Posted by Kathy YL Chan, September 23, 2008 at 6:00 PM
I was so sure that my craving for something chocolatey, fudgy, and full of walnuts would be satisfied after the cookie I had at Payard Patisserie. But unfortunately, the combination of chocolate and walnuts has this uncanny ability to make me desire the goods even more. In other words, consuming the object of wonder does little to satiate a craving—the more I eat, the more I crave.
I entered Bouley Bakery in Tribeca not quite knowing what I wanted, though faint images of cookies were floating though my mind. I browsed, oohed and ahhed, and then stopped dead in my tracks upon the sight of baskets filled with their dark chocolate brownies...with walnuts! So many walnuts. Losing all interest in looking any further, I declared the brownie my own and devoured it before reaching the front door. Sinking into bite after bite, I found the brownie to be dark with cocoa, yet texturally light and lush. Hovering on the cakey end of the spectrum and less sweet than I expected, walnuts were in abundance, and I ended up consuming the rather large treat without the slightest bit of hesitation.
Bouley Bakery
120 W Broadway, New York NY 10013 (b/n Duane and Reade Streets; map)
212-608-5829
davidbouley.com
Posted by Kathy YL Chan, September 16, 2008 at 6:00 PM
The line of post dinner guests, hankering for sweets, at the Chickalicious Dessert Club has gotten no shorter since the New York Times article and our initial mention of their vanilla bean soft-serve. The soft-serve itself has improved significantly, losing that odd plastic aftertaste encountered in past visits. With that in mind, Chickalicious is worth revisiting often—especially for the new Brownie Sundae. Composed of soft-serve with toasted pistachios, shredded kafti and brownies, the sundae is almost completely created in the kitchen. The silky dark hot fudge is poured over the sundae tableside. The taste? Some kind of crazy lusciousness that combinines the delicate crunch of kafti with toasted pistachios and small brownies squares. The whole thing is held together by a tall tower of fudge drenched soft-serve. This is one dessert you won't want to share.
Chickalicious Dessert Club
204 E 10th Street, New York, NY 10003 (nr. 2nd Avenue; map)
212-475-0929
Posted by Ed Levine, July 29, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Photographs by Robyn Lee
Amy's Bread
Location Visited: 75 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY 10011 (Between 15th & 16th Streets); 212-462-4338; amysbread.com.
Additional locations at 672 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10036 (Hell's Kitchen) and 250 Bleecker Street, New York NY 10014 (West Village)
Service: Friendly, accommodating, and quick (except when you order a pressed sandwich)
Setting: Bakery counter with some tables and chairs. Look to the left and you can watch bread being made.
Compare It To: Balthazar, Sullivan Street Bakery, Mangia
Must-Haves: Ham and cheese biscuit, grilled cheese and tomato sandwich, Cuban sandwich, cherry cream scone, butterscotch cashew bar, lemonade, lemon mouseline cake.
Cost: $10-15 for a sandwich, cookie, and drink.
Grade: B+
Here at Serious Eats world headquarters we work in what can only be called a sandwich, bread, and baked goods-challenged neighborhood. For sandwiches we have Salumeria Biellese, but it limits itself to big, meat-centric sandwiches on unsatisfactory bread (they still haven't taken me up on my suggestion to carry Sullivan Street Bakery stirato). The bread and baked goods situation is even more dire. Basically, we've got nothing unless we're willing to brave the line at Whole Foods.
Over the past few months while going down to Chelsea Market for various meetings, I rediscovered Amy's Bread. To the people who live near or work in Chelsea Market, Amy's Bread is a godsend. And to those people I say, do not take Amy's Bread for granted. Proximity should breed support, not contempt.
Almost everything Amy Scherber and her hardworking crew make—from bread to cake, from cookies to sandwiches, from pizza to focaccia—is damned tasty, with a few items reaching the level of serious deliciousness. Scherber brings a taste, know-how, and pride to everything she sells here, and the result is an eatery I would kill to have in my neighborhood. She has proven herself to be a dough wizard; the breads, cookies, and cakes all have a chance for greatness. And even though all the sandwiches at Amy's Bread are premade, usually a sandwich no-no as far as I'm concerned, she manages to transcend the limitations of that tired genre.
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Posted by Kathy YL Chan, June 24, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Those who consider Midtown a dessert wasteland clearly have not hovered over the sweets lining the walls of Oren's in Grand Central. It's there that you can find the ever-elusive Cestropbeau ganache brownie, made in Smithtown, New York. A deep, dark creation that will satisfy lovers of fudgy brownies, the treat is a tempting blend of Belgian chocolate with demerara sugar, sea salt, espresso, and Saigon cinnamon. Perfect for the afternoon break or to nosh on during that long Metro North ride home.
Oren's Daily Roast
105 East 42nd Street, New York NY 10017 (inside Grand Central Terminal; map)
212-338-0014
Posted by Kathy YL Chan, June 12, 2008 at 6:00 PM
It's a concept one wants to love: tea infused into pastries of all sorts—cookies, scones, puddings, and muffins galore. A concept with great potential, if it's properly executed. But somewhere between idea and production, something is lost, and that is where Amai Tea & Bake House falls weak.
Clockwise from top left: matcha, lemongrass and ginger, white tea and strawberry, and chai and almond.
Nowhere is that better evidenced than in their tea cookies, delicate one bite sweets. They are easy on the eyes, darling little cutouts in soft colors, a baby green matcha cookie, and a deep golden lemongrass and ginger oval. But the cookies fall apart in your mouth in an unappealing manner—crumbly and dusty, and while not too sweet, they also don't carry much flavor. It is difficult to make out the tea, much less the strawberry element in the white tea and strawberry. Chai almond was the single most memorable cookie of the set, a crisp and buttery spiced chai tea infused number with finely chopped almonds.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 22, 2008 at 2:00 PM
"These little squares of chocolate-nut heaven are the brownies of my dreams."
I don't know why exactly, but lately I've been exploring the brownie culture of New York. On one foray to Chelsea Market, I tried brownies from Sarabeth's, Amy's, and Fat Witch, and found all of them lacking in one way or another. I despaired of ever finding a truly terrific brownie in New York until I came upon one in a truly unlikely spot: the cookie plate at Del Posto. I know brownies aren't Italian, but Del Posto executive pastry chef Brooks Headley insists that his brownies are really just a slightly gussied-up version of a torta Caprese, a traditional Italian dessert. In the end, it really doesn't matter what Brooks or anyone else calls it. These little squares of chocolate-nut heaven are the brownies of my dreams. Brooks generously agreed to share his recipe with serious eaters (and even suggested a baking soundtrack). Thank you, Brooks. Here's what he had to say about it:
This is a new addition to the Del Posto cookie tray. It's a really simple and fairly traditional Italian sweet. I bake it in a sheet and then cut it into miniature squares. I like to top it with a sliver of walnut that I roast with olive oil, sea salt, chili flake, and a pinch of cumin, then finish with a single drop of aceto balsamico tradizionale for a much-needed umami blast. It ends up looking like a "brownie alla Nonna," ("grandma brownie")—rustic but full of chocolate and nut flavor. It also seems to capture that perfect Italian dessert feel—kind of crumbly and just barely supporting its own structure.
This is also a very easy recipe, good for busy parents, beginner pastry cooks, and lazy folks. You almost cannot mess it up. It's best made while listening to the first Ramones record. Keep it simple and fun. It's also gluten-free.
Here's the recipe »
Posted by Ed Levine, March 21, 2008 at 2:20 PM
I have tried many items among the seemingly endless array of baked goods, sandwiches, and pizzas at Tisserie, but it wasn't until I happened upon its 53% Cacao Venezuelan Brownie that I had anything truly delicious and inspired there. It is Venezuelan chocolate to the third power, and it is a truly powerful chocolate dessert.
Posted by Ed Levine, February 20, 2008 at 10:10 AM
You know those baked goods you see at every deli in New York, the ones either wrapped in plastic or in a small plastic bag? They're the ones with minimal, homespun packaging. I have spent years trying every one of these suckers, because I figure one of them has to be really good. Well, I finally found one worth the calories, Zaro's Fudgy Wudgy Brownie. It's a dense four inch square, and it's aptly named. This is your basic, supermoist, very chocolaty, fudgy brownie. It is blessedly unsweet.
Here's the clincher. In most of these baked goods the ingredient list is a horror show, a food science experiment gone woefully wrong. Here are the ingredients for the Fudgy Wudgy Brownie:
Chocolate, Butter, Eggs, Flour, & Salt. No knowledge of organic or inorganic chemistry required to understand these, is there.
The Zaro's Fudgy Wudgy Brownie costs $2.75 at my local deli, but it's easily big enough and rich enough to share.
