Recently I posted a review of Patisserie by the husband-and-wife team of William and Suzue Curley. That’s the new book from May of this year, and it’s so very delicious.
But last year here in the US and in 2011 in the UK, William published this book, Couture Chocolate: A Masterclass in Chocolate. It’s been exceptionally well received and was the Cookery Book of the Year in the UK.
The subtitle says it all. This is not a book about cookies or cakes or milkshakes. To be sure, recipes do appear for those delights here — yes, milkshakes as in Black Forest with Cherry Compote.
But those recipes are only vehicles to show how chocolate is used and they appear only at the end of the book after you have learned:
- Chocolate origins and manufacture
- Tempering
- Tasting Types
- Making ganache [the basis for much of what follows!]
The Truffles chapter begins with, what else, ganache: because a truffle is essential a ball of ganache, perhaps flavored, coated, adorned, but still ganache. The recipes here are not quite your ordinary ones: Yamazaki Single Malt and Dacquoise Truffles, Cassis and Hibiscus, Chestnut and Praline. You’ve been to very high end shops where the truffle prices seemed to rival gold. Now, at home, you can make gold.
The title of this book, Couture Chocolate, represents the signature dishes William creates. These are luxury, often custom-ordered infusions of ganache providing the utmost in sophisticated and real flavor. Here you will find Tarragon and Mustard Ganache and Pâté de Fruits [raspberry]. It’s not just the flavor here. This is a study in shaping, coating, decorating, embossing. The chocolates are conceived, not just in flavor, but in texture and appearance.
There are other couture creations here, too: Lemongrass and Ginger, Green Tea, Apricot and Wasabi, Passion Fruit and Mango, Orange and Balsamic Vinegar.
A chapter on chocolate bars will take you far, far beyond that Hershey’s wrapper. Here bittersweet chocolate bars are studded with fruit: Confit Orange, Apricot and Cranberry, Autumn Fruits. Or bars can be infused with flavor: Rosemary and Sea Salt, Basil and Black Pepper.
There are candy bars her. A Chocolate Coconut Bar and a Sea Salt Caramel Mou that will give “bar” a new meaning in your life. Macrons appear, of course: Chocolate ones and Coffee.
There are cookies here [aka biscuits using the British term]. Chocolate Madeleines are beautifully presented. They look like alien flying saucers and you would surely welcome them into your mouth. Brownies are here, but in Chocolate and Sesame formulation. There are Chocolate Sables and Chocolate Rosettes with Cinnamon Ganache. The perfect photography by Jose Lasheras makes these treats look delicious, but not too formidable for you to attempt. And, in fact, these recipes have been conceived for you to succeed in your home kitchen.
Patisserie is the book’s penultimate chapter. Here, all the earlier recipes and techniques are revealed to have had you in training. Now it’s graduate school. Chocolate Mousse is suggested two ways: Anglaise Method and Sabayon. There is a Mille Feuille here that does appear, in the photo, to have been crafted by Rembrandt. The Chocolate Roulade is filled with Apricot. The Chocolate Financier is topped with Passion Fruit Curd.
You may have seen Paris Brest before: choux pastry top and bottom with pastry crème in between. You have not seen this version with praline crème and chocolate pastry cream both between layers finished off with hazelnuts, crème Chantilly and powdered sugar. It might seem a bit of a crime to eat it, but there is criminal in all of us.
That over the top chapter could complete any book, but, wait, wait, there’s more. A final chapter presents ice cream, sauces and drinks. What can William have dreamt up? How about Chocolate & Coffee Ice Cream in Handmade Chocolate Cones?
The beauty of this book is deep, just as the book is rich. The ideas, techniques, and recipes are ones that will elevate your skills immeasurably. The photographs are strikingly chocolate and will serve as insurance: yes, now you see what that chocolate cone should look like and, yes, it really does seem doable.
Success with chocolate demands technique and patience. And a roadmap you can see and believe in, that you can trust. That is the appeal and marvel of Couture Chocolate.