Double chocolate is double joy

When one of your favorite pastry chefs insists that you try a cookie, you try a cookie. That’s how I found myself with a 10-ounce “very dark and full of chocolate chunks” cookie from Max Brenner in my hand.

Pichet Ong, pastry chef of the once-was, soon-to-be-again delicious bakery Batch, is currently revamping the dessert menu for the international chocolate chain. After a much-too-healthy lunch together, he kept insisting that I try a dessert. I was honestly stuffed and kept demurely declining, but on the way out, I was finally persuaded (Shocking, I know). I opted the double chocolate chip cookie, and it was nothing short of heaven.

It was as rich and chocolaty as you’d expect. But the texture—at turns melty and crunchy—was better than I ever could have hoped for. Lots of chocolate chunks, indeed.

Luckily I had Alex’s help to power through this beast. It’s a beautiful cookie, but a bit much for one belly, no matter how well versed in rich chocolate it is.

A plus tard, New York

New York, it’s been sweet. You will always own my heart. But Paris has my soul, and I’m going over to live there for awhile.


I’m going to miss my very best favorites—Batch, Bespoke, Kee’s, Momofuku—and I will be late to some new discoveries. But I will be back, with skat, and hungry to explore.

Sweet Freak Smackdown: East vs. West

The Willage has always been my go-to neighborhood for sweets. But, like a dark horse, the East Village has come from nowhere with chocolate, cookies and cupcakes of heroic portions and flavors.

So, which side of town is the best sweets destination? A Sweet Freak Smackdown:

The dessert bar & spin-off:
p*ong and Batch v. ChikaLicious and ChikaLicious Dessert Club

I've always been a sucker for Pichet Ong's sweet-savory combinations. It started at p•ong with a three-course dessert-as-dinner feast: a walnut-crusted Stilton cheese soufflé with basil-arugula ice cream, a chevre cheesecake croquette and a malted chocolate Bavarian tart served with crunchy caramelized bananas. And my love for his cupcakes—carrot salted caramel, chocolate dragon devil's food cake and others—is no secret. I have an affliction.

But at the original dessert bar, ChikaLicious, Chika and Don Tillman are hardly slouches. Their three-course prix fixe menu starts with an amuse, ends with petit fours, and includes your choice of a gorgeous dessert like brown sugar panna cotta served with grape sorbet, warm chocolate tart with pink peppercorn ice cream and red wine sauce, or fromage blanc island cheese cake served atop a mound of shaved ice. And, knowing that Sweet Freaks sometimes like a treat on the run, their Dessert Club offers heavenly cupcakes, bread puddings and chocolate chip cookies.

Verdict: West Village
At the end of the day, my heart belongs to Pichet.


Cupcake central:
Magnolia v. Butter Lane

We can thank Magnolia (sincerely or facetiously) for taking us on this national cupcake binge. When I first moved to Manhattan, there were no annoying lines at the West Village bakery (just cranky employees) and I quickly became a fan of the ultra sweet pastel cupcakes. Then I got a little sugared out.

Thank goodness new cupcake stations, like the East Village's Butter Lane, have toned down the sweetness and introduced super fine ingredients like French buttercream, farm fresh eggs and pure vanilla. This three-month-old cupcake-only bakery does the neighborhood proud.

Verdict: East Village
Butter Lane kicks butt.


Cookie monsters:
Milk & Cookie v. Momofuku

I really think cookies are my all-time favorite sweet. Classic chocolate chip is hard to beat, but I'm always hungry for experimentation.

I love that Milk & Cookies lets you create your own flavors with killer ingredients like hazelnuts from Bazzini and E.Guittard chocolate, not to mention cappuccino chips, M&Ms and cranberries. Their variety is impressive; quality, top-notch; and the place is just cute.

But, um, Momofuku? Best. Cookies. Ever.

Verdict: East Village
Momofuku's blueberry cream and cornflake marshmallow chocolate chip cookies seal the deal.


For the chocoholic:
Pure Dark & Li-Lac v. Bespoke & Bond Street

Both Villages have seen a lot of chocolate action lately. Alison Nelson's Chocolate Bar spent seven years on Eighth Avenue before high rents last year sent her across town to East Seventh Street. But the East wasn't as kind and just six months later, she closed. Sad, but… she's going to reopen right across the street from her original shop in the West Village.

In the meantime, Pure Dark opened on Bleecker (house specialty: create your own bark with mix-ins like cacao nibs, mango and macadamia nuts), joining Willage staple Li-Lac.

On the eastern side of town, Bond Street Chocolate, home of the gold-dusted deities and tequila truffles, opened on Fourth Street, followed by Bespoke, where you can get the most divine melt-in-your-mouth truffles.

Verdict: East Village
Between Bespoke's strawberry balsamic truffle and Bond Street's chocolate-covered corn nuts, I have my sweet, salty and sour chocolate needs met.

Overall verdict:
East beats West!

Another swoon-worthy cupcake

Some people say “Jump” and you say “How high?” Some bakeries announce new cupcakes and you think, “How soon can I be there?” (Or is that just me?)

After hearing about Batch’s new pumpkin rum raisin, cranberry coconut, bacon caramel and drunken peppered pear flavors, I had to stop by. Well, I was in the Willage after all.

I did refrain from getting multiple cupcakes, and went straight for the peppered pear.

It mixes sweet pear flavor, a spicy aftertaste and there’s an Amaretto kick baked inside. It’s delicious.

I never want to see the carrot salted caramel go away, but this is a nice alternative.

Get the goods, make the goods

Now that you're in a Thanksgiving dinner food coma, shall we contemplate dessert?

These favorite NYC bakers and pastry chefs have new cookbooks out. Drop one in your shopping cart this season.

My very own batch

Look at this gorgeous carrot and salted caramel cupcake. Delicious, no?


Instead of just inhaling it, I made it.

I had the fun and honor of baking with Pichet Ong the other night. We made chevre cheesecake parfait, apple tartlettes, stilton soufflés with basil and arugula ice cream and, my favorite, the cupcake, which in addition to its beautiful caramel frosting tinged with vanilla and coffee, had a lime cream cheese filling.

The cupcake was then sprinkled with Maldon salt—as are many of Pichet’s desserts. His philosophy? “When you add salt, your mouth is watering and you can taste everything a little more.”

A few other kitchen tips I learned:

• Instead of dumping your spices into the dry ingredients, like most traditional baking recipes advocate, add them to the fats—the butter and oil—so the flavors are absorbed and more pronounced in the finished good.

• “Only use unsalted butter. Salted butter doesn’t have the full potential of flavor; it tastes flat.”

• The longer you cream your buttercream frosting, the fluffier it will be.

• On the act of frosting: “I start with a lot and then remove,” Pichet says. He also likens it to “the ultimate spa experience—it’s therapeutic, you can have intimate conversations while doing it, you can listen to Madonna…”

The class was through ICE, but Pichet’s promising to offer his own, so keep your eyes and ears open. And, while you’re at it, be on the lookout for his limited edition pumpkin cupcakes. He also promised that they’re delicious, and I have no reason to doubt him on that.

Slipping toward gluttony

One word for the banana cupcake at Batch:

Back at Batch

There is a powerful magnetic force at Batch. Any time I am in the Willage, it pulls. And the closer I am to 10th Street, the stronger the force, the weaker my resistance, and I end up standing out front, staring in the window like a sad puppy in the rain. The place renders me pathetic.

This weekend I duped a couple friends into going with me so I could sample more cupcake flavors. (I can even post their photo since they won't be reading this.)

As much as I wanted the strawberry rhubarb cupcake that I fell for a couple months back, I went with the chocolate green tea. AJ demonstrated her loyalty to banana cake by ordering a banana cupcake. And Ben got the carrot salted caramel, which made me happy because there are few things better.

Pichet's cake is always perfectly moist, and the frosting is generously and gorgeously spread on without overpowering the cake. I will say I prefer the cupcakes at room temp, so give yours some warm-up time after emerging from the refrigerated display case. And eat a chocolate chip cookie while you wait.

150B West 10th Street
212.929.0250

The mixing bowl: Pichet Ong

The master maestro of unconventional pairings and absurdly delicious desserts and baked goods, Pichet Ong makes New Yorkers proud. Here's a taste of what he loves best.

Growing up, my favorite sweet was:
Marmalades of any kind. I always start off every morning with a spoonful of fruit jam. I'm particularly fond of strawberry. However if you don't consider that to be a sweet, then I'd have to say chocolate chip cookie.

My favorite sweet now is:
Chocolate chip cookie still. Always have a batch in the freezer ready to be baked, at home, and at Batch! And ice cream — rum raisin.

My personal favorite from Batch:
My favorite changes day to day depending on whatever is the newest thing in the case, today it's the apricot filled chocolate cupcake with green tea frosting.

What I love about the West Village is:
The charm of neighborhood, the culture of its residents, the style of architecture, the street names, the chaos of how the streets converge, the easy access to Chinatown, Soho, meatpacking, and Chelsea, the boutiques on Bleecker, and of course, all the chefs who have restaurants in West Village.

Truffles or pralines:
Truffles

White, milk or dark:
Very often milk, but also very often dark.

Caramel, ganache or cream:
Cream

The perfect pairing:
Strawberries and cream, peaches and cream, passionfruit and chocolate, sugar & salt.

I'd love to create a flavor for:
A universal palate.

Kitchen essentials:
Whisk, offfset spatula, rubber spatula, and spoons.

Style essentials:
Expensive jeans, old t-shirts from high school (amazingly still fit!), designer underwear, comfortable shoes, a supersized man bag, and diamond rings.

Pastry chefs I admire:
Too many to mention.

I'm most inspired when:
There is beauty.

How much is too much?
Never too much.

Favorite movie snack:
Popcorn and chocolate, sparking water.

Guilty pleasure:
Foie gras

Other favorites:
Chinese, Japanese, & Italian foods; haute Chinese cuisine; autobiographies; urban culture; Scandinavian design; road trips, cruises, big cities/country; electronica/dance music, Madonna.

Second helpings

There's nothing like prolonging dessert. Here are Brownie's 5 Favorite NYC Sweets:


1) Chocolate Fondue from The Chocolate Room in Park Slope — I love the Chocolate Room. It's my go-to romantic dessert place. Everything on their menu is chock-full o' chocolate-y goodness and their chocolate fondue is absolutely terrific. You get a plate of fresh fruit usually strawberries, pineapple and bananas, little pieces of light and buttery pound cake, a couple homemade marshmallows and a nice sized pot of fondue made from 60% Belgian chocolate. At $14, it's the priciest thing on the menu, but it's ample to share with a date.



2) Liege Wafel with Belgian Chocolate Sauce and Whipped Cream from Wafels and Dinges — I've always loved waffles but Wafels and Dinges introduced me to what a real Belgian waffle could be. Slightly dense and chewy with little bursts of crystallized sugar in every bite their Liege Wafels are a must for me. And what goes better on a Liege Wafel than a generous helping of dark Belgian chocolate fudge and whipped cream?

3) Plain Fro-yo from Forty Carrots at Bloomingdales — I like my fro-yo to be tart and fresh, not overly sweet or processed tasting. I've tried all the heavy hitters and not so heavy hitters in the fro-yo leagues and plain Frogurt reins supreme. Once confined only to Bloomies and Café Lalo on the Upper West Side, Frogurt is beginning to pop up in more places throughout the city. But if you have a Frogurt problem like, um…me, you might want to join the Forty Carrots Yogurt Club. After 7 fro-yos, you get a free one with one topping.

4) Lemon Lemon Lemon Cupcake from Batch — I love all sorts of cupcakes from the low end fresh from the box Funfetti to the higher end confections you get now get at some of New York's most chichi restaurants. Pichet Ong's new bakery, Batch, makes a Lemon Lemon Lemon cupcake that's I've recently become very fond of. The cupcake itself is moist and almost as light as an angel food cake. The frosting was sweet and the lemon filling was nice and tangy. The Lemon Lemon Lemon Cupcake is a bit smaller and pricier than its neighbors at Magnolia, but in terms of quality it's worlds apart and well worth it.

5) Red Velvet Custard from Shake Shack — I've been a big fan of the Shack for a long time. I used to tend to get their concretes (shakes with lots of delicious mix-ins), but lately their special custards have been too good to pass up. Last month they made a Red Velvet Custard that was to die for. Oh man, the custard was a tangy vanilla base reminiscent of traditional Red Velvet cream cheese frosting and it didn't just have little Red Velvet crumbles, oh no, there were serious chunks of Red Velvet cake. I don't know when it will return to the custard rotation, but I'm hoping it will be soon.

Obsesssion of the week: Unusual pairings

I haven’t been able to get Batch off my mind and only wish I made a commission for every Sweet Freak I sent to the bakery. Pichet is the master of sweet-savory concoctions. Who else would marry salted caramel frosting with carrot cake?

Then there’s the sweet-salty combo of Mast Brothers’ Fleur de Sel chocolate bar. It’s 81% cacao infused with flecks of salt, awakening taste buds all over the tongue.

And while lavender might make you think of potpourri and chamomile, granny tea, when the two flavors are put together as they are in Amai’s cupcake, it makes for a lovely-weather indulgence.

Batch-tastic

I can’t even get over the deliciousness of Pichet Ong’s cupcakes at Batch. Just looking at these photos, you can tell these have “it.” They’re home-baked. Use real ingredients. Are carefully considered. And generously constructed.

The carrot & salted caramel is creamy and savory with carrot shreds in the batter and salt flakes on the frosting. The strawberry rhubarb combines bright, fruity flavors that pop and dance all over the palette. I love the unexpected filling — not like a massive dollop of sweet frosting, but just a simple complement to the cake and frosting. Genius.

And they're expertly crafted. The baker takes the time to frost these as they should be frosted: with a heavy hand and an eye for detail.

While the carrot cupcake made Ong's Top 5 must-eat list, the strawberry did not. Here are his picks:

1) Chocolate chip cookie

2) Chocolate dragon devil’s food cupcake

3) Ovaltine pudding

4) Pasionfruit rice pudding

5) Carrot & salted caramel cupcake



150B West 10th Street
212.929.0250

Obsession of the week

This week clearly was all about cupcakes.

It started with the Buttercup / Billy’s Smackdown. Continued with a stop at Out of the Kitchen. Then today, I had a couple of the most heavenly flavors yet.

I visited Keavy at Brooklyn’s Brownstoners Flea Market and had a Kumquat strawberries and cream mini cupcake. Two bites of strawberry-wow flavor. And then onto Batch in the West Village. At Mr. Ong’s suggestion, I tried the carrot and salted caramel cupcake, which was, yes, divine. But the new strawberry frosting/rhubarb filling is even better. Such vibrant, fruity flavors. And the cake and frosting have that beautiful home-baked texture and density.

Instead of being cupcaked out, I’m dying for more Kumquat and Batch.