85 Books Like Twin Troubles and Chocolate Tortes

This is the kind of cookbook that is so beautiful that it can serve as a decorative item to keep on your coffee table. The downside is that it can set unrealistic expectations in the minds of your guests. Or give them crazy chocolate cravings. (I am actually eating chocolate as I write these words.) The book is filled with whimsical and fanciful recipe titles, like “Chocolate Phantasmagoria” and, of course, the star of the show, “Death by Chocolate.”

As a chocoholic, I had to check out the Death by Chocolate Mysteries by Sarah Graves, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed.

Protagonist Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree and her best friend sell their delectable chocolate creations from their shop, the Chocolate Moose, in Eastport, Maine, while solving local mysteries.

Death by Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake is sprinkled with intense, page-turning scenes and plenty of chocolate, making this a fun and delicious cozy mystery.

Before it was a book, Cocolat was a small chain of wildly popular chocolate dessert shops in and around San Francisco. 

Its founder and author, Alice Medrich, had spent some time in France, and had learned some enticingly delicious chocolate recipes there. Back in San Francisco, she started experimenting with quantity baking and the first Cocolat shop was born.  

Chocolate cakes, large and small (and fabulous cupcakes), soft-centered truffles, and individual chocolate pastries, are only part of the picture as there are also detailed instructions for chocolate fans and ruffles, and for sculpting delicate chocolate flowers. 

I’ve long admired Alice’s expertise with chocolate and her example helped me to up my game with that most popular ingredient.

In Good and Sweet, Brian Levy takes a radical approach to preparing delicious desserts – he uses no refined sugar but finds the necessary sweetness of his desserts from fruits (dried, juiced, or fresh), grains, dairy products, and nuts.

Before I tried any of the recipes, I have to admit that I was somewhat skeptical, but one taste of any of the recipes I tried made me realize that there are other ways to sweeten besides refined sugar. My favorites include Blueberry Biscuit Cobbler, Cherry Coconut Clafoutis, Figgy Cheesecake, Rosemary Lemon Shortbread, and Spiced Pumpkin Pie.

Levy also incorporates whole grain flour when appropriate as high-quality flour provides a sweetness of its own.

A little mouse is trying to hide its red-foil-wrapped chocolate heart, but every hiding place she finds is not safe enough for her standards. Eventually, she puts it in her mouth and eats it. Now it’s safe! This delightful picture book for preschoolers makes me smile each time I read it. The illustrations are simplistic and beautiful. They fit perfectly to the text. 

This impressive biography of Mr. Milton Hershey shows the obstacles he had to overcome to build the famous Hershey’s empire. The book describes the stony path Mr. Hershey took to become America’s favorite chocolate producer. This book not only has tremendous educational value but also gives you a sense of what life was like around 1900.

Aventurine is so tired of being cooped up in the cave all day. The rest of her family thinks she’s too young to venture out, but she’s convinced she can handle the world. When she sneaks away to prove it, she’s tricked into drinking hot chocolate that turns her from a dragon into a human! She works her way to the village chocolate shop and earns an apprenticeship there, making lots of new friends, and some enemies, along the way. Aventurine discovers a deep love for chocolate, for how it can affect the way people feel, and realizes she’s been wrong about a lot of things. This story was so unexpectedly wonderful, I couldn’t put it down. 

My kids never get tired of hearing this story! Love Monster is an adorable hero who faces a bit of a struggle when he discovers a box of chocolates waiting on his doorstep. At first, he wants to keep the yummy treats all to himself. But then his heart gets this squeezy feeling and he decides to share them with his friends. Little does he know, but Love Monster’s friends have a surprise waiting for him! This story is a great lesson in not jumping to conclusions, and in keeping your heart open. 

Who doesn’t like chocolate? No Monkeys, No Chocolates explains to the reader how we lucky humans ended up with what has to be one of the most popular treats in the world. Although the author writes about the entire process, starting with cocoa beans and ending with trees, wildlife plays an important part in our final chocolate treats, hence, the title. Midges, anoles, maggots, lizards, and of course, monkeys all play a part in getting the cocoa beans to grow, pollinate, and become new trees. One part of the book is straight nonfiction with serious explanations about the process, but illustrations of bookworms on the bent corner of the book give it that bit of metafiction to delight the younger readers who may not want to sit through every word.

Chocolate is one of hundreds of foods that originated in the Americas and became globally important following the onset of European colonization in the sixteenth century. One of the best things about this book is that it devotes as much space to the story of chocolate’s importance in Maya, Aztec, and other Indigenous societies before colonization as to the global transformations that happened subsequently. As an avid cook, I loved the vivid reconstruction of varied historical recipes for preparing beverage chocolate. Plus, the story of how the book was written – I won’t spoil that – that you’ll find in the preface, is a beautiful testament to scholarly labors of love, and to love itself.