28 days of hot chocolate

Step right up. It’s Hot Chocolate Festival time!

For the next 27 days, you can sample something different from City Bakery’s annual deluge of fun, funny, inspirational and always delicious cocoa flavors.

 

You can get it with a homemade marshmallow to stay.

Or take it to go.

I’m especially keen for banana peel (today and the 23rd), caramel (the 3rd), bourbon (8th), black rum & cinnamon (22nd) and the ode to the polar bear (27th). What about you?

If it's cold, it must mean hot chocolate

It's winter, for sure. The days are short and, now, cold. Which means, times for City Bakery hot cocoa.

I was all too happy to indulge in my first cocoa of the year with Mademoiselle Lindsey.

Have you had your first cup of the season? If so, where??

The beauty of City Bakery

Now that the Hot Chocolate Festival is over (what flavors did you try?), let’s focus on the many splendored treats that riddle City Bakery on any given day.

If I visit on a Monday, I might have to indulge in the divine vegan sesame banana cakes.

The scones are good as far as scones go, but for my money, I’d go for the pretzel croissant. A City treasure for sure.


Then again, there’s French toast. French toast is never the wrong choice.


One of my favorite cookies in the city is the compactly potent peanut butter cookie. Heavenly.

Though the reverse chocolate chip cookies are pretty good too.

Pain au chocolat…


Bran and corn muffins…

You tell me: what's it going to be this weekend?

Last minute but rich and delicious

Vite, vite! Looking for a killer Valentine’s gift today in Manhattan? Here are decadent pick-me-ups from all over town.

• Warm pain au chocolate at Patisserie Claude (there’s still time to serve it in bed!)
• Petit fours from Three Tarts (Chelsea)
• Champagne chocolate chip cookies from Ruby et Violette (Hell’s Kitchen)
• Chocolate skulls from Bond Street Chocolate (East Village)
• Love potion hot chocolate at City Bakery (Flatiron)
• Passion fruit macarons from Bosie Tea Parlor (West Village)
• Red velvet bundt cakes at Make My Cake (Harlem) and cupcakes at Amy’s Bread (Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, West Village)
• A giant box of assorted bonbons from Kee’s (Soho)

20th Annual Hot Chocolate Festival

I missed meeting Bennie for a cup of banana peel hot cocoa yesterday. But I got to City Bakery’s Hot Chocolate Festival kickoff Wednesday morning—the 20th anniversary, no less—and indulged in sunken treasure hot cocoa—little extra bits of sweetness and chocolate at the bottom of your cup (miam).

No surprise, it was rich and decadent and the perfect way to start my day (and have you ever tried dipping a banana into your cocoa? Breakfast of champions, I tell you).

Here are my top five flavor picks for the remainder of the month:

• Bourbon hot chocolate (Friday the 10th)
• Caramel hot chocolate (Saturday the 11th)
• On a peanut butter barge hot chocolate (Saturday the 18th)
• Ode to the polar bear hot chocolate (Wednesday the 22nd)
• Chinese cinnamon hot chocolate (Saturday the 25th)

Find the full flavor roster and pick your favorites, here.

What didn’t I eat in Paris?

Well, I sort of went a little crazy. I had my beloved praluline from Pralus.

La Folie from La Patisserie des Reves.

I picked up an apricot-pistachio escargot from a local boulangerie. Pourquoi pas?

That was after my second almond croissant from Eric Kayser.

My first almond croissant was from Boulangerie Gosselin.

Then there were my beautiful chocolate chip cookies from Lola's.

And chocolat chaud in the tearoom of Angelina.

I didn't skimp on dessert either. Le pain perdu...

... and a Grand Marnier soufflé. Miam.

However, I never did get my Nutella crepe.

Old-fashioned at Angelina

Did you know that you can now get Angelina’s chocolat chaud, in a bottle, to go? C’est vrai.

But moi, I’ll take mine in the tea room. With the other tourists. Sipping my chocolat à l’ancienne l’Africain in unhurried happiness.

It is so thick and rich and indulgent that I could forgo dessert (and how often does that happen??).



The vanilla bourbon millefeuille and ginza natsu.


The strawberry-pistachio religeuse and the raspberry lavender Olympe.


Even the signature Mont Blanc (as cool looking as they are, I’m just not a fan).

Oui… the chocolat chaud was really all I needed.

My top 10 all-time favorite sweets in Paris

Though, I think you’d agree, this is an unfair list. An impossible task. There is no limit to the to-die-for deliciousness on every block in Paris. To try to select only 10 is a cruel challenge. But if I had to choose… 10 sweets I wouldn’t want anyone to miss… I would start with:

• A good, ole piping-hot oozing Nutella and banana street crepe.

• La Folie at La Patisserie des Reves: The heft and texture are pure magic. The doughy, whipped brioche is piped full of vanilla pastry cream that has a hint of rum raisin. Topped with praliné crumble and a touch of confectioner’s sugar. Unbelievable.

• The obscenely addictive Praluline from Pralus. Buttery, chewy, crunchy, sweet but a titch savory, caramelized—what doesn’t this beauty have?

• The sweet little strawberry Coeur from Coquelicot. Relatively modest in size—just 4-5 bites—it’s also sweet and fruity and has a pitch-perfect texture that’s both spongy and moist.

• A chocolate éclair from Stohrer. The crisp pastry shell envelopes an uber generous chocolaty custard filling and is slapped with a sweet chocolate glacage. It’s a serious sugar rush in the best way.

• Angelina’s stick-to-your-ribs chocolat chaud. It’s like sipping melted truffles. In a tearoom that Coco Chanel used to frequent.

• Speaking of truffles, Jean-Paul Hevin’s truffles are le mieux. And his mendiants. And his cakes. Hevin = heaven.

• The rice pudding at Chez l’Ami Jean. I never would have thought I’d care a lick about rice pudding. Last year’s dinner at Café Constant made me reconsider. And a later dinner at Chez l’Ami Jean changed everything. Served in a massive bowl with sides of candied granola and salted caramel cream, this is an unforgettable dessert.

• The Plenitude Individuel from Pierre Hermé. While his macarons are, oui, divine, this little cake is transporting. Fluffy chocolate mousse under a dark chocolate shell. Kissed by salted caramel. Adorned with tiles of more chocolate. It’s gorgeous, exquisite and delicious.

• The almond croissant from Boulangerie Julian. When Bennie and I split this, we were giggling in the middle of rue Saint-Honoré. Fresh and flaky, slightly chewy and caramelized at the edges, heavy with almond paste and lightly dusted with powdered sugar and slivered almond. I mean, how can something taste so good??

$50 lighter at Jacques Torres

All I wanted at Jacques Torres was a little cocoa.

But how was I was supposed to resist?

Chocolate-covered Cheerios, chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate-covered espresso beans…



Chocolate chip cookies, chocolate mudslide cookies and chocolate bark…


And bonbons infused with booze, fruit, and nuts.




All I wanted was a little cocoa.

But I should know myself better by now. It's an affliction.