Death by Chocolate Cookies

by Marcel Desaulniers

Book Overview

There ought to be a law against cookies as sinfully delicious as the ones Marcel Desaulniers presents in his Death by Chocolate Cookies. Chocolate Peanut Butter Love Bars, Chocolate Pecan Tart... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 068483197X
• ISBN13: 9780684831978
• Release Date: November 1997
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 2.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 10.3" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

Highly recommended for a direct chocolate experience

Marcel Desaulniers has been kind enough to bequeath on the chocoholics of the world three divine books devoted to it: "Desserts to Die For" (which also, admittedly, has non-chocolate desserts), "Death by Chocolate Cakes," and this one, "Death by Chocolate Cookies." Chocolate lovers everywhere should count themselves lucky to have Mr. Desaulniers' sumptuous recipes at hand.Desaulniers owns and runs Trellis, a southern restaurant at which he goes through more than three hundred pounds of chocolate (not to mention two hundred pounds of nuts) on a WEEKLY basis. He knows whereof he speaks, so listen up! It's important to read "Notes from Ganache Hill," which opens the book, and which has Desaulniers giving us the benefit of his experience on everything from butter vs. margarine (use butter, please, preferably unsalted), ovens and other equipment, and, of course, the different types of chocolate. I love Desaulniers' sense of humor and imagination in naming his recipes: Chocolate Crack-Ups, Franny's Big Bottom Pies, Black Magic Cookies with Blackstrap Icing, and (my favorite) Successively Excessively Crunchy Peanut Butter Brownies. I can highly recommend my most favorite of all recipes in the book: the Black Gold Cookies. These have something like four teaspoons of chocolate for every 1 teaspoon of flour in the recipe! They are divinely, richly chocolatey and people sort of lose their minds eating them, recovering later only to whimper, "Wh--what happened? Where am I?" That's the sort of effect a Desaulniers dessert recipe will have on you.

I love this book!

I LOVE this book. It has become, over the years, one of my favorite dessert books. There are several recipes that I (or my girls) have made over and over and they have now become favorites. My kids' teachers drool over the cookies in their lunch boxes, and have requested them for their class parties. Some of our "tried and true" recipes include the Road Trip Cookies, Chocolate Oatmeal Roundup Cookies, Chocolate Boulders, Mrs. D's Chocolate Chip Cookies, Franny's Big Bottom Pies (which I also made ice cream sandwiches from), White Chocolate Snow Caps, and Chocolate Hazelnut Espresso Biscotti. I have had only one recipe to be a total bust, and that was the fudge. All in all, though, I feel confident that when I try a new recipe, it will work. My only caution would be in his recommendations for salt--to my taste it is a little too much and I usually cut the amount called for in half and I find it to be just right.

Chocolate lovers unite

I purchased this title 3 years ago, and have made several of the recipes. I found that in each recipe Marcel included useful tips for streamlining construction, as well as for storage and selection of utensils. While I am not an accomplished chef, I can say that I have had a lot of success (based on feedback) in getting people to delight in the results of my labor. The person who wrote about inconsistencies in a few of the recipies refered to recipes I have not tried. I was surprised to read that criticism, because all the recipes I tried came out wonderful (if not looking exactly like the pictures in the book!) I would highly recommend this book. An easy recipe that is always a winner is for the Black Gold cookies.

Try the Chocolate Dalmatians

Yes, you do need equipment. Yes, you do need to know what you're doing. The results are fabulous, though. The Chocolate Dalmatians instantly became my favorite chocolate chip cookie (don't even think of trying them unless you have a heavy-duty countertop mixer -- these babies will tax the best hand-held model). I've always made good cookies, but these are incredible!

WARNING; THESE ARE NOT JUST COOKIES

We're talking Ecstasy on a platter. We're talking heaven itself. it can't get any better than this, and you'd better not be on a diet. As the author says, "if you should not be eating this, don't." But if you can, now, this is an experience worth every calorie and then some. Believe me. Try one recipe. You'll see I'm right!