Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme Dorie Greenspan
Pierre Herme has been called the Picasso of pastry. His shops are a pilgrimage for fans eager to see (and taste) his biannual dessert 'collections'. Although Herme is best known for macarons (from chocolate, passion fruit and caramel with fleur de sel to ketchup and foie gras), he's also famous for desserts.
Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme is a collaboration with American cookbook writer Dorie Greenspan aimed at bringing his creations into home kitchens - most of Herme's previous and subsequent books have been geared towards professionals. Chocolate Desserts hasn't been dumbed down but ingredient quantities have been reduced, more detail is given in the instructions (they are not written in the technical shorthand that chefs are familiar with) and the desserts aren't as elaborate as in his other books.
There's plenty to entice novices and the more advanced home cook, including biscuits (chocolate macarons, Viennese sables, chocolate and lemon madeleines), cakes (apricot and ginger chocolate loaf cake) and labour-intensive desserts such as vanilla-filled chocolate mille-feuille and the chef's famous plaisir sucre (which requires dacquoise - crisp egg white and hazelnut meringue - Nutella praline, chocolate sheets, ganache and sauce).