Bell the Cat's Caramelita Bar

One of the best things about business trips to my company's Belfast, Maine office is getting lunch at Bell the Cat. The emporium is a strange, yet instantly endearing, hodgepodge of cafe, sandwich shop, bookseller, and music store...in a way that is the epitome of mid-coast Maine, and nothing like a Barnes & Noble Starbucks. When I talk about BtC's excellent local flavor, though, I'm referring to more than its unique atmosphere - I'm complimenting some of the best sandwiches, and cafe-style baked goods, I've ever had. Even my favorite sandwich from Cambridge's beloved Darwin's doesn't hold a candle to Bell's Californian, a delightful assortment of my favorite veggies and cheeses piled high or melted on a toasted croissant. What, you'd rather hear about the baked goods? :-)

Well...one is immediately met with a stunning array of cookie jars, and bars piled on bars, upon entering the shop. The variety of cookies is really impressive - think any combination of chocolate, nut, spice, jam, etc - but if I had to single out one baked good to rule them all, it would be the Caramelita bar. I have enjoyed this treat on each 4-hour trip back to Boston since discovering it last year!

What makes this bar such a delight?

• The base cookie is a rich, buttery blend of shortbread and oatmeal cookie. Dense, textured, and surprisingly warm and creamy, it's a perfect support structure for the decadence to follow.
• A very thick layer of soft milk chocolate coats the base cookie. The chocolate is incredibly even and smooth, almost fudgy. Small semisweet chocolate chips are mixed throughout for flavor and textural contrast.
• Large walnut chunks dot the chocolate's surface. Drizzled swirls of thick, milky, slightly-salty caramel coat and secure the nuts to the chocolate, and help meld the delightful dessert flavors.
• Sugar cookie crumbles, with a hint of cinnamon and perhaps more brown sugar than usual, form the top layer of the bar. The crumbles are soft and give in easily to my teeth. They are the lightest characteristic of a bar that gets denser and more delicious the deeper you go.

So, each bite includes two distinctly delicious cookies, some of the best chocolate to be put near a pastry, hearty nuts, and gooey caramel. What's not to love?

Somehow, the Caramelita manages to combine an at-home look and feel with big-time bakery flavor. I could probably replicate the bar in my own kitchen without too much effort, but there is something to be said for letting it keep its place of honor in my Downeast gastronomic repertoire. I will always have something to look forward to, and my stomach can growl in anticipation, whenever I travel to Belfast!

Winter Restaurant Week 2011

Another Restaurant Week has come and gone. I dined at three restaurants this time around!

I've had two previous Restaurant Week dinners at Harvest; their deliciousness, plus the restaurant's convenient Harvard Square setting, made me come back for more. I was surprised with how bland and average this meal was, though the dessert was a breath of tangy, fresh air. My appetizer was a white bean veloute, or soup, with pancetta, croutons, and olive oil. The soup tasted like mild, watered-down bean dip, and the tiny pancetta crumbles provided some crunch but little pig flavor. The entree was a smoked chicken breast served over polenta with golden raisins and cooked wilted chard. Sure, it was a nice chunk of meat, but the preparation was so ordinary, and the accompaniments so small and unseasoned, that this entire course would have been forgettable if not for the need to make blog notes. My dessert was a key lime parfait with gingersnap crust, lemon sauce, and raspberries. I have previously raved about Harvest's fruit desserts, and this one deserves equal praise! The parfait in question was a frozen treat, robustly flavored with key lime, of a consistency somewhere between ice cream, pudding, and whipped cream. It was smooth, light, occasionally crystalline, and pungently citrusy. The chewy gingersnap base crumbled at my fork's touch, and was thoroughly spiced. The lemon glaze and raspberries were the sweetest parts of the dessert; they tempered the tang and spice of the other components, and tied all flavors together nicely. Believe me, this picture does not do it justice! I only wish that I had more time to savor the dessert; instead, I hastily snarfed it down to make a performance in time.

My second RW dinner was another repeat adventure, this time to Sibling Rivalry in the South End. This dinner will go down as one of the best restaurant meals I've ever had, so please enjoy the images of all three courses! I started with ancho chile-spiced steak tartare, accompanied by salsa verde, avocado in cilantro oil, and a cheese pupusa with picked cabbage. How can I accurately convey this appetizer's sheer perfection? The degree of spicing on the steak was just right, and the meat itself (mixed with capers) was incredibly soft and tasty. I also loved eating bites of the pupusa, which had a seasoned maize-dought exterior, with pieces of oil-drizzled avocado.

My entree was mustard-glazed salmon paired with lump crab meat, tomatoes, spinach, and new potatoes. The mustard cream sauce had only a hint of spicy tang, which I liked; the fish it had been poured over was smooth and flaky. The crab meat - probably my favorite seafood - and spinach - definitely my favorite leafy green - were just icing on the proverbial cake. Sib Riv really knows how to do fish!

I had the orange pound cake with sauce Suzette and orange compote for dessert. The cake was not nearly as dense as the average pound cake, which helped it soak up the ample honey-citrus sauce. I would have called it a tea cake instead. The cake's orange flavor was quite subtle, but the assertively sweet yet tart sauce remedied any citrus deficiencies. The "compote" was actually orange slices drizzled in honey and garnished with almond slices. This pleasant and light dessert was a perfect way to end an indulgent meal, and was just as memorable - as well-executed citrus desserts must be! - as the phenomenal courses preceeding it. I really can't wait to return yet again to Sibling Rivalry!

I traveled to uncharted territory for my last RW treat. Bergamot, barely over the Cambridge line in Somerville, serves "progressive American cuisine" in a comfortable, intimate, yet fancy space. I really loved the mood of the place, and the food mostly rose to the occasion. I had a difficult time choosing an appetizer, as each had some ingredient I did not want - so, I ordered the goat cheese salad with shiitake mushrooms, oranges, and toasted hazelnuts, and left most of its frisee untouched. All non-greens fixins were tasty, and went together well. My entree was one of the most unique dishes I've ever seen! I ordered plantain gnocchi with black beans, avocado, red pepper, and portobello mushroom confit. I cannot extol the virtues of this delicious dish enough. Plantains are one of my favorite fruits, and I was amazed at how well they took, with slight seasoning, to gnocchi form. The beans were chewy and spicy; the avocado was tender and creamy; the mushrooms were smooth and earthy. All components combined into a dish bursting with flavor and satisfaction that did not burst my stomach. (I am so happy to have had gnocchi, and not been saddled with a stomachache afterward.) My dessert was also unique - a chocolate cremeux with olive oil dust and avocado - but Bergamot may have tried too hard with it. The cremeux itself was a fabulous whipped confection of cream and smooth milk chocolate, but the avocado accompaniments fell flat. The fruit was not ripe enough, so it did not have its full flavor potential. The balls and droplets seen in the picture, as well as the chunks encased within the cremeux (?!?!), were consistent with the chocolate dessert's texture, but were rather devoid of taste. I left them on my plate or carved them out, focusing only on the chocolate. Fortunately, my forkful of the grapefruit sabayon with madeleine was pleasing all around! I would give Bergamot another try based on their brilliant entree. Maybe their appetizers and desserts will rise to the occasion when not dealing in limited selections?

And now, for an alert from the non-food world: Happy Spring!

A Chocolate Crescendo Tasting

You may have read my occasional commentary on the temptations available at the Finale desserterie chain. All my earlier Finale visits involved siting down in their Cambridge or Boston restaurants and ordering a plated dessert off the menu - the typical Finale experience, I'm sure. I was lucky enough to have an atypical yet equally delicious Finale visit earlier this week, thanks to a chocolate tasting at their Brookline location that was hosted by their executive pastry chef!

 

The Chocolate Crescendo plate is the newest sharable dessert on Finale's menu. The plate holds a combination of classic Finale desserts and adventurous accents. Nicole Coady, the aforementioned pastry chef, eagerly discussed her two inspirations for the contents of the plate: chocolate, of course, and the flavors of Thailand. Thai flavors, really? Yes! I hope that anyone who is apprehensive of such tastes entering the dessert realm will reconsider their position by the end of this post.

Each taster was presented with a plate of 5 miniature desserts, along with pours of 5 sweet wines paired specially to each dessert.

• Peanut Butter Lime Truffle - this truffle was the most unusual dessert on the plate! A rich filling of peanut butter mixed with white chocolate, lime juice, and honey is enrobed in lime-tinged white chocolate and dusted with cayenne pepper. The smooth, peanutty center melded perfectly with the creamy white chocolate. The lime and pepper provided surprisingly welcome kicks, and their flavors worked perfectly with that of the peanut to create a unique savory/tangy/sweet experience. As my friend Jill exclaimed, "it's like pad Thai, in a dessert!"
• White Chocolate Panna Cotta - (A disclaimer: I've never liked panna cotta.) White chocolate is added to the usual cream/gelatin mixture to create a slightly sweeter, more solidified cream dessert. The panna cotta square sits upon a forgettable biscuit "crust" that is supposed to be ginger-flavored, though I couldn't taste the ginger. The best part of this dessert is the spice-infused apricot slice sitting on top! You can't go wrong with spicy-sweet fruit, and I wish I could have had a dessert's worth of these slices in place of the panna cotta.
• Creamy Coconut Truffle - this stellar truffle has a center of intensely sweet white chocolate and coconut cream. That sweet center is covered in rich but not bitter dark chocolate, which in turn is tufted with chopped coconut flakes. I love coconut's flavor, though not its flaky texture and questionable moisture (dried-out flakes are the worst!) - so, this truffle's coconut cream may be the best way I have ever experienced coconut! If this little treat had been available for individual purchase, I probably would have left the restaurant with several.
• Chocolate Symphony - ah, the Symphony cake. So many desserts in one! Finale's version has layers of light, spongy chocolate cake at the center, with mousses of different Valrhona chocolates separating them. The mousses are spread beyond the edges of the cake layers, so that the exterior of the Symphony looks like mousse alone. We have bittersweet chocolate at the bottom, followed by white and then milk chocolates. A chocolate wafer imprinted with Finale's logo sticks jauntily out of the cake's surface, and a confection of crisped rice tossed with dark chocolate and crystallized ginger takes up the remaining area. The cake itself and mousses were tasty, though fairly typical. The chocolate-ginger-rice treat, however, was memorable for its airy lightness and tongue-tingling pungency.
• Noisette Cupcake - Nutella is the best bread spread, hot chocolate additive, ice-cream topper, and...cupcake/frosting mix-in? Okay, the last one may be a bit of a stretch, but I still loved the miniature hazelnut cupcake! The cake base is moist and chocolaty, with chocolate pieces mixed in. The "noisette" addition cut through the chocolate and was very nutty, which makes me think that actual roasted and powdered nuts, rather than the aforementioned spread, may have been used to flavor it. The light buttercream frosting is smooth, creamy, and spiked with Nutella. The applied frosting is then dipped in a chocolate glaze, which gives the cupcake a smooth, polished appearance. The dramatic garnish extending off the top right of the image is a hazelnut dipped in cooked sugar, which is left to drip off the nut and solidify into a sticky-sweet prong. It sure looked pretty, but did not have much taste.

The dessert wines and ice wines paired with the first three desserts were exceptional, though I did not like the raisin-y sherries poured for the last two.

Overall, I think Nicole's inspiration really added to the overall dessert experience, even though I'm never one to be dissatisfied with chocolate alone. Carefully yet effectively executed spiciness, fruitiness, and nuttiness expand chocolate's appeal, to great effects! This tasting gets me thinking about what other cuisines could leave a footprint on an elaborate chocolate plate. Any ideas?

So Many *More* Cookies

I tried two new cookie recipes this past month! One was a marriage of the most popular mass-produced cookie and the most popular homemade cookie, and the other was my second creation from the Flour cookbook.

My friend Leah, whose yearly Superbowl party has become a social institution, had sent me a recipe for Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies. She hinted strongly that I should make these for the 2011 Superbowl, and I gladly obliged in the spirit of contributing to the outsize excess of sporting-event foods. "Excessive" is the perfect adjective for these behemoth cookies.

The recipe couldn't be simpler: make dough for chocolate chip cookies, mold dough around Oreos (or, if you're feeling extra-indulgent [as I was], Double Stufs), and bake. The cookie dough took some effort to incorporate, as it is designed to be stiff enough to maintain coverage of each Oreo within. The recipe said to use two cookie scoop's worth of dough per Oreo, but I eyeballed the amount in the absence of a cookie scoop. I may have been overly careful in covering the Oreos, as I could only cover 20 of them instead of the recipe's estimated 24. I baked the cookies for the upper time limit given, and they still looked underdone when I removed them from the oven; fortunately, 5 minutes of cooling on the baking sheet helped them settle into a solid-enough, yet still soft and chewy, state. I'd call that an ideal cookie texture!

So, was the excess worth it? The dough was wonderfully chewy, and the textural transition from it to the gooey chocolate chips was seamless. The cookie portion of the Double Stuf had softened somewhat, and had that falling-apart chewiness of Oreo chunks in ice cream. The Double Stuf cream was warm and gooey like the chocolate chips, and some of it had oozed around the chocolate cookies to mix with the dough and chips. Each bite presented new delights, since you could be met with Oreo cookie, nuggets of chocolate, a rush of warm cream, or all the above. The cookies can stand on their own, for sure, but the few bites that I dipped in milk were over the top - in a good way, of course. I would have to rule in favor of bringing on the excess...and my fellow partiers must have agreed, since there were no remainders to take home.

After experiencing the above cookies' chocolate and cream overload, I decided that my next baking project would involve neither - so, enter Flour's ginger molasses cookies. Two parts of the recipe gave me pause. Joanne's description says that she wanted the flavors of non-spice ingredients to be evident, so she uses less cinnamon and ginger than one usually might. Yours truly the Cinnamon-Tripler was apprehensive. Then, one is told to roll quarter-cup balls of dough for baking! (No wonder the recipe's yield was only 16 cookies; I ended up doubling it for my potluck purposes.) I was worried about how the large balls would fare on my cookie sheet.

Well, I (predictably) tripled the cinnamon - my logic being that if my usual tripling results in three times the normal amount of spice, tripling an intentionally lesser amount should break even with that norm. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly. The dough came together very easily, and was fluid enough that the recommended four hours of refrigeration really was necessary. I then scooped out quarter-cup dollops of cooled, hardened dough and rolled them in granulated sugar. I initially placed 12 cookies on a sheet, but most finished edges ended up touching - so, I only baked 8 per sheet after the first round. The doubled recipe yielded 32 large cookies as expected. It is difficult to judge scale from the picture below, so imagine the cookies being a tad larger than a spread palm.

Unsurprisingly, Joanne did it again! These cookies were the best spice cookies I have ever had, beating Dancing Deer's beloved molasses clove delights for the title. They were slightly crunchy near the edge, and pleasantly chewy on the inside. The ginger and cinnamon flavors were happily assertive, but I could still taste the smooth warmth of the butter and the dark syrupy richness of the brown sugar and molasses. The sugar dusting provided the tiniest, but still significant, counterpoint to the nearly-savory nature of this spice cookie, and gave each cookie a very pretty glitter overall. The cracks in the dough also added to the cookies' appearance. I can't wait to make these again, maybe around the holidays.

I was at Flour's Central Square bakery the other day, where I saw small - as in, not from 1/4 C dough! - versions of these cookies. I think I'll follow their lead when I repeat this recipe, as the large size isn't necessary. Hopefully a slight adjustment of the baking time is all I'll need to make that successful. Thanks again, Joanne, for a real potluck pleaser!

Then, I ended my February cookie marathon with a known restaurant delight. I have discussed Finale's Cookies and Cream dessert here before, but I just had to order it again the other night. Finale has switched up the cookies since I last wrote! The preponderance of snickerdoodles is gone, and has been replaced with a similar number of fluffy, sugar-encrusted sugar cookies. Also, the original nut and raisin cookies have been ousted in favor of two stupendous milk chocolate walnut cookies. Both changes improve the overall dessert. My one complaint? You now get two miniature whoopie pies instead of one glorious full-sized treat. This ends up being less whoopie overall, though there is an advantage to being able to eat one in the restaurant and take the other home. I suppose that if I were really intent on enjoying as much whoopie pie as possible, I could buy a full-sized one from Finale's bakery counter...

Happy cookie-ing!

Craigie on Main

Craigie on Main may be my new favorite restaurant. The Boston area's premier locavore, "'snout-to-tail" eatery, it has won all sorts of accolades for its excellent food, sustainable principles, and customer service. Consider this post my humble addition.

I have enjoyed drinks and dinner there before, but my most recent Craigie experience, on a bustling Friday evening, started on a particularly high note and remained there over the course of the night. What made it so great? Was it the Northern Lights cocktail - St. Germain, citrus, and tiki bitters aligned so that I hardly noticed its Scotch base - that was waiting for me when I arrived? Was it my perch at the corner of the bar, achieved soon after arrival, that allowed me to take in the maneuverings of the bartenders, the distant activity of the kitchen, and the cheerful hubbub that existed about the fellow diners? Was it what came after I settled in?

To start, the atmosphere of the bar area really defies categorization. It manages to feel like a well-mannered bar, a bustling bistro, and an intimate restaurant. There is something festive yet relaxing about the space, as though you are simultaneously celebrating something special and settling in for a cozy night - even if neither mood is intended. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and the foodies sharing the bar space are chatty and enthusiastic. Everybody's smiling. Everybody's ordering more. Oh, you ask - what did I order?

My appetizer was a Julie-esque ragout of morcilla and local forest mushrooms, with farro risottto, poached egg, carrot puree, and herbs. (Of course, I had to order a dish with mushrooms!) I reveled in the tender mushrooms' robust earthiness, and enjoyed stirring the risotto in the herbed puree. Morcilla is a Spanish blood sausage, and therefore was previously-uncharted territory for me; I was pleasantly surprised by its soft texture and deep spicy flavor. I kept the egg at bay as long as I could, but when it did rupture and the runny yolk became unavoidable, I was not displeased by how it mixed with everything else.

Then, it was time for one of the tastiest pieces of meat I have ever had. (No, not the pig's head, however much my dining companion may have joked about us sharing it!) The famed Craigie burger is no longer on the menu, but if you are lucky enough to request it while the day's dedicated beef is not yet depleted, you can have one. I ordered mine medium rare. It was moist and slightly runny, as I would expect, but it did not turn the admittedly-sturdy and slightly sweet sesame bun into a sopping mess. The fresh-tasting grass-fed beef is enriched with marrow and miso, and the resulting umami-ness was really unique in this setting. The burger was topped with a rather sharp cheddar cheese, a bit of watercress, and some fried onion strings. I added some house-made mace ketchup to the mix, and the result in toto was an explosion of so many hearty, savory flavors that my tastebuds may have died. Oh, did I mention that there were equally-delicious fries served on the side? Those thick potato chunks were delightfully seasoned, and I dipped them repeatedly in whatever mace ketchup did not get slathered on the burger. There was so much food that I ended up taking half of it home; I can happily report that it was just as tasty left over.

This restaurant is also known for the subtle, talented mixologists behind the bar. They also stock a variety of unique liqueurs (we sampled Cynar, an unusually vegetabular yet sweet artichoke spirit I had not previously encountered) and house-made mixins (bitters, syrups). I was emboldened, after one or two Northern Lights, to ask the closest bartender, Carrie, for something special. After giving her a vague request ("something with St. Germain, that's different!") and an answer to one question ("yes, I like citrus"), she concocted this delight:

The beverage is equal parts blanco tequila, mezcal, St. Germain, grapefruit juice, and lime juice, with three dashes of grapefruit bitters and an orange peel for garnish. As with the appetizer, this was one Julie-esque drink. If the night hadn't been late, I would have ordered another.

After rolls, the shroomy appetizer, many cocktails, and that chunk of carnivorous heaven, I can't believe I still had room for dessert! I wasn't listening as well as I could have when Carrie announced the options - the aforementioned custom cocktail was monopolizing most senses - but I managed to hear that pumpkin was involved in the day's special, so that made the decision easy. Enter a cream-based dessert that was a complete departure from what I usually order.

The custard itself was sturdier than a creme brulee, and had a more assertive burnt sugar flavor. Despite its dense creaminess, it did not weigh me down. It was drizzled in a lightly sweet, somewhat salty caramel sauce, with bitter kumquats added for contrast. The aforementioned pumpkin was expressed in the thin, wavy cookie decorating the top of the dessert. The cookie was startlingly pumpkin-y and spicy, in a robust way that would have been shocking even in a sturdy, doughy cookie...or pumpkin pie. It was the most surprising aspect of the entire meal, and I wish there had been more of it - perhaps an equal amount of cookie in relation to the custard, so each bite could have had both? (I consumed the cookie far too quickly for it to be of any use to the custard.)

I can't wait to return to Craigie and order a different dessert, to see what else they're capable of.

What a meal that was! All in all, I give the food, drinks, and general restaurant feel each 6 stars out of 5. I wish I could eat and drink it all over again; maybe I will, if you go back with me? I hope this first attempt at expanding "the dessert blog" to contain other food reviews is adequately persuasive! :-)

The Christmas Hamper!

Hello, dear readers, and happy 2011! Now that the joyous swirl of holiday revelry is over, I have resurfaced to share a very special Christmas treat.

I have a British stop-motion adaptation of The Wind in The Willows to thank for my introduction to Christmas hampers. Oh, how I loved that endearing series, especially the festive winter episodes! In one such episode, Toad challenges four weaselly troublemakers to a downhill race, and a Christmas hamper - or 'ampah, as the accent would have it - is the winner's prize. My young American sensibilities were amused that (1) a hamper would be a desirable prize - laundry, anyone? - and (2) said hamper was actually a large wicker basket, picnic-style, filled with fine foods. Hampers became a bit of a family joke, especially when other BBC period productions confirmed they were a "thing" beyond TWITW. Still, I never thought much of  them beyond those laughs.

Then, imagine my surprise last summer when I was at Fortnum & Mason, in London...and I saw an entire floor of that great emporium devoted to hampers! I kept murmuring to myself, "they're real!", as I perused wicker box after wicker box filled with desirable confections.

I wanted one, badly. Bringing one back on the plane was out of the question, so I told myself I would order one for Christmas. What a great treat that would be for the family to enjoy, right?! Well, I was not as diligent as I could have been, and Christmas was upon us before I knew it. I had not ordered a hamper.

Fortunately, my father had been attentive where I had not. Christmas Eve saw a rather formidable box, with a very promising logo, positioned in front of our Christmas tree.

I honestly couldn't contain my excitement upon seeing the large Fortnum & Mason cardboard box. This excitement reached an even higher pitch when I noticed the wicker visible through the box's handles. I gleefully cut through the box's tape and lifted the hamper out of the box, pausing briefly to admire its weaving as well as the F&M emblazoned on its side. I unbuckled the hamper - yes, it is fastened shut with two leather buckles! - and unwrapped the well-cushioned treats within. I may have also done a little dance of happiness, both in and out of the original box.

So, what was in this hamper? You can see the treats, in their lovely keepsake tins and other such packaging, here. I should add that this was a "bespoke" hamper, with contents tailored to my family's dessert preferences!

• Piccadilly biscuit assortment - Piccadilly biscuits are wafer-thin and rather crisp, yet they pack a lot of flavor! The lemon curd biscuits were a particular standout.
• Explorer biscuit assortment - this tin contained many exotically-flavored biscuits, of a heartier nature than the Piccadillies, featuring different spices and nuts from around the world. The Lucifer biscuit, a pungent ginger cookie with chilli spice, is a great example of the tasting adventures found within this assortment.
• Christmas tea - this tea was so, so flavorful! I detected hints of orange, clove, ginger, and cocoa. It paired perfectly with our holiday breakfast (orange rum coffee cake) and official dessert (buche de Noel).
• Chocolossus biscuits - I have previously extolled the virtues of the Chocolossus biscuit, and this batch had an especially smooth chocolate coating and richly-flavored biscuit center. I have to add that the scent of Chocolossus biscuits will forever remind me of London. Sigh.
• Christmas biscuit assortment - this musical tin played a music-box version of Jingle Bells and contained Christmas spice, lemon curd Picadilly, and traditional butter biscuits. The butter biscuits were very, well, buttery!
• White and amber F&M sugars - the perfect addition to a bitter tea, these individually-wrapped sugar wafers with F&M imprint were quite welcome...and cute! I guess the British use "amber" to denote brown sugar?
• Superb English creams - these dark-chocolate-covered candies blew me away. I've never really enjoyed American fruit creams, where the fruity filling usually looks like nougat and tastes like an artificially-flavored, overly saccharine marshmallow. Many American chocolatiers make this filling even more of an abomination by adding nuts. However, F&M's creams were filled with a substance I can only describe as a pleasantly sweet, crystalline version of the fruit, or bean, or root, they were meant to imitate. So, I tasted surprisingly robust forms of black currant, coffee, and ginger (to name a few), while enjoying the sensations of sugar dissolving on my tongue and rich dark chocolate melting in my mouth. Superb, indeed!
• Dark chocolate bar with rose and violet - ok, I haven't tried this yet...but if F&M's other chocolates are representative of this bar's quality, I will enjoy it thoroughly.
• Milk chocolate bar - repeat the above bullet's comments!
• Christmas spiced biscuits - these hearty biscuits were thick and chewy. They had plenty of spice flavor, and crumbled nuts plus bits of dates added textural variety. These treats really highlight the differences between English biscuits and American cookies. They're denser, creamier, less sweet, and more robustly flavored than the average cookie found on this side of the Pond.

I feel so lucky to have enjoyed this hamper, a delicious synthesis of childhood memories and present adventures! I'm pretty sure that Toad and the weasels would have approved. Both the packaging and the delights within surpassed all expectations.

While most of these treats may now be gone, the hamper will continue to serve us. My family has decided to make a tradition of filling the hamper each year! I can't wait to see what next Christmas will bring...

Pumpkin Spice Latte Cheesecake

The August arrival of Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte is at first an unwelcome harbinger of fall, but as the mornings grow crisper and the evenings grow darker I find myself embracing this coziest of espresso beverages. It seemed only natural to try and express the comfort of the milky liquid in the stability of a dairy solid - so, enter the Pumpkin Spice Latte Cheesecake.

I used this recipe, and followed it exactly for my first pass. I did not triple the cinnamon (gasp), as I could count on the extremely moist cheesecake environment to heighten all spices’ intensity. Also, the pumpkin and latte flavors are more important. I liked Sprinkle’s suggestion for “authenticity” and used the strongest Starbucks Via packets to suggest the latte’s espresso.

I was pleased with some aspects of this first pass. I particularly liked the crust, which is crafted from wheat flour, almond flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. It was dense and cookie-like, and the almond flavor gave it a nutty little twist. I had never used almond flour before this recipe, and had no idea that it was simply finely-ground almonds! Then, I liked the texture and mouthfeel of the cheesecake. It was smooth and creamy, but not too heavy. I could eat a slice without feeling belly-bombed. However, the original recipe calls for the separation of pumpkin and coffee.

The first issue with this was purely logistical. The pumpkin portion formed the majority / base of the cake, and the significantly smaller coffee portion was meant to be spread on top of the pumpkin layer. This may not be a problem for larger portions - layered cheesecakes are fairly common, after all - but it was difficult to spread the minimal amount of coffee-cheese mixture over the still-fluid pumpkin base. The final distribution was not as even as I would have liked. Secondly, such an approach seemed strange since the inspirational beverage's flavors are evenly mixed. The pumpkin part had a weak taste somewhere between pumpkin pie and plain cheesecake, and could have used something to kick it up a notch. The latte part was essentially espresso cream cheese, with more of a flavor punch than any espresso I’ve sipped. This flavor disconnect was, quite frankly, jarring, so I decided that any future attempt at this recipe would involve one mixture of…pumpkin spice latte cheesecake.

Fortunately, a pre-Thanksgiving potluck provided the perfect opportunity to re-test this recipe! I did not meddle with the already-perfect crust. Then, I threw all cheesecake ingredients together in one bowl while keeping the measurements the same. I am very glad I did this, as the end result was significantly superior to my first attempt. My test subjects...er, potluck attendees...definitely enjoyed it!

The cheesecake is a pretty brown latte color, with visible spice flecks. Flavor-wise, the pumpkin and coffee tastes integrate perfectly, and there's just a hint of spice to suggest the season. The mixture tames the overly assertive espresso flavor of the separate latte part, and is a much better approximation of Starbucks' fall treat. The pumpkin seems less wimpy when tasted in this context. So, the moral of this story is...if the drink is mixed, let its dessert be also!

We will see if these pages chronicle a future attempt at a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate or Peppermint Mocha dessert...