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Fans of Scharffen Berger Chocolates will appreciate this cookbook by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg, the founders of the company. Working with food writer Susie Heller, the pair put together the Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate, a cookbook that is devoted to chocolate for those who really appreciate it. Even though Scharffen Berger is now owned by Hershey's, the chocolates are still produced to their original, gourmet specifications and these recipes reflect that attention to detail. The more than 100 recipes are arranged according to their cacao content and, unlike more generic recipes that just call for "milk" or "dark" chocolate, these are specifically tweaked to work best with the individual chocolates called for. This strategy is a good way to sell more chocolate and a bit of a PITA if you aren't really a chocolate connoisseur, but if you already buy your chocolates this way (and many of us do), this cookbook should give you much better than average results and the recipes will require no tweaking. Recipes include White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache, Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes, Chocolate Ginger Pots de Crème and even a couple of savory recipes that primarily use cocoa powder, like Chile Marinated Flank Steak and Vegetarian Chili.

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