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.

Sweet Freak Smackdown: Bread Alone v. Our Daily Bread

I walk through the Union Square Greenmarket at least once a week, and have been known to get a loaf of whole wheat levain and eat it in a day. Sure, that shows a basic lack of self-restraint. Unless you consider that when I'm purchasing my loaf—either at Bread Alone or Our Daily Bread, my two favorites—I deliberately ignore the cookies, muffins and scones waving at me while the vendors are making change.

But now on this chocolate chip cookie craze, I decided it was time for a Greenmarket smackdown: Bread Alone versus Our Daily Bread.

The cookies are sized similarly (and generously) - about 4" diameter, though Bread Alone is a titch bigger. A little more expensive, too, at $1.50 a pop. Our Daily Bread bundles cookies into threes, sold for $2.50. Bread Alone offers only oatmeal chocolate chip; Our Daily Bread does the classic—no oats, no nuts. Both use organic ingredients, including unbleached flour.

So they're similar. But different. How do they compare?

Bread Alone
This is one tough, little cookie. It's firm and textured. With the density of the batter and plentiful oats and chocolate chips, you get the sense that it's good for you—like a health nut would serve it up.

Our Daily Bread
Light and cakey, this one is a more nostalgic variety. Like the neighborhood mother hen baked it.

Verdict
Such different chocolate chip cookies, it's a tough call. But there's something pleasingly satisfying about the oatmeal chocolate chip from Bread Alone. While Our Daily Bread's cookie is everything you imagine it to be—simple, chewy batter punctuated by sweet chocolate chips—Bread Alone ekes out winning points for its dense, chockfull texture.

The mixing bowl: Benjamin Van Leeuwen

Let's hear it for principles! The only thing that makes sweets better is when smart, compassionate people that you actually want to sit around the kitchen table with create them. Like Ben Van Leeuwen—who sometimes caves in to Heinz ketchup, but is otherwise devoted to purely unmolested products.


Growing up, my favorite sweet was:
Chocolate croissant

My favorite sweet now is:
Hot fudge sundae

My personal Van Leeuwen flavor:
Chocolate

What I love about being mobile is:
Not paying rent and being able to put the savings into the best ingredients and earth-friendly packaging.

Truffles or pralines:
Truffles

White, milk or dark:
Milk, actually.

Caramel, ganache or cream:
Caramel

The perfect pairing:
Espresso ice cream, fudge and cocoa nibs.

Kitchen essentials:
Real balsamic vinegar, grape-seed oil, shallots, 2-3 artisan cloth bound cheddars, 1 English cheddar for grilled cheese, mushrooms, ginger.

Pastry chefs I admire:
Not exactly a pastry chef, but Michael London, from Saratoga Springs.

I'm most inspired when:
I taste incredible food.

Favorite movie snack:
Popcorn

Guilty pleasure:
Enjoying Heinz ketchup with french fries, even though it has high fructose corn syrup.

Two scoops, please

How often do you meet an enterprising 24-year-old who's adorable, gracious and a talented ice cream maker?

Meet Ben Van Leeuwen. He used to drive a Good Humor truck, but this summer got his own wheels. Now he has two creamy-colored trucks from which to peddle his creamy-rich ice cream.

He talks in a singsong voice, with a smile, and believes in quality and sustainability as much as making you flip over dessert. His custard base is made with hormone- and antibiotic-free milk and organic eggs and sugar. The cups and spoons are made from sugar cane husk and corn husk, respectively. Perfect.

And then there are the ingredients. Most ice cream makers wouldn't invest the time to research and source the freshest, most flavorful ingredients, nor would they pay for them. But Van Leeuwen uses stuff like Michel Cluizel chocolate, Piedmont hazelnuts, fair trade Columbian coffee, and oak barrel aged vanilla.


It makes all the difference. The ice cream is dense, the flavors are pure, and the quality is unmistakable.