The Friday Night Burger Crew Does Dessert

The Friday Night Burger Crew, somewhat of a "thing" in December 2011, has come back in full force in January 2012 - though not always on a Friday, and usually with more than a burger. In fact, adding "Dessert" to our name would be appropriate! Let's review what we ate together this month.

Our first gathering featured a Fleming's burger and a Finale dessert, on a Wednesday, no less. If I had a picture of the burger, it would probably get blogged in this post, but I'll have to content myself with telling you all about a new item at Finale that combines two of my favorite things. This, dear readers, is Finale's peanut butter pie!

This immense dessert consists of a thin cocoa-peanut crust, one thick layer of peanut butter mousse, a thin chocolate ganache layer interspersed with peanuts, another thick mousse layer, and a substantive frosting-style topping of chocolate ganache. Garnishes include crumbled peanut brittle, chocolate gelato, and a creamy peanut drizzle.

The pie's crust is unremarkable. A dry blend of cocoa powder and peanut flour, it has less flavor than you would expect, and it crumbles too easily. The mousse itself is interesting, but not substantive enough to be the core, defining component of the dessert. It is extremely light and fluffy, with a very faint peanut butter flavor. It's more of a sturdy whipped cream than any mousse I've had, so I could more easily see it as a garnish on a cake or tart. The ganache layer separating the mousse layers is delicious, albeit too thin; fortunately, the topping makes up for that! The peanuts sounded like a nice touch but were actually disappointing. They had become too soggy in their proximity to the moist mousse, and as you may know, few dessert items are more unpleasant to me than soggy nuts. Moving on up the cake, we end with a gloriously thick topping of that chocolate ganache. Smooth, dense, and bittersweet, it is the perfect opposite to the airy, sugary mousse.

The garnishes are complex and interesting. The gelato, a chilly burst of bittersweet Valrhona chocolate, packs enough chocolate punch to compensate for any bites of pie lacking ganache. The peanut drizzle, seen at the tip of the pie, is boldly nutty and heavy with cream. The dessert as a whole benefits from the assertive peanut flavor; I only wish there was more of it on the plate! I do not recommend the peanut brittle, seen at the far side of the plate. Nuts, salt, sugar, and condensed milk do not make for a dessert, in my opinion, though the powdered brittle would be an interesting topping for the gelato or the ganache.

I'm not sure if I would order this pie again, but I appreciate Finale attempting a flavor pairing that is near and dear to my heart!

The Crew's next outing found us dessert-ing at an unexpected location. Firebrand Saints serves all manner of meats - the options include, and go beyond, mind-blowing burgers - in a bustling industrial space near Cambridge's Kendall Square. (I'm totally obsessed with the Kendall nightlife renaissance, btw.) I came to FS for the burger, and stayed for the cherry pie! They serve pies made from local fruits; we could choose from pear-cranberry, cranberry-nut, or cherry pie, to be served with chocolate or strawberry ice cream. The cherry/chocolate combination sounded the most appealing, and wow, did we make a good choice. Look at this beauteous slice, with its plump fruit, thick crust, and generous scoop:

The cherries were a delight, so tangy and juicy and bursting with flavor. I detected a hint of citrus in the filling, most likely to brighten the taste (as I have done with apples), and maybe even a faint nuttiness, though I saw no nuts. The crust was really unusual, giving me even more encouragement to try making a crust from scratch. It was simultaneously flaky and substantive, something I've never encountered. The surfaces browned so nicely, and you could taste the warm butter in every chewy, mouth-coating bite. The ice cream was a bit too dense on its own, but that became a non-issue when it was left to melt over and into the pie.

I would guess that FS switches up their pies based on whatever fruits are available on any given day; so, I'd love to go back and see what other varieties they serve. In the meantime, I have a renewed appreciation for fruit pies, particularly the cherry variety. I usually overlook that genre when considering what dessert to order or make, but I now have some compelling evidence to change my ways!

Boston's Best Winter Beverages

...and by winter beverages, I mean hot chocolate (or cocoa, if you prefer).

Hot chocolate is ideal for SO many reasons. First of all, it lets you consume chocolate and satisfy thirst. Secondly, it's a perfect canvas for additional assertive, dessert-y flavors. Then, it's warm, making it the perfect extension of our heavy cold-weather armor to keep winter's chill at bay. If we want to stretch a bit, we can even say that it's healthy, being milk-based and all. (Always skim for me!)

These reasons have prompted me to explore a variety of Boston's hot chocolate offerings, and choose four that really stand out. Why did these four make the cut? Read on.

• Diesel Cafe's turtle hot chocolate, pictured above - this may be the most beautiful drink I've ever seen, and it tastes even better than it looks! Diesel's milk chocolate drink is accented with hazelnut, almond, and caramel syrups. A dollop of homemade whipped cream tops it all off, along with a dusting of cocoa powder. I love everything about this, from the creamy, warm taste of the milk chocolate, to the smooth, silky caramel; the subtle nutty flavors, the cool yet melting cream on top, and the unabashed sweetness of it all (no artisanal x-percent-cacao stuff going on here!). If I lived in Davis Square, I would drink this beverage at a frequency near that of addiction. More than the other three drinks, this exemplifies the hot-chocolate-as-dessert idea.
• 1369's raspberry hot chocolate - little Julie grew up loving chocolate-raspberry combinations, most of them unique to the Midwest: raspberry Frangos, Portillo's chocolate-raspberry cake, raspberry starfish from the chocolate shop in Oakbrook, and so on. Grown-up, East-coast Julie still loves those two things together, hence my gleeful enjoyment of 1369's beverage. This quirky coffeehouse starts with a milk chocolate hot-chocolate mix, and applies enough tangy raspberry syrup so that the finished product is distinctly rose in color. So pretty, and so tasty. The tangy syrup really makes it - so often, fruit flavors can be cloyingly sweet, but 1369's syrup respects what a natural raspberry flavor is. It's strong, but it blends well with the milk chocolate, whose sweetness is a perfect balance to the not-as-sweet fruit. 
• Flour's fiery hot chocolate - as with so many things Flour-sourced, I have a soft spot in my heart for this drink: I ordered it the very first time I went to Flour, and it was the first of many spicy/Mexican hot chocolates I would try in the years following. All those drinks later, I still think it's the best! Instead of starting with a powdered cocoa base, Flour's baristas use large scoops of fudge-like solid chocolate, and blend it into a delicious, creamy froth with the steamed milk. Its appearance and taste remind me of the pastry chocolate used within croissants and finer cookies. Then, the "fieriness" comes from generous applications of cayenne pepper and cinnamon. Your mouth stings and burns at first, but it soon mellows out thanks to that smooth, deep bittersweet chocolate base. Most other spicy cocoas bring too much heat, or not enough; Flour's is the only one that strikes the perfect balance between spicy zing and quality chocolate.
• Paris Creperie's Nutella hot chocolate - I'll admit it: more than once, I have traveled all the way from Cambridge to Coolidge Corner explicitly for this beverage. (An incidental accompanying crepe only sweetens [or savories?] the deal, mmm.) Unlike the above drinks, which use some form of chocolate as a base, this drink is all about the Nutella. That's right - we're talking milk and Nutella, heated and mixed together, into one perfect chocolate-hazelnut elixir. The baristas are very liberal with the Nutella, so that the end result is thicker and richer than most skim-based beverages. A side note: don't think you're out of luck once the weather gets warmer. The creperie also offers a Nutella frozen hot chocolate, which is the best dessert smoothie you'll ever have.

Of course, it's not always practical to travel for hot chocolate. When I crave this drink within my abode, I turn to Lake Champlain's organic mix...and Bailey's. ;-)

Am I missing anything? I'd love to hear others' thoughts on where to get mind-blowing hot chocolate. After all, this weekend's cold spell will not be Boston's last!

Max Brenner Disappointed Me.

Happy 2012, fellow dessert fans! Before I jump head- (or, more specifically, mouth-) first into this year's desserts, let's serve, eat, and clean up a few outliers from the last weeks of 2011.

I was eager to eat at Max Brenner as soon as they opened a Boston location! I was familiar with the Max Brenner concept - serving elaborate chocolate drinks and desserts, with standard brunch and dinner fare also available, in a bustling brasserie-style space - thanks to their restaurant in New York City's Union Square; I've ducked in there multiple times to get a treat for the train ride home. But to actually sit down in Max's space, and linger over a dessert? It had yet to happen. I am happy to say that changed in December...though I could have been happier with the dessert in question.

Chris, Andrea, and I managed to find three seats together at their crowded bar on a Friday night - and so it began! Max's Sweets menu was smaller than I had anticipated, but the variety of cravings presented within were a challenge to deal with. I eventually chose the Deep Fudge Chocolate Cake & Shake, since it was essentially many desserts in one. Here it is in its multi-part glory; please forgive the dim bar lighting.

The two best parts of this dessert are pictured in the back - a few sips' worth of chocolate shake topped with whipped cream, at right, and a generous supply of warm chocolate ganache, at left. The shake was extremely rich, bursting with bittersweet chocolate flavor and a good amount of heavy cream. The tiny portion lasted a while, since each thick slurp took some effort. I then drizzled the ganache from the cocktail shaker over the rest of the desserts, and really enjoyed the flavor it added. It, too, was pungent bittersweet chocolate, of a somewhat grainy sort that really stood out against the treats it covered. I only wish it had been thicker. The desserts in front were less remarkable. The milky vanilla ice cream had an interesting garnish, flakes of sweet crepes. But the cake was supposed to be a molten chocolate cake, and it wasn't even molten; the center was barely gooey, and the edges were dry and comparatively tasteless. I would have expected a better signature chocolate dessert from, well, a chocolatier's restaurant.

Chris had the Chocolate Chunk Cookies, an inaccurately pluralized dessert - he only got one "cookie". It looked more like a flattened, dry brownie, and the taste was similarly disappointing. (For tips on how to do a cookie dessert, the Max Brenner folks should read this!) Andrea's White Russian, however, was exactly what she ordered!

Overall, I'd rate Max Brenner as average - workable, yes, but not outstanding in their supposed specialty. I'll go back to Finale if I want to dine on dessert, though I would give Max another try if encouraged. It's still chocolate, after all...