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Title: I'm Dreaming of a Chocolate Christmas
ISBN: 0764599003
Author:
Marcel Desaulniers
Publicate Date: 2007-10-22
Publish: 2007-10-22
List Price: $29.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $13.99
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $7.36
Amazon Merchant Price: $19.77
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Visions of Fab Christmas Desserts Dancing On One's Mind & Tongue
One of my favorite cookbook authors has done it again. Whether a cookbook on chocolate or desserts or salads, one can count on Marcel to provide for the home chef a cookbook that provides exciting, creative fare with the home chef's capabilities and equipment in mind. He does extensive testing for this and one can easily appreciate this when attempting his recipes. His usual superb color photos, recipe writeups, Chef's Touch tips are all here as well.
What an over the top collection of Christmas Chocolate fare with this! I'm in love with Karen's Chocolate Peppermint Bourbon Walnut Fudge! It's over the top. Then there's the daring but not that hard to do (go to Lowes or Home Depot and get the PVC, they'll even cut it if you ask) and do "Refuge of Chocolate Pistachio Mousse." It looks much harder than it is to pull off! Texture and presentation are simply outstanding and who doesn't like pistachios with chocolate?
Hard to stop raving about this recipe collection, with the likes of such as "Chocolate Strawberry Hazelnut Brownie Bars" or "Chocolate Chip Pecan Rum Tart", "Mrs. Lenhardt's Chocolate Almond Toffee" or "Cranberry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream Terrine." These are unusual, eccentric chocolate based goodies that taste as wonderful as they sound and they look spectacular.
Great insight to be included a section showing which recipes are great for shipping, for giving, for stay-at-home desserts, as well as packaging suggests. There also is his usual ingredient, technique and equipment addendum which is excellent.
This is a must for the serious Christmas cook, baker, giver, entertainer. Use it, give it, and you'll end up likely where I am, with Marcel at the upper top of your favorite cookbook producer, always waiting anxiously for his next offering.
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2: Disappointing
I have most of Marcel Desaulniers' books but found this one disappointing. The pictures are beautiful but I think I expected more of the recipes.
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3: Choc full of nuts
Its a lovely cook book and has many wonderful recipes. Unfortunately most of them contain nut products, which my sons are allergic to. I am therefore unable to use it. But I am sure one of my friends will be happy to receive it as a present.
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4: More Complicated than Advertised
I agree that the book's numerous color photos are beautifully staged. And many of the desserts are seasonless, to be enjoyed throughout the year.
However, the recipes in this book are more complicated than some other reviewers would have you believe, with multiple steps for most of the recipes (not including cookies). And although the book jacket promises that the recipes require only "ordinary equipment and supermarket ingredients," I have to disagree. The dessert pictured on the cover, for example, requires six new pieces of PVC pipes - now, who considers PVC pipes to be ordinary cooking equipment? Not me or my friends who bake (even the one who went to culinary school).
I found many of the tips contained in the Chef's Touch notes (included for each recipe) to be useful. The tips on storage and shipping for the recipes will be helpful as well.
I am not a fan of the author's writing style which was sometimes corny. He tried a little too hard to be funny or be low-key. For instance, in the notes for White Chocolate Kisses, the author writes "Notice the baking time is just 14 minutes, so you should avoid distractions like playing mouth music with your sweetie, and keep a close eye on your cookies as they bake." Who says "mouth music"?
I would have preferred to give the book 3.5 stars. Since that is not an option, I rounded up.
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5: Chocolate Lovers' Delight
Review by "Retired Geek's Wife": Having been to the Trellis Restaurant in Williamsburg, VA, I was familiar with Chef Marcel's amazing chocolate concoctions. His other cookbooks are much more complex recipes than I'm interested in making, so I was very excited to discover "I'm Dreaming of a Chocolate Christmas" because the recipes are a bit simpler and certainly not just for Christmas. The recipes are extraordinary, but not beyond the time and talent constraints of us mere mortals. If you are wanting to stretch your talents, this is the cookbook to try. The directions and extra help provided in the "Chef Tips" are excellent, providing the details needed to create a memorable dessert for any special occasion. Be warned though, these are still more complex recipes than the norm, so allow enough time, especially for the prep work. When I made the Chocolate Chunk Celebrations, I spent 1 1/2 hours prep before I started actually cooking. Worth every minute...one of the best desserts I ever eaten and rave reviews from all that tried them!
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