Ann Reardon

Chocolate Book Recipe

chocolate book recipe Ann Reardon How To Cook That

This chocolate book, like all good novels, has a delicious twist inside.  Each page has a completely different flavour.   The ‘leather’ cover is pure milk chocolate, making this book a unique and decadent surprise for your friends and loved ones.

 

I’m a stationery fan, I like leather-bound journals, customized diaries and cute notebooks.  My leather recipe journal is filled with sketches, ideas and messily written ingredient quantities, jotted down during my experiments in the kitchen.

Many of those little drawings and thoughts have over the years been turned into culinary creations on How To Cook That.  Still others are yet to make the big jump from the pages of my journal onto your screen.

One of the questions I’m often asked is where I get my ideas from.  There’s no one answer of course. Sometimes I see something in a bakery or an old cook book that makes me curious.  I jot down the idea and, over the next little while, start tinkering with ingredients. How could I inject some fun into it? Can I put a unique spin on an old favourite? And, importantly, can I be sure that it tastes as good as it looks?

The idea for this chocolate book started a while ago when I was looking at a sheet of untempered chocolate.  As I looked at the chocolate the texture and colour reminded me of my leather journal.  I noted it down and started toying with the idea.  A few weeks later, here it is … a chocolate version of my recipe journal, filled with yummy treats and surprises.

For the chocolate book cover

400g (14.11 ounces) milk chocolate, make sure that it is real chocolate, check the ingredients for cocoa butter.

For the pages
300g (10.58 ounces) white compound chocolate, check the ingredients contain vegetable fat

For the fillings
You can choose from a range of filling recipes on this website, I used dulce de leche and some flavoured ganache.   To make the White Chocolate Vanilla ganache make a simple ganache using white chocolate, cream and a teaspoon of vanilla essence. There are more fillings recipes on the ten best chocolate truffles video or for a simpler option you could use nutella or peanut butter.

chocoalte book ann reardon how to cook that

2014

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

85 Comments View Comments

  1. Can you show me how to make Pralin center with crunchy bits of hazelnut and buiscuit surrounded by milk chocolate

  2. HI Anne – Firstly want to say a huge thanks for your fantastic website/blog. I’m a professional cook and run a small catering business and pop-up restaurant from home and am just loving your tutorials – very well delivered and very clear.

    There are a couple of videos that don’t appear on some of your posts, is that because they’re no longer available?

    Kind regards

    Jacqui
    goodgourmet.co.uk

    • Hi Jacqui, some of Ann’s older tutorials don’t have videos. If you come across one that appears to have a video that isn’t working please let us know as recent changes online means some videos need updated code to run. We may have missed one or two.

  3. Hi Ann!! So I am 13 years old, and I absolutly LOVE making sweets for my family. I am just wondering if there are any type of “dusts” like the strawberry dust (sorry I forgot the name of the dust

    • Sorry it isnt working correctly my commenting so it doesnt show the rest of the comment

  4. Where can I get compound chocolate

    • Hi Ellie, Compound chocolate or fake chocolate is usually readily available in supermarkets. It does not contain cocoa butter, so check the ingredients on the label and if it is chocolate made without cocoa butter it is compound chocolate. Happy Baking!

    • You can buy compound choclate at walmart, aldi, or any supermarket store near you. You just have to make sure it contain vegstible fat or just make sure it deosn’t contain coco butter.

  5. Rating: 5

    Hi ann! I love your recipes and this one was perfect for my boyfriend who loves books. I was just curious though about the part where it was mentioned to keep the pages flat, am I supposed to place i so.ething flat/heavy as its getting hard or after it gets hard? Thanks again!

  6. This is so cool I think I might make this for when my niece and nephews come to visit. Because they absolutely love to use my plastic tea set( because I won’t let them use the winnie the pooh glass tea set). Every time we have a tea party I like to make some sort of sweet treat. But we never usually have cookies or ice cream or cake so it usually ends up being graham crackers or small sandwiches so this is so amazing i finally have something to make for our next tea party, they will be so thrilled.

  7. Is it possible to find white chocolate that has cocoa butter? I’d like to make a chocolate book, but I want the cover to be white (it’s supposed to look like “The Little Prince”).

  8. Hey Ann
    I wanted to make this for the girl I like cause her birthdays on Sunday and if it wouldn’t be a bother I’d like to know what was the size you used for your template for the pages. I salo wanted to know how long would it take for the chocolate cover to set. I’m so sorry for bothering you but I’ve never done this and the girls is very special to me.

    Sincerely Larry

    • HI Larry, how long it takes to set will depend on the temperature of your room, it took about 30 minutes at my house. The whole page was a4 and then I ruled it smaller, I didn’t write down the exact dimensions sorry

  9. Hi ann, im 13 and im a huge fan, im making the chocolate book for my grandparents for christmas and then im making the chocolate cups for the kids, and i have a quick question, is there any replacement for the plastic thing that is used for the chocolate cup??????

    • Hi Devon, the acetate is ideal because it is firm enough to hold the weight of the melted chocolate in place without sagging. If you go to a stationary store they may sell document covers that are made of plastic that you could use.

  10. Thanks for this fantastic idea!! It was a birthday present for my dad and it tasted soo yummy!! Best wishes from Austria 😉

    • Glad it worked out well Marianna

  11. Hello, I love your videos. I just have a question where do I find the plastic you use to put the chocolate on?

  12. Hi Anne,
    I’m making this for my dad’s birthday and I was wondering if it would work having a cake inside the chocolate cover instead. I’m also making chocolate pencils, paper and feathers! Your creativity is just outstanding!

    From,
    Kat

    • Just realised that I added an “e” at the end of your name! So sorry ANN, I know how tat there is nothing worse than someone spelling your name wrong!

      • no problems Kat, I am used to it 😀

  13. Hi, I’m 13 and I was wondering if I could write on the pages with chocolate pencils and instead of fondant for the bookmark if I could use some of the chocolate used for the cover. Thanks so much!!!

  14. Hello!
    I have a quick question, if I want to make the book cover another color can I use white chocolate and then use food coloring?

  15. My sister just finished her apprenticeship and is now a BOOKBINDER, and when I visit her next month I will try to make that beautiful chocolate book as a special gift for her!
    One question: I thought instead of leaving the blank end pages white, I could try to color them, just like the marble paper in old books. Did you ever try to apply liquid food color on chocolate? Better adding it to the melted chocolate?

    And it`s really hard to find white fake chocolate in Germany… I`m afraid I have to use real one.
    I`ll post a picture, no matter how it will look like… 🙂

    • yes if you colour using oil based food colouring that should work Sandra

      • Rating: 5

        It took a while – but here are the fotos of my chocolate book. I DEFINITELY don’t have that much pacience (and experience) working with chocolate, and I’m proud I didn’t loose my temper because the cocolate did 🙂

        • Hi Sandra, It looks great! I hope it tasted great as well!

  16. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann, i tried it out n it went quite well

    • well done Jes

  17. Hi Ann
    I love you videos, and I really want to make this chocolate book, however the friends I’m making it for are not too fond of milk chocolate, could I use dark, or will it not be pliable like the milk chocolate?

    • yes that will work

  18. hi ann im not useing google+anymore as i had spam on my account so i rather reply here for now on to be safe could u please do a teddybear cake or go kart ty

  19. Fantastic Ann. Your creativity is endless.

  20. Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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