Treat House - Rice Krispie treats enjoyed by all

Who doesn't love Rice Krispie treats?  As a child of the 80s and someone whose parents were of the first to obtain a 'Price Club' membership before Kirkland was a household name, we had those shiny blue Snap, Crackle and Pop wrappers by the dozen - chocolate drizzle, rainbow, chocolate chunk - I have a special place in my heart for RK treats.

Until they started making me sick.  To be fair, a lot of things were making me sick before I was aware of my gluten/soy/life allergy.  But who would think that Rice Krispie treats WEREN'T gluten-free?!  After all, rice is the preferred carb of choice by celiacs everywhere.  Well, sorry Kellogg's, but you're not getting any love from me on this one.  When I learned that malt flavoring was one of the ingredients in Rice Krispies cereal, and soybean oil was thrown in as a binding ingredient - they were wiped from my list of snacks that I can eat guilt and pain-free.

So you can imagine my excitement when I first heard about Treat House opening up on the Upper West Side.  Treat House makes Rice Krispie treats in dozens of flavor combinations; and nearly all are gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free and Kosher.  So basically, unless you're allergic to rice or marshmallows, you're good to go!

Each mini square is flavored, colored and topped with a different theme: birthday cake, chocolate mint, M&Ms, cookies and creme, pink bubble gym, chocolate peanut butter - they were all beautifully decorated and I couldn't decide which to try.  I tried to elicit a recommendation from the woman behind the counter, but she wasn't super helpful.  She seemed annoyed that I asked for a recco, and unfortunately even though I mentioned I was writing for the blog, she didn't seem to care to help me find the best RK treat.  Her attitude aside, I opted for the M&M and the chocolate mint.  At $2.25 apiece, two was just the right amount - the squares were on the small side, and the cost was definitely more than I was expecting.  But once you label something gluten-free, you know how it goes.

They came boxed in mini containers that perfectly fit each square.  The M&M was a bit bland; it didn't stand out with a thin layer of marshmallow and a sprinkling of mini M&Ms.  The chocolate mint was much better though; there were little pieces of mint chocolate chips throughout the rice krispies.  With a layer of chocolate on top and a wedge of York peppermint patty completing the treat, this was absolutely excellent.  I wish they were a bit larger, since it was gone in 3 bites, but I suppose that means I'd just have to get more next time.

Treat House is located on 452 Amsterdam Avenue between West 81st and 82nd street. They're open Monday-Wednesday 7:30am-9pm
Thursday-Friday 7:30am-10pm
Saturday 9am-10pm
Sunday 9am-9pm

http://www.treathouse.com/

A General Store in Queens with not so general baked goods

Long Island City - the new area in Queens that Bloomberg has focused on as of late, looks nothing like it did the last time I was there a few years ago.  Full of luxury high-rise buildings, waterfront dining and parks, and artisinal gourmet coffee beaneries, LIC looks like Williamsburg did just as it was becoming gentrified.  As always, I wanted to go there not to see the new glass of the Citibank building, but because I read about a cafe with an awesome brownie.  Once I heard they were also featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives I knew I had to hurry over there quick!

Biking over the Pulaski bridge from Brooklyn to Queens, I was let out just a few blocks away from Sage.  We pulled up in front of a cozy little restaurant, and in we went to seek out this double chocolate brownie.  There was a glass jar full of dessert to choose from, including assorted flavors cupcakes, cupcakes that resemble Drakes Ring Dings, and Valhrona chocolate brownies.

We of course opted for the brownie, because when do we not go for the brownie.  There were chocolate chips spread throughout, and crisp edges all around.
Each bite was soft and filled with an outburst of chocolate.  It was definitely on the sweeter side; a couple bites and you can put it away and save for your next sugar craving.
It was up there on our list of great brownies, and judging from the crowd inside, it looks like their food is pretty good too.
So the next time you're in Long Island City and craving some Valhrona chocolate, give Sage General Store a go.

Sage General Store can be found at 24-20 Jackson Avenue
Sage's website
718-361-0707





Check their site for updates before heading there because their hours are pretty all over the place - as of 9/20/13, the hours are:
Sunday 3-8
Monday 3-7
Tuesday - Saturday 4-12

Ladurée - an international macaron delight - special Hong Kong edition!

Ladurée, a french bakery originally from Paris had opened up a location on the Upper East Side back in the summer of 2011, and it's been on my list ever since.  I've either been lazy or just not on the UES all that often, and when I am up there I either forget or it's 2am and the shop's been closed for hours.  But here I am, wandering around one of the most amazing cities I've ever visited, Hong Kong, thinking how I could really go for a nice sweet treat since Asia is mostly lacking in chocolate and bakeries and I hadn't had anything chocolately other than a Twix bar in weeks!  

All of a sudden, as I'm strolling through one of the many shopping centers near the water, up rises before me a pyramid of pastel-colored macarons.  It looked vaguely familiar; I'd seen this windowfront before.... and sure enough, as I get closer, I saw the name etched in gold on the window - Ladurée. Famous for being one of the most renowned bakeries in Paris, with a double-decker flagship shop and 4 locations throughout Paris, I was thrilled to see they were now expanding not only to New York, but to Hong Kong as well (but only because I was there and in dire need of sweets).  From reading their Wikipedia page, since the main site is in French, I learned this was Blair Waldorf of Gossip Girls' sweet of choice.  All the more reason to give it a try.

There were a rainbow-full of colors worth of flavors to try, but at 23 Hong Kong dollars apiece (around $3 USD), and being on a bit of a budget since leaving my job, I could only justify buying one $3 cookie; a price equivalent to half of my hostels in Thailand and Laos.  (Sidenote - the condition of the cookie was way better than the hostels.)  I had read a review from an expat living in Hong Kong describing the salted caramel macaron as one of her top 5 sweets in the city, so I went with that one.  Now I should probably take a step back and explain what exactly a macaron is.

A macarOn, not to be confused with a macarOOn, is a meringue-based confection made up of two almond meringue discs filled with a layer of buttercream, ganache or jam.  Ladurée is credited with creating these sweets interestingly enough, so what better for me to write my review on. A macaroon, on the other hand, is originally a small cake made up of mostly almonds, although throughout time the macaroon has transformed to include more of a cake-like substance, made with egg whites, and affiliated with coconut and often covered with chocolate.

Ladurée also sells chocolates, chocolate cream, pastries and merchandise including scarves, mugs and key rings.  You can create your own assortment of macarons and have them gift wrapped in a fancy pastel box.  Sadly, my povery-stricken self went up to the counter to request my sole macaron, which I ate immediately upon leaving the shop and running out with humiliation at not being able to afford all of the pretty colored-cookies.  Since there's no specific chocolate involved I wasn't sure how much of a fan I'd be.  I've tried macarons in the past and thought they were just OK.  However, Laduree products no ordinary macaron.  This was a sugary sensation!  The cookie crumbled in my mouth; the sweetness of the salted caramel filling blended perfectly with the soft meringue of the cookie casing.  I couldn't believe how good a macaron could be!  And then I wished I could try more. And more.  Luckily, when I got back to New York I made a trip up to the UES with my co-blogger Cjap and we got to try a few more flavors.  The iced mint, one of the seasonal flavors, tasted exactly like mint chocolate chip ice cream!

Some of the flavors can be seen here
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But in case you can't see, since I can't really make out the writing in this photo either, I will list some of the classics for you:

Vanilla
Orange Blossom
Rose Petal
Pistachio
Chocolate
Raspberry
Lemon
Licorice


And some of the seasonal flavors in NY right now are iced mint, gingerbread, Venezuelan chocolate, and coconut.  There's a separate section listed as the Incroyables, including a chocolate coconut macaron, which I tried and was also delicious, however I am clueless as to what the word Incroyable means.  If anyone goes to Paris anytime soon, please investigate and get back to me.

They are expanding to more locations internationally; currently besides Paris, NY and Hong Kong you can find Ladurée in Singapore, Dubai, South Korea, Morocco, Sydney, Japan, Brazil and many locations throughout Europe including Switzerland, Germany, England and Italy.

The New York location can be found at 864 Madison Avenue.
Open Monday - Saturday 9AM - 7PM; Sundays 10AM-6PM.
(646) 558-3157
Laudree main site

Milk and Cookies and Bacon?

Milk and Cookies, a bakery in the West Village, has been on my hitlist for the longest time. To be honest, I'm not too familiar with all of the street names in the W. Village and Commerce Street, to me, could have been in the village, Soho, the financial district, or 100 other places around New York that are one block long. On a recent walking tour of the area, we were walking down a street past the narrowest house in New York (only 9 1/2 feet wide!), and passed right by Milk and Cookies bakery!

Being that I'm gluten-free 50% of the time, and was with a friend who's gluten-free all of the time, he didn't understand my overwhelming excitement over a random bakery full of poisonous wheat-filled goodies.  I, however, knew that since this WAS the West Village, there was a high likelihood there would be a G-F treat for Dan, and one for me to have along with my gluten-filled cookie.

When we walked in, I was immediately overwhelmed with the options in front of me.  There were dozens of different types of cookies. From standard chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin to chocolate mint, peanut butter and cream filled.  Their specialty, and why I had read about them in the first place, was their Bacon Smack cookie - maple syrup, candied  cherry wood smoked bacon, dried cranberries, 72% dark chocolate chunks, toffee and graham cracker pieces.  Since chocolate covered bacon, or chocolate bars with bacon bits sprinkled throughout is a trend that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, these are one of their best-selling cookies.

 

There were also tons of amazing assorted treats - ice cream
sandwiches filled with il laboratio del gelato, brownies, magic bars, rice krispie treats, shortbread - on and on. They also had special little cookie dog bones, and since Foxy was out with us for the day, she got her own treat. Poor thing couldn't wait to get into the bag! Sadly once I gave them to her she was less enthused; we left half of the treats on the floor under the bench in front of the shop. Foxy usually loves peanut butter biscuits, but she might have just been overwhelmed because she devoured the rest of them once we got home. 

But now on to the cookies for people (Foxy is important, but our readership amongst canines on this blog is still fairly low).
Dan and I each had the gluten free cookies, since as I mentioned he is gluten free and I am sometimes.  We had the chocolate chip and double chocolate GF cookies.  The chocolate chip cookie was so good that Dan ate it in 2 bites and I didn't actually try that one! The double chocolate was perfect - you would never know it was gluten free.  It was soft, a consistency hard to find in GF baked goods.  There was a perfect allocation of chocolate, and the size was perfect for an afternoon treat.  We judge cookies by the size because while some of New York's finest - Le Vain, Jacques Torres, Paradis, City Bakery - are fantastic, they're tremendous and if you eat the entire thing you are forced to spend the rest of the night in back to back Soul Cycle classes.  This was a normal cookie size, so you can have one guilt-free.  The ingredients used are of the finer quality - Valrhona chocolate, E Guittard chocolate chips, etc. I brought home the bacon smack cookie to try, even though I'm not a huge bacon fan (I don't like to eat pork since Charlotte's Web was my favorite book growing up!) that was their specialty cookie and everyone had raved about it.

To be honest, this was not my favorite cookie.  It might be chalked up to my not being a bacon enthusiast, but the hickory scent overwhelmed me before I even took a bite.  There were large chunks of soft bacon, large chocolate chips, and cranberries - there was just too much going on in my mouth simultaneously.  I pulled out the chocolate chips and gave Foxy the remainder, and this one she went crazy for - much more than her special dog treats. If you're a bacon lover it's definitely worth a try, but otherwise I would stick to Milk and Cookies' many other varieties. 

The last thing I'll note is the shop was pretty small, so unless you're stopping in with one person, you probably will take the cookies to go.  There was a bench in front of the store that we ate on, but I think these are better to be enjoyed at home.  They also deliver, and there are special gift baskets you can order. And they show up in this neat little truck!

19 Commerce Street
Sunday-Thursday 11AM-10PM, Friday and Saturday through 11PM
212-243-1640
http://www.milkandcookiesbakery.com/site/

There's No Nonsense about the Runcible Spoon after a 30 mile bike ride

When we ventured off to Nyack, in typical Cjap fashion we were expecting a giant sign outside of the Runcible Spoon, a biker-friendly bakery in Nyack at the end of the route.  I'm not sure how we both didn't realized that Route 9W continues all the way up through Bear Mountain to Albany, since we both attended SUNY's upstate. So on this hot June die, the first day of summer, we rode from Manhattan to Nyack, and right through it!  After going up the largest hills we've ever climbed, we realized the error in our ways, and hightailed it back into town straight to the Runcible Spoon.

Now, what is a Runcible Spoon, you might ask?  On their website, they define a Runcible Spoon as a spoon-shaped fork (but not exactly a spork, since a spork has fewer ridges), with one sharp wavy tine that can be used as a knife.  Wikipedia describes "runcible" as a nonsense word invented by Edward Lear, used in the poem "The Owl and the Pussycat."

If you can't see the actual spoon in this image, here's a clearer version:

While this name is certainly odd and nonsensical, we heard great things about the place so in we went.  

There was a bike rack full of bikes outside, so we knew we'd arrived at the right place. I was a little bit thrown when I walked in - there were giant butterflies or bugs of some sort on the ceiling with the bakery's name on them.  I thought the place might be a little strange, but once I laid my eyes on the crazy selection of cookies and baked goods, I changed my mind.

The Runcible Spoon opened up 20 years ago in Rockland County. They're open 365 days a year - they don't like to close for even a day because they have their regulars who don't like to skip one day of their daily dose of The Spoon. During the week the cafe is filled with women and children on playgroups, and on weekends overflowing with bikers like us up for an excursion from the city.

The shop had assorted cookies in adorable sugar-coated types like flowers, lobsters, hearts and stars. There was every flavor of muffin and cookie you can imagine. For the biker crowd you could find an equally large selection of sandwiches and salads, to refuel mid-ride.  There were a few gluten-free options as well; glad to see the RS is prepping carbs for the celiac riders out there!

We opted for a 1/2 hummus wrap with veggies in a red pepper wrap, followed by a chocolate cloud cookie and gluten-free brownie.  This was one place that it was actually hard to choose because every option looked better than the next!
The sandwich was perfect after a long ride - it had the protein and carbs needed, but was the perfect size and light enough to not get full before hopping on our bikes to go back to the city.
The desserts were excellent.  The cookie was large, thick and chewy.  There were nuts and chocolate chunks sprinkled throughout the cookie.  It was more than large enough for us to share.  The brownie was very dense and fudgy, and so chocolatey that we were only able to take a few bites before starting to have chocolate overload.

Just 4 miles past Piermont, we would love to come back here and try out other menu items on future trips to Nyack/up 9W.  Now all this town needs is a Lulu...

The Runcible Spoon

37 N Broadway

Nyack, NJ 10960

845-358-9398

Open Mon-Sun, 6:30am - 6pm

New Cupcake Shop on the Block

They say a new cupcake shop opens up every 7 minutes in New York. Okay, that statistic may or might be true, but I'm fairly positive it's pretty damn close.  On a recent night out in the West Village, after a pitcher (or 3) of sangria, we were en route to the bars.  We said NO to dessert at dinner. We were on a mission - Saturday night out! We had no time for dessert. Alcohol was on the mind!
Until we walked down 7th Avenue South and stumbled (literally) across the House of Cupcakes.  We never heard of it before, but it looks glorious from the outside (and, let's face it, who doesn't like a drunk cupcake) so in we went.

When we walked in, we were overwhelmed by the enormous selection of cupcakes - each and every one sounded absolutely amazing.  We spent at least 15 minutes debating which flavors to try, since we were going to have to carry them into a bar and clearly couldn't try one of each of the 30 flavors!

Summarized list of the best flavors here:
Chocolate cheesecake brownie
Espresso brownie
Hazelnut crepe
Espresso brownie
Dulce de leche
S'mores
Snowball, chocolate OR vanilla
Salted Caramel
Candy Cup
Chocolate chip cookie dough
+ gluten-free & sugar free options

Full list here: House of Cupcakes menu

The House of Cupcakes is originally from Princeton, NJ, and were winners of Cupcake Wars on the Food Network.  I really need to start watching this show!
You can order cupcakes online and customize them for events - anything from birthdays to weddings to client gifts.

We tried the chocolate chip cookie dough and the vanilla snowball.  The cookie dough was probably my favorite cupcake ever.  I mean, raw cookie dough in the middle and a vanilla cream frosting with specks of cookie throughout - how can you go wrong!  I was less enthused with the vanilla snowball, but more because I was hoping it would taste just like the Hostess snowballs from my youth.  We want to come back here once a week until we've tried every cupcake they make.

They also have a wide selection of gigantic freshly baked cookies that looked equally amazing.  While the West Village is cluttered with an exorbitant amount of bakeries, this is one you shouldn't miss!

101 7th Avenue South

Open Sunday-Friday 10am-11pm
Friday-Saturday open until midnight

To conclude, a lovely picture of Miss Joselyn digging into the cupcake in her car - we just couldn't wait until we got home :)

Butter & Salt en Français sur Essex

English translation - Beurre and Sel in French on Essex.

Essex Street market is a small market on the Lower East side that most New Yorkers have never been to. It's only open until 7pm, and until recently was closed on Sundays. All of the business are local, family-owned shops, from the local butcher to an award-winning solo chocolatier.  We've visited Essex Street Market once before, but on a recent half day we were able to go when the crowds were minimal, which gave us a chance to really spend some time with the vendors.

Beurre and Sel was on my list of cookie places to try when they took a spot in Essex Street Market, although when we got to the stand there wasn't much to see. A display of only 5 varieties of cookies, with all of the other flavors in bite-size versions on the wall.  Usually the owners/employees of small shops like to tell you about their cookies, but this employee didn't care to share, so we had to do our own research when I got home.

Dorie Greenspan is the creator of Beurre and Sel. She is a renowned baker who has made multiple baking cookbooks, and won the James Beard Award (the Oscar for foodies).  Her cookies are all made using a circular mold and each is the exact same size as the next.  The flavors range from World Peace (Valrhona chocolate based), Rosemary Parmesan, Cocoa cayenne, Espresso chip, Classic Jammers (strudel, vanilla and French jam), French Lavender and; white chocolate, sesame sea salt, and cranberry, and honey.

We tried the World Peace and the cocoa cayenne.  As an often-perfectionist, the circular precision was quite intriguing.  Each bite guaranteed to be identical to the next.  The flavors weren't overwhelming; it was a classic, good cookie.  I would have like to try the Rosemary Parmesan for something unique and different, but that only came in a package and to be honest, spending $14 on a package of cookies that I wasn't sure I would like didn't seem like the smartest idea.  Sampling the more unique varieties would have helped to seal the deal Dorie!

Next time you're in the area, check out Beurre and Sel along with some of the other local shops at Essex Street - Roni Sue, Porto Rico coffee and more!

Essex Street Market
120 Essex Street
Monday - Saturday 8am-7pm
Sunday 10am-6pm