Chocopologie: Confections & Baked Treats from the Acclaimed Chocolatier

For anyone who dearly loves chocolate. I want to make everything in this book. A perfect selection of recipes from peanut butter cups to cheesecakes, truffles, cakes, and pies. Expert tips for making ganache for frostings and fillings. And don't forget the drinks, ice cream and cookies. I was looking for a recipe for pistachio truffles ...It's here as well. Excellent book in every respect.

The book is OK, but not a favorite.

I love to bake and when I first saw this book at my local library I just had to own it. It's just that good. It's filled with great recipes that's easy to follow for a person who knows how to bake. This is not a book for a beginner.

It's all about chocolate. Enough said.

Love them all!

I was really hoping this would be a chocolatier book, unfortunately it doesn't really teach you how to make chocolates besides truffles. If you are just looking for chocolate desserts and not chocolates you would find in a shop this book might fit the bill.

This is a little different from other chocolate books -- sort of new-age European. It's not stuffy or traditional but instead is fun and modern and the recipes are tantalizing. Love the chocolate bark...chocolate cupcakes....everything ganache!

Coming from a renowned chocolatier, I thought the recipes would have greater depth and had hoped there would be at least a few good truffle recipes, but the few truffle recipes included left me cold. Every recipe has 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of added sugar. I know the addition of invert sugar or glucose is used for added shelf-life and stability and is what I have always used, but I've never seen a recipe that added so much granulated sugar. Then there are recipes for things like chocolate covered bacon. The ingredient list calls for 1/2 half pound of chocolate and 1 pound bacon. Really? Another one is Cornflake Clusters calling for 1 pound of chocolate and a large box of cornflakes??? It almost seems as if Knipschildt was looking for anything to fill the book with. Very disappointing to say the least. There do seem to be some interesting recipes for baked goods, which comprise the greater part of the book. So if you're looking for chocolate recipes or secrets from a chocolatier this is not the book to find it. He doesn't even address how to temper chocolate, which is so easy to do with the seed method. He simply states that tempering chocolate and keeping it in temper is a complicated process which he will save for another book. (I temper chocolate all the time using my microwave and the seed method and never have a problem. I keep checking the temperature with an instant read thermometer while I'm dipping and when it drops too low I simply pop the bowl of chocolate back into the microwave for a few seconds to bring the temp back up, easy-peazy!) Knipschildt seems to think that unless you are a bonafide chocolatier you are too stupid to learn or comprehend simple techniques. In the end I would say this is more of a baking book with a few other recipes included.If you want to learn how to make chocolates there are far better books out there like Making Artisan Confections by Andrew Garrison Shotts, Chocolate Obsession by Michael Recchiuti or Chocolate Passion by Tish Boyle. For a more comprehensive book look at Chocolates and Confections by Peter Greweling.