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!

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?