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There are some great recipes here: Italian Chicken with Peppers and Onions, Quick Beef and Bean Chili, Unstuffed Shells (a personal favorite), Navy Bean and Ham Soup, Kung Pao Chicken, "Stuffed" Pepper Stew, Round Steak Pizzaiola, just to name a few.
I like the fact that all the recipes are nutritionally balanced so I don't have to do any thinking about the right combinations. And I also like that there's so much variety-with lots of wonderfully flavored ethnic dishes.
This is a cookbook for anyone interested in healthy cooking.
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1. READ THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK. Even if you're an expert, you need to read the introductory information. Nancy Baggett is very specific in the beginning about certain things like the way she wants you to measure flour, etc. This also goes for the directions within the recipes about things like the temperatures of various ingredients. If you take your eggs out of the fridge and use them in the chocolate meringues, you'll be very disappointed in the cookies! If you're careful, however, you'll find them very delicious.
2. Know your oven. My oven, for example, takes a little longer than the ovens in *any* cookbook, even though I have had it tested for temperature. If you don't bake frequently, you'll want to test your cookies so you don't either undercook or overcook them.
Basically, this is an excellent book with detailed information, fascinating tidbits of cookie history great pictures and delicious cookie recipes for both the beginner and the expert.
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This cookbook is not for the average person trying to do some baking in his or her kitchen on a Sunday afternoon. The majority of recipes require a fair amount of culinary skill to successfully execute. Some of the recipes are fairly easy and can be done by anyone. Unfortunately, the book does not warn the reader as to which ones are easy and which are more difficult. Some of the recipes, especially the ones involving chocolate sculpture, are very advanced and require some near-professional skills in order to successfully finish.
Another problem is that of equipment. You will need a kitchen well stocked with a wide variety of baking tools and equipment. The book does not have a list of the things you will need. It seems to assume that you already have the proper equipment. Also note that you must have a large, professional food processor and a stand mixer in order to complete most of the recipes.
On the other hand, there are several positive factors. All of the recipes have been thoroughly tested. The instructions are unusually complete and correct, making for some recipes that are very long in length. The description of the various types of chocolate in the introductory chapter is one of the better and more reliable ones. It is also a great source of the elegant patisserie recipes that make dramatic statements; such recipes are not easy to find among standard chocolate cookbooks.
In summary, this is a pretty good collection of chocolate recipes. It also requires a good inventory of culinary skills that the average person probably does not have, so the chances of success will be variable. I cannot recommend it for the average person. If you are already a good baker, however, this book is an excellent source of reliable chocolate recipes.
This book won the 1991 IACP baking and overall book of the year. I think it's a good book But I think that there are better chocolate books out there. From the presentation point of view, this is the least impressive of the 4 books I own (cocolat, death by chocolat, chocolate bible). There aren't nearly as many pictures in this book. It's paperback, even though you get the other books in hardback from amazon at the same cost! This book recommends that you add vegetable oil to your mixture to make chocolate ruffles, something which makes it easier, but wrecks the taste. No help in understanding other ingredients like in Cocolat. On the other hand, there are many nice recipes, and there is a little section above each recipe which gives either understanding or a neat history behind each recipe. As with the other chocolate books, I'd recommend having another book as supplmentary material. So, overall, this is a nice book, but a notch below the other 3 chocolate books I own.
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