Blue Bottle Coffee - a sweeter view from the Highline

To continue our never-ending quest for a NY cookie better than Levain, we took a trip over to Blue Bottle Coffee, located across the street from Chelsea Market beneath the Highline.  To give fair credit, Blue Bottle is originally from San Francisco, but since I never intend to go to that city again and there's more than one location in NY, I'm counting it.

I had read that Blue Bottle, aside from having amazing coffee, featured a double chocolate cookie with chocolate from Mast Brothers, a Williamsburg-based artisinal chocolate maker.  Mast Brothers makes some really good chocolate, but the $8 a bar pricetag stops me from buying it every time.

The cookie at Blue Bottle is $2.25, and includes large pieces of Madagascar Mast brothers chocolate.  They sprinkle sea salt throughout the cookie, giving in to that sweet & salty flavor I fell in love with at the NY Chocolate Show, and have been seeking out wherever I can find it now.  Each bite gave you a good ration of cookie, chocolate and sea salt.  My biggest complaint about many chocolate chip cookies is the uneven distribution inside.  Some, like Jacques Torres, have a bit too much chocolate to cookie ratio.  Others, too many to name, skimp out with the chocolate and I'm left with giant heaps of plain old boring dough.  But Blue Bottle had it just right.  We also liked the presentation - the cookie was served in a brown coffee filter (unused, of course!)  There's limited seating inside, but you can always take your coffee and snacks over for a nice walk down the Highline.

The coffee was indeed amazing too.  We opted for the New Orleans blend iced coffee, and it was strong and tasteful.  It was also $4 for a small.  I think I'd prefer to fly to New Orleans and go to Cafe DuMonde for that much - but our 2 coffees and 1 cookie totaling over $10 WAS a nice and well-deserved break during our 30 mile bike ride.

The location we went to is located at 450 W 15th street, between 9th and 10th Avenues.  There is a larger Blue Bottle Coffee in Williamsburg, at 160 Berry Street which has a larger selection of cakes (Gingerbread cake, rice loaf brought over from their original San Fran location), and one in Rock Center.  They also have a temporary outpost for the summer on the Highline, and at Smorgasburg (spoiler alert - the next free Saturday I plan to do a giant Smorgasburg entry to cover the massive amount of dessert food trucks there!)

http://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/

Almondine... Another reason to visit Brooklyn

I keep an ever-growing list of new desserts to try saved on my Google docs, which at this point in time has been in the works for so many years that I don't even know what's on there anymore, where it came from, or why I decided I should go in the first place.

A few weeks ago when my roommate Stacey and I were wandering around DUMBO, we passed a Jacques Torres on Water Street (who knew that was there?!), and across the street, a bakery with a line out the door.  We went closer to investigate, and I recognized the name - Almondine Bakery. Almondine had been on my list for at least two years now, but since I never go to DUMBO and thought that Water Street was in the Financial District, Almondine was doomed to remain there forever!

Stacey and I peeked inside and saw (and smelled) amazing desserts.  Giant chocolate chip cookies. Meringues that looked like ice cream sandwiches.  Macarons in every color and flavor imaginable.  We had just eaten, but decided to come back on our next journey to DUMBO.
Memorial Day weekend, we returned.  Luckily for us, Almondine was much emptier on this trip over.  On the down side, a lot of the desserts I'd been dreaming of since our last visit weren't there.

We ended up with one of the giant chocolate chip cookies, an oversized chocolate macaron, a chocolate rocher and a pretzel bread filled with gruyere cheese.

They also offer chocolate mousses, tortes, specialty cakes (definitely recommended for the next special occasion, they looked amazing) and a ton of breads made with organic flour and few ingredients (the Cjaps aren't fans of processed foods, which is why we stick to bakeries where everything is made fresh).  Almondine is known for their croissants and macarons.  We didn't try the croissant, because they were out of chocolate ones, but the pretzel bread was delicious.  There was a light layer of gruyere cheese on top, which could've been heated up a bit to make it soft and melted, but we still loved it.

As for the chocolates - well. The chocolate chip cookie was pretty damn good.  Not up there with Levain or Paradis, but it was a good cookie.  It was tremendous (see photo for proof.  My hand isn't that big!)  My initial reaction was that I wasn't going to like it because there were so few chocolate chips.  I like when they're evenly distributed throughout, and there's a little chocolate in every bite.  In Almondine's cookie, there were three giant chocolate chips, but then about 80% of the cookie was just cookie.  Despite this, it was a good cookie.  It was rich, thin and buttery, and there was a little bit of chocolate spread throughout.  Guest blogger of the day Stacey liked it more than I did, but it served it's purpose.  However, I probably wouldn't get it again.

There was also a dark chocolate walnut cookie offered, as well as oatmeal raisin, of equally large size.

There was an assortment of different flavored and colored macarons, but I opted for the large chocolate macaron that was so big it slightly resembled a whoopie pie. The chocolate cake layers were dusted with powdered sugar, and were dense and tasty. The chocolate in the middle was rich and flavorful.  It was a large macaron cookie, and can easily be split between two people.  The smaller ones looked good too, but those will be tasted another time.  The rocher I found extremely boring.  I had it in my bag and it melted, so the next day after refrigerating it, it tasted like a melted, re-chilled, mushy rocher chocolate.  You're better off buying them from your local Duane Reade and go for the better options at Almondine.

They also offer sandwiches and soups, and a full blended coffee menu.  There are a few tables inside, or you can walk down a couple of blocks to enjoy your treats at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Almondine is open daily from 7-7 (except Sunday, 10-6)

85 Water Street between Main & Washington (DUMBO)
442 9th Street (off 7th Avenue in Park Slope)
www.almondinebakery.com

A Make-Your-Own of it's Own

We all know about make-your-own froyo.  We've all been to a 16 Handles, Yogurtland or some type of place where you take a cup, fill it up with different flavored frozen yogurt, and add 8 pounds of toppings of your liking.  It's a trend we all know and love.  What's a trend that we don't know but would love if we did?  Make your own cupcakes.  And you can now do that at Molly's Cupcakes in the West Village!

 Molly's features their own signature cupcakes as well.  Made from scratch each day with the finest ingredients, you can get classic flavors like chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, etc, but really fun flavor combinations.  They had:
-Cake batter
-Butterscotch caramel
-Kahlua
-Chocolate mousse
-Blueberry cheesecake
-Cookies & cream
and more....

We tried the Cookie Monster.  Which was a-maz-ing.  Cookie dough filling! Actual raw cookie dough inside the cupcake.  It was vanilla chocolate chip cookie cake filled with the cookie dough, topped with buttercream and a small chocolate chip cookie on top.  We loved this so much, and pushed Molly's way up in my list of favorite cupcake spots!  Pricing is on par with other cupcake shops - $3.75 for the specialty cupcakes.

Now for the make-your-own.  We did not make our own last night.  I'm ashamed to admit this, because that is the most exciting part about Molly's!  But I got thrown by the Cookie Monster!

But here's the details:
You pick a size.  A mini is $1.25, and a Molly, which I'm assuming is a large, is $2.25.
Then you pick your cake flavor, from chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, carrot or banana.
Next you pick your frosting: vanilla, chocolate, cream cheese, butter cream or brown butter.
Last you pick your toppings: cookie crumble, brownie bits, Reeses, M&Ms, Whoppers, gummy bears or chocolate chips.
When I DO make one, I know it'll be vanilla cake, cream cheese frosting, with brownie bits, Reeses & gummy bears.  And I can also tell you I'll be back here real soon.

Even if you don't make your own, Molly's has an assortment of colorful sprinkles that you can add on to any cupcake - a pre-made or custom made one.
There were other treats available too - ice cream, cookies, pies, cheesecake, and bars (the 7-layer looked amazing, but we were sticking with the signature cupcakes for the first visit).  The full menu can be found here: Molly's Cupcakes Menu.

Molly's is open until 10pm on weeknights and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, so you can get your cupcake fix after dinner in the West Village.  Any other questions?  Like who's Molly?  Molly was the owner's third-grade teacher, who used to bake cupcakes for her students' birthdays.  In honor of Molly,  a portion of their profits are donated to schools in the community.  How sweet is that?

Molly's is located at 228 Bleecker Street, between Carmine and Downing
There's also a location in Chicago, in the Lincoln Park area.
Take a trip down and tell us what custom creation you made!
Molly's Cupcakes

Dessert Truck Works Better on the LES

The influx of food trucks in NY started a few years ago, and has been expanding at a rapid pace.  You can barely pass a corner without running into someone selling pastries, frozen yogurt or tacos.  DessertTruck was one of the original food trucks, selling their pastries from a mobile operation since October 2007.  The success of their truck was so great that in 2010, a cafe was opened on the Lower East Side, down on Clinton Street next to to the ever-famous Clinton Street Baking Company.

The cafe has sandwiches as well, but people come for their desserts.  I went in because of a craving for bread pudding, but while there ended up with nutella filled brioche donut squares and a chocolate chip cookie as well (whoops!)  The bread pudding came with vanilla ice cream, topped with whipped cream.  It was extremely sweet, and definitely needed to be shared by two people, there was no way to eat this all alone.  Of course, in addition to this, we had the chocolate chip cookie, which was warm from the oven.  The cookie was good, but didn't make any of the top lists.

Now I'm not a big donut or nutella fan, but these were actually delicious.  Again, on the super sweet side, but they were perfectly filled with nutella, the brioche was crisp and fresh (again, served warm right from the oven), with a thick layer of sugar on the top.



All of the desserts are $5.97 + tax; the cookie was $3.03 + tax. Pretty reasonable considering the size and satiety.  The cafe itself has a strange seating set-up, the tables are super tiny and low, and the chairs are hard to sit on, so I wouldn't come with a large group.  But for 1-2 people, definitely add it to your list!


Dessert Truck Works is open Sunday - Thursday from the afternoon (2/3) until 11pm, and on Fri/Sat until midnight. Perfect for a late night snack!


Dessert Truck Works
6 Clinton Street between Avenue B & Houston St
http://www.desserttruck.com

Too Bad This Isn't The Ice Cream Sandwich On My Android

North Brooklyn is expanding at a rapid pace, and the places seem to be getting cooler and cooler.  Just a few blocks from where I used to live on 5th and 5th, you can find Bierkraft - a self-described 'dine-in or take-out beer and food emporium'.  I must have passed this place a million times, but since I'm not a beer drinker never thought to go inside...

...until I learned that Bierkraft doesn't just have beer, they also have an ice cream cookie sandwich that makes the 'Best Of' lists.  After dinner last weekend, we decided to take a walk over to this place to check out this gelato sandwich, since ice cream seems like an appropriate dessert in the middle of winter.  When we walked in, I was a little bit confused - it appeared to be a convenience store of sorts with a long aisle filled with beer upon beer upon beer.  It turns out Bierkraft sells beers from around the world both by the bottle and on draft, where you can enjoy it with a sandwich, cheese and meat platters or specialty chocolates.  

In the freezer section, there I found the reason I came - the gelato sandwiches!  I picked the brownie cookie sandwich with chocolate chunk gelato, which comes from Il Laboratorio.  Honestly, what could be better than this!?  I was a huge fan.  It was crazy expensive - $6 for the sandwich - but two of us were barely able to split it, it was so rich and filling.  Of course I managed to finish it, because it was incredible.  I let it sit out for a little while once I got home so that it had melted just a little bit, and the gelato melted into the brownie to make it a little less thicker and easier to eat.  There are other varieties - cherry blondie with dark chocolate gelato and brownie with peanut butter gelato.  

Bierfkraft is open 7 days a week, from 12-11 Monday-Saturday, and 12-8 on Sunday.

191 Fifth Avenue (between Union and Berkeley Streets) in Brooklyn

R train to Union Street is the closest stop

www.bierkraft.com

Good thing it's a leap year when February is hot chocolate month!

The month of February holds a lot of things for a lot of people.  For kids & teachers, it means a week off of school for President's week. For Hallmark & select females, it means cards & roses on Valentine's Day.  For snowboard enthusiasts, it means weekend trips out to Vermont or the Poconos.  For me - it means hot chocolate month at City Bakery!

Every February, City Bakery has their hot chocolate month 28 (this year 29 thanks to the Leap Year!)  This year, we planned to go one day over President's Day Weekend and decided to go on February 19th, which was Sunken Treasure day.  The lines were longer than usual, which I attribute to a combination of it being hot chocolate month and also President's Day, when most people were on holiday.

We decided to go all out today and get TWO cookies - one of the traditional chocolate chip cookies that makes everyone's top 10 list, and the double chocolate one.  Between those two cookies and the hot chocolate, we were definitely in chocolate overload.  But it's just SO GOOD here!  I am fairly certain the sunken treasures in the hot chocolate were caramels, but all I could taste and smell and see was chocolate everywhere so I really can't be sure.

City Bakery has a great chocolate selection (obviously the cookies and hot chocolate are the most common) but they also have a cafe in back where you can get soup, salad, and sandwiches.  All of the food looks amazing, and every table of both floors of this two-story cafe were filled.  I would definitely recommend coming here for lunch, or to bring food back to your office (they have a salad bar where you can get things to go).


City Bakery is located at 3 West 18th street, right off of 5th Avenue.  They have a sister location called Birdbath, that I actually stumbled into one time and recognized the cookies and knew they were related!
www.thecitybakery.com

Le Chocolate on Le Strip

While ChocolatesWhyImFat originated as a New York-centric blog, we have decided that while traveling, why not find the best desserts around the world?  We've covered Philly a few times, and now we're heading out west to the city of sin.  Viva Las Vegas.

Some come to Vegas to gamble.  Some come to replicate the Hangover and experience a little of that 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas' philosophy.  Some want to eat all they can eat and frequent strip clubs they discovered by having fliers shoved into their hands at every corner.  And some want to see minor glimpses of cities around the world all along one strip of land in the middle of the dessert.  

I don't exactly fit into any of these categories.  This was my first time in Vegas above the legal gambling age, however my time there was short, as it was merely a starting point for a ski trip to the mountains in Utah.  Now with limited time, the most important thing to do was to figure out the best places to eat, since Vegas is known for having the best of everything all in one place.

What our photographer Justin discovered upon researching desserts on the strip, was a chocolate shop located in the Bellagio, Jean-Philippe Patisserie.  Chef Jean-Philippe Maury comes from Paris, and serves as the Executive Pastry Chef for all of the Bellagio's 17 gourmet restaurants.  

At the front of JP you'll find a giant chocolate fountain with streams of dark, milk and white chocolate dripping down from the ceiling, amassing at the bottom to create a giant pool of mocha-colored chocolatey wonderfulness.  Blocks of the chocolate fountain are available to purchase as souvenirs.  The fountain is certified by the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest in the world.

While the fountain was impressive, the rest of the shop was filled with beautiful cakes, ranging from birthday to wedding cakes, each more glamorous than the next.  

There was a wide selection of gelatos, but we had come to try some of the pastries and chocolates.  Justin, being obsessed with both Nutella and brioche (and really anything Parisian), bought the last Nutella brioche available.  While I'm not overly excited by Nutella, this pastry truly was a not-so-little piece of heaven.  The pastry was large, fresh, and dense, able to hold what seemed like an entire jar of Nutella.  With a layer of powdered sugar across the top, this was certainly messy to eat (we both were covered in hazelnut spread and sugar after the first bite), but delicious and highly recommended.  Guest blogger of the day Justin described it in just one word - "epic".

The selection of confections to purchase was quite large, including chocolate rocks (which I accidentally spilled all over the floor - the package was much heavier than it looked!), hot chocolate pellets, chocolate covered caramel sticks, and much more.  The dessert I opted for was a package of four chocolate macaroons, half covered with a layer of white chocolate.  The macaroons were extremely thick and moist, and retained their flavor and moistness for days.  (Who am I kidding - I don't know how long they really lasted because I finished them off on my plane ride back to NY!) Each one was large enough for two to share, and the inside tasted like a flavorful cake, rather than the typical drier taste of a traditional macaroon.  The white chocolate layer provided an extra kick of chocolate that added a nice balance to the chocolate cake.  Since this was a one-time trip to Vegas where I probably won't be returning any time soon, I was okay with buying a package of 4, however at $3 apiece, if I was in Vegas and wanted one I would have preferred for them to be sold individually.

Lastly, we got a tin of assorted chocolates.  The bars came in dark, milk and white, a little bit of everything from the fountain.  I usually like my chocolate less on the plainer side, but these bars were delicious, and I felt the taste of Paris in every bite.

I would certainly return to Jean-Philippe if I ever made it in Vegas again, next time to try the gelato.  I definitely would recommend checking out the one in the Aria, which is even bigger and better than the one in Bellagio, as I just found out from investigating on Google.  Even if you don't have a sweet tooth, this place is worth checking out if you're on the strip, even if you're just window shopping and want to see the world's largest chocolate fountain.