Dessert Offerings of 2015

In addition to the annual list of readers you know it’s also time for the annual list of desserts I had, the good, the bad, the ugly. And it seems fitting to post it on my birthday! Yay sweets! As you know I like to keep it honest. Life is too short for bad books and bad desserts.

Sweet Buttons Desserts – This place has been around for about 3 years in the Lower East Side. It’s in walking distances from Sugar Sweet Sunshine and they specialize in small treats. Passionfruit is one of my fave items on dessert and when done well in a tart it can be refreshing and perfect. Sweet Button’s had a great gelatin filling and thick buttery crust with meringue on top that was delectable and worth a winter splurge. I loved it big time. In fact I owe that place a visit.

Joyce Bakeshop – I partook in the strawberry croissant which was disappointing because it’s simply a croissant with strawberry preserves inside. However, the croissant itself was fantastic! Reminds you of what a good, homemade one tastes like versus the packaged ones you buy at the store. I can never go back to those. In addition I got a banana, nutella handpie which was meh. This may have been tastier warm and the pie crust was flaky yet had no distinctive flavor or sweetness. Too much nutella and not enough banana. Usually this combo is a great mix in a crepe. Upside the handpie was a solid size for the price.

Balthazar – They regularly deliver pastries there to one of my favorite tea houses in NYC, Serengeti Tea. The croissants are addictive and what a good French croissant should be. Buttery as heck, a slight sweetness, flaky like a friend of yours who always cancels last minute, and simply good. I stuff my mouth with it and a good Ethiopian chai as a treat to myself in winter. It’s one of the best things about winter. The canelle is a French mini bundt cake that is extra baked outside. With the alcohol inside (rum I believe) it gives it an almost chocolatey taste but is super soft inside.

Make My Cake – The oatmeal raisin cookie was what I got though I took out many raisins because raisins are not my thing. Of the cookies I purchased the oatmeal raisin was the best cookie of the bunch. Their coconut pecan one was hard and nondistinct, neither was another cookie I had. It may have been white chocolate macadamia nut. See? Not memorable. MMC is supposedly known for the cake so get that rather than the cookies. Though the cookies are cheap at 75 cents each if you’re on Frederick Douglass and tight on cash.

Levain Bakery – Their cookies are expensive but worth the price and walk to Levain over Make My Cake. I had the raspberry bomboloncini (Italian for ‘small donut’) twice. This is an Italian doughnut filled with raspberry preserves and covered in powdered sugar so it's a sugary mess. The first time I had it it was a treat, the second time it was a dry, hard mess that I threw out. It’s cheaper than other doughnuts at a $2.25 pricetag. So on a good day try it but on a bad one skip. Additionally I tried Levain’s cinnamon sugar brioche. Okay, not sweet as I was told and okay next day but something I wouldn't buy again. Their breads (banana, pumpkin) and cookies are the real draw. Though their signature walnut chocolate chip cookie seemed way undercooked when I had it again.

Londel’s – Noticing a trend in terms of Harlem eats? This is a restaurant where I had the peach cobbler during the AALBC party during BEA week. Fantastic crust. Fresh peaches (not canned) in a ramekin and I wanted more of this cinnamony syrupy goodness. To me, peach cobbler is only worth eating with fresh peaches, which is why I usually eat them, when offered, in spring/summer.

Little Cupcake Bake Shop – A worthwhile carrot cake cupcake! Thing is their buttercream icing is very buttery so overly sweet and stiff. Also had the vegan mango cupcake which was fantastic and had a passionfruit filling. This vegan dessert could compete with everything else I’ve had in it being super solid. Do not let the word ‘vegan’ scare you! As with the carrot cake the mango icing was very sweet but the cake was so good and moist that all this along with the passion fruit filling hit the spot. Loved! Great summery cupcake.

Nunu Chocolates - Handmade chocolates in Brooklyn. They were fine, however I wasn’t a huge fan of the ganache assortments. You can't choose what you'll get in a variety pack so you may be disappointed. A bit too sweet for some of the ganaches paired with the dark chocolate candy exterior.

Jam Jar (Pie or Cake) – I really wanted to like this. The packaging and design were so spot on as is the idea of dessert in a jar. It’s a big “thing” now. This is a small vendor who was at Smorgasburg over the summer. I chose the Flea Nut "pie." While her packaging is fantastic, colorful, vibrant, easy to read from afar, the Flea Nut was not. The brownie was too fudgy (read undercooked) for me and the chocolate was subpar, way too sweet, sweeter than anything I've ever had really, which makes me think it wasn’t fine chocolate but some cheap variety that’s more sugar than cocoa. The texture of the cake was the same as the peanut butter on top making it super heavy to eat. So basically this was a fudgy brownie with peanut butter (which was good) on top and chocolate chips. Just too too rich and not a good balance. Perhaps her other pie/cake flavors work better but this one was not made with great ingredients and perhaps much of the money went into the packaging rather than the execution.

4&20 Blackbird – Tasted their caramel apple pie which was very, very good. Been awhile since I had a pie without a crumb topping that I enjoyed as much. I really need to get more of 4&20’s stuff, their menu is often filled with things I’d love. Why are they not in Queens?

Dessert Club ChiKaLicious – I tried their vanilla bean mille crepe cake which was fine. It’s half the price of Lady M's but a bit rich in the homemade vanilla bean cream which is delicious though a mille crepe cake shouldn't have the cream oozing out of it so much. The vanilla bean comes out well in the delicate whipped deliciousness of the cream. This cream is also used in the Dough'ssant which is supposedly a take on the Cronut. I didn't find that the croissant was too doughnut-like beyond the shape. I had the salted caramel and I think the salted caramel topping (which was a lot) overwhelmed the core taste of the croissant. It is filled (in the bottom) with the same vanilla bean cream and tastes delicious but again the salted caramel was overflowing on this one. I'd like to try the others on site and see how they compare as the croissant's texture was a fantastic flaky one.

Amy's Bread – I bought the lime cornmeal cookie. It was fine. And by fine I add a slight attitude to that. “How are you doing, Jenn?” “Fine.” My money could’ve gone to their coconut bar which is awesome. The cookie has lime zest that somewhat comes through and that’s one of the few shining things about that cookie that I can remember.

Butter & Scotch – As much as I love everything that comes out of this place the orange bun is okay. It’s a bit too orangey for my taste and not enough caramel evenly distributed, plus the pastry was a tad dry. Conversely, the key lime pie is the friggin' BEST! As always the pies come through big time in this place and even when sharing the key lime with friends they attested it was one of the best things they ever tasted.

La Gran Via Bakery – During the Sunset Taco crawl I bought their black & white cake. This was a mistake as it’s nothing special and reminded me of box cake (not to hate on box cake which can be quite tasty). This was a chocolate and yellow layer cake with "mousse" in between that didn't taste too mousse like but that may have been because it was out in the heat. Nothing special to write home about. If you want a cake fix this is affordable and a good portion but I'd save the calories for something more delicious.

Georgetown Cupcakes - Key lime cupcake. (I do like my citrus.) Solid cupcake and I see why people like it. Not the best of the best but this seems to be one of those touristy spots just like Magnolia. I’d visit Georgetown again (except for the annoying clientele of tourists, hipsters, teens, cash-laden types who push and shove to get through). Also the overall vibe is that of a cast of the CW rather than an NYC bakery. Anywho, cupcake was soft and had the necessary hint of lime in the cupcake, not hidden but there and not overly subtle. The cream was soft and not a mountain of it on the cupcake so a good balance and yes the lime was there too! A good size and $3 isn't a bad price tag.

Baked – They have a new Tribeca location! If I still worked there this’d be very dangerous. First up, the peanut butter milk chocolate chip cookie which wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Not bad but not sweet enough and I think they may have used some all natural/organic PB that took away from the peanut butter taste and was more like a peanut cookie with a lot of dark choco chips in it. Good chewy texture but not a fan. And its way too big considering. Also got zucchini nut bread which was solid! Next was the pumpkin muffin because pumpkin. Also good stuff! Super moist inside. Would buy that ten times over with their zucchini bread or any of their breads! Had a key lime bar that was perfection. Light and creamy and very citrusy in taste. Some of their other items are actually gaining steam over their brownies!

Macaron Parlour – Noticing a trend with this being an annual staple? I had the carrot cake macaron with cream cheese filling and holy crap it's just like a carrot cake. They did it again! Also had the candied bacon one with maple cream icing which was okay. The bacon overwhelmed the flavor of the macaron which I believe was caramel.

Craftsman & Wolves - During my San Francisco visit and Jackie suggested it. This place has a lot of fancy fare happening but I played it safe (and to be honest by the time I got their most of their stuff was sold out) and got a brownie with caramel and salted almonds that was a good size. Brownie was split in half and caramel & almonds a thin layer. Very good and not too chocolatey. I’m eager to see if I can try more from them my next time in San Francisco this year.

Dandelion Chocolate – Also in San Francisco. When I saw it I knew I had to try it and so I did it: the brownie bite flight. This was a solid life choice. My fave of the three was the Guatemalan one with notes of chocolate cookies. Since Dandelion is artisan made on the spot chocolate from various regions' cacao the chocolate was intense, not too much but definitely unique to each brownie in the flight and made you take notice. Second favorite was the middle one from Papau New Guinea and least (but good after tasting it more) was the last from Madagascar with dried cherry notes that hit you fast and settled down the more you let the chocolate linger. Super good. Their cinnamon chocolate roll with cocoa nibs not as much a life changer. There was no taste to the pastry, all I could taste was the cocoa nibs and even the cinnamon sugar gets lost. The pastry was a fine texture but again nothing stood out about the taste of it so I could barely remember this one. They also make their marshmallows on site and that was good stuff. Pure vanilla taste and I know this would go great in their homemade hot chocolate.

Psycho Donuts – Since I was in a doughnut mood and in San Jose I found the closest shop. The options were vast but I went with the Marla and also the Drunkin' Punkin'. Like a friend said if a place has that much on top of the donuts they may be overcompensating for something. The Marla was a fine yeast donut with no filling that had butterfinger crumble on top and a peanut butter drizzle. Not at all dry and combined some of my fave things. But the donut itself would have no discernable taste without the toppings. The Drunkin' Punkin' was a sad case. A cake donut that had NO pumpkin but pumpkin spices and really it tasted mainly of cinnamon not the pumpkin spice combo, sadly. It was dry-ish and the cream cheese icing on top hardened with a bourbon drizzle and pecans. Again if it weren't for the topping nothing would stand out and as a donut it's not at all enticing for pumpkin lovers. Super nice staff but they do not make their donuts onsite, they get shipped from elsewhere. Not the best donut game at all.

Spot Dessert Bar - Had the Kabocha Brulee cake. A warm caramelized pumpkin cake with cookie crumble and condensed milk ice cream. I ate this during BinderCon and by the time I got to it the ice cream was soup but tasty soup! I drizzled it over the pumpkin cake and it was delish so a necessary addition to the overall dessert. A flat and blech sugar cookie came with as decoration which you can forgo but the pumpkin cake has all the flavors of ACTUAL pumpkin (not just pumpkin spice) so that you can enjoy this dessert being filling but not overwhelming and having a firm custard delicacy to it. So far I have very much enjoyed Dessert Bar's desserts and those with Asian flair as well. I need to go there more often!

NYC French Macaron Crawl!

My friend Anna organized the first ever French Macaron Crawl in NYC last month! Well, it may not be the first ever, but it was the first I was privy to so we'll leave it at that. There are two variations of the macaron/macaroon. You may be more familiar with the coconut macaroon confection that is mainly American in nature. But the macaron looks like a sandwich cookie! It is a light cookie/cakey texture (meringue based as Wikipedia informs me) and has some creamy (often buttercream) goodness in the middle. When I first saw it I said "That looks like a mini pastel-colored hamburger!" And thus that's how I referred to them until I was corrected.

Anna was extremely organized about the whole thing. She made score sheets and also planned a logical route to the places we were headed. We started at Columbus Circle went to Herald Square then to Chelsea off to the Flat Iron District trek to the East Village and landed in Tribeca. (So freakin' logical I loved it!)

We started off with a good amount of people, about 10 or so. And we were all ready to be amazed!

Bouchon Bakery (Columbus Circle Mall)

I came late so I missed the array of treats purchased at this bakery. It was the most French-like so we expected it to be the most tasty and authentic. In the end it was the most expensive ($3), even if the macarons were a bit bigger than usual and offered little in variation from the basic flavors of lemon, chocolate, strawberry, lavendar, etc. So the consensus that I heard about Bouchon was it was "okay."

Macaron rating for this location: N/A

MacarOn Café (Herald Square)

Now, this is one of those tiny places that you can (and probably have) passed by and completely missed it. I've walked down that particular street going west several times and never even noticed it. The space is quite compact and intimate but very well lit with comfortable cushioned stools and a love seat in the back. Not the greatest space for almost a dozen crawlers, but great for a few friends just wanting to taste some macarons or have soup, salad, or sandwich.

Anna was kind enough to buy a dozen that we shared. We had four flavors: passion fruit, rose and lychee, coconut, and nutella. My favorites were the passion fruit and nutella. As far as I'm concerned nutella can do no wrong in anything. I detested the rose & lychee. It reminded me of that awful pink medicine I was made to take when I was sick as a child. And the doctor always said "It tastes like bubble gum, it'll be fine." Well, the doctor was a liar and it tasted nothing like bubble gum. It therefore became known in inner childhood circles as that nasty pink stuff. To date I can never take Pepto bismol because it reminds me too much of that yucky stuff.

Cut up pieces of macarons are available on the counter to sample and on the way out there was a peanut butter macaron that was delicious! The soft cookie part was a dark blue while the inside was peanut buttery goodness.

Macaron rating for this location: 6.5

Madeleine Patisserie (Chelsea)

We decided to walk off what we'd eaten thus far and head down Sixth Avenue towards our next location. It just so happened there was a street fair extending from 34th to 23rd Streets that day. Some of us briefly dropped off from the group to get dollar lemonades (or in my case a gyro) and some other goods. But we all made it to the latest location which is, yet again, a place I've passed many times and never noticed. I was shocked I never stopped and looked inside this lovely bakery. Not only did they have many French delicacies they had an astounding selection of macarons.

They even had a separate list with, I swear, at least a few dozen macaron flavors. Almost everyone was intrigued by the carmelized pear and purchased one. I also bought a mango one and caramel (I was highly disappointed they ran out of praline). Again, the fruit was one of my favorites! I liked carmelized pear but didn't love it. Though, it did remind me of pie which is never a bad thing. The caramel was incredibly sweet so if you love caramel you'll love this macaron. Some went for pink champagne or an expresso-like one and everyone seemed pretty psyched about the overall variety that was available here. Space was limited because the back area was pretty much taken over by earlier crowds and at one point it seemed the bathroom was out of commission but overall I'd definitely come back and see how the other confections stand up. And perhaps they'll have the praline macaron next time also.

Macaron rating for this location: 8.5

L.A. Burdick (Flat Iron District)

This next place was a nice pit stop and also offered other things besides macarons. Anna had been here when she was in Massachusetts I believe, so she was already familiar with the choices and tastes. The service was great and everyone was glad to sit down after standing in the previous location. There was complimentary water and I even got to indulge in my lamb gyro.

I was not too impressed by this place's macarons though. The macarons were tiny compared to the other locations and didn't seem worth the dollar I paid. The tastes were a bit heavy, the cookie/bun part was kind of hard, and the flavors limited here also. I'm not a huge fan of ginger so I was kind of put off by the overwhelming taste of it in my macaron. Of all I'd say this was my least favorite. But I'd come back to try some of their other offerings. Their cake in particular looked tasty and moist.

Macaron rating for this location: 5

Dessert Club Chikalicious (East Village)

By this point we lost two people due to sugar-induced fatigue and travel for a conference. But the rest of us were still up and running!

My buddy with Ramen&Friends blogged about Dessert Club Chikalicious and earlier that week I was there to try their brioche bread pudding, which was good. During that visit I happened to see they had macarons and informed Anna pre-crawl. So I was very happy she added it to the list!

At this point the heat may have been getting to us from walking in the sun and add on the fact that we'd been eating lots of sugar you can imagine how sluggish we were getting to this location. Dessert Club is also a pretty small spot, but had enough space for our group and a couple other patrons. I have to say it seems 'service with a smile' is lacking there so their food tends to make up for it.

The painted colors on these macarons were vibrant on the white backgrounds and the tastes strong yet not too strong--a good balance I'd say. My salted caramel macaron was soft and chewy and sweet with a tinge of saltiness. I really enjoyed it. Some others had the blueberry macaron and some the lemon. One member had the red velvet cupcake, which she said was very good. The prices and size for the macaron were reasonable and while they only offered a handful of options they were slightly different from other places which made the macarons interesting.

Anna then declared that we were hitting one last place. We lost about two more people in our group to go get protein and good carbs at this point and it was just six of us that were off to...

Macaron rating for this location: 7.5

Takahachi Bakery (Tribeca)

As a native New Yorker and someone who's learning to drive I realize my observational skills can use some tweaking. I admit I have tunnel vision when I walk. I look towards where I'm going and just happen to notice other places. Yet again, we arrived at a place I have passed a few times and never once noticed that there was a big Japanese bakery on the corner! Though Takahachi is relatively new so it may not have opened when I passed by.

This was yet another place Ramen&Friends reviewed and I mentioned it to Anna as she said she was interested in going there.

At this point everyone else dropped off on the macaron aspect of the crawl and ate savory goods. I was the lone person to purchase macarons and stayed with my safety, passion fruit. I also got a matcha one for Anna since it only seemed right the one who spearheaded the whole thing should try something from each and every location.

As people detoxed from the sugar we noticed how clean and futuristic the place looks. It was big enough for a group of a dozen or more and even seemed to be a nice spot for moms to bring their kids. They drew pictures of the food offerings on a big chalkboard in the back and patrons can see the chef making macarons or other food items on a TV. Helps you to know who's making what and how.

I liked the passion fruit macaron here and it was a decent size. I'd say it almost matched Bouchon's in size and was much cheaper. It was a light passion fruit taste which I liked and wasn't overly sweet. Takahachi also had a lot of baked goods and their cookies looked moist and chewy. I vowed I'd come back, especially since I work a few blocks north of it and go to the library on the same block on occasion.

Macaron rating for this location: 7.25

After that we all headed off to either nap or full on sleep in the comforts of our bed. I had high hopes of exercising that never came to fruition. Luckily, the day wasn't humid but sunny and pleasant and we were all in good spirits though probably a tad bit dazed. It was a great crawl and major thanks and props to Anna for organizing it! I look forward to next year's and hope to see more crawls for varied foods in the very near future.