Summer Drinks and Desserts

Earlier in August, Finale hosted another tasting at their Coolidge Corner restaurant. Katie and I were eager to try the desserterie’s seasonal confections and libations – or, to use the simpler words of the event’s official name, “Summer Drinks and Desserts.” The theme meant we were in for lighter, often-fruity, and always-indulgent treats. Executive Pastry Chef Nicole Coady described each dessert in detail, and a fellow staff member shared the ingredients of each tasty accompanying cocktail. Here are close-ups of the 5 miniature desserts, with drinks standing at attention in the background.

So, what did we enjoy?

• Cheesecake – this light, silky dessert was probably the farthest thing, cheesecake-wise, from a New York-style cheesecake…and I was happy with that. It had a whipped, even frothy texture and a sweet, creamy taste that was buoyed up by a base flavor of Mexican vanilla. This earthier vanilla was a great contrast to the usual cheesecake ingredients, and added an unusual and unexpected depth to the dessert. I ate this dessert with very small bites to make it last as long as possible!
• Lemon Tart – this tart consisted of a spoonful of lemon curd in a thin, crunchy sugar dough shell. Lemon curd has only a handful of ingredients – lemon juice, eggs, butter, sugar – but takes approximately eight hours to make. (That’s a lot of stirring over a double boiler!) Nicole uses European butter with 82% butter fat in her curd; it has a slightly sour and creamier taste compared to American butter, which has 80% butter fat. My palate is not refined enough to have noticed a difference in butter taste, but I appreciated learning about it. I absolutely love citrus desserts, so I was very happy with the curd. The flavorless sugar shell, on the other hand, was nothing special.
• Crème Brulee – I had never really liked crème brulee…until I tried this happy spoonful. Similar to the lemon curd, it only has four ingredients: eggs, cream, sugar, and Tahitian vanilla. Tahitian vanilla is known for its floral, fruity taste, and while I couldn’t exactly pick such notes out in the dessert, I could appreciate that it had more depth of flavor than brulees I had tried in the past. The burnt sugar crust was pleasing, too.
• Tiramisu – I’ve always been indifferent to tiramisu, and this one was no exception. You can see the layers of ladyfingers drizzled in coffee syrup, with a sweet mascarpone cheese mixture in between, and a thorough dusting of bitter Valrhona cocoa powder on top. Perfectly adequate, but not rave-worthy. Maybe more coffee syrup, and perhaps some cocoa powder dusted between each cake or cheese layer, would have made it stand out?
• Chocolate Decadence – this champion of a dessert is a fixture of Finale’s to-go pastry case. While you buy it refrigerated, Nicole recommends eating it at room temperature or warmer. Why? This flourless, truffle-like cake is robustly flavored with 70% cocoa and a hint of coffee, both of which pack more of a sensory punch when not chilled. The cake as a whole is then coated in a slightly sweeter chocolate ganache, which is smooth and creamy. Our pieces had been sitting out for the length of the event, so I experienced the richness and complexity of flavor that comes with a warm, aromatic dessert. It really was like being sucked into a vortex of chocolatey excellence, with enough bitterness and coffee tang to keep you on your toes. Decadence, indeed!

The drinks were tasty, too. I enjoyed a tropical sunset cocktail, a wild berry mojito, a St. Germain sparkler (my clear favorite, unsurprisingly), and Finale’s signature Chocolate Bliss cocktail. Less enjoyable was the espresso martini, which was just too strong for the tiny portions of food.

So, Finale did it again! Their tastings really are a great way to try a variety of desserts in one sitting. My appreciation for cream-based desserts has grown, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be treating myself to a full Chocolate Decandence sometime soon.

A Weekend of Celebratory Desserts

I had a really fun birthday party the other weekend! Not surprisingly, I enjoyed a few desserts in the hours preceding it.

A cliff-diving event at the ICA – where, yes, people voluntarily plunged nearly 100 feet off the museum into Boston Harbor!?! – brought Greg, Rob, and me to Boston's Fort Point neighborhood. We had to eat lunch at my favorite outpost of Flour Bakery prior! I departed from usual Flour protocol this time, eschewing my tried-and-true favorites and ordering two untested items. Their BLT sandwich was truly exemplary, and will become part of my regular sandwich rotation. The purest joy, however, came with a new dessert offering! I hereby introduce you to Flour's Congo bar. Here is its richly textured surface…

…and here is the glory that lies beneath.

The bar’s rather thick base is a brown sugar cookie thoroughly marbled with pastry chocolate. A thinner layer of the same chocolate, mixed with caramel and coconut flakes, covers the cookie base. Then, the treat is covered in more coconut flakes and topped off with a few caramel drizzles. This was a very sturdy, dense, rich dessert. However, each bite melted into creamy, sweet goodness soon after I took it.  Just think – a warm, buttery cookie; fudgy, fragrant chocolate; fluffy, sweet coconut; and milky, silky caramel, all mixed and layered together to create one ultimate dessert. Wow! I’ll surely be scanning Flour’s displays for this whopper of a treat in the future.

(You shouldn’t be surprised that I loved the Congo bar, since my weakness for robust layered cookie bars has already been documented. Speaking of which, I was in Belfast the other week…and had two Caramelitas. That’s right. Two.)

Party time was upon us before we knew it, so we hastily traveled back to Cambridge and considered Inman Square “dinner” options. I put the word dinner in quotes because Christina’s Ice Cream shouldn’t have fit the bill, but I guess one is allowed to get away with extraordinary indulgences on one’s birthday. Look at this most delicious of sundaes!

Coffee oreo ice cream, with an honest, unsweetened coffee flavor and large oreo chunks? Check. Peanut butter chip ice cream, with a similarly natural, nutty base flavor and tasty chocolate pieces? Check. Crushed peanut butter cup topping, made of candies that put Reese’s to shame? Check. Homemade hot fudge and whipped cream, both of which make you rethink all notions of what these toppings should be, in the best way? Check. The resulting amalgamation gave me all the energy I needed to dance the night away. And boy, did I dance :-)

But wait – there’s more!

Linda and I spent the following day putzing around Harvard Square. We dropped by Sweet for a cupcake later that afternoon. I enjoyed the Red, White, and You cupcake, which I first tried two years ago! It’s a vanilla bean cupcake injected with mixed berry jam, topped with a towering dollop of vanilla buttercream frosting, and garnished with an avalanche of crunchy red sugar. It’s still rather delicious, though the frosting was significantly lighter than I remember; they must be whipping it nowadays?

Lastly, here’s a huge shout-out to my wonderful friends, who made my birthday so special! Y’all are amazing. :-)

Summer Restaurant Week 2011

With another Restaurant Week period over, I can cross two long-standing entries off my restaurant list! Both dinners piqued my curiosity, while serving tasty but not overly memorable food. The same goes for the desserts – they were good enough, but not rave-worthy.

Adam and I finally tried Toro, Ken Oringer’s trendy tapas bistro in the South End. It was a beautiful, balmy Boston night, so we sat on Toro’s sidewalk patio and enjoyed the relative quiet compared to the din within the brick-and-steel dining room and attached visible kitchen. How do RW’s three courses get figured out at a small-plates restaurant? It turns out that each person picks an appetizer; then, the table gets a certain number of tapas by occupancy (5 dishes, in the case of two people); and lastly, we each choose a dessert. I had an appetizer of tuna tartare garnished with cilantro, which had an excellent taste but an unusually chewy texture. Our tapas were:

• Jamon serrano – the ham was a bit fattier than I like, and cured for less time. I was not impressed with this most favored of tapas.
• Patatas bravas – the dish I always order when trying a new tapas place! Toro’s sauce is probably the spiciest I have yet encountered on this dish, and the large potato pieces were grilled to perfection.
• Uni sandwich – I totally forgot that this fishy-tasting paste was actually sea urchin. It was tasty enough, and represented our most unusual order. Sadly enough, Toro was out of the octopus!
• Garlic shrimp – some of the largest shrimp I’ve ever seen, sautéed with garlic. I wish there had been more than two per person.
• Short rib – delectable, flaky beef in a red wine sauce. My sudden appetite for red meat continues to surprise me this summer!

Dessert came next. I had a churro dusted in a copious amount of cinnamon sugar, with a side of Mexican chocolate sauce for dipping. The doughnut stick was chewy and warm, with a faint vanilla flavor. I love how the dusting’s sugar crystals added a bit of grit and crunch to the otherwise soft dessert. I also liked the balance of flavors in the Mexican chocolate; neither too bitter nor too spicy, it was just enough of a contrast to the sweet pastry. Still, a churro is a fairly typical dessert at Spanish and Mexican eateries, so I would have rather been intrigued by a different – even if less delicious – option. Well, maybe I should take that back; Adam was underwhelmed with the Manchego cheese.

I would go back to Toro if the opportunity presented itself. Eating in the bustling dining room would be a lot of fun, as would trying the more atypical offerings on their standard menu.

Katie and I continued the Restaurant Week fun at Gaslight the following week. This cheerful, flame-lit French brasserie is owned by the same group as Aquitaine, a restaurant that has never disappointed – so, we knew the grub would be good. We somehow found opportunities to chew our food amid a few hours of rapid-fire catching up. :-) My appetizer was a field greens salad tossed in hazelnut vinaigrette, with chunks of fried Brie. The Brie was delicious as per usual, and I enjoyed the dressing’s subtle nuttiness; I would have preferred fewer bitter greens in the salad, though! I ordered trout almondine with beans and potatoes for dinner. The trout was pleasantly pink and flaky, with that freshwater fish taste I so love, but I was surprised at how thin the fillets were; I had seemingly equal parts meat and skin. The sliced almonds were a really great addition, as were the soft and savory vegetables.

I ignored my usual chocolate craving when it was time for dessert, opting instead for a strawberry layer cake with strawberry ice cream! I enjoyed this sweet and delicate cake. Its texture reminded me of genoise, but its crumb was a bit larger than that sponge cake. It had three layers, which were separated by mashed strawberries. (I appreciate that Gaslight uses fresh fruit, as opposed to the frozen slop you often see in, say, custard cups!) The thin layer of tart frosting on top used crème fraiche – so, this sugary treat got an unusual but welcome infusion of sourness – and was garnished with more strawberries. As if all those components were not enough, I got a scoop of strawberry ice cream on the side! It was more creamy than fruity. I chose to let most of it melt, so I could dip each forkful of (rather dry) cake in the resulting “soup”. Yum! Katie reports that the flourless chocolate truffle cake with espresso ice cream was also yum-worthy.

I would go back to Gaslight, too, though a different cuisine may win out if I were given options. This RW meal was mostly a hit, but I sometimes miss entirely with French food.

Now, about that restaurant list…

Weekend Wontons

Here's a dilemma. It's 9:30PM on a Sunday. You last ate at 3:30PM, enjoying a later Friendly Toast brunch of monstrous chocolate-toffee pancakes, or a breakfast burrito with homefries. What are you going to make for dinner?

As I found out this past weekend, the correct answer is...wontons! Berry, chocolate, and bacon wontons, to be exact. It was a good answer. These dessert-like interpretations of the savory Asian appetizer are really easy to make, and they're tasty to boot! Here are the ingredients and process.

• wonton "skin" / wrappers
• frozen mixed berries (fresh berries risk turning into mush during the frying process)
• chocolate chips
• bacon, cooked
• canola oil
• powdered sugar (optional)

1. Lay out a wonton skin. Rub its edges with water.
2. Put a small amount of frozen fruit, chocolate chips, and/or bacon crumbles in the middle of the skin (for square wontons) or slightly toward one corner (for triangular/trapezoidal ones). I made berry chocolate or bacon chocolate wontons; never did the berries and bacon mix.
3. Fold the wonton skin over the filling onto itself, and press the wet edges against each other to form a seal.
4. Fold the sealed parts together, and press them securely. This extra step will help secure against breaking and bursting during the frying process.
5. Experiment with shapes and sizes! Multiple wrappers can be secured together, etc.
6. Heat approximately 1.5 inches of oil in a saucepan.
7. Drop the wontons in the hot oil, and fry them until done.
8. Remove the wontons from the hot oil, and let them cool to an edible, yet warm, temperature.
9. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.
10. Enjoy!

Behold, our happy little confections! You bite through the crunchy outer shell, with its characteristic taste of oil and salt, and are met with a burst of warm fruit filling and melted chocolate. I was surprised at how much air snuck into the wontons, since they were folded rather tightly; this also disappointed me a little, because then I imagined the air space being filled with that much more gooey chocolate. Alas. Maybe the solution will be to stuff them more next time? The bacon chocolate wontons were also great, though obviously less gushy. If I make that variety again, I'll cook the bacon for less time. Chewier bacon may be a better complement to a crunchy shell than crunchy bacon. Either way, the salty sweetness was great.

It could be fun to start a series on dessert versions of traditionally savory foods. Heck, I'll even create a special tag for such posts. Anyone have suggestions to that end?

Another Foray Into Portsmouth Desserts

The uncomfortable New England heatwave broke this past Sunday, and coastal New Hampshire experienced a beautiful day of temperatures in the mid-80s with a cool breeze off the ocean. I celebrated this pleasant change in weather by walking around Portsmouth, a favorite seaside town that I have raved about previously. I tried two new - or, in the first place's case, non-blogged - eateries this time around.

Bostonians may have heard of The Friendly Toast, a diner-style establishment originally in Portsmouth that recently opened an outpost in Cambridge's Kendall Square. I tried the Cambridge restaurant prior to the Portsmouth one, and loved its food enough that I just had to go to the original. I should make a note that delicious breakfasts are not the only things that make the restaurants memorable. The tacky decor is overwhelming, to say the least. Consider the fact that this ominous fellow may be overseeing your Cantabrigian meal of granola cranberry chocolate-chip pancakes drenched in Grand Marnier sauce:

The kitsch is more extreme in Portsmouth. It's densely packed and somewhat abrasive, with animatronic feet advertizing socks alongside eerily spinning farm animal caricatures. Still, all that clutter and noise should not distract you from appreciating the excellent food.

The Friendly Toast serves The. Best. Pancakes. I have ever had. They taste pleasingly of buttermilk, and have a texture that is difficult to categorize - soft yet sturdy, they soak up any nearby syrup and only flake slightly when cut. Their mixins are also the most creative pancake fillers I have ever seen. The above Grand Marnier example is a perfect illustration of their uniqueness, but their willingness to make veritable desserts out of their pancakes is what keeps me coming back. That's right, I indulged in toffee chocolate pancakes! Huge milk and semisweet chocolate chips melted alongside jagged toffee pieces to create a meal that was more candy bar than pancake. Unlike many purveyors of innocuous chocolate chip pancakes, the FT does not skimp on the good stuff. Copious drizzles of maple syrup pushed the meal ever closer to heaven. Another huge plus is these pancakes' size. One pancake is enough for one (large) meal, so I ordered two and got to enjoy the Toast's bounty all over again as leftovers.

I was too full after my pancake to eat another baked good, but there was a new bakery next to the FT that was just begging for me to take something home. The Portsmouth Baking Company had a simple sign outside their store - "NOW OPEN for LUNCH and CUPCAKES." I saw that last word and couldn't walk away. Enter an adorable modern bakery - as if Boston's beloved Flour chain were to get 25% more cutesy - where massive, picture-perfect cupcakes are displayed with geometric precision. Ah! I wish my phone had not died so I could share pictures with you. Fortunately, though, I have a picture of the cupcake I ate at home later that evening.

This chocolate tangerine cupcake held so much promise. (I love chocolate and orange together almost as much as I love chocolate and mint.) I breathed in the cupcake's rich aroma and hoped for a dark, bitter chocolate cake with intense orange peel flavor, and a sweeter orange buttercream frosting neutralizing the strength beneath it. The reality, however, was nothing like that. Instead, the cake itself was a particularly heavy and dry devil's food, and the odd-tasting frosting had no trace of orange within it. The only citrus I detected came in the form of two small pieces of candied orange peel atop the frosting. I am not kidding when I say I tasted more toothpaste than buttercream in the frosting. I don't know how I muddled through the entire dessert. I don't think I have ever known a cupcake to be so disappointing.

I wish the Portsmouth Baking Company luck, if only because (1) their store is the epitome of modern baker chic, and (2) their cakes are pretty to look at. Maybe I'll try their artisan breads at some point - but, I can safely say I will never willfully eat their "buttercream" again. Let's hope my next Portsmouth dessert experimentation is more successful!

The Dessert Dump - Or, What I Should Have Written

Wow, my last post was in May. I've had many desserts since then, but I have not been so coordinated in my enjoyment of them to commit them to the blog within a reasonable timeframe. So, consider this "Dessert Dump" a woefully brief overview of what I should have documented in the past two months.

Something from Athan's...which probably happened after something from Publick House! Brookline's Washington Square is a favorite place to overeat. Chocolate and vanilla genoise cakes and mousses, layered and drenched in ganache, plus fig (?) gelato. Eaten at my favorite corner table.

Iced mocha and turtle hot chocolate from Davis Square's Diesel Cafe! Smooth, deep, chocolatey win. WIN in caps, even.

Some sort of flourless chocolate torte from Posto, also in Davis Square. Good, but not as awe-inspiring as their pastas and pizzas. The non-raisiny port wine glaze was a plus.

Shabby Chic's chocolate blackberry cupcake. Similar to their chocolate raspberry cupcake, but with blackberry! Who could say no to that purple frosting? Of course, both frosting and cake were out-of-this-world delicious, and SC remains the best cupcakery I have had the pleasure of sampling.

An array of finger desserts from Dante's Al Fresco Fiasco. I consider it a miracle that I made it to this early-afternoon event, since I was up through the sunrise the "night" before. My efforts were completely worth it, though - these macaroons, mousses, and fritters were exemplary, as were the savory non-desserts. I can't wait to have a real meal at Dante sometime!

An unbelievably rich triple chocolate cupcake - that's right, chocolate cake + chocolate frosting + chocolate bar - from a mystery bakery in Stoneham. An unexpected treat courtesy of my colleague Shannon! The frosting defies categorization, it was so dense and fudgy; the cake could barely stand under its weight! Taste buds were similarly overwhelmed by its robust chocolate-ness, though in the best possible way.

Next up: a real post, with more words on fewer desserts...

A Carrot Cake for Easter

This Easter presented its first-ever dessert dilemma.

After two Christmases with Perfect Endings' perfectly chocolatey buche de Noel, I was determined to make a vanilla, lemon, and raspberry log for Easter. I wanted to flex my baking muscles by attempting such a complicated dessert, and it was easy enough to make a spring equivalent to the wintry treat by using citrus and berry flavors. However, I had forgotten that I would be making our traditional lemon cake for Easter breakfast...and the family decided that two lemon baked goods would be too much for one holiday. So, I had to find a replacement dessert...quickly.

I checked Perfect Endings' site on a whim, and instantly fell in love with the appearance of their carrot-shaped carrot cake. Their product description did not go into detail - for example, I had no idea whether the item would harbor copious amounts of undesirable nuts and raisins - but I decided to fly blindly and take the risk, since (1) PE had already proved their mettle with the aforementioned buches de Noel, (2) I have met more carrot cakes I've liked than disliked, and (3) seriously, a carrot-shaped carrot cake for Easter - how much cuter could you get?!

Well, the risk was beyond worth it. Behold the newly-cut dessert, plated with jellybeans for effect.

Carrot, as the anthropomorphized cake was named, was perfect in every way, and was one of the finest desserts I have ever consumed. It had two layers of cake, plenty of cream cheese frosting, and festive fondant.

• The cake itself was light yet moist, and positively bursting with flavor. Sugars, spices, and finely-shredded carrot bits, along with the daintiest-possible pieces of nuts and tiny flakes of semisweet chocolate, all blended together to create a baked item of incredible depth and complexity. No single flavor overpowered another; instead, the wealth of savory and sweet bakery flavors were all represented equally...and perfectly. I knew before I had swallowed my first crumb that this was the best carrot cake I had ever had.
• Cream cheese frosting filled the space between the cake's two layers, as well as coated the assembled cake. This frosting was neither heavy nor overpoweringly creamy. It was light, fluffy, and sweet, with just a hint of tang.
• The smooth orange coating and decorative green leaves were made of a smooth, sugary, faintly almond-flavored fondant. The fondant was rather dense and heavy, even in thin coating form, and I was surprised that the cream cheese frosting could support it! For all the conceptual fanciness of a carrot-shaped and -decorated cake, I love that this simple, tasty coating concealed a wonder within.

Perfect Endings has really raised the bar for bakery desserts! In fact, I would say that Carrot was more impressive than Buche. I would order it again, without entertaining the Buche-style folly of attempting to recreate it at home. Some things are best left to the professionals - and, in this particular case, I am more than happy to do just that.

Clearly, the dessert dilemma was resolved in the best possible way. I hope your Easter dessert(s) were similarly memorable and delicious!