Double Chocolate Oriolos

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Chocolate plus more chocolate. Who can resist?
Chocolate plus more chocolate. Who can resist?

At this time of year, you can never have too many chocolate cookies.

I stand by that thought unequivocally.

While versions of this chocolate-frosted, chocolate cookie abound, these particular “Double Chocolate Oriolos” are more modest in size, making them a perfect treat to indulge in without overindulging.

The recipe is from “The Cookie Bible” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), of which I received a review copy, by legendary New York baker Rose Levy Beranbaum.

The collection includes recipes for cookies of every sort: drop, cut-out, bars, sandwiches, chocolate-dipped, and more.

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Plant-Based Savory Spreads Make Entertaining Easy

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Growee Foods' Three Pepper Spread, which I used to saute shrimp with peppers, onions, and broccoli.
Growee Foods’ Three Pepper Spread, which I used to saute shrimp with peppers, onions, and broccoli.

When Aman Blana gave up meat and dairy, he was disappointed to find that so many vegan foods on store shelves carried a laundry list of ingredients.

He wanted something simpler, so he created it, himself, with Atlanta’s Growee Foods.

The company’s savory spreads may only be a year old, but they’ve already won a Nexty award in 2022, given to natural foods products that are deemed progressive, impactful and trustworthy.

They come in three flavors: Three Pepper Spread, Curry Zucchini, and Spiced Mango.

I had a chance to try samples of all three, which contain no gluten, nut, corn, GMOs or soy.

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Oat Rolls — With A Touch of Honey

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Oatmeal porridge, honey, and a preferment give these tender rolls sweetness and lovely developed flavor.
Oatmeal porridge, honey, and a preferment give these tender rolls sweetness and lovely developed flavor.

Admittedly, I have a problem with commitment.

Only when it comes to bread making, that is.

During the pandemic, when everyone who was anyone was fussing over their sourdough starter like a new puppy, I was not.

I just couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger to tend to a starter that needed caring, feeding, and coddling, day in and day out. After all, I already had a husband who needed all of that. (Kidding, sort of.)

So, when it comes to my sporadic bread baking, I rely on packaged dry yeast instead, which is convenient enough to buy at any supermarket and to keep handy in my fridge when the urge strikes.

But along comes 2019 James Beard Award-winning “Outstanding Baker” and head baker at Chicago’s Publican Quality Bread bakery, Greg Wade, who shows how to combine both dry yeast and a preferment for even better results, as evidenced in his recipe for sensational “Oat Rolls.”

It’s all in his new cookbook, “Bread Head” (W.W. Norton), of which I received a review copy. It was written with St. Louis book collaborator Rachel Holtzman.

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Plant-Based Instant Noodles From the Noodelist

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Plant-based instant noodles made with a super-food ingredient.
Plant-based instant noodles made with a super-food ingredient.

Thuong Tan launched her Silicon Valley startup two years ago. It wasn’t centered on hardware or software.

But on noodles.

Instant ones that were plant-based, shelf-stable, and could be ready to eat in all of 5 minutes.

You see, Tan, has never been a big fan of rice or potatoes, despite her Chinese, Vietnamese and Finnish heritage. For her, noodles have always been where it’s at.

So, while working for Business Finland, the Finnish organization focused on funding, trade, investment, and travel promotion, she got the notion to start her own business, one that would bring her the same warm satisfaction as a bowl of her mother’s Vietnamese brothy noodles.

The Noodelist was born.

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Take Five with Pastry Chef Guillermo Soto Torres of the Four Seasons Silicon Valley

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Pastry Chef Guillermo Soto Torres with mini versions of his new holiday buche de Noel.
Pastry Chef Guillermo Soto Torres with mini versions of his new holiday buche de Noel.

It’s a good bet that Guillermo Soto Torres is one of the few — if not only — pastry chefs in the Bay Area with a degree in telematics, the interdisciplinary field that combines telecommunications, vehicular technologies, electrical engineering, and computer science.

He had hardly stepped foot into that scientific career, though, when he made a major pivot to use his knack for precision in a whole different way. He started working in a chocolate shop in his native Mexico, then began studying baking books. It wasn’t long before he jumped full bore into pastry making about 15 years ago.

That led to stints at Four Seasons hotels in Costa Rica and Florida, before coming two years ago to the Four Seasons Silicon Valley in East Palo Alto to become head pastry chef.

Earlier this week, the 36-year-old chef invited me and two other media colleagues into his hotel kitchen to watch and learn as he made what will be the stunning centerpiece dessert for Christmas Eve dinner and the Christmas Day buffet — the buche de Noel.

A flourless chocolate cake version done up in a shiny white chocolate glaze with crunchy, dehydrated raspberries.
A flourless chocolate cake version done up in a shiny white chocolate glaze with crunchy, dehydrated raspberries.

His version of the classic French yule log cake is comprised of a flourless chocolate cake on a base of crispy hazelnut feuilletine (crunchy crepe shards) that’s rolled around chestnut cream and an anise-flavored orange compote before it’s all enrobed in shiny white chocolate glaze and holiday garnishes. To serve all the expected guests on those two days, he will make 100 of them.

He talked about his favorite ingredient to work with, the one that’s he’s allergic to, the one dessert he could eat every single day, and the rather ill-fated day that he began working at the Silicon Valley hotel.

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