Baking Week may have just started, but we're already looking forward to Chocolate Week - a whole week to talk about chocolate and its wonderful properties. To help us we have Lisa Yockelson as a guest expert on baking with chocolate.
Lisa is the author of the wonderfully rich and detailed ChocolateChocolate - an encyclopedic collection of recipes, tips, and techniques to enable your chocolate addiction.
Lisa will be taking questions from our readers on baking with chocolate! Anything you've ever wanted to ask about baking and chocolate - ask it here. Read on for more about Lisa...
Lisa Yockelson, a baking journalist--whose recipes, articles, and essays have appeared widely in food and lifestyle publications, and in national newspapers--is the author of the IACP-award-winning BAKING BY FLAVOR and the IACP-award-winning CHOCOLATECHOCOLATE (both John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002 and 2005) . BAKING BY FLAVOR centers on how to develop flavor and texture in 18 favorite baking flavors and her latest work, CHOCOLATECHOCOLATE, is an encyclopedic cookbook on the subject of baking with chocolate. To bring her work full circle, Lisa also styles her own bakery sweets for photography, working from a personal collection of both contemporary and antique bakeware, linens, and china. She has been baking--and adding to her recipe file--since she was seven years old.
You can see recipes from ChocolateChocolate at NPR and also a snow-topped cupcake from Heidi Swanson using one of Lisa's recipes.
To ask Lisa a question about baking with chocolate, leave a comment here. They'll be answered next week.
(Image credits: ChocolateChocolate cover photo and author photo both by Ben Fink. Cover design by Vertigo Design, NYC.)
I am looking for a fudgy brownie recipe. I have tried too many recipes that taste like cake. I want fudgy brownies - not cakey brownies. What should I look for in a recipe to give me fudgy brownies?
Also, what is your preferred method of melting chocolate for baking?
Thank you in advance.
view annshirley's profile
Hi Lisa,
What method do you recommend for tempering chocolate at home? I've had inconsistent results with my attempts in the past.
Also, is there a chocolate thermometer you'd recommend for this?
Thanks for your help!
view mary's profile
Other than boring ol' chocolate chip cookies (not that they're bad), what's a good portable chocolate dessert recipe? I'm thinking of something that could easily be taken on a picnic, to a party, etc., and also easily divided?
view cardboard's profile
Is there any realistic way to cut calories in chocolate desserts and not truly sacrifice the experience of eating? For example, is using half & half instead of cream when making ganache considered completely sacrilegious?
Following this line of thinking, what kind of alterations to you make to your recipes when health is a concern (diabetics, food allergies, etc)?
view jessica's profile
When using a thin chocolate glaze to finish cupcakes, is there a trick to getting a high-gloss finish? Mine starts out that way, but when completely cool, ends up dull looking.
view KLD's profile
Any suggestions for super-low-sugar chocolate desserts? I love the taste of chocolate but try to keep my sugar intake to a minimum. Thanks!
view janel's profile
What's a good way to put chocolate in ice cream? I've had very poor results with just chopping or shaving the chocolate. If I shave it, the pieces are too small to really be satisfying. If I chop it, it gets so col in the freezing that it doesn't melt well in the mouth and give off its flavors. Should I melt it, then let it cool, then add it? Should I mix it with something else with a better melting point? Thanks!
view qatet's profile