Happy New Year everyone! For the final Chocoholic Cjap visit for 2010, we have Pong, located down a flight of stairs beneath a Japanese restaurant on St. Mark's Place.
Pastry Chef Pichet Ong blends together classic American desserts with unique Asian inspiration to bring delicious and interesting cookies, cupcakes and puddings. Pong made it to our wish list when they were featured in one of my dessert blogs as having one of the best black and white cookies, made with Japanese Pocky cookies. We stopped in, to find out they no longer make the black and white cookies. The desserts looked so good though, that we had to try something else.
There were a ton of perfectly frosted, interestingly flavored cupcakes. Vanilla caramel vietnamese coffee. Chocolate green tea fruit jam. Vanilla Yuzu lemon. Mocha maldon salt caramel. We actually didn't try the cupcakes today since we were on our way to dinner and wanted something small, but we'll definitely be coming back to try this. They also had puddings and ice cream with a wide toppings bars including chocolate pearls, walnut soil, roasted kumquat, and blueberry compote. I don't know what half of the words I just wrote actually are, but I'm sure they taste great over condensed milk, basil, Vietnamese coffee or green tea ice cream. Or apple mint mojito or blood orange sorbet. Weird, but interesting, and worth trying. There's also a wide assortment of dessert tapas combining all the weird ingredients you can add on to your ice cream.
We decided to try the chocolate coconut cookie and the Valrhona brownie. The cookie was big, definitely needed to be shared between two people, a tiny bit smaller than the City Bakery cookies. They were fairly thin, and were full of large, soft, freshly-baked chocolate chunks. The coconut taste was subtle, but gave it a special kick not found in a typical chocolate chip cookie.
The brownie, despite being made with our favorite type of chocolate (Valrhona), was just okay. It was dense and rich (Val is a dark, rich chocolate) and had a spicy kick aftertaste, but there were no chocolate chips inside and I just didn't care about the brownie one way or the other.
There are tables inside Spot where you can sit and get a dessert and tea and enjoy your novelty desserts, you can take it to go, or order from Seamless Web if you live in the East Village. I'll definitely be back here to try one of their cupcakes, and I'm definitely recommending this place.
Spot is located at 13 St. Mark's place, basement level. Spot Dessert Bar
It's always fun to review new bakeries and chocolate shops. But what's even better is when your own friend creates her own recipe for a vegan chocolate chip cookie that tastes better than store-made brands!
Laurie Porter is a big fan of chocolate chip cookies. Some of her favorites include Bouchon, Levain, and Dean and Deluca. When she started dating her now husband Eric, who was vegan, she wanted to be able to share her love of chocolate chip cookies with him. Since there are so few vegan cookies on the market, and the ones that exist are usually hard, bland and tasteless, Laurie decided to create her own recipe and show the world that she can create an organic chocolate chip cookie without any animal products that tastes delicious.
Laurie's recipe includes organic cane sugar, brown sugar, flour, a butter substitute, agave and vegan chocolate chips. Without butter, eggs, or milk, it's hard to make a good baked goods, but through experimentation Laurie has perfected her recipe. I tasted her cookie (okay, not going to lie, I had two of them) and it was delicious! They didn't crumble the way most vegan products do, and were filled with chocolate chips that melted in your mouth. You would never know that this was vegan, and the fact that it's organic too - you can have a guilt-free chocolate chip cookie experience!
Now Laurie can enjoy chocolate chip cookies with Eric, who loves the cookies and has given her extra 'cookie' points. Hopefully one day Laurie's vegan cookies will be found at your local organic store or Whole Foods! If you'd like to try a batch, please contact me and I'll put you in touch with Laurie for an order!
Close friends and loyal readers of our chocolate blog might have figured out by now the way we pick the places we write about in the blog. It's not your standard, any run of the mill cookie or cupcake blog. We seek out the desserts are either new and unique, or supposed to be the best out there. Gourmet chocolates are often so interesting because they're infused with all sorts of interesting flavor combinations that you would never expect to find together (chocolate and bacon has become a big trend at a lot of the cupcake and chocolate shops).
I had read about The Chocolate Bar down in the West Village a few times, usually getting called out for interesting twists on traditional desserts. Chocolate covered ring dings. Chocolate covered oreos. Homemade mallomars. Definitely worth trying! My roommate and I stopped by The Chocolate Bar once a few months ago, late in the day (they close at 9 Monday-Wednesday, and we were there around 8), so they were sold out of most of their popular treats. I had read about their homemade mallomar, but that was of course gone when we had gotten there. We got a brownie instead, which was fine - it wasn't anything to rave about, which is why I never made a post from that trip.
While wandering in the West Village this weekend, we decided to go back to Chocolate Bar to check it out again, and see if maybe they had my mallomar this time. While I didn't find something specifically labeled 'mallomar', they had chocolate covered smores, and chocolate bars filled with marshmallow, caramel and flourless chocolate cake. The bar seemed like the best option, since flour is the death of me, so I went that route.
I will tell you this much. I have very little to say about this confection. The best thing about the picture to my left is the manicure. It tasted like one of those marshmallow twists you get in the blue box, you know, next to the purple box of jelly rings for Passover. With a little bit of caramel. Except not really as good, and 15 times more expensive ($3.50 for this tiny little bar). My roommate and I split it in two bites, and it was gone, and I didn't miss it even a little bit. This blog post saddens me, because I had high hopes for this place. It's been around since 2002, and been written about so many times that I had to add it to my hit list. Either my expectations are getting higher, or this particular bar just wasn't that exciting. They do have a chocolate tasting for groups of 10 or more, so maybe that's worth checking out for someone's birthday or a client event.
This Chocolate Bar is located at 19 8th Avenue (between Jane & W 12th St) Other locations can be found in LBI, NJ, and Dubai. Random, I know. If you're at the Apple store or Chelsea Market and you want to check it out, by all means. If you find something worth going back for, let me know and maybe I can do an update entry.
This week was the 13th annual Chocolate Show. Shockingly, the last 12 years I was unaware of this amazing event. Of course this year, with the blog in full force, Caryn and I are on the lookout for all things chocolate-related.
The Chocolate Show was held at the Metropolitan Pavilion, from Thursday to today. They had all sorts of celebrity demos, includes Jacques Torres (<3),Christina Tosi (our Momofoku girl), and Zac Young, the pastry chef from Flex Mussels who we did get to see demo a chocolate creme pie.
There were about 65 different chocolate companies at the event, so we're going to do our best to highlight the ones that we remember, or who gave us the best samples. And of course tell the one place we will never go to again because they refused to give us anything!
My hands down favorite was 5th Avenue Chocolatiere. They had the prettiest set-up, with all sorts of fun chocolate presents you could bring with you to Thanksgiving (chocolate turkeys, boxes of chocolate covered oreos WITH sprinkles on top!) They were sampling frozen truffles, which were pretty amazing but didn't look half as good as the products they were selling. I couldn't fathom buying anything today, because I'm sure after eating my weight in chocolate this afternoon I won't want to look at it for at least 48 hours, but I'll definitely be hitting this place up for something soon. They're on 5th Ave between 43rd & 44th street too, super convenient!
2 Chicks With Chocolate wins the award for most fun chocolate creations. They had all kinds of interesting fillings in their chocolate that I don't actually remember now, but what I do remember is oreo bark, chocolate covered rice krispie treats and chocolate covered marshmallows with candy on them. The 2 Chicks, whose name I like so much I wish we had thought of it for our blog, are actually a mother/daughter team who debuted at the 2009 Chocolate Show and won a "Top 10 Chocolatier" award. We love people who come out with unique ways to bring us our chocolate, and the chicks take the cake in this category. They also sell Rock-N-Pop, chocolate covered popcorn with popping candy (pop rocks I assume?) We didn't try this, but will probably order something from their website www.2chickswithchocolate.com
Next stop - the chocolate fountain by Lily O'Brien's. The Irish chocolate makers, whose NY store is right across from Bryant Park, had a beautiful chocolate fountain set up in the back of Metro Pavilion. For $1, you were able to dip a marshmallow or graham cracker in the fountain. I think it was kind of lame to charge extra, considering the show itself had a $28 admission fee ($30 at the door), but we had to try it, and it was delish. I pass by Lily's every day on my walk home from work, and they're always promoting new hot chocolate flavors, which I'll now have to go in and try and write a thorough review of.
Let's see, who's next. Let's move on to Jacques Torres, since they were the booth right next to Lily O'Brien's. We're major Jacques fans. He makes a mean chocolate chip cookie, and even meaner chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich, and all of his actual chocolate is amazing. Today they were sampling milk chocolate covered Cheerios. They also have dark chocolate covered Corn Flakes. Now that's what I call a breakfast cereal! They were selling mini cups of the Wicked hot chocolate, which we hadn't tried before, so today was the day. It was really thick and rich, I couldn't handle more than a sip, but Caryn loved it so it might just be that I was delirious and chocolate'd out by that point in the day.
Neuchatel Chocolates gets to be included in the write-up, because they gave us chocolate covered potato chips. What's better than sweet & salty together in one bite? They sold the potato chips in decent sized cans for $8, which I really wish I had You can order from their site or find them at the Park Avenue Plaza at 55 E 52nd Street. They're also at the Reading Terminal Market in Philly. Neuchatel Chocolates
Other people to mention:
William Dean Chocolates - they were sold out of almost everything by the time we got there, but we did get to try a piece of sweet potato ganache chocolate, which we loved. Their chocolates were so pretty, and I was disappointed that I couldn't buy some to bring home with me. William Dean Chocolates
Galler Chocolates - A Belgian chocolate comany (HUGE in Belgium - they have 2,000 stores!) We liked their chocolate the best today out of all of the regular chocolate places, however, we totally blew it by not buying it when we had the chance. Turns out the website is all in Belgian, so it's impossible to order. Guess we'll have to wait until the 2011 Chocolate Show.
Divine Chocolate - These people weren't that great, but they did have a chocolate tasting where we got to try 3 different chocolate flavors that weren't released yet and pick which one we liked best. My favorite was the chocolate orange, Caryn's was the coffee, but both of us weren't too thrilled with them overall.
Lastly, I'd like to call out our least favorite experience today (aside from someone passing out in the middle of the show. I mean, why would you bring a diabetic to a chocolate show, really? It's just mean). Maison Boisser. Some French chocolate people who I can't tell you anything about because they wouldn't talk to us. They had these pretty little packages of chocolate, in pastel colors, and I would have liked to see what they were all about but the nasty French poodle refused to give us any!
Here's a few more pictures from the event. All in all, lots of fun, not for our waistlines, but good material for the blog!!
Zac Young's demo:
Train made of chocolate:
Chocolate clown sculpture (the artist was there making more in person!):
Someone that we think is a famous chocolate man, but can't be sure.
Chocolate horn. Wish I remember who this was from.
The art of chocolate. Interesting, combining something you hang on your wall with something you put in your mouth. Although, I suppose if you frequent the New Museum, half of what you'll find there could very well be edible, or resemble something you've recently chewed up. But, La Maison du Chocolat, a fancy little French chocolatier, believes that making chocolate pretty makes it taste better. Does it? Let's evaluate.
Guest chocolatier of the day Becca forwarded me an invite last week to a special event at La Maison du Chocolat called 'La Nuit de Gateau', the night of cake, or pastries, or something along those lines says the French translation tool on Google.
This celebration was being held for the 20th anniversary of the shop's existence in NY. We decided to check it out, since I'm fairly certain French chocolate is not cheap, and if I ever did pick this place to use for the blog, I could probably afford one tiny piece and not get to try lots of fun things for free! We went to the flagship location on Madison and 79th street, and waited on a line down the block for our chocolate. 20 minutes and one complimentary dixie cup of hot chocolate later, we were in!
All of the employees had cute little French accents, and all wanted us to fill our hands with assorted chocolates and pastries. We bypassed the chocolate and lemon cakes (damn gluten allergy!) and went for the chocolate tarts (I'm going to use the English names for the products, so I don't sound like Pepe Le Pew over here). These were bite sized pieces of rich chocolate in a hard graham-type shell, with a speckle of gold on top for decoration. We loved these, and discovered they were also sold in cake form. Recommended if you want to drop $$ on a fancy little gift for Thanksgiving dessert.
Interestingly flavored ganaches were the specialty at the opening of the original shop in Paris. We sampled one called the Salvador, a combination of chocolate and raspberry and La Maison's most popular. I'm not a raspberry fan, but I can see someone who is liking this. For the event, there were little chocolate pieces with the 'La Nuit de Gatea' printed on them.
Lastly, there were the macarons. There were I believe 10 different flavors, from your Quito chocolate (filled with ganache) and Guayaquil vanilla (filled with dark chocolate), to Rigoletto (chocolate caramel), Romeo (coffee chocolate) and Salvador (raspberry). I haven't hopped on the macaron bandwagon, but these things were pretty good, and perfectly sized (about the size of a half dollar).
There are 3 New York locations of La Maison du Chocolat - their flagship is located at 1018 Madison Ave between E 78th and 79th street. They are also located at 30 Rock, and 63 Wall Street. If you're traveling internationally, you can find them in Paris (obvy), Tokyo, Cannes, London (one location is, of course, in Harrods!), and Hong Kong.
They also have a website where you can order boxed chocolate (they have a Thanksgiving turkey chocolate on the site right now), so you can Frenchen up the holidays this year. La Maison du Chocolat
They also have a really fun Christmas catalog worth checking out - I'll request the $1200 chocolate candy cane Christmas tree. Two of em. I expect them under the tree waiting for me on Christmas morning. Really expensive Christmas gifts
What do you think of when you hear Midtown? Tourists. Neon lights. Broadway shows. People asking you just how much you like comedy. And let's not forget the plethora of chain restaurants. What you don't expect to find in this melting pot of everything wrong with NY, is the cutest bakery with the best variety of cookies I've ever seen.
Ruby et Violette is known for their gourmet cookies. But not just your ordinary cookie. They have 120 flavors, with about 18-20 rotating in the store. The selections change seasonally, so for the fall I was treated to cookies such as Cardamom, a chocolate cookie with a tinge of chai, S'Mores, perfect for pretending you're sitting by the campfire, and Carrot Cake. The cookies are average sized, about 4-5" lengthwise, so they're not overwhelmingly large like your Levain or Jacques Torres monsters.
Yesterday, I sampled 3. My favorite was the Candy Jar, because of all the amazing, unique combinations, I would choose the one that's a giant mish mosh of 15 different types of candy bars :) The Candy Jar is a combination of Snickers, Oreo, Reeses Pieces, Toffee and Butterfinger. I don't even like peanuts, but this just had the perfect amount of the classic candies, held together by a warm, not too buttery dough.
The second cookie I tried, I unfortunately forgot to write the name down of (and this is why no one will hire me to be a real full time dessert blogger!) But I'll tell you, it was definitely a close call between this and the Candy Jar for my top choice. It was dark chocolate, with white chocolate chips baked in that were thick but soft when you bit into the cookie and simply melted in your mouth. The cookie had a circle of cream cheese in the center, which I tried to avoid for calorie sake. Someone eating 3 cookies doesn't seem as bad if you leave the 'bad parts' behind. The cookies and creme looked like the result of the inside of a handful of Double Stuffed Oreos mixed together, with large chunks of the cookie baked in.
The fun part about this place is never knowing what you're going to expect when you get there. Some of the upcoming seasonal flavors are Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, and Monday Night Football. They separate their varieties into categories. My favorites fall under the 'Kids Choice' category (that doesn't shock me at all.) Smores, Caramel Popcorn, Mint Chocolate Chip - fun takes on our favorite desserts, in cookie form. Then you have your 'Intoxicating' category - these cookies include elements of liquor, such as the White Russian, - one part Kahlua, one part Cream, the Black Irish - Irish whiskey & Baileys, and the Pina Colada, amongst others. The full list of flavors can be found here: Cookie flavors
Ruby et Violette also makes their own ice cream, so you can get cookie dough ice cream and have the best of both worlds. They make 6 kinds of brownies too, from your traditional brownie and blondie, to a champagne strawberry, 'Incomparable' (packed with caramel, toffee, peanut butter, dark chocolate and white chocolate), Lemon White and Molasses. You can also get coffee and other beverages, so stop by Ruby et Violette for an afternoon coffee/snack break (Ogilvy people, you finally have somewhere else to go besides the Intrepid now!)
Ruby et Violette is located at 457 W 50th street, between 9th and 10th Avenues (closer to 10th). You can also create customized orders to give as gifts for the holidays. Bring them to your Thanksgiving dinner, and everyone will be giving thanks to you :)
In our time as dessert connoisseurs, we have found what we deemed the best brownie (Baked), the best cookie (Levain), and the best froyo (well, best froyo-making experience, 16 Handles). But finding the best doesn't mean we can't keep searching for one to take the #1 spot!
I had read about a brand called Vegan Divas, who make vegan, all natural (and Kosher) brownies and cupcakes that are supposed to be amazing. Upon farther investigation, I discovered they are sold at Butterfield Market, a gourmet market on the Upper East Side. They're also sold at the FC Chocolate Bar at Mauboussin at 714 Madison Ave, Butterfield Kitchen at 346 E 92nd street, and D'Latte on Main Street in North Fork.
We took a ride up to the Lexington Ave location a couple weeks ago to investigate these brownies for ourselves.
The brownies are sold individually in a plastic container. We tasted it, and were shocked to find that rather than the dull, dry taste of many vegan products, these brownies were dense, fudgy, and an overload of chocolate wonderfulness in each and every bite. I never like to not finish a good dessert, but they were so thick and filling that after a few bites my chocolate fix was complete! The surprising sell point on these brownies is there's full nutritional information on the back, showing that an entire brownie goes for 220 calories. And since these things are so big and filling, you really don't need to eat more than half anyway! They're made with spelt instead of flour, which is great for us since we're now trying to follow a gluten free diet. After doing some research we also learned that one of the Vegan Divas chefs used to work at Babycakes, which surprised me since we're not big Babycakes fans. Maybe she learned from her mistakes.
In terms of cost, it was a bit on the high side (just under $5), but considering you're getting a fresh, all-natural product that won't pack on the pounds, I'd say it's worth it.
