The Cjaps vote for #1 cookie in NY - Levain!

I realized recently that when I created this blog, I had already tried many of my favorite places, which meant that I never had the chance to blog about them. I also realized that I love contributing to this blog and educating people on the all the amazing desserts this city has to offer. So what does that mean? That I am probably going to have to revisit some of my favorites, and also that I have to get back to blogging once a week.
With that being said, let’s start at the beginning. What is the absolute best cookie in NYC. The leader of the cookie pack, that has people lining up to get a fresh out of the oven chocolate chip-laden doughy mound?

Hands down, I have to say Levain. Caryn gets credit as being the first one to have heard about Levain. One day, on a trip to the Upper West Side, Caryn wanted to go to this particular bakery to try a cookie made by triatheletes. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I never argue with getting to try a cookie. So off we went to W 74th street, and as we descended the stairs to the tiny shop there was a line of people waiting their turn for a piece of this giant mound of dough. The bakery itself is simple. There is a small counter, and the kitchen with their trays upon trays of cookies cooling down clearly visible. Levain opened in 2005, by Connie McDonald and Pam Weekes. The two women were training for an Iron Man in 1994, and needed to get their calories in, so instead of filling up on Gu Gels or Powerade, they decided to create a 6 ounce cookie with the finest ingredients.
My personal favorite is the dark chocolate chip cookie, but even with my sweet tooth I find it hard to finish this monstrosity of a dessert. The cookies always have a soft chocolate-filled center that makes you want to keep eating even though you were full 3 bites ago. They’re made with extra dark French cocoa and semisweet chocolate chips, and all I can say is that I’m glad they’re not obligated to post the calories on the menu because I wouldn’t want anything to take away from the experience of eating a cookie from Levain.
I also tried the dark chocolate peanut butter cookie, and even though I typically don’t like peanut butter unless it’s in the form of Reese’s Pieces, this was pretty damn amazing too. Levain has been written up for their sourdough brioche roll stuffed with Valerhona chocolate, but these tend to sell out early in the day and I’ve never been fortunate enough to have the chance to try one. If you’ve tried it, post your review here so I can be encouraged to get up there early enough to have my share!
Levain is located at 167 W 74th Street near Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side. They have 2 additional locations, one in Harlem on Frederick Douglass Boulevard and another in the Hamptons.

http://www.levainbakery.com/

Chocolate Show in NY - get your tickets now!

Hey everyone,

The 14th Annual Chocolate Show will be returning to NY November 10th - 13th at the Metropolitan Pavilion, located on W 18th street between 6th & 7th Avenues in Manhattan.

We'll be attending that Sunday, with our special guest of the day Sangita! Tickets are $30 for Thurs, Fri & Sun, and $35 on Saturday.

Last year we had the pleasure of tasting some of Jacque Torres' wicked hot chocolate, and smores from a fondue fountain.  This year's participants are still TBD but I'm sure they'll be worth the trip!

http://www.chocolateshow.com/salon_intro.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Make your own froyo finally catching on!

I was only gone for 4 months, but somehow a million new froyo places have popped up everywhere!
I knew that 16 Handles was planning on opening up a ton of new locations, including the Upper West Side, West Village, and even one in Brooklyn in the Midwood area!  I'm happy to say that they wisened up and added the toppings they brought to the Upper East Side location, down to the East Village.  These are coming soon, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I stumbled across four new make-your-own places in the last month.  Let's give you the run-down, followed by a quick list of the existing places we already knew about.

First we have Flavaboom, on 6th Ave between 17th & 18th street.  They have fewer flavors than 16 Handles, but some different toppings. They had mint chocolate chips, and caramel drops.  They also had a ton of baked goods, such as cookies and brownies, and vegan cupcakes in interesting flavors like bubble gum!

There's a new location of Roast Town Coffee on W 34th street between 7th and 8th Avenue.  This used to be my go-to because the original location is on 6th Avenue in the high 20s (I think 27th street), and it was the only make-your-own froyo place in midtown.  The yogurt isn't anything special and the toppings are standard, but it's convenient enough.  There's also a location in the East Village near St Mark's, but the one on 34th street had barely any flavors and even fewer toppings. I was majorly disappointed.

Outside the city, these places are catching on too!  When driving through Staten Island, I spotted Orange Leaf frozen yogurt. Since I was in my least favorite borough, I decided to make a pit stop and check it out to try to give SI some credit. They had only been open a month and were out of original flavor, losing many points in my book. But if you're going to be stuck out on SI, at least you have somewhere good to go for dessert now!  Oddly enough, Orange Leaf is a chain with 98 stores across the US, but the only NY location is in Staten Island. Arkansas, Minnesota, Indiana and Kansas seemed to have a lot of locations, which made me realize that the fro-yo trend isn't concentrated to New York and California. On a trip to Chicago in 2008, I was apalled that the only ice cream-type treat available was a Dairy Queen 30 minutes outside the city center.  Orange Leaf has a location in Illinois, but not Chicago. Very surprising. Isn't Chicago supposed to be a major city?  For all you Staten Islanders, Orange Leaf is located at 65 Page Avenue. Enjoy!


Last, there was a Tutti Frutti in Long Beach, right across the street from the LIRR en route to the beach. I suppose this information is useless, with it being September and summer being over, but unfortunately Labor Day was my first beach trip all summer, and the discovery came quite late in the season. I have to credit Alana Leviton for not only teaching me about this place, but convincing me it was so good that it was worth the trip out to Long Beach. I have to agree, Tutti Frutti had some of the best yogurt I've tried. Their Dulce Leche flavor was amazing and reminded me of Argentina (that's a good thing), although a little on the sweet side and would have been hard to load up on Kit Kat and Twix toppings - too much sugar!  The Cake Batter and Coconut flavors were delicious too. They had a wider variety of toppings than even 16 Handles, include toasted coconut, Ghiradelli chocolate syrup, and candied walnuts.  Next summer, make sure to stop in here before getting on your train back to Manhattan!

Now for the round-up, since people are always asking me where the nearest froyo spots are. I will provide only the make-your-owns, because there are too many Pinkberry/Tasti Delites for even me to know about!

Financial District:
Red Mango self-serve, 111 Fulton Street

East Village:
16 Handles, 2nd Avenue @ E 10th Street
Roast Town Coffee, St Parks & 3rd Ave
There's a 3rd place on St. Marks on the block between 3rd & Astor, I forget the name but it's not nearly as good as 16 Handles and worth walking up the block.

West Village:
Phileo Yogurt, 267 Bleecker Street between 5th & 6th Ave

Chelsea:
Flavaboom, 6th Avenue & 17th Street

Midtown:
Roast Town Coffee, 6th Avenue and W 27th Street
Roast Town Coffee, W 34th Street between 7th & 8th Avenue

Red Mango, W 32nd Street between 5th & 6th Avenues

Upper East Side:
16 Handles, 2nd Ave & E 82nd Street

Upper West Side:
16 Handles, Amsterdam Avenue & W 76th Street

If I am missing any, please let me know so I can keep up to date! I am sure new things have opened while I was away that are necessary to try.

All the best things are named Lulu

We have Lululemon, which is of course the best running & yoga clothes ever.
We have my brother's nickname for me, which is Lu, and I'm of course awesome.
Now we have Lulu's, an awesome bakery in Chelsea that made the cut for this week's blog post.

Lulu's takes classic desserts like twinkies and snowballs and adds their own twist.
You can find 3 different kinds of twinkies - blackout twinkies - chocolate cake covered in chocolate and filled with chocolate pudding. Lemon twinkies - lemon snack cakes filled with lemon curd dipped with white chocolate. And Red Velvet lulu's - filled with cream cheese frosting and dipped in white chocolate.

The snowballs were filled with coconut custard, and looked liked larger, fresher versions of the ever-famous Hostess snacks. They have them in pink and white, which I am pretty sure taste the same but just use different colored marshmallows.There are a ton of cupcakes - dulce leche (which of course I'm partial to since that's what I lived on in Argentina!), pistachio rose, chocolate hazelnut, black sesame and strawberry.  There are of course also traditional flavors, vanilla and chocolate and red velvet.  They all looked pretty good, but the purpose of today's visit was to try something new. There's also about 8 million cakes - birthday cake!

cheesecake! devils food cake! carrot cake!  I developed diabetes reading the menu.  Disclaimer* my birthday is September 8th, and there is a cake called Cookie Monster (chocolate devil's food cake, organic vanilla buttercream, chocolate-covered homemade "oreos") which I wouldn't be disappointed if someone got for me.

My main complaint was I think their prices are out of control. $3 for one twinkie? Can't you buy an entire box for $2.50 at Pathmark?  Have I been away so long that bakery prices have doubled?  An 8" cake costs $45 which also seems a little insane. But, for a one-time treat, it might be okay.

I tried the blackout twinkie. It might have been a little bit too much chocolate, which is something you rarely hear me say. But the chocolate cake with the chocolate pudding filling with the chocolate - a little bit overwhelming.  I had to take bites of it over the course of two hours (thank you guest blogger of the week Michelle for holding my twinkie and letting me take bites every half an hour!)  Thank you other guest blogger Steph for telling me about this wonderful place!

Lulu Cake Boutique is located at 112 Eighth Ave (between 15th & 16th st). There's also a location in Scarsdale, but since New Yorker don't leave the city, I won't bother posting that location :)

The first cupcakes, straight from the West Coast

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long since we've last written! Lori's been off traveling the world, and Caryn felt guilty finding new snacks on her own. But the Chocoholic Cjaps are back, and are going to pick up our reviews to help clue you in on what's happening in the wonderful world of desserts in NYC (and, on occasion, surrounding areas).

While we were in blog-writing hiatus, a wonderful thing happened. Sprinkles (https://sprinkles.com/), a cupcake shop from LA that we've heard amazing things about for years, opened it's first location in NYC! Located on Lexington Ave off E. 60th street (Only one block away from Dylan's Candy Bar, Serendipity, and the 40 Carrots inside Bloomies - lots of competition) - this new location was still exciting because in our trips out to the West coast, we'd never made it to Sprinkles to try. Sprinkles are THE ONES that started the cupcake trend.

Luckily, I had to order a dozen cupcakes for a project and was able to try a few different flavors, which was perfect for reviewing purposes. The flavors change daily, with only a handful available 7 days a week. Black and white, chocolate marshmallow, cinnamon sugar, dark chocolate, red velvet, vanilla, and vanilla milk chocolate are available daily. Others, including non-chocolatey flavors like banana, carrot, chai latte, and pumpkin, are available select weekdays.

From the outside, the shop is colorful and reminds you of walking down CandyLand's gooey gumdrop lane. Inside, the colors swirl, the workers behind the counter are super nice and cheery from all the sugar they're inhaling all day, and although it's small, people huddle around to get a taste of these west coast delights.

The Cjaps aren't the biggest fans of cupcakes. We usually eat the frosting off and the rest is garbage, with the exception of Crumbs which usually has a filling that we pick out too. The cakes on cupcakes are usually pretty bland, and we just like the overly sugary parts.

The Sprinkles cupcakes were way better though. The frosting is perfectly sweet, not too overwhelming, and the cake part is soft and moist and surprisingly enjoyable. My favorite was the gluten free red velvet. I usually don't even care for red velvet, and this has nothing to do with trying to eat less gluten-filled products, but this one really did have the best taste. My least favorite flavor was surprisingly the dark chocolate, which was just too basic and the frosting and cake tastes didn't really separate, and I felt like I was just eating pieces of ok-tasting chocolate on a spoon.

They even have special cupcakes for dogs! Now, I will admit, $2.50 for a cupcake 1/4 the size of the people cupcakes (which cost $3.50 each) is a little bit ridiculous. And the only difference the girl at the counter said is that they don't have sugar or chocolate.  But I got one for Foxy, and her little eyes popped out of her head in excitement as she eyed the mini cupcake with a plastic bone on top. She devoured it in 2 bites, and seemed to enjoy it although she also digs through garbage so I'm not sure how accurate her contribution to the review is.

Other flavors I personally liked were the chocolate coconut and carrot. Although I probably won't be bringing home a dozen of anything ever again - too much sugar, and a limited time to eat it til it goes bad! They label the boxes with what flavor is what (very helpful, since most of ours were chocolate), and close it of with a pretty little sticker with the Sprinkles logo.

The shop accepts orders for pickup and delivery, and inside you can buy coffees and teas. You can cater them, or have them designed into a platform for your wedding. The founder, Candace Nelson, will be a judge on Cupcake Wars this season.

But what makes them truly special?  They use good, natural ingredients - sweet cream butter, bittersweet Belgian chocolate, pure Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, fresh bananas and carrots, real strawberries and natural citrus zests. Their sprinkles come from France, which along with their European-designed shops, provide them with an air of international sophistication. All of their boxes, napkins, plates, etc are made from recycled material. They are good people, with great cupcakes, and we are so happy to have them on the east coast!!

There's no taking your clothes off after a trip to Naked Chocolate Cafe

While this chocolate blog was originally created to review bakeries and chocolate shops in NYC, we soon realized that other major cities had great chocolate options that needed to be made aware of as well.  Philly has proven to contain a very large amount of dessert places that need to be reviewed.  So far on the blog we've been to the Franklin Fountain and Flying Monkey Patisserie.  On our most recent trip to Philly, while running into a store to take a break from the racing winds, we stumbled upon the smell of baking chocolate, and a line of eager customers lined up out the door.  We knew this must be something worth checking out, so we joined the line to see what was in store.

Naked Chocolate Cafe, located at 1317 Walnut Street, makes absolutely beautiful chocolate creations.  At the front of the store were custom Philly chocolate treats, like a block of chocolate with Ben Franklin and the Liberty Bell, and chocolate pops with the LOVE sign.  There were also artistic creations like chocolate paint palettes and chocolate iPods!  As we walked down the line, there were an assortment of filled chocolate truffles and pieces; Venezuelan chocolate with ganache filling handpainted, chocolate butterflies filled with lavender honey - so many options.  These could be sold individually, by the pound, or in assorted  boxes, placed in an EDIBLE chocolate box - amazing!!

The dessert case was even more outstanding - lemon tarts, Oreo chocolate mousse, brownies - the options were endless.  But we wanted to try what Naked Chocolate Cafe was most known for - the reason people came out on this bittercold day and were lined up down the block.    Two words - drinking chocolate.  Available in frozen chocolate or regular, melted down chocolate, you could get a Petit, Indulgent or 'We'll Never Tell' glass of pure, naked chocolate; with added in spices and flavors to keep you coming back for more.

The choices were classic - a blend of milk and dark chocolates.  Bittersweet, with deep chocolate.  Aztec - full-bodied chocolate with nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves, or spicy - chocolate with spices.  They were made European or American style.  The American was served with the chocolate in a glass, and a heap of hipped cream and wafer on the side.  The European version was served in a taller glass, with the chocolate on bottom and whipped cream on top.  We opted for the American version, since we'd had our chocolate fill for the day and this trip to Naked Chocolate was purely for research!


The drinking chocolate was delicious.  It was like sipping some of the finest, thickest chocolate I'd ever tasted.  We had the Spicy version; the spices gave it just a little kick but didn't affect the flavor too much.  The Petit size was perfect for the two of us to share without being overwhelming, since it was heavy and decadent.

We watched as people ate the chocolate fondue, which for $8 was a reasonable price in comparison to what I've seen fondue charged in NY, and it came with rice krispie treats, marshmallows,and strawberries.  This is a must-try next time we come back here!  They were giving out samples of the lemon tart, and even though I'm strictly a chocolate girl, the tart was amazing - cakey and buttery, and the sample almost got me to buy a piece to bring back with me.

We can't wait to go back to Philly and check out the fondue, and maybe even the 'We'll Never Tell' chocolate drink!

We'd fly to Philly to go back to Flying Monkey Patisserie

While watching the Travel Channel recently, there was a feature on some of the country's best desserts.  Located in Reading Terminal market on 12th and Arch streets in Philly, this historic specialty Amish farmer's market since 1893 features some of Philly's most unique and mouth-watering merchants, ranging from Amish sweet shops to chocolatiers to Philly cheesesteaks.  On this particular episode of the Travel Channel dessert show, I watched as the Flying Monkey Patisserie baked the most interesting cake I've ever seen.

Called a Pumpple Cake, I watched as an apple pie was baked inside a vanilla cake.  Covered in a layer of buttercream, the cake was then placed on top of a SECOND cake - a pumpkin pie baked inside a chocolate cake.  The double-decker was then covered with a layer of buttercream, speckled with colorful spirnkle bits and pieces, and then ready to be sliced.  Not being a fan of pumpkin or apple pie, and discovering a single slice of the cake was estimated to be 1,800 calories, I wasn't going to try the cake, but I needed to see it up close. 

When we located Flying Monkey at the far end of Reading Terminal Market, there was a long line of people waiting to try the snacks.  Upon closer look, we saw that not just the Pumpple Cake looked amazing, but everything that was baked by scratch on the premises looked better than the next.  There were brownies with neverending chocolate chips, whoopie pies, cupcakes, smore bars...you name it, they had it.  The more unique desserts were the Arnold Palmer cake - a lemon and sweet tea vodka bundt cake with lemon/sweet tea vodka glaze, and the Elvis cake - a banana chocolate chip cake layered with peanut butter buttercream, adorned with mini chocolate chips.  There were also dozens of cupcakes, ranging from your traditional vanilla and chocolates, to the more interesting red velvet and spumoni.  There were also cake truffles (similar to what Momofoku now sells pre-packaged out of their midtown location) in chocolate covered dark chocolate cake and chocolate covered strawberry at only $1 a piece.

Since the Cjaps were determined to fit on the return bus back to NYC, we opted to try the brownie and the S'mores.  The brownie (priced at $3 a slice) was extremely fudgy, and filled with chocolate chips so that each bite was more chocolatey than the next.  The double chocolate brownie was made with two varieties of cocoa and dark chocolate, and each bite had enough sugar to ensure I was never going to sleep that night.  I placed this high in my brownie rankings.  Caryn liked it, but said it still didn't compare to Baked or Astor Bake Shop.  There were other brownies that looked like they would have been amazing as well; Cheesecake brownies with a cheesecake swirl throughout, white chocolate blondies, and Junk in the Trunk brownies - brownies with pretzels, white and dark chocolate, and oreos.
The Smores bar was good, but nothing in comparison to the brownie.  It was a homemade marshmallow, half covered in dark chocolate with a splash or Oreos on the side.  It was good for a lighter, less guiltful treat, but if you're going to Flying Monkey, I would stick with their cakes, brownies, cupcakes or whoopie pies.

Flying Monkey's website (http://www.flyingmonkeyphilly.com) has an online shop available to ship cookies and brownies only, however the site was down for now, so for the non-Philly chocolate fans, you're going to have to take the Bolt Bus for now.  But believe me, it's worth the trip!

Flying Monkey Patisserie

Reading Terminal Market
12th & Arch Streets
215-928-0340

Open Mon-Sat, 8-6; Sundays 9-5