Envies Chocolat

Bau, the longtime creative director of Valrhona, offers here a collection of desserts, cookies, and confections designed to take advantage of the flavors of different types of chocolate.

With chapters on dark, milk, white, and the new caramelized blonde chocolates—as well as a chapter of recipes using combinations thereof—Bau demonstrates great versatility and creativity.

The stylish goodies are for the most part easily executed but their playfulness makes the book a rich source of ideas. As a replacement for a time-intensive buche de noël, for instance, he suggests a dacquoise-inspired étoile de noël using a 64% cocoa dark chocolate. The familiar baba au rhum is remade with an infusion of raspberry juice instead of liquor and the common whipped cream replaced by a milk chocolate ganache. 

In French. Color photographs throughout. Hardcover.