Coolhaus - the ice cream truck that puts Mr. Softee to shame

On the third Sunday of every month this summer, Prospect Park has been hosting a food truck rally, with some of the city's most loved food trucks congregating in the front of the park near Grand Army Plaza.  This past Sunday I ventured over to Park Slope to see what this rally was all about.

Now, I'm aware of the food truck craze that's taken over the city in the last few years.  I've seen the multitude of Yogo trucks in practically every neighborhood in both Manhattan and Brooklyn.  However, I'm usually a passerby, opting to eat my meals in establishments with a roof and a seat.  But people rave about some of this food truck food, so I had to give it a try.

There are about 28 food trucks that rotate at this monthly event (which will only run through October so be sure to make it there September 16th or October 21st).  This week, after carefully evaluating our options, we decided to give Coolhaus a try.  Coolhaus has a fun concept - creating a custom ice cream sandwich with both unique cookie and ice cream flavors.

The cookies come from Ovenly, who have a store location in Greenpoint and sell their baked goods at numerous location across Brooklyn and Manhattan.  The cookies themselves will receive a separate blog entry, because not only were they amazing but I just added them to my list last week before realizing they were affiliated with Coolhaus!  There are about 60 flavors of ice cream, none of which include your plain old chocolate or vanilla.  Coolhaus offers flavors such as molten chocolate cake, bananas foster, beer & pretzels, and sweet potato & marshmallow.  Here's a full list of flavors for your reference: FLAVORS

The cookies include some classics like double chocolate chip and peanut butter, but also have fun flavors like red velvet, potato chip & butterscotch and snickerdoodle.  There are gluten-free and vegan options too!

On this particular trip, I tried the double chocolate chip cookie with Dirty Mint ice cream (fresh mint ice cream, semisweet chocolate chips & a hint of brown sugar).  For $6, you get a scoop of the ice cream served between two cookies, wrapped in edible calorie-free paper.  The calorie-free paper part actually made me laugh, since the Sammie probably had about 800 calories in itself.  Despite that (hey - today was a gym day!) I LOVED this ice cream sandwich.  The cookies were definitely on the super sweet side, and I shockingly was only able to eat half of the sandwich, but it was well worth every bite.  You could taste how fresh the mint was in the ice cream. The cookies were hard enough to hold the sandwich, but soft enough to be able to easily bite into it.

Coolhaus got it's start back in 2008, when the founders Natasha and Freya began making ice cream and baking cookies in interesting combinations, naming the flavor combos after architects and architectual movements that inspired them.  The girls decided the best way to get their Sammies out to the public was by a food truck, so in 2009 they bought an ice cream truck in LA and showed up at Coachella with their fun flavored sandwiches.  People loved it, word spread, and now you can find Coolhaus trucks in NY, LA, Miami, Austin and Dallas.

For New Yorkers, aside from the food truck, you can find Coolhaus creations in assorted stores throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and even Citifield (including Brooklyn Fare, the market across the street from my house!)  Although the best way to experience it is prepared fresh with the flavors of your choosing.  Coolhaus can be followed on Twitter and Facebook to find their daily locations.  They also make appearances at different concert venues, including ACL in Austin and the Electric Zoo festival at Randall's Island.

You can follow them on Twitter @Coolhaus.  Or @CoolhausNY.  Or whatever other city you live in that I mentioned above.  But since I don't actually know how to use Twitter, I'm not sure that what I just wrote is correct.  Maybe it involves a hashtag.  Maybe this is easier: www.eatcoolhaus.com

Scratch This On Your Brownie List

The Chocoholic Cjaps have attended the Village Voice Choice Eats tasting event in the past, but unfortunately missed it this year since I was stuck in Austin for work.  The participants are typically very meat-centric, but the VIP tickets include special desserts.  One in particular, Scratchbread, was a participant this year, and we read amazing things about their brownies.  Since we couldn't try it at Choice, I decided the next bike ride through Brooklyn, it was on the hit list.

The owner, Matthew Tilden, started off baking breads in whatever spot he could secure and delivering them to local shops and flea markets in Brooklyn.  In October 2010, he decided to turn Scratchbread into a stand-alone bakery, with only $5,000, with the goal being to produce food that's "delicious, awesome, and not pretentious."  He wants to not only bake from scratch, but use pure ingredients rather than a whole slew of processed ingredients like you'll find in most products in grocery stores.  After about a year of using the space (which used to house a pizzeria) mostly to bake breads, and eventually opening the window once a week to sell to the public.  Now he's able to operate 6 days a week, and people line up to try his baked creations.

Fortunately, when my brother and I decided to meet up for a bike ride to Rockaway, Bed Stuy was a decent meeting point.  Since they were written up for having great bread (namely the focaccia) and breakfast dishes as well as the brownie, so off we went to investigate.

Adam and Pat (guest bloggers of the week) and I ordered our breakfasts - Stumptown ice coffee (one of my favorites), toast with almond butter and vinegared blueberries, and succotash - a small pot of roasted potatoes, corn, and cheese with a soft boiled egg on top.  I was a big fan of the succotash dish, but that can be partly because I've never had it before, and I was famished by 11am when we finally stopped having flat tires, wrong directions and finally made it to the window.  The menu changes daily, allowing for Matt to experiment with different combinations, and cult followers of Scratchbread claim they're never disappointed.  My one negative with Scratchbread was that I wished there were benches to sit on to eat the food.  After reading the background I understand why there are no tables inside, however a bench or two would have been great!

Since it was a hot day, the woman working (who is a volunteer apprentice, working to learn the trade as are all the Scratchbread employees) offered to hold my brownie in the refrigerator while we ate our breakfast, since she said it would definitely melt in the sun.  She pointed to the display, where there had once been a brownie but now just contained the residue of melted chocolate.  I had intended to bring it along on our bike ride and have it as a snack when we got to the beach, but that was a non-option on a 90 degree Friday in August.  So I paid the $3, left it waiting, and came back to give it a try after having our Stumptown and succotash.

The verdict - it wasn't like a typically brownie.  There was a thick layer of buttercream in the middle, with a light spattering of buttercream on top.  This sandwich-type brownie was unique, crispy rather than fudgy, and I can understand why Choice chose them to be in last year's event.  It was delicious, without being too intense.  If there was any more buttercream I could see it overwhelming, but it was the perfect combination.  Adam and Pat agreed, that it was one damn good brownie - even enjoyable at breakfast time.

I would definitely come back here to try their different breads.  The website lists all of the varieties and ingredients (http://www.scratchbread.com/the-goods/the-breads/), and I'll be back to try the focaccia and cracked fennel.

Scratchbread is located at 1069 Bedford Avenue.  The closest train stop is the G train to Bedford/Nostrand Ave.

The hours are:
Monday, Tuesday & Friday - 6:30 am - 3:00 pm
Thursday CLOSED
Wednesday - 6:30 am - 8:00 pm
Saturday & Sunday 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
www.scratchbread.com

Dominique Ansel - A Little Taste of Paris in Soho

Dominique Ansel has been showing up everywhere since it opened in Soho in November 2011.  My general rule of thumb is if I read about a new bakery more than 3 times, and the word 'best' is included  somewhere in the review, it gets added to my neverending list.  I saw mentions of Dominique Ansel in NY Mag, Time Out NY, Serious Eats, Dessertbuzz - all my go-to sources for everything chocolate related.

My initial problem with Dominique Ansel, was that every time I tried to go there - it was closed!  The first time I went after the gym around 7:30, to find that they closed at 7. The next time I tried to go with a friend, we got there to discover they're not open Mondays.  I mean, for the city that never sleeps, this place sure does seem to get it's share.  Yesterday I finally made it there, on a Wednesday, at 6:30, and I was good to go (finally!)

Dominique Ansel (who is a man, which I just learned when doing my background research) who used to work as the Executive Pastry Chef for the restaurant Daniel, which I've never been to and probably never well since it's way out of my price range.  Originally from Paris (obviously), Dominique has risen to pastry stardom, and has been named one of the top 10 Pastry Chefs in the United States.

Dominique Ansel has a selection of sandwiches, salads, and soups, if you choose to stop there for lunch, which isn't a bad idea since they have a cute little garden area in back.  But I was there for the liquid caramel chocolate tart.

I definitely had my choice of desserts that looked amazing there.  There was a dulce de leche cup, filled with orange blossom milk chocolate ganache and caramelia rice krispies (that are also gluten free - I probably would've tried that too if I'd realized it yesterday).  There was a chocolate soft bun - milky chocolate bread with a chocolate ganache center.

But on to more important things - the liquid chocolate caramel tart.  Even the name makes me excited.  Who doesn't like liquid caramel with gourmet chocolate.  You really can't go wrong here.  The tart was a decent size - easily split between two people but not overwhelming for you to enjoy solo.  The chocolate shell was too thick to cut through with a fork, so you had to eat it by hand.  I was nervous the 'liquid' caramel would spill all over the place, but while it was liquid-y, it was also thick enough that it didn't ruin any article of clothing :)
The combination of thick caramel and soft ganache was perfect.  It was rich and creamy and each bite was thoroughly enjoyed.  There was a layer of chocolate cake with espresso, where I couldn't actually taste the espresso but it contrasted well with the sweetness of the caramel to dim down the sweetness.  The tart was $5+ tax, which is on the pricey side, but - it's in Soho, and it's French, and it's some sort of celebrity-type pastry chef, AND it was really good, so - I'll have to let it slide.

To be honest, after I finished the tart I wished I could try every other dessert in the place.  I was curious if everything could be that good.  I'll definitely be heading back here to try the chocolate bread and a cappuccino, and probably 3 or 4 other things that will definitely break the bank.

Dominique Ansel bakery is located at 189 Spring Street between Sullivan & Thompson. 212-219-2773

Their hours are 8-7 Tuesday through Saturday, and 9-6 on Sundays.  CLOSED MONDAY! DO not make the same mistakes I did - do not go on Monday, and don't show up at 7:30.  I promise, they will be closed :)
www.dominiqueansel.com

Cupcakeries from DC

A few years ago a friend went to Washington DC and told me about a cupcake place that was so good, people lined up to get inside.  In 2008 when Georgetown Cupcake opened, it was the first cupcakery in DC.  I found this shocking, since I've been a Crumbs loyalist since at least 2005!  But the DC market was apparently untapped, and Georgetown made a huge splash.  About a year ago, Georgetown opened a location in where else but NYC, so now I'd have the chance to try it too!

What I learned about these cupcakes, and why there were lines to get in, was that the owners - Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne - are sisters who loved baking since they were children.  They used to bake with their grandmother, and use the leftover to make mini cakes and cupcakes.  Once they got older, they decided to quit their jobs in fashion and finance to open up the first shop, and once it got big it became their full-time gig (so envious!)  In 2010, they became the stars of the TLC show DC Cupcakes, which told their story and the aspects of running a small business from scratch.  They've now opened up locations in LA, Boston and Maryland as well.

If I was ranking establishments on decor alone, Georgetown would probably top the list.  EVERYTHING is pink!  If you know me, you know that this alone is a major sell point.  There's a whole wall of pink boxes to wrap the cupcakes - pink t-shirts - pink aprons - even a pink sparkly blender!  It's a 5 year old girl's dream :)
The down side of the shop are that there are only 3 tables to sit at in the NY location, but it's on Mercer street on a block that has a lot of stoops to sit on.  My friend Alana and I brought our cappuccinos and cupcake across the street and enjoyed them there, Sex & the City-style!

You can taste the freshness in Georgetown's cupcakes.  They're baked fresh every day, using specially imported ingredients (cocoa from France; vanilla from Madagascar, etc).  The menu changes daily, with about 18 flavors rotating each day.  they always have varieties of chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet, and then seasonal and special flavors.  There are some fun sounding ones on the menu like chocolate hazelnut and mint cookies and creme.  The full menu can be found here: Cupcake Menu

After staring at the display case for a good 10 minutes I decided on the Chocolate3, which consisted of Valrhona chocolate with Callebaur chocolate ganache icing, topped with french chocolate sprinkles.  Immediately after ordering, I decided  I'd made the wrong choice- the frosting is my favorite part!  
It was still a delicious cupcake though - it had rich chocolate, but not overwhelming chocolaty.  They're moist, with the perfect ratio of cake to frosting.  Surprisingly they mention the calories of the cupcakes, which you don't typically see except at places like Crumbs that have so many locations that they're mandated to put it on display.  Georgetown's cupcakes are estimated to be 250 calories each; 200 in the ones that have less frosting like the C3.

A fun tip - if you follow Georgetown on Facebook or Twitter, every day they announce a flavor that's not on the menu.  If you're one of the first 100 inside and mention the flavor, you get the cupcake for free!  

Georgetown Cupcake is located at 111 Mercer Street between Prince and Spring in Soho.
They're open Monday-Saturday from 10am-9pm, and Sundays from 10am-7pm.
www.georgetowncupcake.com

Rocco's Not So Modern Life

After a wonderful dinner at one of my favorite restaurants Sushi Samba in the West Village, my friend Becca wanted to pick up dessert at one of her favorite bakeries on Bleecker Street, Pasticceria Rocco.  I'm pretty sure I've been here before pre-blog days, but now it was time to write a review!

Pasticceria Rocco is a New York tradition.  It's probably the only spot on Bleecker Street that's been there since 1974.  An Italian bakery, you can find anything from cannolis to rainbow cookies to about 47 different kinds of cake.

Rocco is definitely famous for their cannolis.  While we were there I heard almost every other person ordering them.  Now you might think that would be what I'd review, however - recall the name of the blog here.  It's all about chocolate.  I'm just not a cannoli kind of girl, sorry!  They did have little chocolate covered ones, but I was distracted by the giant cookies in the window.  They were about the same size of a Jacques Torres cookie, but also extremely thick.  Holding one in your hand, it feels like it weights about a pound!  
<--- Brownie marshmallow cookie

                                                     Oreo marshmallow cookie --->

There were chocolate chip cookies dipped in chocolate, brownie
cookies with marshmallow, regular cookie dough cookies with marshmallow and oreo - lots of fun combinations.  I tried the brownie marshmallow and Becca had the oreo marshmallow.  They were decent cookies, but not close to being my favorite.  They had that Italian bakery taste to them - not very doughy or fresh tasting.  The rainbow cookies and lacy cookies were better, but not all that different from what I'd find at any other bakery.  Maybe I've gotten spoiled, but I felt that while Pasticceria Rocco has been around for almost 40 years, it hasn't changed with the times.  It had the taste and feel of an old-school bakery.  Which is fine, but I'm always on the hunt for something new and life-changing, and with places like Levain in existence, I can't give Rocco's too much credit.
That's not to say if I stopped off here to have coffee that I wouldn't get something anyway, because there were about 100 desserts to try (the chocolate mousse cup looked great, as did a number of the cakes).

Pasticceria Rocco is located at 243 Bleecker Street.  Open daily from 7:30am - midnight (weekends til 1am), you can stop in early for a cappuccino or after dinner at Keste for a late-night snack.

www.pasticceriarocco.com

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