The International Chocolate Cookbook

Chocophiles should make room on their shelves for this voluptuous volume. The oversize cookbook literally dazzles--studded with 50 remarkably propped color photos, it's so stylishly replete that it's hard to believe it belongs on the kitchen counter. But it would be a mistake to treat Baggett's ( The International Cookie Cookbook ) compendium of chocolatiana like a museum piece. Drawn from Europe and America, her recipes are modified for the competent home cook. Her Sacher torte includes a simplified version of the chocolate glaze because, she writes, the standard preparation can be ``challenging''; for purists, the traditional glaze is also supplied. The range is unusually broad, incorporating a very clear section on ``chocolate artistry'' (explaining how to create chocolate boxes, baskets and fancy decorations) as well as the expected cakes, cookies, pies, ice creams and candies. Fare is generally more sophisticated than in Maida Heatter's classic books (see the ``Mocha Marjolaine,'' a hazelnut-almond meringue layered with chocolate, coffee and mocha fillings), and the directions are less fussy than those of the acclaimed Rose Levy Berenbaum. (Nov.)