Few ingredients have a reach and fan base as deep as chocolate. Stands to reason then that there have also been a fair few blogs, books, videos devoted to it. Everyone from celebrated chefs to health researchers has pored over its properties and written paeans. Chefs all over the world have reported using it variously as a sweet or savoury ingredient. They've added it to dishes for complexity, richness, bitterness, too. And experimented with hot and cold chocolates, sourcing beans from Côte d'Ivoire to the Dominican Republic. Feted bakers and food scientists have puzzled over ways to get the smoothest, richest chocolate and recorded their findings in tomes big and small. Libraries and bookstores have volumes dedicated to the stuff - milk, dark, bitter, ruby chocolate; chocolate chips, nibs, barks... In India, too, there has been some experimentation by bakers and food writers who've swiped right on ghee x chocolate and found that jaggery or molasses as a sugar substitute gives you interesting combinations with chocolate (see 'Passionate About Baking' by Deeba Rajpal, published by Penguin India in 2021). Why, then, would anyone need yet another book of chocolate recipes at the cusp of 2024 and New Year 2025?
Shivesh Bhatia, author of the just-released 'Chocolate: 100 Irresistible Recipes', says he can think of two reasons: One, international recipes with difficult-to-find or expensive ingredients (think good self-raising flour, gelatin powder or raspberries) can be hard to follow. And any way the recipes in books by foreign authors are not written with Indian temperatures and humidity in mind, both factors that can be make or break in a bake-off. And two, Indian dietary considerations: Bhatia says most recipes in this book are eggless, thanks to the feedback he's got from visitors to his blog, YouTube channel, Instagram - where he has a combined 5 million followers.
"Honestly, my perspective was never to kind of position it (his book of chocolate recipes) against anything that has been done abroad because my audience is here in India... Nobody else sitting abroad would and the books written abroad would never do justice to the ingredients that we have here, the equipment that we have here, the technique and the experience that we have here. So, for me, that comparison honestly is not relevant at all because I have been creating content for the Indian audience for 10 years now, and they have also been using my recipes in their kitchen, and I have feedback for 10 years from so many people who I interact with on an everyday basis..."
Speaking of eggless recipes, Bhatia recommends this medium-difficulty lamington cake for New Year 2025 celebrations, excerpted here from 'Chocolate: 100 Irresistible Recipes' by Shivesh Bhatia, with permission from publisher Harper Collins:
"Lamingtons, traditionally, are small squares but I thought it would be fun to re-imagine them as a big, whole, circular cake that still has the yummy sponge (but chocolate), the chocolate coating and the delicious coconut!
Makes one 8-inch cake
For the sponge
1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup water, hot
2¼ cups caster sugar
1¼ cups oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups yogurt
2⅓ cups wholewheat flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup coconut flour
Pinch of salt
For the berry compote
1 cup frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoon orange juice
1 tablespoon cornflour mixed in ¼ cup water
For the chocolate glaze
¾ cup whipping cream
3 cups icing sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
½ cup milk
2 cups desiccated coconut
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line two 8-inch pans with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, whisk together cocoa powder and water, till the cocoa powder dissolves completely.
3. In the same bowl, add caster sugar, oil, vanilla extract and yogurt, and whisk together.
4. Into this mixture, sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda, coconut flour and a pinch of salt. Use a spatula to combine gently.
5. Pour it equally into the two prepared cake tins and bake at 180°C for about 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.
6. While the cakes are cooling, prepare the berry compote by cooking the berries, sugar, orange juice in a saucepan on medium heat. Once the berries break down and the sugar dissolves, add the cornflour slurry (cornflour mixed in water). Cook the mixture until it comes to a boil and thickens, then take it off the heat. Let this cool as well.
7. For the glaze, sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder in a large bowl and give it a good mix.
8. Add the milk to it and whisk till you get a thick and smooth glaze. Keep the desiccated coconut separately in a bowl to sprinkle later.
9. For glazing the cooled sponges, place a wire rack over a large container which can collect the extra glaze that drips off.
10. Place one of the sponge layers on the wire rack and pour half the glaze over it carefully, making sure it is covered completely. Tap
the wire rack on the container a few times to get the extra glaze out evenly.
11. Let the glaze sit on the cake for 2 minutes to set. Then sprinkle half the desiccated coconut, covering the cake evenly. Let the cake sit on the wire rack for another 5 minutes.
12. Repeat the same steps to glaze the second sponge layer and sprinkle the remaining coconut on it.
13. Whip the whipping cream using an electric mixer at high speed until it forms stiff peaks.
14. To assemble the cake, pour a generous layer of whipped cream (keep some aside to pipe on top) on the first layer and spread evenly.
15. Using a spoon, spread berry compote all over the whipped cream.
16. Carefully place the second layer on top of it and finish the cake by piping swirls of whipped cream on top and filling its centre with some more berry compote.
If you're looking for something simpler to make, Bhatia suggests cooking up a batch of chocolate pistachio thumbprint cookies (recipe in book).
Doubling down on social media
Born in 1996, Bhatia is part of the oldest Gen Z set (those born between 1996 and 2010) that grew up surrounded by gadgets, the Internet, social media and user generated content where fan engagement has become among the most important ingredients for an online career.
At 28, Bhatia - now the author of five cookbooks - wants to double-down on his social presence instead of pulling back. As such, he's also constantly thinking about his content strategy. Consider this example: During the pandemic years, Bhatia caught some unexpected tailwinds as food videos and DIY recipes for home bakers (home-made atta bread, anyone?) took off. After the early pandemic months, though, Bhatia picked up on some viewer fatigue and revisited the idea of posting just home-baking videos. That's when he started doing segments where he tastes different foods (including one where he and a friend try a bunch of Korean packaged snacks and find most of them subpar), travels to eat foods from different states and countries, visits commercial kitchens like The Cinnamon Kitchen in NCR which was also on 'Shark Tank India', and tests recipes (including those shared by celebrities from Gigi Hadid to Priyanka Chopra Jonas and DIY meal kits), for a bit of variety.
"I give myself a lot of credit for being consistent because, honestly, to put out a new piece of content almost every day for 8-9 years has definitely not been easy. And I always, very honestly say this that I don't think I am the best speaker out there or the best food stylist or photographer or any of that. But I think what has really helped me stay on my toes throughout these years and stay relevant is the fact that I have been consistent, and I have always put in the hard work and also made a conscious attempt to have that connection with my audience. So I always would take out time to respond to comments, engage with them, a lot of followers were at the book launch also - I have known them for so many years. I've met them in person multiple times, so that connection, I think, has really helped me have that community going. Even if a lot of people expect for it to be easy or have, you know, instant gratification, I genuinely think that if you want to build a long-term career on social media, there are no shortcuts."
'Chocolate: 100 Irresistible Recipes' review
To go back to the original question: why would anyone want yet another book on chocolate? The answer has everything to do with what kind of reader (of food-based content), book collector and eater you are.
Like everything else, cookbooks are a product of their time. Each food writer brings to them a particular sensibility, both in terms of the recipes they pick (and tweak) and in terms of the presentation (of the dishes and the book).
In 'Chocolate: 100 Irresistible Recipes', Bhatia hasn't included detailed explanations of techniques and common ingredients or experimental recipes that will test or grow your expectations of chocolate. The book gets straight into the recipes after a very brief introduction - and this could be appealing to some more-action-oriented cookbook readers. There are some lovely food photos, too, but if you buy cookbook for the pleasure of reading them, this may not be the book for you.
Additionally, most recipes give you sweet to very sweet results. The experiments with sooji cake and vertical cakes, while interesting, are hardly new. Having said that, there are enough recipes that seem easy and sound tempting enough to try. Case in point: the ruby chocolate Parsi cake with dates.
The takeaway, depending on the kind of reader/collector/eater you are, could be that Bhatia could have pushed the boat out a bit more. Or it could be that he decided against spoiling/complicating an already-yummy thing (chocolate) for most home bakers of varying skills and experience. (This reviewer would have liked more recipes that challenge the palate if not the baker.)
On the upside, what Bhatia does offer is a fairly well-styled book of recipes that are written simply, with ingredient lists that will not faze home cooks in India. You will need an oven for most things. But it is a good compendium of mostly eggless bakes - which can be frustrating to search for in books and blogs by foreign writers.
The weight and length (of the paperback version) is just right for carrying around to the kitchen for referencing as you work. The cakes and cookies look Instagram-ready. Bhatia says that while he does heed social trends for his videos, it's harder to work these into the book format because of the lag between writing and publishing. Having said that, Bhatia's presentation, thumbprint cookies, pistachio recipes and tall (including vertical) cakes are on-trend for 2025.
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