Review: Joanne Harris Little Book Of Chocolat

madnad

Joanne Harris is an award-winning best-selling British fiction author, so I have to confess, I was surprised when I received a recipe book in the mail with her name on. Famous for the Chocolat trilogy, Harris has also written fantasy, but I was unaware she had written recipe books, but this is in fact her third collaboration with Fran Warde.

The recipes in this book obviously put chocolate in the fore, and celebrate the ingredient in the same way the book (and movie) of the same name do. Most of the recipes are little twists on dishes you are probably familiar with, but endearingly, a lot of the recipes have been named after characters in the novels. Roux’s Ginger Crumble and Vianne’s Hot Chocolate being named after two key characters. The recipes are of course sweet, however, you will find a little spice here and there in the tradition of the Aztecs.

After a brief intro from Fran, including some excellent tips on tempering chocolate, the book is straight into the almost 50 recipes. There are a range of dishes, from truffles to cookies, grand gateaux to dainty macarons. Those who have read any of my recipe book reviews before will know that one of my bugbears is that too often recipe books list the French macaron as a macaroon. Thankfully, not in this case, which is what I would expect from someone like Harris who has French family. Another bugbear of mine is when a recipe book fails to display a photo for each and every recipe. You will be pleased to note that this is not a concern here. Not only does this petite book contain a photo with each recipe, but they are so delightfully and beautiful shot, I was enchanted by every single one.

The recipes themselves are easy to follow. The instructions are straight forward and not overly wordy. I would say that majority of the dishes can be accomplished with average experience. My favourite recipes were the Pistachio and Chocolate Shortbread, Chocolate Heart Muffins and Reynaud’s Black & White Layer Cake.

Joanne Harris’ Little Book Of Chocolate is released today and is published by Doubleday

PS – It seems that Ms Harris has been very busy of late. Not only working on this wonderful recipe book, but last month, she released The Gospel Of Loki, which was reviewed here.

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3 Comments

  1. March 13, 2014 at 08:44

    I couldn’t agree more with your point about needing a picture with every recipe. Keep up the great reviews. I might get this book for my wife after reading this.

    • mutherfudgerReply
      March 13, 2014 at 10:02

      You should! So many tasty recipes – if she is a chocolate fan, she will love it.

      • March 13, 2014 at 13:54

        Bought from the link above 😉

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