I received an Advanced Reader Copy from Quarry Books for my unbiased opinion of the book. If you are a chocolate connoisseur like I am this is the book for you. It gives you how it processed where it came from and so on. It makes you appreciate chocolate more than you thought possible! All the recipes are well laid out and easy to follow. Once you have the basics down the rest is easy. I made Chocolate Tortillas, Chocolate Stout Rolls, Cocoa Jerk Chicken. They were all memorable. This will be a great reference guide.

Short, but solid look at the history of chocolate and ways to incorporate its deliciousness in just about everything. Great ideas!

The history of chocolate described in this book is just as interesting as how much work goes into cultivating chocolate trees and what steps are necessary to get from chocolate bean to the chocolate bar.
Making chocolate is extremely interesting. Even if you will never make chocolate bars in your own home, this book might make you appreciate artisan chocolate more.

Chocolate…one of my favourite things! Melted, baked, coated or in bar, I LOVE chocolate! I picked this book up simply because it has a spoon dipped in chocolate on the cover…I know, judging a book and all that! I have no intention of taking cacao beans on their strenuous and fascinating journey to the delicious substance I enjoy but, that in no way limited my experience and appreciation for The Art and Craft of Chocolate by Nathan Hodge. He reveals to the reader the historical, scientific and practical nature of chocolate! I learnt far more than I expected and am now even more attached to the tasty stuff as well as motivated to advocate for the people who produce it. I’ll be paying more attention to my chocolate source and make up. Nathan shares exactly how to take your bean to the chocolate you love, it sounds wonderfully detailed and he shares cultural and different recipes to try out! If you are a lover of chocolate, and want to get to know it better, this is the book for you! Highly recommended and five out five! I do, however, recommend having chocolate, in several forms, near to hand whilst reading it though…it’s hungry work!

Interesting facts included:

“In fact, this tree loves the tropics so much that it refuses to grow outside of 20 degrees north or south of the equator…less than 28 percent of the world’s total landmass sits within this latitude. We’re talking about only around 8 percent of the globe that even qualifies for growing cacao.”

“…the cacao tree cannot be pollinated by a bee, like a normal plant, but instead relies on a tiny fly called a midge to pollinate it’s flowers…only the flies that grow larger than two millimeters are large enough to carry the pollen”

“…the average income for a cocoa farmer in Ivory Coast and Ghana was [in 2016] less that $0.70 per person per day.”

Recipes I plan to experiment with:

Lavender Chocolate Ice Cream

Flourless Cardamom Chocolage Cake

Chocolate-dipped Pecan Shortbread Hearts

This is a book for a real chocolate connoisseur. It goes through the history of chocolate as well as how the chocolate we consume today is created.
Some tasty sounding recipes included.

Where can I find some cacao pods? After reading this book I feel like I could make my own cocoa/chocolate. The book goes into great detail of how chocolate is made; from tree to chocolate bar. Reading through this book you can almost smell the chocolate. It goes into details about what the flavors should taste like and what they taste like if they have not been properly fermented. There is a chapter on the history of chocolate. There is some evidence that chocolate was in the New World when the Spanish conquistadors arrived. There's a few recipes included. One that is of interest to me because I have never seen or even thought of this before is chocolate tortillas. Sounds interesting. So who wants to join in me making some chocolate?

Despite the good factual nature of the book, this isn’t one that I would buy for myself or friends. I may recommend to chocolate loving friends that they borrow the book from the library to read for the information. Unfortunately, I found that the constant focus on how the author’s chocolate company does business and makes their chocolate was unpalatable. I didn’t think any of the recipes seemed like anything special, especially since a number of them required cocoa nibs. I’ve tried eating the cocoa nibs that I bought for making chocolate liqueur, and I am not a fan.

I have yet to prepare anything from the recipes in this book. If I do, I will update my review.

My review has been posted to my blog & Goodreads.

Review has also been tweeted as usual.

Thank you! :c)

This book provided a brief history of chocolate and an overview of how chocolate bars are made, from growing the tree to the finished product. There were photographs showing the various stages of processing the bean and the equipment that's used. In side boxes, the author suggested some ways that a person could process cocoa beans in their home to create their own chocolate. However, it sounds very time intensive and unlikely to provide good results unless you buy some specialized equipment. At the end, the author provided 25 recipes which add cocoa powder or nibs to various dishes. Overall, I'd recommend this book to those interested in learning about how chocolate is made.

The Art and Craft of Chocolate: An enthusiast's guide to selecting, preparing and enjoying artisan chocolate at home by Nathan Hodge

Lovely, tasty and educational – this book provides not only recipes but the history, types, processing, manufacturing and more about something so delectable and delicious that it may have been fought over in the past and kept secret as well.

I can see this beautiful book on a coffee table for guests to read or by the side of my bed to contemplate before sleeping. Who wouldn’t want to have dreams of chocolate?

The photographs are beautiful.
The information provided more than I knew going in.
The recipes sound interesting enough to try in the future.
The places it is grown that were shown in the book made me want to go visit.

I learned so much about chocolate that I did not know before and found myself amazed that something that looks so little like it would have anything to offer has been found to be so valuable.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I buy it for myself or to give as a gift? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry for the ARC – this is my honest review.

5 Stars

This book is a treasure trove of luscious photographs and facts about chocolate and all its stages of growth and manufacture. I loved leafing through the book and imagining myself in the fields of cacao plants, or in the fragrant factories where chocolate is produced.
A wonderful addition to the books are lots of appealing recipes utilizing chocolate in all its forms. This is now one of my favorite sources of information and recipes for my favorite ingredient.

Well, let me tell you that as soon as I saw THE ART AND CRAFT OF CHOCOLATE on NetGalley, I grabbed her. ‘Cause a gal’s gotta have her chocolate fix, n’est-ce pas? What a good choice it was, because this is a gorgeous guide to choosing, fixing, making, and enjoying artisan chocolate at home. I’m in 🍫 heaven!

Nathan Hodge, world-renowned chocolatier (now that’s a job I want!), teaches you the basic principles of chocolate-making at home, using tools at hand like a food processor, hair dryer, or a double boiler. He also includes delicious recipes for traditional moles from different regions of Mexico; mayan chocolate drinks; cocoa as a meat rub; and an array of baked goods. What can I say but, “Yes” and 5/5!

Pub Date 07 Aug 2018

Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.

#TheArtAndCraftOfChocolate #NetGalley

The Art and Craft of Chocolate is a delightful and insightful read with impressive scope. It encompasses everything from growing and harvesting cacao (including sustainability and ethical production) to the history of chocolate consumption, and finally, recipes. I certainly learnt something new about one of my favourite treats, and I would like to try out a few of the recipes. For those really keen, the book even offers home hacks for preparing your own chocolate from scratch. Although, I am not sure I'm ready to attempt that much myself! This is a book that will appeal to all chocolate lovers. The only problem? It leaves you with definite chocolate cravings! 4.5 stars.

If you are looking for a book with lovely pictures of the chocolate farming and processing process, this is it. If you want insight into the process through the text, you'll also get, to slightly lesser extent.

If you want highly unusual recipes for using chocolate, often in the form of cocoa nibs, you'll find them here. These include chocolate tortillas, two kinds of chocolate pasta, and chocolate jerk chicken. In the midst of such innovation, a recipe for chocolate stout cookies seems average.

This isn't what I'm looking for in a chocolate cookbook, even a coffee table one. Nor do I particularly like his snobbish attitude towards milk chocolate, one that is typical of many chocolatiers. Far be it from the author to sully himself with more mainstream recipes to give the book wider appeal.

This book could be much better than it is.