My Latest Bakery Obsession Is...

...Flour Bakery and Cafe, in the western part of the South End.

After hearing multiple impassioned recommendations of this establishment, I realized that I had to go - and, it has since become a weekend fixture, with a Flour baked item and/or meal characterizing three of the past four weekends. So, what makes Flour so incredible?

The baked goods, both breakfast items and desserts, have exceptional, unique flavors, and you can simply taste the quality:

• Orange chocolate muffin (in image, upper center) - this muffin has orange-flavored dough with bits of orange zest, candied orange, and possibly marmalade mixed in. It is covered in a thin, sweet, faintly-orange glaze. The chocolate used in the muffin is so rich and dense flavor-wise, and is so soft and pliable to the touch, that I think it might be either trufffle chocolate or extra-thick ganache. The orange flavor is neither too tart nor too sweet, and the chocolate-to-batter ratio is perfect! [A side note - stay tuned for a blog entry on my attempts at recreating this muffin!]
• Ginger pear muffin (lower center) - this muffin has a pleasant, faint ginger flavor, and moist chunks of pear are mixed throughout the batter. The pear chunks are the perfect texture for a muffin, meaning they are neither too mushy nor too raw. The top of the muffin is sprinkled with sugar crystals to counteract the faint gingery tartness.
• Vegan chocolate cupcake (to the right of the ginger pear muffins, dusted with powdered sugar) - this is the only "average" item I have yet encountered at Flour. The same chocolate bits found in the orange chocolate muffin are in this cupcake, which are delicious, but the cake itself has too many air pockets and not enough chocolate flavor. It is also extremely dry for a vegan baked item, considering the general vegan recipe convention of substituting oil for eggs.
• Chocolate cupcake - this is a cupcake to remember! It is extremely dense (one cupcake has considerable heft, more than a muffin 1.5 times its size!), and I'm guessing that the recipe started as a devil's-food recipe but was customized to allow for a more flavorful - and darker - chocolate. The replacement chocolate is rich, and the cupcake is almost creamy as it melts in your mouth. The finishing touch is an ample helping of white vanilla buttercream frosting, concentrically swirled across the top of the cake.
• Boston cream pie - I am usually ambivalent / leaning towards "meh" regarding Boston cream pies, but Flour's take on this traditional Omni Parker House dessert is worth eating! They get several things right that most BCP bakers don't: (1) instead of skimping on the most important ingredient, they use plentiful delicious chocolate on the top and sides of the dessert; (2) the cream filling is light, rather than globular and custard-like; (3) the cake layers in between the cream filling are actual vanilla cake, rather than the spongy, eggy excuse for cake frequently employed elsewhere.

I can't wait to expand upon this list! It has been hard to set a limit thus far. On top of the baked goods, they have delicious cafe fare AND cafe beverages:

• Turkey sandwich with cheddar cheese, mixed greens, and cranberry chutney (oho, chutney!) on homemade bread
• Lamb sandwich with goat cheese, mixed greens, and tomato chutney (another chutney? wow!) on homemade bread
• Tomato-fennel soup containing assorted mashed vegetables
• Made-to-order pizza with fontina cheese and slightly-sweet dough
• Spicy hot chocolate - in the increasingly-popular tradition of Mexican chocolate, Flour adds cinnamon and cayenne/chili powder to their standard cocoa to create an invigorating, mouth- and eye-watering beverage. You can customize the milk; I notice no weakness in ordering skim. The spicy-sweet combination is a winner, and while I may have become more used to that pepper punch after several helpings, it still poduces the same reaction!

So, who wants to go to Flour this very minute?! I am all for making two trips in two days. :) If not today, how about next weekend? Also, they have a second location along the Fort Point channel, so any Southie residents in search of exceptional cafe items can satisfy their needs. Happy Flouring!

Restaurant Week's Wins

The Winter 2009 Restaurant Week period has come and gone, and during its two weeks I was fortunate enough to experience several noteworthy restaurants. The desserts, for the most part, were also noteworthy!

I had wanted to dine at Sibling Rivalry in the South End, affectionately referred to as "Sib Riv," since summer 2008's Restaurant Week. This restaurant experience was well worth the wait, and will be worth a repeat visit! While most restaurants offer a limited menu for RW, Sib Riv let its guests choose from the full menu. The variety of Chef David and Chef Bob (yes, sibling)'s creations was impressive, though both my appetizer and main course were from David's side of the menu. My appetizer was handmade pappardelle pasta served in a mushroom sauce replete with rabbit meat (surprisingly tasty, although stringy), chanterelle mushrooms (flavor burst!), and dried tomatoes. This dish would have been a standout as a main course, and it was surely the best appetizer I ate in these two weeks. [An aside - you may notice a mushroom theme as a counterpoint to the dessert theme in this entry.] My main course was salmon, baked in a crisp pastry shell with spinach and mushroom duxelle, with a creamy lemon sauce and tomato fondue on the side. I really enjoyed this unexpected assortment of ingredients - I had never had salmon with mushrooms or spinach (two of my favorite foods) prior! The dessert was a rich little bit of caramel chocolate mousse. The mousse, which had hints of both milk and white chocolate, was complemented by a dollop of caramel creme anglaise as well as swirls of two different caramels across the plate. I enjoyed mixing the mousse, creme, and sweeter caramel (one was too bitter) into a bite of dense chocolate, airy sweetness, and sticky sauce. While the portion looked small, the mousse was dense enough to make you full when you were halfway through. Other Sib Riv items of note: (1) their bar uses Sailor Jerry rum in their house drinks - a rarity! (2) A delicious bottle of lighter-than-usual syrah was enjoyed. This restaurant has quite the wine list! (3) The dining room is not partitioned, and our booth along the leftmost wall had a full view of the restaurant, but it seemed acoustically separated from the general hubbub and gave a nice feeling of intimacy. I highly recommend Sib Riv for any special dining experience!

I cannot give the same ringing endorsement of Tangierino, a Moroccan restaurant on Charlestown's quaint cobblestone-and-gas-lamp Main Street. The decor and atmosphere are phenomenal - the booths and hallways are draped in sumptuous fabric; assortments of geometric lanterns with brilliant stained glass are suspended from every ceiling; framed "portraits" of veiled faces with strong, haunting eyes hang on vibrant red walls; seating is low, plush, and comfortable; strains of Mediterranean music (and the occasional elaborately-garbed belly dancer) make their way through the dining space. The food, however, does not merit enthusiasm. I considered my chicken b'stila appetizer to be a meat-sweet violation - and I am normally tolerant of bizarre flavor mixes. Imagine baklava...with chicken...and mint yogurt. Each ingredient alone would have been tasty, but the combination left me raising my eyebrows and pushing half of it to the side of my plate. I really enjoyed my main dish - seven-vegetable couscous - but a vegetarian friend who ordered the same dish found scraps of meat in hers. Those with dietary restrictions, beware! The last course was a flourless chocolate torte that would have been more accurately described as grainy chocolate gelatin. The "torte" was garnished with whipped cream, strawberries, and chocolate sauce; at least those tasted as they should have, though the chocolate sauce was somewhat weakly-flavored and thin. This dessert disappointment closed out a questionable meal. I had never tried Moroccan cuisine before, and I won't write it off entirely because I did enjoy my couscous, but Tangierino has definitely given me pause.

In the second week of RW, I found myself returning to an old favorite. Harvest, in Harvard Square, delivered a delicious meal yet again! The outdoor seating was understandably closed for the season, but our table was against a glass wall overlooking the courtyard - which, although empty, was still charming due to a fire blazing in a stone fireplace. Regardless of the time of year, this restaurant manages to be charming, inviting, and natural. My appetizer was a panzanella (bread salad) with crispy artichokes, parsley crostini, and burrata drizzled in balsamic vinaigrette. The burrata, or creamy mozzarella, was so smooth, and it provided a good textural counterpoint to the crunchy, bitter croutons. For the main course, I enjoyed a tart of forbidden black rice that was cooked with carrots, turnips, bok choy, and hen of the woods mushrooms. The explosive flavors of the rice and mushrooms were made even better by the faintly-spicy chile oil drizzled across the plate. I would love to recreate this in my kitchen sometime - while the spices may be difficult to replicate, the rice and mushrooms wouldn't. Dessert was a chocolate peanut crunch. This mousse-cake-like confection had a creamy white chocolate layer, a slightly denser milk chocolate layer, and a dry dark chocolate layer with peanuts and crisped rice interspersed. I was reminded of the Cheesecake Factory's chocolate tuxedo cream cheesecake, though this was fortunately lighter. A spoonful of vanilla creme fraiche and chocolate ganache completed the dessert. I enjoyed it, but I would have liked less white chocolate and cream / more crispy crunch!

My last Winter 2009 RW night was spent at Aquitaine, also in the South End. I had wanted to have dinner at this restaurant since going there for brunch once in 2008; dinner did not disappoint! To start, this restaurant has the perfect evening-dining atmosphere. There are high ceilings with exposed pipes and ducts, nearly-as-high (and wide!) windows, brick walls, mirrors, and soft incandescent lighting in the form of large globes pendant from the ceiling. The occasional Toulouse-Lautrec-esque poster completes this modern take on a traditional French bistro. The food was equally perfect! The tomato bisque appetizer had a robust tomato flavor, and was not overly creamy. Noteworthy details on this comfort classic were a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, and a large crouton thickly spread with goat cheese. I ordered tagliatelle with mushrooms as my main course; the hearty pasta was cooked in madeira cream and tossed with an assortment of mushrooms as well as spinach. Aquitaine's dessert was THE best of this four-restaurant tour - a dark chocolate torte with espresso-chocolate ganache and vanilla chantilly cream. The torte was warm, rich, and textured (hints of espresso powder added a pleasant graininess); it melted in my mouth! The ganache, warm enough that it was thin and spreadable / plentiful enough that it covered the entire plate, soaked perfectly into the torte and filled plenty a spoonful, and the vanilla creme acted as a breath of fresh air against the intense, dark flavors of the other ingredients. I could have eaten this dessert all night. Sigh, if only it were included on Aquitaine's regular menu...the thought of never eating it again is somewhat distressing! Perhaps this can be an inspiration for me to expand my baking into the world of fine desserts - a torte from my kitchen seems rather ambitious, but hey, I'll do what I have to to get a good dessert.

If you have not already, I hope you have the opportunity to try (most of) these restaurants! I, in turn, need to reevaluate my restaurant list, now that several of my top picks have been sampled. At this point, Bonfire and Sel de la Terre - oh, and Olives! - are pending...

Valentine's Day with Dancing Deer

Valentine's Day is personally synonymous with good chocolate, for two reasons - (1) tradition demands it, and (2) with the holiday being a celebration of love, I must pay tribute to, yes, my ardent love and appreciation of all things dessert. In addition to the standard chocolate hearts (milk, white, and dark chocolates this year), I more-than-dipped in to a Dancing Deer Baking Company Chocolate Lover's Medley. This desssert quartet was much more satisfying than the bakery's Christmas offerings, though as with most commercial bakeries I can think of several areas of improvement:

• Chocolate Espresso Cake - this is a moist, dense dark chocolate cake, with coarse ground espresso bean mixed throughout. The rough texture and bright taste of the beans are a pleasant surprise, though the coffe flavor in the batter is a bit sharp. The cake is drizzled in a rich white chocolate glaze. It comes in standard Bundt sizes - so, perfect for slicing and enjoying with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, and a mocha. Wait, did I say that...?
• Chocolate Chunk Brownies - these brownies' claim to fame is their wonderfully high chocolate-chunk-to-batter ratio! Large pieces of semi-sweet chocolate are found throughout these fudgy brownies. Quality of chunks aside, the brownies themselves are average. I am sure that these are delicious right out of the oven; however, you can't expect that fresh taste to last in the weeks post-baking, and it doesn't. After being raised on from-scratch brownies, and perpetuating the same in my own kitchen, it is difficult for me to advocate for the processed variety.
• Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies - these cookies, conceptually, are the Best. Cookies. Ever. The rich chocolate batter has dark, milk, and white chocolate chips contained within. However, the cookies are rather dry, and the chocolate chips are small. How would I do this cookie differently? Use a heartier base (I'm guessing this one was on the runny side, as the cookies were rather large, flat, and thin), and larger chips or chunks. My goal would be a dense, chewy batter, with melt-in-your-mouth chips of every flavor. I look forward to trying my own variation sometime, and appreciate the inspiration!
• Triple Chocolate Heart Cookies - these cookies are the cutest, and most Valentine's-y, of the set. Small, thick heart-shaped chocolate cookies are drizzled in pink frosting and lightly dusted with pink crystallized sugar. That sweet frosting complements the slightly bitter cookies well; chunks of semi-sweet and dark chocolate, plus a dark chocolate base, constitute the cookie proper. I would like to see a softer, moister version of these cookies, but I understand that baked-good age and general need for preservation make those states difficult to achieve.

So, I felt the dessert love this Valentine's Day, yet I have several ideas of what Chocolate and I can work on to improve our relationship. I wonder where we'll be a year from now...

Let's Recap a Month's Worth of Desserts!

The holidays have come and gone, and here it's almost February 2009! What desserts have happened in that time? Christmas, of course, inspired plenty of baked goods and candies.

• Sugar cookies - we made these traditional cookies in several festive shapes (angels, bells, reindeer, large and small stars, snowflakes, trees), and used lemon juice to flavor them. This was a departure from years past, in which we gave the cookies a hint of vanilla. I plan on returning to vanilla in future years, as the lemon was an unexpected bit of tartness in a season of cozy, warm, spiced flavors. We tempered the tartness by coating the cookies in red and green sugar. The cookies were rolled slightly thicker than in years past, which meant there was more cheery deliciousness per bite!
• Peanut candy - these candies are so simple, yet so addicting! I can sum up the recipe in four sentences. (1) Put equal parts semi-sweet chocolate and butterscotch chips in a casserole dish; microwave them until they melt. (2) Mix the melted chips into a smooth mixture. (3) Pour a jar of peanuts into the casserole; mix them around until they are coated by the chocolate-butterscotch mixture. (4) Spoon dollops of candy-coated peanuts ono wax paper, and let them cool. Voila! I'll admit, I hoard these...and still have a handful or so pieces left.
• Cranberry coffee cake - this holiday breakfast classic is a typical sour cream coffee cake flavored with almond extract, with whole-berry cranberry sauce swirled throughout the better. The baked cake is then topped with an almond-flavored glaze. Put a sprig of holly in the center, and it looks like one of those classic Christmas puddings - but fortunately, it tastes much better! Yum.
• Dancing Deer Baking Company cookies - yes, commercial baked goods were consumed in addition to the homemade treats. We tried several different cookies. The best were the Molasses Clove cookies, which are moist, sugary, and spicy; these will become a fixture of Christmases future! The Holiday Shortbread comes in three flavors and multiple shapes (vanilla, chocolate, and snickerdoodle; stars, snowflakes, and drop); they were okay, but a bit dry. I liked them best dipped in hot cocoa! The Gingerbread Folk were rather lackluster. As you can see, there was a variety in the quality of the baked goods, but all of them were beautifully packed. I am a sucker for stylish tins and boxes; Dancing Deer wins on both fronts. I'd be interested in trying their other products, particularly their brownies and blondies. Also, their Valentine's cookies are so cute!

Since Christmas, I have baked a few items - Funfetti cupcakes and my classic Epic Brownie recipe for work events, and a cherry brownie recipe as a test to see if it was party-worthy. The best parts of baking and frosting with Funfetti are the colorful sprinkles that are embedded in the cake mix and sprinkled on top of the light pink frosting. The cheerful colors and bright vanilla flavor make Funfetti an easy crowd-pleaser. The Epic Brownies will receive an entry of their own in the future - yes, they are that good! :-P The cherry brownie recipe is similar to the chocolate-raspberry fudge cake baked in December, but slightly better. Better does not mean there will be a repeat baking, however. The sour cherry flavor, imparted by yet another Stonewall Kitchen jam, is really good, but the chocolate flavor isn't as strong as I would have expected from 8 ounces of baking chocolate. Also, the brownies are cakey rather than fudgy. I have had enough of baking with jams!

Here's hoping 2009 will have plenty of good dessert stories to share with you. :-)

From My Apartment's Christmas Table

My roommates and I enjoyed a homemade meal together this past Wednesday, prior to heading our separate ways for Christmas. Laura took care of the main course, which was macaroni with artichokes, mushrooms, and scallions, all tossed in a light cream sauce. I, of course, made the dessert. I tried this Stonewall Kitchen recipe for a chocolate-raspberry fudge cake. Once I got past the general unhealthiness of the ingredients (how many sticks of butter? cups of sugar? eggs?), I was able to enjoy the promise of chocolate - as derived from cocoa powder - and raspberry - as derived from seedless jam - flavors. The cake itself is very dense, but not as moist, smooth or rich as I would have liked. Its aroma is better than its taste. In the finished product, I noticed the dry, plain flavors of flour and butter more than the chocolate, sugar, or jam. I would replace some of the butter with oil in future bakings, and see if that moistens the batter and causes it to bake more smoothly. Also, the oil might draw out the flavors more than the solid butter. Aesthetically, it looks rather plain coming out of the 9" round cake pan. In order to enhance both the presentation and the flavors of the dessert, I served it with fresh raspberries and warm bittersweet chocolate sauce. Both additions were delicious!

This was probably the least successful baking experience / dessert yet recorded in these pages, but hey, the recipe was worth a try. I now have the goal of making an appropriately smooth, rich, and flavorful fudge cake!

The Cheesecake Factory's Latest Delight

...is a peppermint bark cheesecake.

The base is a chocolate-mint graham cracker crust. The cheesecake itself has a faintly peppermint flavor, with small chunks of candy and red food coloring swirled in. (The flavor and coloring fade toward the outer crust of the cake, where it is replaced by plain - though still delicious! - cheesecake.) The result truly gives you the impression that you are looking at a slice of peppermint bark, albeit in cream form. There is a layer of vanilla cream on top of the cheesecake, which is sprinkled with more peppermint candy chunks. A dollop of whipped cream, topped with more candy bits, plus two thin wedges of smooth dark chocolate finish off the dessert.

This cheesecake may be my favorite Cheesecake Factory dessert, with the other contenders for that title being Linda's Fudge Cake, Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake, Chocolate Tuxedo Cream Cheesecake, and Key Lime Cheesecake. The only way this particular cake could have been better? More chocolate, of course. (In my experience, peppermint bark has consisted of just as much chocolate as peppermint!) I would recommend enjoying this seasonal delight as soon as possible, as I don't anticipate it being around much after the holidays.

For a Cheesecake Factory restaurant near you, go to http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/locations.htm.

The Holiday Breakfast

Yes, this entry on Thanksgiving baking is several weeks overdue. I know, I know. I will limit it to the Thanksgiving breakfast, which I baked, rather than including the Thanksgiving desserts as surreptitiously prepared by my mother (she knew I'd be upset if I heard she was baking dessert in advance).

I must start by telling you that I am an apple snob. I didn't choose to become such a snob; it just happened that way. I grew up in Londonderry, New Hampshire, a town with four commercial orchards and, as the local phrase goes, "more apples than people." The most popular of the orchards, Mack's Apples, is the ultimate New England fall destination, with apples, cider, pumpkins, other veggies, baked goods, and maple products available for purchase from the orchard shop. (You can also pick your produce straight from the tree/vine, via several "U-Pick" stations; in the summer, you can enjoy locally-made ice cream by a pond with sociable waterfowl.) The orchard grows a variety of apples, which I have sampled throughout the years; my favorite is the Londonderry Cortland. Cortland apples are crisp and tart, with sparkling white flesh covered by red-and-green blotched skin. They are neither too sweet nor too tangy, and produce the most satisfying crunch possible in an apple - I've never encountered a mealy Cortland. Whenever I go to NH in apple season, it is guaranteed that I will return to Boston with a box of Cortlands. Present me with a different apple, and I will look at it in disdain.

Londonderry Cortlands are big apples, and a Mack's box contains a lot of them - so, I was making applesauce on a weekly basis for a while. I didn't add any sugar or other flavors to the applesauce - the Cortland flavor is strong enough that it doesn't need any enhancement. Other favorite apple recipes are apple crisp, applesauce-maple bread, and an apple spice cake. The apple spice cake had the honor of being the recipient of the last Cortlands of the 2008 season (tear), as well as being the 2008 Thanksgiving Breakfast. Since my parents would be eating the cake over the holiday, I asked for their input on the recipe prior to baking. My dad suggested replacing the Cortlands with Granny Smiths (overrated), Golden Delicious (how boring can you get?), or - wait for it - Honeycrisps (blasphemy). Apple snob that I am, I did not appreciate the joke. I ignored the "input" and baked the cake with my beloved Cortlands.

The cake was an instant hit! It's dense and flavorful. I attribute its success and exceptional taste to the following:

• grated apples - grated apples introduce more juice to the batter, so the apple flavor better permeates the cake than if the apples were diced into small pieces.
• lemon zest and juice - the extra tartness of the citrus fruit enhances the apple flavor.
• butter - yes, there is a lot of butter in this cake, but butter is preferable to cups of oil. Oil tends to weigh down these cakes and give them a moist, heavy quality. The butter gives this cake a creamy texture and keeps the batter somewhat light.
• liberal application of spices - it's a family tradition to double the spices in baking recipes; cinnamon gets the star treatment of frequently being tripled. Mmm, aromatic compounds.
  

Here is the recipe, courtesy of Bon Appetit magazine, for your baking pleasure.

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 3 C flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t ground cinnamon (double/triple as desired)
• 3/4 t salt
• 1/2 t ground nutmeg (double as desired)
• 1/4 t ground cloves (double as desired)
• 1/4 t ground allspice
• 1 3/4 pounds Cortland apples, peeled / cored / coarsely grated (2 apples, to make 2 cups)
• 1 1/2 C (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 C golden brown sugar, packed
• 1 t grated lemon peel
• 3 large eggs
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 t fresh lemon juice
  

1. Position the rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 325 F. Spray a 12 C Bundt pan with nonstick spray.
2. Sift the flour and the next 6 ingredients into a medium bowl.
3. Grate 2 C worth of apples; set aside.
4. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, both sugars, and lemon zest in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the vanilla and lemon juice.
5. Beat in the flour mixture, and mix in the grated apples. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.
6. Bake the cake until a tester inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes.

Enjoy the cake warm, whether by eating it straight from the oven or zapping it for a few seconds in the microwave. You will not be disappointed!

Londonderry apple season is now over, but Christmas is right around the corner - so, that will inspire me to new heights of baking. Will there be pumpkin pie? Something chocolatey? Sugar cookies in holiday shapes? Stay tuned...