4.5
Customers say
Customers find the desserts delicious and satisfying. They appreciate the clear instructions and techniques that take baking to the next level. The book is described as fantastic and a worthwhile purchase for vegan chocolate lovers. The recipes use organic flours, fair-trade sugars, and chocolates. The information provided is useful and informative, with tips on working with chocolate ethically.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
It can be difficult to find truly indulgent vegan desserts — especially chocolate. But for the first time, chocolate cakes, brownies, truffles, puddings, ice creams, and more are within reach: dairy-free, organic, fair-trade, and sublime.
Author, baking instructor, and vegan powerhouse Fran Costigan has dedicated years to satisfying her sweet tooth while keeping it vegan. Through experimentation and long hours in the kitchen, she’s recreated some of her favorite chocolate desserts as better-for-you interpretations that pass the taste test: Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles (with a variety of flavor variations), a Brooklyn Blackout Layer Cake, a Sacher Torte, even chocolate Moon Pies! Her detailed instructions make for professional-quality outcomes every time: it’s like a personal baking class, right in your kitchen.
The perfect gift for anyone with a sweet tooth, Vegan Chocolate is sure to become an instant classic.
Publisher : Running Press Adult; First Edition (October 22, 2013)
Language : English
Hardcover : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 0762445912
ISBN-13 : 978-0762445912
Item Weight : 2.72 pounds
Dimensions : 8.25 x 1.05 x 10.3 inches
Neil R. Andrews –
You could remove the word ‘vegan’ from the title and no one would know the difference!
The fact that I find myself writing a review of a cookbook is pretty humorous. I’ve been a musician all of my life and am quite comfortable writing reviews of music and arts-related projects that I think people need to be aware of, but a cookbook? That’s something my awesome chef of a wife is much better qualified to do. On the other hand, it’s always a joy to share something you love with other folks, and I LOVE this cookbook.Since we began eating plant-strong/non-animal/vegan (whatever you’d prefer to call it), the one food category we’ve missed most is dessert and, in particular, chocolate dessert. There are lots of wonderful things you can create with fruit, but when the cacao/chocolate desire springs up, black bean brownies don’t quite fit the bill.While vacationing at the Chelsea Market in NYC, we wandered into a book store that emphasized local authors. Surveying the stacks, my eye was drawn to the cover and the seeming dichotomy of the word ‘Vegan Chocolate’ imposed over a beautiful photo of an amazing chocolate iced chocolate cake.Next to the Happy Herbivore cookbooks, Fran Costigan’s book is the best investment we’ve made. The book has a variety of recipes from very simple and reasonably quick ‘Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies,’ to a multi-step layered ‘Chocolate Cherry Miroir Cake,’ both of which are fabulous. Obviously Costigan has invested much time experimenting to come up with these perfect recipes. And one if the most rewarding things is that, if you don’t tell folks these are vegan recipes, I can almost guarantee they won’t notice…they’re simply excellent, rich and (occasionally) decadent desserts. We still have yet to recreate the various truffle recipes which we simply haven’t gotten to yet because we keep returning to the ones we’ve done that are so successful every time. My wife and I would both say that the ‘No-Oil-Added Chocolate Torte to Live For’ is the best cake/torte that we’ve ever had…period.Costigan was also very thoughtful to include a resource list (some of the ingredients are a bit less common [i.e. vegan marshmallows] and a little more challenging to find, though Amazon has many of them), a bibliography reading list, and a list of organizations and publications, all very helpful resources (especially for someone, like ourselves, who live in meat & three central…Tennessee).Perhaps the most revealing thing to say is that the sub-title “Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy-Free Desserts” is not merely hyperbole, but an accurate representation of what the book contains. If you’re looking for an amazing collection of desserts you’ll be excited and unapologetic to share with ANYone, including your omnivore friends, THIS is the book to buy. We will definitely purchase copies for our special friends.BTW, Ms Costigan, we recognize it took years to create these special recipes, but please know, we are anxiously awaiting your follow up 🙂
AEP –
You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!
In Vegan Chocolate, author Fran Costigan shows the reader how to make 120 vegan chocolate desserts including truffles, pies, cupcakes, brownie, bread pudding, tartlets, frozen desserts, frosting, sauces, drinks and my personal favorite: The No-Oil Added Chocolate Torte to Live For, a moist, luscious rich chocolate cake with a Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache Glaze – a cake I could easily bake and eat every day.Every time I bite into that cake, I have to remind myself I am not eating a chocolate cake made of flour, sugar, butter and eggs but rather a cake made primarily of flour, Dutch-process cocoa powder, coconut milk, almond milk, maple syrup, and sugar (albeit a 1/4 cup). And, whenever I serve the No-Oil Added Chocolate Torte to Live For, no one can believe it’s vegan and oil-free. For skeptics (of which I was one myself), I simply tell them “page 70.” You may never make a chocolate cake with butter and eggs again; it’s that good.In Vegan Chocolate, Costigan does more than provide easy recipes for delicious desserts; she also writes of the importance of ingredients (flours, sugars, extracts, fats, dried fruits, nuts, leavening agents, thickeners, cocoa versus cacao, and more) and most importantly, of chocolate: the types, how to store and how to use. Equipment is also crucial and the author provides valuable information on the best tools to use when handling chocolate, most of which are in a typical kitchen. Sources are also provided in the back of the book.There are three important aspects to a cookbook for me: simplicity, ingredients, and taste. So, in my search for simple and delicious chocolate vegan desserts, I also demand an impressive ingredients list that doesn’t replace the butter, cream and eggs with copious amounts of oil, sugar, and strange ingredients I’ve never heard of. Quality ingredients, simple methods, and delicious flavor strikes the right balance for me which is why I love Costigan’s Vegan Chocolate. This is the cookbook that says “you can have your cake and eat it, too.”
The Brigadier –
Uncompromisingly delicious recipes, excellent instructions and explanations, fabulous book
This book is a treasure! I follow a plant based diet which is quite different from Vegan, however, when I want to splurge for a special event and make something Vegan and so good I can bring it anywhere with no apologies or excuses, I can pick anything from this book. I’ve made all of the truffles and they are all great. For Mother’s Day my son and I just made the Brooklyn Blackout cake. Everyone, my wife included, swore it was the best chocolate cake they ever had. Vegan or not you can’t go wrong with this book.
Sweii –
Le livre est très épais et comporte vraiment beaucoup de recettes différentes. Les recettes sont détaillées et très bien expliquées. Si vous aimez le chocolat n’hésitez pas !L’autrice est une référence dans les pâtisseries veganes.
Krauthexe –
Tolle Rezepte.Die Beschädigung am Buchrücken war allerdings nicht in der Beschreibung. Es wurde als gebraucht und gut erhalten beschrieben. Diese Beschädigung ist mehr als einfach nur Gebrauchsspuren. Sehr ärgerlich!
mj –
Beautiful book! Great recipes, and it’s all vegan! A bit fancy for the every day cook, but I like the recipes for special occasions. Amazing pictures 🙂
Susan M. Strickland –
hands down, the best vegan dessert book I have ever had!!! I have already tried several recipes from the book and each one is better than the other. Better than desserts that use dairy and eggs! Congratulations Fran!!!
Amazon Customer –
It’s awesome .