Two New Books

Amazon delivered a couple of gems, and I'm sitting down right now to begin poring through one of them. They'll both help me with making CHOCOLATES!

The first is a publication from the Culinary Institute of America called Chocolates & Confections. With the CIA, you know you're in good hands. And this book is chock full with information and formulas for every kind of imaginable candy or chocolate. That's a recipe for fun, if you ask me.

The second book is a translation of a Belgium text written by the leading authority at the Barry-Callebaut chocolate company, Jeanne-Pierre Wybauw. I wasn't familiar with this guy until I did a little googling at Amazon, but he sounds like he's the undisputed King of Chocolate. His book is overwhelming, actually. When I began flipping through the pages I was a bit daunted. His is a highly technical text. In the introduction he states the following: "Processing chocolate looks quite simple at first sight; however there are several factors that must be respected to achieve successful products with a respectable shelf life." I never could have imagined that one of those factors would be the study of rheology. (And I'm going to let you go look that up. It might just come in handy over at Freerice.com). I think his book is going on the shelf for awhile--it's the kind of tome where it would cause anyone with any kind of aspiration for success to give up before they began for fear of doing something wrong. That's no way to pursue a passion. It's going into the picture book category for awhile.