Longbotham - Luscious Chocolate Desserts

I AM A CHOCOHOLIC. STILL.

Even after the more than SIXTY POUNDS of chocolate I used to develop the recipes for this book. I love chocolate. I have always loved chocolate. To paraphrase the supremely talented Sandra Boynton, also passionate about chocolate, I am a person who likes chocolate, as in I am a person who likes to breathe. At any given moment, I can tell you the last time I had chocolate and can anticipate (within three seconds) the next time I will have chocolate.

When I reflect on my life, I dont remember events and feelings in the context of which year they happened. No, when my life flashes in front of me, passages are marked by the chocolate desserts I was obsessed with at the time. In my youth, it was FROZEN CHOCOLATE-DIPPED BANANAS on the boardwalk in Santa Cruz; HERSHEY BARS anytime and everywhere; and a BANANA IN THE SKIN, SPLIT AND STUFFED WITH CHOCOLATE CHIPS, WRAPPED IN FOIL, AND TOSSED INTO THE CAMPFIRE AT SUMMER CAMP. In grade school, my best friends mom made what she called spoon candy on rainy days. It was like warm fudge, served in the saucepan and eaten with a spoon. I thought it was genius then and still do.

When I was a little older and started to cook, like many of us, it was all chocolate all the time. CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (mine were the size of a small pizza), BROWNIES (both with and without nuts), FUDGE, and CHOCOLATE-COATED English toffee. In college, I met the simple and sublime Chocolate Decadence at Narsais restaurant in Kensington, north of Berkeley. Its a dessert I will never forgetperfectly simple, with a completely intense flavor, it rocked my world. I had no idea there could be so much chocolate in one dessert. After graduating from the CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA, I moved to Manhattan and began my chocolate exploration of the city. I was immediately mesmerized by the truffles and the chocolatedipped strawberries at the local chocolate shop, the luscious cookies called Chocolate Globs at the SOHO CHARCUTERIE, and the Rigo Jansci (rich chocolate cakes) I found in Hungarian bakeries. One of my first jobs was at a company that made desserts for restaurants, where we prepared, among other things, chocolate pt for the River Caf. It really did look like a pt, studded with pistachios and shredded white chocolate, and it was a variation on the magnificent CHOCOLATE MARQUISE Ive included in this book.

When I began to travel seriously, the chocolate discoveries were even more interesting. When friends in Paris asked me, How can you drink the incredibly rich, thick hot chocolate at Angelinas? I didnt always tell them that not only did I love drinking it, I enjoyed it most with a slice of the tearooms BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE TART. I remember having to catch my breath the first time I walked into the venerable Maison du Chocolat. Robert Linxe, the owner and chocolatier, gave me a tour of his candy case, a taste of each of his truffles in the precise order he thought they should be tasted. I got tears in my eyes and said, Theyre perfect. His eyes were moist also as he said, I know. Theres also a house of vanilla in Paris, but every time Ive walked by, its been empty. Need I say more?

52% of all Americans say chocolate is their favorite flavor for desserts and snacks; thats 57% of women and 48% of men. Chocolate is the single most craved food in the United States. In the year 2001, chocolate consumption in this country was over three billion pounds. Billion!

As the chocolate softens, the comforting, unmistakable taste transports you into a delightful world of memories. HERV BIZEUL

Chocolate is a complex mixture of flavors and textures that provide comfort and nourishment, energy and satisfaction, and a magical quality that lifts the spirit. Like no other food, it offers a taste of love and a consolation for loss. I think of it as a mental-health food, or maybe I should say an emotional-health food.

Luckily for us, the quality of chocolate available is at an all-time high. Chocolate has evolved to new heights of sophistication and refinement, with wonderful ranges in flavor, aroma, and textural characteristics. Im fond of chocolates with more chocolate flavor and less sweetness, which means chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa liquor. No, it doesnt contain alcoholthat would be chocolate liqueur. For cooking, I cant be bothered with milk chocolate, because to me its about milk, not about chocolate, and the flavor is just never forceful enough. I dont mind eating milk chocolate but only when a hunk of bittersweet or semisweet is not available. For cooking, I want deep, rich, intense dark chocolatethe same silky, powerful, complex, rich, velvety chocolate with a rounded fruitiness that I would choose to eat out of hand. I love all dark rich chocolate, including French and other European chocolates, but my current favorite is an all-American product, an artisanal chocolate made in Berkeley, california. Its called Scharffen Berger, and it is wonderful for eating as well as dessert making. Another thing I love about the company is that they have packaged cocoa nibs, cracked hulled cocoa beans, the basis of all chocolate and cocoa, which have the most chocolate flavor of anything on earth. And Scharffen Berger makes one of the worlds finest natural cocoas. But you should also try Valrhona and Michael Cluizel from France; CALLEBAUT from Belgium; Droste from Holland; Lindt and TOBLER from Switzerland; Green & Blacks, an organic chocolate from England; Chocolates El Rey from Venezuela; Guittard and GHIRARDELLI from San Francisco; and, of course, the supermarket chocolates, Bakers, Nestl, and Hershey. There are many wonderful chocolates out there, and your job is to find your favorite.

Chocolate is a magic substance , the noblest of dessert ingredients. And isnt it magnificent that the melting point of cocoa butter is just below human body temperature, so it literally melts in your mouth? I am fooled and surprised over and over again by chocolateI always think that I will be able to keep it in my mouth longer, but its gone before I know it. I take a bite, get distracted, come to, and its vanished. AND IT&RS;S NO WONDER: the tantalizing aroma of chocolate involves more than three hundred chemical compounds and the flavor can have more than five hundred components.

My goal with the recipes in this book was to incorporate as much deep, dark, rich chocolate into each one as possible. AND YOU DON&RS;T NEED PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE MAKING DESSERTS OR WORKING WITH CHOCOLATE TO MAKE THEM. I am totally confident that anyone and everyone can make luscious, delectable chocolate desserts with ease by following the recipes I offer here.