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Chocolate and Vanilla
Love Vanilla?
Award-winning pastry chef and Food Network star Gale Gand considers vanilla the lingerie of It’s an invisible essential, the thing you put on before anything else; but when given the spotlight, it’s every bit as sexy and alluring as chocolate–vanilla fans would say even more so. In this flip/cookbook, Gand offers tips on working with both vanilla beans and vanilla extract, revealing which is best for what, and includes a helpful substitution guide. And then it’s on to the good recipes for irresistible sweets that showcase vanilla’s beguiling flavor. With one section devoted to desserts using whole vanilla beans–think Vanilla Raspberry Rice Pudding with Lemon-Vanilla Caramel and Late-Night Vanilla Flan–and another focusing on extract–such as Vanilla-Blueberry Crumb Cake and Boston Cream Cupcakes–these are recipes that are anything but plain vanilla.
Love Chocolate?
Say the word chocolate and a chocoholic’s face lights up with visions of utterly satisfying, rich pleasures. In this fun flip/cookbook, award-winning pastry chef and Food Network star Gale Gand shares her favorite ways to indulge family and friends–and yourself.
Gand offers tips on buying and working with chocolate, including demystifying those ever-confusing cacao percentages, before getting down to business with more than thirty luscious, tempting recipes. Organized by type of chocolate–dark, semi-sweet, milk, and white–they run the gamut from simple treats such as Chocolate-Praline Cake in a Jar and Creamy Dreamy Walnut Fudge to impress-the-guests desserts that include Mexican Hot Chocolate Fondue and Chocolate-Almond Upside-Down Cake. Accompanied by amusing anecdotes, helpful make-ahead notes, and clear, uncomplicated techniques, Gand’s creations are as much fun to make as they are to eat.
Award-winning pastry chef and Food Network star Gale Gand considers vanilla the lingerie of It’s an invisible essential, the thing you put on before anything else; but when given the spotlight, it’s every bit as sexy and alluring as chocolate–vanilla fans would say even more so. In this flip/cookbook, Gand offers tips on working with both vanilla beans and vanilla extract, revealing which is best for what, and includes a helpful substitution guide. And then it’s on to the good recipes for irresistible sweets that showcase vanilla’s beguiling flavor. With one section devoted to desserts using whole vanilla beans–think Vanilla Raspberry Rice Pudding with Lemon-Vanilla Caramel and Late-Night Vanilla Flan–and another focusing on extract–such as Vanilla-Blueberry Crumb Cake and Boston Cream Cupcakes–these are recipes that are anything but plain vanilla.
Love Chocolate?
Say the word chocolate and a chocoholic’s face lights up with visions of utterly satisfying, rich pleasures. In this fun flip/cookbook, award-winning pastry chef and Food Network star Gale Gand shares her favorite ways to indulge family and friends–and yourself.
Gand offers tips on buying and working with chocolate, including demystifying those ever-confusing cacao percentages, before getting down to business with more than thirty luscious, tempting recipes. Organized by type of chocolate–dark, semi-sweet, milk, and white–they run the gamut from simple treats such as Chocolate-Praline Cake in a Jar and Creamy Dreamy Walnut Fudge to impress-the-guests desserts that include Mexican Hot Chocolate Fondue and Chocolate-Almond Upside-Down Cake. Accompanied by amusing anecdotes, helpful make-ahead notes, and clear, uncomplicated techniques, Gand’s creations are as much fun to make as they are to eat.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
23 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 4, 2016
Gale Gand is a pastry chef well known to lucky people in the Chicago area. (Chef Gand has been recognized as Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year by The James Beard Foundation and by Bon Appetite magazine and has been inducted into the Chicago Chefs Hall of Fame.) What I like best about her is that her recipes are very, very simple, requiring not many ingredients and not many steps. If you are a dessert person, and especially a chocoholic, this book is worth it for the pictures alone!
Of course, the recipes are great, and she provides background info as well. In the chocolate section for example (the book reverses - one half devoted to chocolate and one to vanilla), you can read about the history of the cacao bean (and even how to pronounce it - ka-kow for the tree or its beans, and ko-ko for the products from them). She gives background on how to buy chocolate and how to work with it. The vanilla section has analogous information, which is especially useful because there are a lot of products out there purporting to be “vanilla extract,” and she tells you how to evaluate them.
And what about the recipes? I haven’t tried them all, but I’ve even enjoyed just reading them and imagining. My favorites (so far) are “Best-Ever Fudgy Brownies,” “Hot Chocolate Pudding,” “Lemon-Vanilla Pound Cake,” and “Individual Lemon-Vanilla Pudding Cakes.” And again, they are short and easy.
Before each recipe she provides a short anecdote about how it, such as the fudge she made for a restaurant opened by Oprah, or why she uses vinegar in her chocolate cupcakes.
My only question to her would be why she occasionally includes corn syrup in her recipes, like for hot fudge sauce. (This book is from 2006 - it might be that she no longer advocates its use.) And then there are her unrealistic comments like “The [hot fudge] sauce keeps in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.” Ha ha! As if hot fudge sauce would ever last that long in my house!
Otherwise, this is a cookbook to savor - for the pictures, the recipes, and of course, the actual results of following her quick and easy directions.
She has quite a few other cookbooks as well - you can see them on her website, here.
Of course, the recipes are great, and she provides background info as well. In the chocolate section for example (the book reverses - one half devoted to chocolate and one to vanilla), you can read about the history of the cacao bean (and even how to pronounce it - ka-kow for the tree or its beans, and ko-ko for the products from them). She gives background on how to buy chocolate and how to work with it. The vanilla section has analogous information, which is especially useful because there are a lot of products out there purporting to be “vanilla extract,” and she tells you how to evaluate them.
And what about the recipes? I haven’t tried them all, but I’ve even enjoyed just reading them and imagining. My favorites (so far) are “Best-Ever Fudgy Brownies,” “Hot Chocolate Pudding,” “Lemon-Vanilla Pound Cake,” and “Individual Lemon-Vanilla Pudding Cakes.” And again, they are short and easy.
Before each recipe she provides a short anecdote about how it, such as the fudge she made for a restaurant opened by Oprah, or why she uses vinegar in her chocolate cupcakes.
My only question to her would be why she occasionally includes corn syrup in her recipes, like for hot fudge sauce. (This book is from 2006 - it might be that she no longer advocates its use.) And then there are her unrealistic comments like “The [hot fudge] sauce keeps in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.” Ha ha! As if hot fudge sauce would ever last that long in my house!
Otherwise, this is a cookbook to savor - for the pictures, the recipes, and of course, the actual results of following her quick and easy directions.
She has quite a few other cookbooks as well - you can see them on her website, here.
August 6, 2015
Jessica RC will lead this discussion on Sunday, January 13, 2013, 2-3 pm. Each month we'll ask you to make two recipes from a designated cookbook: we'll choose the first recipe; you'll choose the second. We'll meet to discuss both recipes and to sample the one you chose. We'll have a potluck of tasty treats! Our recipe choice is Black and White Cream Cheese Brownies on page 24.
Our inaugural discussion was lively and tasty! We sampled Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Thumbprints, Golden Vanilla Layer Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting, Peanut Butter Cocoa Crisp Treats, Black and White Cream Cheese Brownies, and Deep Chocolate Shortbread. While we all felt that the recipes were well written, three of us needed to add more milk/cream to our chocolate frostings to make them easier to work with.
Our inaugural discussion was lively and tasty! We sampled Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Thumbprints, Golden Vanilla Layer Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting, Peanut Butter Cocoa Crisp Treats, Black and White Cream Cheese Brownies, and Deep Chocolate Shortbread. While we all felt that the recipes were well written, three of us needed to add more milk/cream to our chocolate frostings to make them easier to work with.
November 18, 2016
This was a relatively quick read but I liked the information about chocolate and vanilla -- gives different perspective. There are some interesting recipes that I'd like to try so have captured those and will try them out over the winter months.
May 11, 2008
Beautiful cookbook! Right now I am collecting more for the autographs than actually cooking from them! :) Have autographed bookplate and autographed picture.
June 3, 2012
I didn't actually make many of the recipes (those I did make, I liked) but I really enjoyed reading and learning about chocolate and vanilla - their histories, uses, differences and varieties.
August 10, 2014
Disappointing. I picked it up on a clearance table. Just doesn't appeal to me like her other books.
October 4, 2016
Chocolate and vanilla
Es una decepción las poquísimas ilustraciones que tiene el libro, esenciales cuando se trata de recetas. Es una gran pena!
Es una decepción las poquísimas ilustraciones que tiene el libro, esenciales cuando se trata de recetas. Es una gran pena!
December 14, 2018
Meh. If only I wasn't allergic to peanut butter. And the vanilla section was a big letdown.
February 6, 2008
Amazing recipes. Check the rice pudding... death by deliciousness!!!
September 12, 2012
Yum!! Ready to try some of these recipes!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews