Brownies aren't merely my preferred dessert; they're one of my all-time favorite foods. Over the years I've learned to bake some pretty amazing varieties, from Susan Spungen's Saucepans to Nigella Lawson's Triple Chocolates. Just stir together some butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and chocolate, and what emerges from the oven is confectionery heaven, decadent and familiar. Nothing could be simpler.
Nothing, that is, except baking them from a box.
When you walk into Tisserie you're immediately confronted by long, shiny cases of baked goods, sandwiches, and pizzas, an array of stuff we see in many places all over New York. The two classically trained Venezuelan brothers who own Tisserie, Ronald and Morris Harrar, obviously subscribe to the "give the people what they want" school of food retailing.
But I'm going to save you the time and the money involved in trying everything in these cases. You can skip most of the fruity, creamy, or flaky things you see, and you can certainly skip the pizzas, which include one made of smoked turkey and pineapple. Smoked turkey and pineapple! What were they thinking?
So what is worth the money and the calories at Tisserie?
On the fudgy-cakey brownie continuum I'm a straddler. I like them moist like fudge but I don't want them to taste like either flourless chocolate cake or uncooked dough. This brownie straddling makes it really hard to find brownies I swoon over, but Mari Tuttle manages to do it with a couple of her Mari's New York flavors. Her caramel sea salt brownies have a slightly briny quality I really like, and her Thai coffee brownies pack a hefty caffeine-like wallop. I also appreciate the size of Mari's brownies—they're little one inch squares, just enough to get your brownie fix without feeling bloated.
Mari's brownies are pricey, $15 for six little squares plus shipping, but in this case you do get what you pay for. It's too late for any Christmas deliveries if you order online, but you may be able to find her brownies at these retail locations across the country. Well, these are brownies worth waiting for. Think of this post as an early heads up for Valentine's Day.
Subscribe to our feeds:
Subscribe by email:
