If chocolate is something you're passionate about, here's a tantalizing new book of recipes that's absolutely irresistible.

Absolutely Chocolate features 125 delicious creations -- candy, cookies, truffles, brownies, muffins, tarts, layer cakes, even hot cocoa -- all served up by the editors of Fine Cooking magazine.

In today's sophisticated chocolate culture, there's much more to making luscious recipes than choosing between semi-sweet and milk chocolate.

And when you're ready to whip up some dark, decadent desserts, Absolutely Chocolate offers all the sweet details you need to make each one a success.

You'll learn about every type of chocolate, its geographic origins, and the unique qualities that make it perfect for each use.

Every recipe features valuable tips on selecting and buying just the right chocolates, step-by-step instructions, and expert advice from America's most respected chocoholics.

Here's just a taste of what you'll find.

• Triple-tested recipes that work for all skill levels
• Insights and advice from America's foremost culinary experts
• Friendly, hands-on instructions
• Colorful photos as luscious as the recipes

The next time you're overtaken with desire for the sweet flavor of chocolate, you'll be glad to have this delicious collection of recipes close at hand.

For the love of chocolate

Cookies

Brownies & bars

Cakes

2 Pies & tarts

Puddings, mousses & soufflés

Fun & fancy desserts

Ice creams & frozen desserts

Breads

Candies & confections

Sauces & drinks

Equivalency charts

Contributors
Recipe index by chapter
Index

Chocolate is the source of endless delight for so many of us, but it can also be the source of some confusion. Within the thousands of options to choose from, there can be as much variation in flavor and quality as there is in, say, wine or cheese, and chocolate is very much the same type of product. While you may buy a bar of beautifully wrapped chocolate from a chic urban boutique, all chocolate starts its life as an agricultural crop, and its quality depends on the care taken by the farmer and those processing the beans at an early stage. The final confection reflects the skill and sensibility of the manufacturer, whether that's an industrial giant such as Hershey's® or a hands-on artisan like one of the many small chocolatiers that have sprung up around the world. Understanding how chocolate is created can help you make the best decisions about which variety to use in cooking and for eating.

Chocolate's delicious journey from bean to bar
All real chocolate comes from the cocoa bean (also called cacao bean), the fruit of a tree, Theobroma cacao, that only grows in the tropics. Much of the quality of the chocolate will depend on the origin and quality of the beans. There are three main types of cacao: Forestero (and a subtype called Nacional), which has a robust chocolate flavor but not much finesse; Trinitario, a good middle quality; and Criollo, considered the premium bean. The beans are fermented after being harvested, dried, cleaned, roasted, and finally shelled, to produce the centers, called nibs.

These nibs are then pulverized or ground into a smooth liquid that's called chocolate liquor (although it contains no alcohol). When the chocolate liquor cools, it forms solid blocks.

Chocolate liquor is the basis for all things chocolate. Pure chocolate liquor is very dark and bitter and has only two components -- cocoa solids and cocoa butter. The solids give chocolate its characteristic dark, strong flavor, and the cocoa butter translates to a smooth mouth-feel.

In its natural state, chocolate liquor contains a little more than half (50% to 58%) cocoa butter and the rest is chocolate solids. Early on, producers learned that by increasing the cocoa butter, they could create chocolate with a better sheen and smoother texture. So they developed a high-pressure filter process that breaks down chocolate liquor and separates the solids from the butter. They could then manipulate the chocolate to produce a range of styles.

To create eating chocolate, sugar and flavorings are added to the cocoa butter and solids, and the mixture undergoes hours of a process called conching, using rollers that refine all the particles in sugar and create the luscious mouth-feel we crave in chocolate. While some sugar is needed to make pure chocolate palatable, the best examples contain a high percentage of real chocolate and only small amounts of sugar or other additives.