Cooks' Books by Lisa Messinger

"Chocolate Bliss: Sensuous Recipes, Spa Treatments, and Other Divine Indulgences" by Susie Norris (Celestial Arts, $16.99)

Bliss might not only be biting into chocolate, but washing your face with it, too. So says chocolatier Susie Norris in her enticing expose of one of the world's most beloved ingredients.

In "Chocolate Bliss: Sensuous Recipes, Spa Treatments, and Other Divine Indulgences," Norris shows off not only the requisite photos of mouthwatering treats that may in themselves prompt a sprint into the kitchen for immediate preparation, but also goes beyond recent headlines to shine a spotlight on further benefits.

One dark-chocolate product label after another in supermarkets now proclaims the exact percentage of cacao in the bar and how good chocolate has been declared for our health. Norris, an artisan chocolate maker and culinary school instructor, melts away the hype and makes us feel even better about our cravings by taking a chapter to dive into the reasons why.

"A 1-ounce piece of very dark chocolate consumed every day provides vitamins (particularly vitamins A, D and K), minerals (particularly magnesium, potassium and iron), a little protein and flavanols. Dark chocolate has more flavanols than any other type of food. Flavanols help keep blood flowing to the heart, which prevents blood clots, and they also strengthen the lining of the blood vessels.

"They provide antioxidant activity, which means they attract and neutralize free radicals ... Further, cocoa butter has stearic and oleic acids, which are considered the 'good fats,' essential to a healthy body," writes Norris, who also notes that chocolate doesn't officially make it as a full-fledged "health food" because of cocoa beans being half cocoa butter/half fat and often being combined with large amounts of waist-enlarging sugar.

She suggests thinking of dark chocolate as a vitamin, to be eaten in small doses daily and not to substitute with milk chocolate or candy bars — since "some studies show dairy products (often included in those products) inhibit the body's ability to process chocolate's most beneficial vitamins and minerals compounds. Plus they have the fat and sugar problem."

That cocoa butter, though, is good for the skin, and Norris delves deep into that subject, too. Her recipes for Chocolate Mint Foot Rub, Melt Away Chocolate Massage Oil, Salty Chocolate Body Scrub and Chocolate Soap are equally as memorable as her delicious truffle, cookie and cupcake recipes.

Best of all, perhaps, is Norris' novel approach about cravings (surveys show chocolate at the top of most peoples' lists).

"Don't even bother trying to separate food and feelings," she writes in the beginning of an illuminating essay about how anthropologists have determined our desires have become inexorably linked with sweet, ultimately good-for-us foods, like berries and chocolate. She even offers this brilliant healthful recipe to control cravings, while at the same time meeting them head-on.

DIET DAY DIP

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Norris recommends Scharffen Berger or Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder; should be a "natural" or "nonalkalized" cocoa powder)

1/4 cup skim milk, hot

3 tablespoons low-fat vanilla yogurt

1 1/2 tablespoons diet sweetener, such as Equal or Splenda

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Sliced fruit, to serve (green apples are especially good)

Yields 1/2 cup dip.

Sift the cocoa powder in a small bowl and slowly pour the hot milk over it. Whisk together until smooth. Whisk in the yogurt, sweetener, vanilla and salt. Serve with fruit slices.

MELT AWAY CHOCOLATE MASSAGE OIL

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/2 ounces dark chocolate, melted

1 cup grapeseed oil

1 cup sweet almond oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Yields 2 1/2 cups massage oil.

In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder into the chocolate. Slowly pour in the grapeseed oil, then the sweet almond oil and then the vanilla extract. Once the mixture is combined, you can transfer it to a plastic squeeze bottle for easy application as massage oil or put it in a jar, label it as massage oil, and offer it as a gift to a massage-needy person.

Note: "This massage oil is very dark brown and brings a light brown color to your skin that can easily transfer to towels or clothes — after all, you are slathered in chocolate," writes Norris. "Rinse off with warm wet cloths or a hot shower before you face the world."

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "After-Work Gourmet" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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