will try not to modify the recipes with lame substitutions just because I was too lazy to go to the store and get the proper ingredient.
- I will use the highest-quality chocolate that I can get my hands on without going broke. Marcel, the cookbook's author, actually said in the intro that Hershey's and Baker's chocolate is ok. I can only conclude that he's on something or was paid off by those producers of mediocre baking chocolate. Hershey's indeed!
- To the degree that I'm able, I will be turning OFF my editor's eye and just writing whatever I think is interesting. I'm hoping this will be a bit of an escape from work, where I'm always critiquing everything. So apologies in advance for any ramblings, run-on sentences, typos, etc. You're going to get Holly Uncensored. She's sweet, but a little rambly, and sometimes misses the forest for the trees. Sorry.
Weeks 1-7: The Essentials (everything from truffles to brownies - the basics)
Week 8: Cleanse the Palate (just a touch of chocolate)
Weeks 9-20: Chocolate Decadence (now we're getting serious)
Weeks 21-23: Chocolate Dementia (off-the-hook chocolate)
We'll see what happens after that.
I hope you'll find this blog entertaining and useful. I'd love any feedback on ways it can be improved as it evolves. Here's to 23 weeks of chocolate!
Stay tuned for the first recipe: Ebony and Ivory Chocolate Truffles.
3 comments:
What wonderful content for a blog! I'm writing this with a pile of chocolate chips and a mini dove bar in front of me. I will be anxiously awaiting your Ebony and Ivory Chocolate Truffles.
I'm getting whoozy! I too have a chocolate only cookbook that I have only made one thing from because where does one know where to start when faced with a plethora of good recipes? I like the idea of once a week. I look forward to hear more. And we can certainly use one of the days you're down here as a baking day. We wouldn't want vacation to interrupt your schedule.
KT, we should definitely have a "Live, from Southern California" version of Death by Chocolate when I come next week! Great idea.
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