Top 100 Blogs Plus For Chocolate Lovers (Part 2)

June 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

 

III. Chocolate Cookbooks

Cookbooks that discuss, cover, photograph, teach and write about chocolates are as important for us, chocolate enthusiast, as air to keeping us alive.  Some of us are serious collectors with perhaps hundreds of books in our library; it is enough that the book has only the word “chocolate” buried somewhere on page 99 and it is purchased; some of us are more selective and buy only what we think is relevant to our chocolate business, and some of us are just enjoy looking at photographs at Barnes & Nobles or in the library.  Nevertheless, we do not have a book shelve without a book about chocolate. I thought, I must list here some with a brief review, so that if you do not own yet anyone of the books listed here, you may have a second thought about them. Another possibility is that you never heard of them; in which case I am delighted to expose you to these gems so that you’ll have an opportunity to enrich your personal collection.

This list is definitely not exhaustive; most likely I will add more in Part 3, but even then, I am positive it will not be complete. We will continue to find more and more of these important reference books.

I’d like to thank you for visiting and ask you to send me your favorite book, if it is not listed here. I am interested to develop an exhaustive list so that everyone can find what they are looking for.

Since this is a list, not an article, I have a big favor to ask you now and not at the conclusion of the report. I will very much appreciate it if you could volunteer to be my friend on Facebook so that I can create a very useful reference source for you there, as well. I am unable to do  it until I do not have at least 24 friends. Thanks for your consideration. I promise to deliver many useful information on this blog and via other media, whenever I can.

1. Candy Freak, by Steve Almond. This is an entertaining book about chocolate. Steve Almond, the author introduces us to the “fading away, little guy” candy maker. Most of the time, while reading the book I have not only laughed out loud, but tears were running down my cheek from the laughing.  I definitely wanted more.

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Filed Under: cookbook reviews, food blogs, Tutorials, Uncategorized

Top 100 Blogs for Chocolate Lovers, Part 1 (first 25)

June 6, 2011 by 2 Comments

Bon-bon heaven by Georgette

Last night I was tired to work, tired to write, I was even tired to watch anything on the TV, but not yet tired enough to call it a day.  I was relaxing on my best armchair and while staring at the ceiling, it hit me -  how about just surfing on the Internet with the help of Firefox and see where it takes me. At first I just stopped at sites randomly and if I found something interesting to read, I did. Most of the time, however, I gave up after the first paragraph. It is really tough to find well-written blogs, written with the readers in mind and not trying to please SEO.
I was almost ready to quit when I found this site http://www.exploratorium.edu with a post titled: “The Sweet Lure of Chocolate”. The main reasoned I stopped to check it because it was talking about my favorite topic: chocolate. The appearance of the site is uninspiring; it is nearly monochromatic with a fading-away color and the site lacks organization, yet the writing continued to draw me in deeper and deeper, seeking for more. That just shows you how a well-written post can overcome all other obstacles. In addition, I found some magnetic titles of articles, like: “Chocolate invades Europe” or “Is the effect of chocolate on our health a benefit or risk?”; is that a real question, I asked myself? I had to click on those, if for nothing else, just to satisfy my unabashed curiosity. To make the long story short, I started to read not only this blog but other blogs that have the word chocolate in their URL, or in the title of their top post and that is how I collected blogs and eventually organized them into groups of relevance and came up with my title:

The Top 100 Blogs for Chocolate Lovers.


I. Blogs by Chocolatiers - I selected these sites because, first I already wrote about the top 10 chocolatiers in the US and I believe it was helpful in our selection of gifts, or treating ourself for a change. I thought, perhaps I may find new artists that create interesting confections; or my old favorite artists created something new, worth to mention in my next review.
1. Recchiuti Confections – Michael’s’ new creations include boxes of confections that specifically match with beer, wine or whisky; great timing for Father’s Day. The packaging is very creative, as well. Each box has an opening in the shape of the correct serving glass for beer, wine or whisky.
2. Richart Chocolates – No change here since our last report, but this is exactly what we were hoping to see. How or why would you change something that is already perfect. A father that receives a box of chocolate created by Richart for Father’s Day will realize the extent of care and love his family has for him; they gave him the best.
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Filed Under: food blogs, Special topics, Tops Tagged With: , , , ,

Find the Best Desserts – Top 10 Dessert Blogs (Part 2)

May 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment

One of my favorite foods - the berries, loaded with antioxidants

And here are the other five blogs that did not fit space-wise in part 1 of this post.   Just to refresh your memory, one of the important criteria in the selection process was to find bloggers that are providing us with great baking ideas, recipes, stories, etc. but not listed on every blogger’s site as a fav, or enjoy 100 plus comments per post. Of course educational, visual and entertaining aspects were not overlooked.

not without salt

The first thing that attracted me to Ashley’s blog is the word poppy-seed on top of the home page. If you have visited my site previously you know that one of my weaknesses in baking is “poppy-seed”. In Hungary, you are thriving on poppy-seed from the moment you born. I think my mother was preparing all her meals with poppy-seed while breast-feeding me.

But seriously, Ashley’s blog is everything a successful baking blog should be – educational, informational, stimulating (all your senses) and entertaining. When selecting blogs as “top” among the so many, I am very much aware of the readers’ need. When you are deciding to prepare a sweet treat, whether for a nice quiet evening with the family or for a celebration of some sort, you want the dessert to be special, but easy to prepare; not time-consuming, but when presenting it to a crowd, you want it to look as if you have labored for hours to create it just for them.

Ashley’s blog, not without salt, fits all the requirements of a leading blogger, with a quest to teach, share and cook everything with love and salt. It also reminded me the story I wrote about a while ago about the importance of salt in our existence; so go ahead and read it, I am sure you will enjoy it.

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Find the Best Desserts – Top 10 Dessert Blogs (Part 1)

May 27, 2011 by 7 Comments

Rigo Jancsi, the hungarian chocolate mousse cake I grew up with

I decided to take a tour in the dessert blogging community and select the top 10 dessert blogs for you for the Memorial Day Holiday. The criteria for inclusion in this list, include the following:

  1. I hit the site and I yell out: Wow!
  2. The first photograph I see takes my breath away
  3. The date on the top post is not older than one week
  4. I start to read the top post and I find myself interested to click on the “continue to read”
  5. The recipe is written clearly with enough details to follow
  6. The blog is at least 80% about desserts
  7. Easy to read
  8. There are no ready-made mixes, cans, jars (except jams), gums, or ingredients that I cannot pronounce in the recipes
  9. The recipes are not straight copies from cookbooks or from other authors
  10. Contains limited number of comments (I’d like to promote bloggers that work hard to create great blogs, but for whatever reason ignored or missed.)

Little did I realize that I am asking nearly the impossible. This tour was a real education. No blog matched all ten criteria and after surfing for a half-a-day I still only had 7 blogs on my list.

I think it should be a real eye opener for all of us dessert bloggers (and perhaps food bloggers, as well) and try to work together to enhance and upgrade our blogs to be a better value to our readers. I discussed earlier in my posts about the benefits of multiple brains vs. a single one. I still think it is a good idea.

I’d like to start a “Dessert-Genius-GroupR” that will tour the dessert blogs and select a blog for our weekly meeting to dissect, analyze and recommend improvements. I realize that not everyone can be a star photographer, or a genius recipe developer, but that does not mean that the only desserts we can make and post that is written by someone else, published in cookbooks or put together with the help of artificial ingredients. Recipes handed down from moms and grandmas are fine; but still the best ones are those that we develop from scratch on our own. The only way we will be able to develop great recipes, if we understand the characteristics of the ingredients and how to use them. It also means that we need more educational blogs to help those of us who are great writers, but lack professional and/or scientific education.

If you are interested in joining me in developing this centrally leading Genius-GroupR, please contact me at your earliest.

The first blog on my list is:

Dorie Greenspan

As much as I wanted to select bakers that are relatively unknown, but doing a great job as dessert blog developers and writers, I could not leave Dorie Greenspan off this list. Although, Dorie’s blog cannot be classified as a dessert blog by a strict interpretation, nevertheless there are enough dessert recipes on her site that we can overlook the formalities. In addition, I own five of her cookbooks; all of them are about desserts. I believe Dorie is secretly a dessert lover and blogger. She has contributed significantly over the years toward the enhancement of creative pastries and the enrichment of creative desserts.

Dorie’s reputation as a great cookbook writer/author, a professional recipe developer, mentor and friend is mile high and not without merit.  It is, therefore, not surprising that I have selected her as one of the top dessert bloggers in our time.  With all her knowledge and experience, she is always open to new ideas, not embarrassed to learn from others (even if those may not be near to her level) and not afraid to ask questions, when something is not clear. These qualities can only be assigned to a giant, such as Dorie Greenspan.

Whether it is Tuesdays with Dorie, or French Fridays with Dorie, we always want to be next to Dorie with the hope that something will rub off on us. We also like Rainy Days and Mondays with Dorie, Super Wednesday with Dorie, but Never on Sundays with Dorie (please people, she needs a day to rest).

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Filed Under: Baking, food blogs Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Ten Tips to Become a Better Baker

April 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

 

Rigo Jancsi: The cake is named after Rigo Jancsi, a Hungarian gypsy violinist, who helped create it for the woman he loved!

There are so many books about baking, bakers, cakes, desserts, chocolates, etc., that it made me wonder how all these books are doing so well in a crowded market? How a publisher can accept to publish another baking book, unless the author accepts a sure failure?

But here we are in 2011 with more food bloggers getting ready to publish their book (e.g. Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen, in 2012), celebrities are having more fun writing cookbooks then acting (Suzanne Somers, Gwyneth Paltrow), and Joanne Chang, the owner of Flour Bakery in Boston, sold 20,000 copies of her new book before she could even start her book signing tour.

How can it be? Well, for one, there are so many of us baking enthusiasts who rather buy more bookshelves than miss a new book about baking. The truth of the matter is that it is one of the better ways to enhance our knowledge and understanding in baking and learn new techniques and creative recipes.

Pound Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

Another great source to satisfy our thirst for understanding the culture of baking is the Internet, particularly the many blogs that appear to cover foods from appetizers to after dinner drinks and more. Chocolates & Figs is one these blogs, where we aspire  to be your resource  with problem solving and making sure that you are up-to-date in the baking world.  Our goal is assisting you to cut the events when your baking product is less than perfect. We are aiming to reinforce your confidence in baking (and in creating confections) and provide you with the necessary tools to be successful all the time, not only some of the time.

Dark and White Chocolate-dipped Strawberries

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Filed Under: cookbook reviews, food blogs, Special topics, Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

My visit with food blogs and bloggers

March 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

 

I am tired..it is late…I decided to do something challenging that may wake me up – searching for food blogs. Since I am new to food blogging, it may be a good idea to orient myself to the “industry.” I did not know where to start but I do know how to spell food blogs and that is how this trip started. (a brief note: searching for food blogers netted more sites).

The first food blog I decided to click on is “Use Real Butter.” I love the name; finally someone is not afraid to use the “B” word. Unfortunately, I became pretty fast disappointed from this site (Jen, the blogger almost ruined my trip); I do not care for the use of that many four letter words, unless they spelled c a k e. Really Jen, assholery? you couldn’t come up with a better creative word, like tushy?

 

 

 

My next click landed me on “Joy the Baker’s site, where there was neither Joy nor Baker to be found. The invisible author writes quite funny, but I do not think that she loves me, so why use the word in vain? The truth of the matter is that I do not care for orange cats; I came to see the baking projects. What happened to the photos? Are they only available to those that will discipline the orange cat for climbing the screen door? But I forgive her; admittedly, she had way too much gin the day she wrote this.

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Filed Under: food blogs, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,