by: Dominique Ansel

“The second half of the book holds the recipes to some of my most sought-after creations. This is where you have a chance to get your hands dirty, so you can follow my footsteps in your kitchen,” Dominique Ansel.

I grew up baking and I love it. I was so excited to get my hands on the Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes cookbook. However, even as experienced as I am in the kitchen, my skills were no match for these recipes. They are very complicated and require speciality ingredients and equipment. Both of the recipes I tried were from the beginner recipe section. I looked through all of the recipes and the advanced ones sacred me so much I couldn’t bring myself to try one.

Mini Me’s

I thought these were so cute and the recipe seemed simple enough to make. My mini me’s never came out right and I tried the recipe three times. I don’t know if it was due to the humidity here in Florida or that I don’t have a stand mixer and was using a hand mixer with a whisk attachment. For the flavoring I used peppermint as I love peppermint meringues

Previously I have made meringues using a hand mixer and not had any problem. I was bummed that they didn’t look like they should have, but in the end the last batch I made tasted delicious.

Hot Chocolate

I rarely drink coffee instead I drink hot chocolate all year long. This recipe was very simple to follow. I couldn’t find the cocoa paste so I searched for a substitute and used cocoa powder. It wasn’t a perfect substitute but it worked out okay.

The hot chocolate was delicious. I added some of the mini me’s to my hot chocolate but I wasn’t a big fan of the peppermint with it. If I can find the cocoa paste I will try this recipe again as I did enjoy it. Kids and adults will love this hot chocolate.

I wanted to love Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes cookbook, but I just didn’t. The recipes I tried were both from the easy recipes and neither recipe came out perfect.

I love to bake and have been doing it since I was a kid, but these recipes just seem so complicated and require hard to find ingredients. If you are an experienced baker I would love to know if you have tried any of the recipes and what you thought of them.