As the gift-giving season approaches, we’ve found the perfect pick for aspirational cooks who love chocolate. (And who doesn’t?) Ferrandi Paris (www.ferrandi-paris.com/) is coming up on its centennial in 2020. That’s 100 years as one of top culinary schools in France. Two years ago, the school issued its pâtisserie cook book for cooks who want to know everything possible about making French pastry. This year’s English translation of Ferrandi Chocolate (Flammarion, Paris, $35 US, $47 Canadian) does the same for chocolate, chocolate confections, and chocolate desserts. (The French version appeared simultaneously in France.)

This book is more than a compendium of chocolate recipes and techniques. It’s one of the most straightforward, easily understood guides to building skills and techniques to work with chocolate. While the equipment section does list all the specialized tools an aspiring chocolatier could wish for, the recipes minimize the importance of gear in favor of top-quality ingredients, precise measurements, temperature control, and step-by-step instructions.

Rina Nurra’s photography for the book carries a distinct wow factor—from the cover image of a mirror-glazed chocolate tart topped with gold leaf to luscious images of molten chocolate pouring out onto a slab. But they are more than just pretty pictures. The illustrations of each step of complex recipes (making chocolate croissant dough, for example) show precisely what the process should look like.

Ferrandi Chocolate may devote a whole section to chocolate decorations, but it also devotes equally extensive sections to variations on chocolate drinks and to some chocolate classics. We were particularly struck that the Parisian school would address one of the most American of sweets, the chocolate chip cookie. When we first looked at the recipe, we noted how it paralleled the Toll-House Cookie that originated in the 1930s at Ruth Wakefield’s Toll House Inn in eastern Massachusetts. Nestle, of course, has made that recipe world-famous.

So we tried the Ferrandi recipe and discovered how radically different it is. The Ferrandi version has the texture of a sugar cookie and soft-pedals the bits of chocolate. It has a pleasant elegance. The secret is the hand-mixing of the ingredients to avoid developing the gluten. It’s reprinted here verbatim with permission.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Makes 25
Active time
30 minutes
Chilling time
30–40 minutes
Cooking time
12–15 minutes
Storage
Up to 2 weeks in an airtight container

Ingredients
1 stick plus 3 tbsp (5.75 oz./160 g) butter, softened
1 cup minus 3 tbsp (5.75 oz./160 g) light brown sugar
3 1/2 tbsp (2 oz./50 g) lightly beaten egg (about 1 egg), at room temperature
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out
2 cups (9 oz./250 g) flour
3/4 tsp (3 g) baking powder
1.5 oz. (40 g) dark chocolate chips
4.25 oz. (120 g) white chocolate chips
3 1/2 tbsp (1 oz./25 g) sliced almonds

Using a spatula, mix the butter and sugar together. Beat in the egg and vanilla seeds.

Sift the flour with the baking powder and fold in. When just combined, stir in the chocolate chips and sliced almonds.

Shape the dough into logs, 6 in. (15 cm) long, 2 in. (5 cm) in diameter. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30–40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C/Gas mark 4).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the plastic wrap and cut the dough into 1/2-in. (1-cm) slices. Place the cookies on the baking sheet, leaving room for them to spread, and bake for 12–15 minutes.