Category Archives: Chocolate

The Aptly Named Aphrodisiac Biscuit

Posted on by 3 comments
Resistance is futile.
Resistance is futile.

If Valentine’s Day is all about showering the ones you love with an overload chocolate, then this biscuit is sure to do the trick — and then some.

“Aphrodisiac Biscuit” is aptly named because it not only has chopped chocolate inside a tender interior but glossy melted chocolate spread lavishly all over its top.

This decadent treat is from “The Big Bottom Biscuit: Specialty Biscuits and Spreads from Sonoma’s Big Bottom Market” (Running Press, 2019), of which I received a review copy.

The book is by Michael Volpatt, who opened the Big Bottom Market in Guerneville in 2011, a combo retail store and cafe that serves sandwiches, salads, and of course, biscuits.

It includes more than 50 recipes for biscuits, biscuit dishes and things that go with biscuits. In short, it will expand your horizon on just what biscuits can be.

Read more

Love Birds and The Chemistry of Love

Posted on by Leave a comment
The Love Birds box.
The Love Birds box.

I doubt if anyone ever needs an excuse to indulge in Recchiuti chocolates. But with Valentine’s Day coming up, you indeed have the perfect reason to treat yourself or someone you love to some of the finest artisan chocolate confections around.

For more than two decades, Michael Recchiuti has been making exquisite chocolates by hand with flavoring ingredients sourced seasonally from Bay Area farmers markets.

You can find the confections at the Recchiuti storefront at the Ferry Building in San Francisco and the retail shop, Recchiuti at the Lab, in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. Or you can shop on its own web store.

In anticipation of Valentine’s Day, I was lucky enough to receive samples to try of two holiday offerings.

The Love Birds Truffle Box ($48) is a collection of 16 pieces, an assortment of the most popular flavors, including Tarragon Grapefruit, Pearl Mint Tea, and Piedmont Hazelnut.

Read more

Toasted Sesame-Chocolate Chip-Cashew Cookies

Posted on by 3 comments
A wonderful mix of ingredients creates a powerhouse of nuttiness in these cookies.
A wonderful mix of ingredients creates a powerhouse of nuttiness in these cookies.

Are you making a list and counting it twice…

To figure out which cookie you should make and eat next?

Then, prepare to add this one to it.

“Toasted Sesame-Chocolate Chip-Cashew Cookies” is an unexpected mix of so many good things you love that you wonder why nobody thought to put them all together before.

It’s from the new “Betty Crocker Cookies: Irresistibly Easy Recipes for Any Occasion” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), of which I received a review copy.

It comprises more than 150 cookie recipes. There are short-cut ones such as “Santa Heart-Shaped Cookies” that make use of Betty Crocker cookie mix. But if you’re more inclined to make your cookies entirely from scratch, there are plenty of those types of recipes, too, including boozy “Bourbon Old-Fashioned Cups” (that includes bourbon and Angostura bitters), “Sparkling Orange Ricotta Sandwich Cookies” that makes use of orange juice, orange zest and candied orange slices, and “Chocolate Coconut Cookie Tots” (that require no baking at all).

Read more

Going Green For The Holidays with Matcha Cream Pie

Posted on by 8 comments
Beyond the tree and wreath, add a little more green to your holidays with this spectacular matcha cream pie.
Beyond the tree and wreath, add a little more green to your holidays with this spectacular matcha cream pie.

With a new year dawning, let’s all be brave enough to pledge to trust our gut instincts more.

I know so many friends who agonize over situations — analyzing, re-analyzing, and plain over-analyzing — before taking action, even if they know in their heart immediately what they should do.

I’ve been there many a time, myself.

Case in point: this “Matcha Cream Pie” recipe, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal in September.

It’s a recreation of the signature dessert at Stonemill Matcha in San Francisco by Pastry Chef Mikiko Yui.

It’s a dazzler, covered in a cloud of orange zest-scented whipped cream. It’s only when you cut into it that it truly reveals itself with its dramatic deep green filling made with matcha.

Read more

When Are Cookies Like Brownies? When They Are Clinton Street Brookies

Posted on by 2 comments
Is it a brownie or a cookie? It's a cookie that tastes like a brownie.
Is it a brownie or a cookie? It’s a cookie that tastes like a brownie.

You know that delightful crackly, papery layer that forms and separates from the top of brownies when you bake them, adding a fabulous textural contrast to the cakey or chewy foundation below?

That’s exactly what you get in cookie form with these “Clinton Street Brookies.”

They bake up fairly flat and modest in size. So you’re taken aback at the unexpected colossal chocolate taste they provide that’s as deep, dark and potently rich as your favorite dark chocolate brownie.

The recipe for these stunners is from “Rose’s Baking Basics: 100 Essential Recipes, with More Than 600 Step-by-Step Photos” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), of which I received a review copy.

The book is by baking doyenne Rose Levy Beranbaum, veteran of more than 10 cookbooks and creator of the blog, Real Baking with Rose.

Read more
« Older Entries Recent Entries »