Just Chocolate Cookbook (Christmas at Home)

Amy Robertson
Barbour Publishing (2007)
ISBN 9781597898010
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (10/07)


Whenever holidays approach, most of us realize that we could use some more little gifts and stocking stuffers for an array of friends and relatives. The “Christmas at Home” series offers a variety of tiny cookbooks that would make excellent stocking stuffers or truly nice gifts if they were included in a gift basket with one of the tempting ‘finished products’ from within their pages.

The “Just Chocolate Cookbook” by Amy Robertson deals with a subject that is close to most of our hearts – wonderful chocolate. The book is divided into five chapters, each of them filled with delicious offerings. There is the Cookies and Bars chapter, featuring such diverse bites as German Chocolate Cookies, Chocolate Pizza Cookies, Cow Pie Cookies, Rainbow Brownies and many more. The next one is Cakes and Pies, filled with delights from Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes and Earthquake Cake to French Silk Chocolate Pie and Chocolate Pecan Pie. That tempting chapter is followed by another fun one – Holiday Candy and Fudge. Who could say no to Homemade Turtles, Heavenly Christmas Fudge or Quick Chocolate Truffles? The party Mixes and Snacks chapter brings you such diverse treats as Muddy Buddy Party Mix, Milk Chocolate Popcorn and Mint Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball. But it is the last chapter, Christmas Morning Breakfast Foods, which turned out to be my favorite. I just have to decide how many of the wonderful breads, muffins and waffles I will be serving this year. The Chocolate Chip Orange Zucchini Bread and the Gingerbread Waffles with Hot Chocolate Sauce are a sure bet though…

The four recipes that I’ve tried out so far produced wonderfully tasty treats. They were easy-to-follow, but since the cookbook lacks the photos of the finished goodies, I am not sure if they looked right. For future use I would also like to have an Index of the contents included, so that I could quickly see if a particular recipe is included in the book.

The “just Chocolate Cookbook” would make for a sweet little gift for any chocolate lover out there – and that covers a great percentage of us all, doesn’t it?

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