BOOK REVIEW

THE GHIRARDELLI CHOCOLATE COOKBOOK

by Neva Beach

(Ten Speed Press - 1995)

Are you a chocolate fanatic or a chocoholic?  If you like eating chocolate foods or cooking with chocolate, you'll love the Ghiradelli Chocolate Cookbook.

The cookbook is filled with recipes all made with the specialty Ghiradelli chocolate brand of baking chips, baking bars and cocoa powder.

If reading the recipes doesn't convince you, then perusing the color photographs of the final results will.  It's chock full of yummy yummy chocolate.

There are recipe categories for chocolate drinks, cakes and tortes, pies and tarts, cookies and bars, breads and pastries, confections and other desserts and sauces and toppings.  I counted 94 recipes in all.

One short section of the book gives instructions for decorating with chocolate and tells you how to make Chocolate Curls and Shavings, Chocolate Cutouts, Chocolate Leaves, Chocolate-Dipped Pecans, chocolate bowls and how to drizzle or pipe chocolate.

Many of the recipes can be found on the company website, but it's always handier to have an actual cookbook around to refer to.  Some of the recipes don't seem to be on the website at the time of this writing.

Collectors of Ghirardelli Chocolate memorabilia should also find this book quite interesting and useful.  There are several pages to the Introduction which tells the story of chocolate in general and much about the history of the Ghirardelli company and its founder.  Ghirardelli Square, the famous San Francisco landmark, is also covered.

Many old pieces of advertising and Ghirardelli ephemera are shown on the pages with captions and more information about the company and its products.  One example is the Motion Picture Stars trade cards that were once found in every package of Ghirardelli's Milk Chocolate.  These were cards packaged with the candy and sold at movie theaters in the early 1920s.  Three of the cards, out of a set of forty-eight, are shown in this book, featuring Mabel Normand, Mary Pickford and Douglas MacLean.

This is a nice softcover book that's easy to use in the kitchen and will make a great addition to your cookbook library.

Get your own copy of The Ghirardelli Chocolate Cookbook.

Try a recipe from this cookbook.

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