Check It Out: Adventures with Chocolate

So while we're talking chocolate, thought I'd tell you about this cookbook I have. If you are a serious chocoholic, you might want to think about adding this to your collection, if for no other reason than to have a super sexy coffee table book that will make both you and your friends drool.

Adventures with Chocolate: 80 Sensational Recipes by Paul A. Young (Kyle Books, 2011) is pretty luxurious. I will give you a heads up, though, that Paul is from the UK so there may be some translation needed to find substitutes for some of the listed ingredients. For example, I learned that demerara sugar is like Sugar in the Raw (or at least that's what I used).  

In the first part of the book, he talks about how to buy the right chocolate and how to identify (in a little more detail than I had) the different types of chocolate and then goes into how to make truffles.

And from there, oh from there, it's got some truly decadent recipes with some seriously sassy photos. Some of the recipes you could try out are Dark Chocolate Sorbet, Hand-rolled Wild Strawberry and Pink Peppercorn Truffles, Chocolate and Almond Tortellini with Blood Oranges and Pine Nuts, Wasabi and Green Apple Ganache, and Honey-cured Bacon, Stilton and Chocolate Sandwich.

So if you like truffles and flavorful ganaches and the evil wonderful ways of chocolate, you're going to want to add this to your collection.

More info about the book -- hardcover, ISBN 978-1-906868-05-5, 144 pages, full color photos by Anders Schonnemann, $24.95.