OP: A Year in Chocolate

Warner Books, 2001. Hardcover. Near Fine in a Very Good Plus, clipped jacket. First printing.

Alice Medrich, once a student of Gaston Lenôtre, has long been ahead of the curve on baking and pastry trends, establishing herself as an authority in the field. The New York Times went so far as to say that “Chocolate truffles were virtually unknown in the United States when, in 1973, Alice Medrich started making and selling them from her home in Berkeley.” And her book Gluten-free Flavor Flours, published in 2014, remains one of the best in the category.

A Year in Chocolate (2001), Medrich’s fourth book, has been one of our most in-demand out-of-print titles over the years. As she states in the introduction, “Chocolate is a year-round passion for me, and I eat it every single day. But my taste for this exalted food is not the same in winter as in spring; my appetite—even for chocolate—is tempered by the mood and color of the seasons. Fortunately, chocolate is infinitely adaptive: dramatic, seductive, and playful.” Many of us can certainly relate.

Autumn entices us with the chocolate-dipped caramel apples or the mocha marjolaine—a nutty meringue layered with fluffy, espresso-infused ganache. Winter tempts us with chocolate cream puffs—with spun sugar for a little pizazz on a seasonally festive occasion—or chocolate blinis with crushed raspberries and crème fraiche. Spring offers several Passover treats—brownies, a sponge torte, and a gâteau au chocolat. Summer offers lighter fare—strawberries and cream where the “cream” is a white chocolate ganache—and some frozen desserts like a chocolate waffle ice cream sandwich.