Chocolate Holidays Unforgettable Desserts for Every Season published by Artisan is the latest cookbook by the chocolate expert Alice Medrich. The book has over fifty recipes that feature chocolate in one form or another. The recipes are organized seasonally proving once and for all that chocolate is always in style.
The recipes are easy to make for the most part, and often very innovative. You can start the year with Chocolate Blini with Berry Caviar, make twiggy pretzel Chocolate Easter Baskets in the spring and Hot Waffle Ice Cream Sandwiches in the summer. But the recipes can really be used for any occasion or no occasion at all. While all the recipes use chocolate, some of them only use it as an accent, white chocolate glazed Apricot Orange Wedding Cakes are an example of this.
Chocolate Holidays is a revised edition of A Year in Chocolate, but includes an extended section on ingredients, equipment, decorative touches and a guide to choosing which chocolate to use, especially helpful now that we have more brands and higher percentage cocoa to work with.
Medrich suggests this decadent bread pudding for Thanksgiving but it is a perfect comfort food for winter nights. I had this at a friends house recently and it was a huge hit.
Chocolate Cranberry Bread Pudding
Serves 12-14