Chocolate Holidays · Unforgettable Desserts for Every Season

Dramatic, seductive, playful, infinite in its variety, otherworldly in its

taste: It's chocolate, and here's all the impetus you need to indulge your

passion for it every day of the year. The beloved Alice Medrich, renowned for

impeccable recipes that produce stellar results, has written _Chocolate

Holidays_ especially for people who love to bake but don't have enough hours

in the day. Without compromising on flavor, texture, or ingredients, she pares

down the preparation steps, teaches us resraint, and comes up with fifty

amazing recipes, each a little jewel of elegance and simplicty.

An ideal year in chocolate might start with a New Year's brunch starring

Chocolate Blini with Berry Caviar. Then there are Valentine's Day chocolate

scones and St. Patrick's Day Irish Coffee Chocolate Mousse. And of course any

"holiday" your imagination can conjure up is a perfect reason to indulge:

perhaps a decadently rich hot chocolate served in demitasse portions to

exorcise those end-of-February blues.

Spring might whisper chocolate Giant Krispy Easter Treats or a Passover

Chocolate Nut Sponge Torte, or white chocolate-glazed Apricot Orange Cupcakes

for a wedding shower. Summer suggests fruit and ice cream desserts such as the

Independence Day red, white, and blue sundaes, followed by autumn's pies and

tarts laden with chocolate and nuts. And no matter what you've been putting on

the table for Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays past, it will be out-

chocolated by Alice's Chocolate Cranberry Pudding and her Chocolate Hazelnut

Roulade—both unequivocally year-end musts.

In _Chocolate Holidays_ , Medrich unlocks the secrets of our favorite sweet,

offering chocolate desserts for every season, for every reason.

First published in hardcover as _A Year in Chocolate_ (Warner Books, 2001)