[Photo: Robyn Lee]

Husband-and-wife team Maria Fernanda and Alvaro Elias didn't find a place in New York where they could buy their beloved chocolate of their native Venezuela; so they started their own Venezuelan chocolatier, Tu Chocolate. We recently sampled five of their bars and, for the most part, genuinely liked what we tasted.

The chocolate itself is excellent: rich in flavor; slow and smooth to melt on the tongue. So it's not too much of a surprise that our favorite bars were the simplest. Milk Chocolate with Almonds and Sea Salt ($5) had plenty of each, and the ample salt against the rich chocolate made for a memorably good bite; Dark Chocolate with Pecans, Hazelnuts and Toffee Almonds ($5) was much the same. While we didn't dislike the Dark Chocolate with Ginger, Sesame Seeds and Green Tea ($5), we found its taste much more ginger than either sesame or green tea. And the curry in the Dark Chocolate with Cashews, Curry and Pepper ($5) was a little jarring against the rest of it.

The most fun might be the option to customize your own ($6). Choose your base (73.5% dark chocolate, 41% milk, or white) and add up to four toppings—nuts, spices, seeds, and the like. Dark chocolate with pretzels, coffee beans, hazelnuts and sea salt? Don't mind if we do...

Tu Chocolate

Available in stores and at tuchocolate.com

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

We're big fans of San Francisco chocolatier Michael Recchiuti, so we weren't surprised that we loved their line of chocolate bars—both the four they've had in circulation for awhile, and four newer ones.

What all the bars have in common is how smooth they feel on the tongue; they soften slowly and evenly, melting smoothly, letting you savor with no chewing required. It's an especially nice quality when the bars are studded with little bits— nibs or nuts or bits of fruit. The chocolate melts around them, so that the almond slivers, say, aren't too obvious as first but end up the last bits left behind.

The hazelnut has the pure, toasty flavor of well-integrated roasted hazelnuts, giving you a bar that's what we always hope Nutella will taste like (though it never does). We loved the way the caramel-coated, salty nuts contrasted with the smooth, just a little sweet dark milk chocolate, both there and in the Almond bar—if some parts of our bar were pretty almond-scarce. (I'm also a huge fan of Recchiuti's chocolate-covered almonds; more on that another time.)

The only one we didn't love was the Orchard, almost like a trail mix embedded in chocolate; no problem with the currants, mulberries, and toasted almond pieces on their own, we just didn't really think they came together as a coherent treat. But the Sesame Nougatine Bar was our favorite of all, tiny clusters of toasted sesame seeds with sugar and salt, their distinctive flavor just a nutty, salty background in some bites, the sesame clusters out in full force

Of the originals, we're kicking ourselves for not discovering the Féve earlier. The bar has little bits of cocoa nibs that crunch as you bite in, their characteristic earthy, husky bitterness mellowed out by Recchiuti's bittersweet chocolate (which seems downright sweet in comparison). Bittersweet, Semisweet, and Dark Milk aren't bad bets, either.

At $6 each they're not really afternoon snack material, but as a gift or an occasional treat, we'd heartily endorse them.

Michael Recchiuti

recchiuti.com

About the author: Carey Jones is the Editor of Serious Eats New York and co-editor of Serious Eats: Sweets. Follow her on Twitter (@careyjones).

[Photo: Robyn Lee]

When Morning Glory Confections promises vivid, unique flavors in their artisan brittles, they deliver. These brittles go way beyond peanut and cashew, with flavors like New Mexico Chili and Pumpkin Seed or Chai Tea and Cashew. All of the different brittles were consistent in texture: crumbly, sticky, but not stick-in-your-teeth or impossible to chew. We tried 9 different varieties, each with different nuts and spices, and enjoyed some of the inventive flavor combinations more than others; for instance, Thai Curry and Peanut certainly lived up to its name, but tasted strongly of lemongrass at first and was ultimately too spicy to qualify as a sweet treat.

Some of our favorites were the Chai Tea and Cashew, with a good fall flavor that reminded everyone of gingerbread; Chocolate Bourbon and Pecan was warm, syrupy, and delicious—it would be great crumbled over some vanilla ice cream. The Chocolate Alderwood Smoked Salt and Peanut was memorable for its perfect balance of sweet and salty. And an exotic variety that we felt really stood out was Indian Curry Pistachio, which was more smoky than hot, and tasted kind of like a mole sauce.

Morning Glory Confections

morninggloryconfections.com

[Photograph: Alice Gao]

Just two years ago, Kristin Lee Godburn left a fast-paced job in investment baking to put on a kitchen apron. After attending the French Culinary Institute, she honed her baking chops while working with the cupcake folks of Robicelli's in Brooklyn, and then launched her sweets company Kitty Lee Thomas.

She makes cookies and other treats, but we're here to talk about marshmallows. She has quite the eclectic marshmallow menu, including flavors like Toasted Coconut, S'mores, Rocky Road, and Fluffernut. They're fancied-up marshmallows that serve as desserts on their own.

The Fluffernut marshmallow may remind you of tempura, with a delicate banana-chip and peanut butter shell enveloping a fluffy almond marshmallow at the center. The shell is the best part: nutty, crunchy, and nicely balanced in flavor.

The Cookies 'n' Cream version starts with a homemade vanilla bean marshmallow that's covered in chocolate cookie crumbs and dipped in dark chocolate. The cocoa content is high and the marshmallow has a satisfying, rich flavor. The cookie crumbs are finely ground so one bite sends down a prodigious shower of cookie crumbs—don't try to nibble these secretly, because the cookie-crumb trail will give you away.

$9 for a package of 4, $15 for 2 packages. Available online, or at several locations in New York.

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

The butternut squash seed oil by Stony Brook WholeHeartedFoods was Robicelli's oil of choice for their Butternut Spice Cupcake. Imagine a butternut squash cake base with vanilla buttercream and finish of spiced pumpkin seeds, and butternut squash seed oil. It's autumn in cupcake form.

Savory sweets are hardly new, but Finger Lakes-based Stony Brook takes it up another level with their new line of squash oils. Each of the five nutty oils (Acorn, Kabocha, Delicata, Butternut Squash, and Pumpkin Seed) is composed of the oils from the roasted squash seeds and nothing else.

The roasted pumpkin seed oil is incredible when drizzled over a simple scoop of vanilla ice cream and finished with a touch of Maldon salt. Substitute some of the oil in your cake and quick bread recipes with the butternut squash seed oil. Savory applications are of course endless, but I'm saving my bottles for dessert.

Stony Brook WholeHeartedFoods

wholeheartedfoods.com

About the author: Originally from Honolulu, Kathy YL Chan writes A Passion For Food, where she chronicles her eats and travels adventures between Hawai'i, New York and beyond. She firmly believes that there is always room for dessert.

[Photograph: Alice Gao]

Perhaps you're hosting a Halloween party, and you've focused so much on your costume (or your dog's costume) that you don't have time to fuss with food. You'd love to have seasonally-appropriate baked goods, but you threw out your pumpkin-shaped cake tin in a fit of ruthless kitchen reorganization? No worries—Cranberry Island Kitchen in Portland, Maine has your autumn whoopie pies ready to go.

There are bats with a subtle cocoa flavor and sweet vanilla filling, and adorable chubby pumpkins with a range of filling options. The espresso cream cheese filling is our favorite, a little less sweet than the classic vanilla. (The maple icing is really for those with a serious sweet tooth only.)

Thinking ahead to Thanksgiving? There are little turkey whoopie pies, too.

Cranberry Island Kitchen, available at online and at these stores in the Northeast.

[Photographs: Jessica Leibowitz]

Coffee cakes are cakes that you're allowed to eat for breakfast. (It's a thrill similar to eating omelets for dinner.) There are plenty of versions but I think we can all agree that what's really important are the crumbles on top. Who needs icing when you have butter-binded nuggets of brown sugar and oats? The cake part underneath is really just an excuse to eat those almighty crumbles, right?

At first when I looked at the coffee cake from Connie's Cakes, I was confused. No crumbs? The square-shaped cake, which fit perfectly into its box (no wasted space, as you might encounter with a circular cake), is covered in a layer of brown sugar and oats. But it's flat; no knobby crumbles.

Then you take a bite and realize there's a secret dimension underneath . Baked into the cake at the bottom of the pan is another, thicker layer of oats and brown sugar.

Flip over the cake; the sugar granules have a sweet crunch, the oats are plentiful, and the raisins are cinnamon-spiced. So maybe they're still not crumbles, but they do the job, and they come at you from both sides of the cake.

The cake itself is soft and falls apart at any nibble pressure, especially after a few minutes in the toaster oven as recommended on the box. Dave Evans, who started Connie's Cakes as a tribute to his late mother, also suggests a swipe of butter atop the warm cake. The recipe dates back to his childhood in Indianapolis. As proof, there's a black-and-white photo of him on the packaging as a wee lad pointing at cake. It's like they knew to snap that photo for marketing purposes years later.

Connie's Cakes are $24 for the 8-inch square cinnamon coffee cake. Dave is based in Fairfield County, Connecticut. He can hand-deliver them to anyone in the NYC area, or he'll ship anywhere in the United States. Order them here.

About the author: Erin is the national editor of Serious Eats. You can follow her on Twitter: @erin_zimmer

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

I don't believe I've ever seen one company make so many flavors of marshmallows, and in this case, it's an amazing, awesome thing. 240sweet is based in Columbus, Indiana where catering company partners Alexa and Samantha concocted these marshmallows for their customers.

The marshmallows come in two sizes, the standard (which are really jumbo) and petite puffs sold by the 8 ounce bag. These are the kind of treats you'll want stashed at your desk, where you'll eat them one by one until you've suddenly realized that the whole bag is gone.

My favorite is the Salty Caramel marshmallow with Maldon sea salt spun caramel woven through though the marshmallow base. The golden swirls and the occasional pocket of caramel tucked within alternating bites makes these truly special. The Banana Pudding flavor is also a crowd pleaser, with each puff dusted with crushed vanilla wafers. For those who love snickerdoodle cookies, the Elephant Ear marshmallows are not to be missed, the cubes rolled in a blend of beet sugar and Saigon cinnamon, memorably fragrant.

240sweet also has a line of seasonal marshmallows including Sweet Potato Marshmallows with tiny, tiny bits of candied ginger and a killer Bourbon Sugar Churro number. They age demerara sugar in a bourbon barrel and then mix it with cinnamon and use it to coat a goat's milk swirled vanilla marshmallow. All the flavors have different textures and density, some more chewy, others light and airy. Either way, they're just as good plain as they are toasted and sandwiched between two graham crackers, no chocolate required.

240sweet

About the author: Originally from Honolulu, Kathy YL Chan writes A Passion For Food, where she chronicles her eats and travels adventures between Hawai'i, New York and beyond. She firmly believes that there is always room for dessert.

[Photo: Jessica Leibowitz]

I don't usually think of olives as fruits, but you really appreciate that they are when you try Scourtins from Lark Fine Foods. These golden-brown, appealingly crumbly little wafers have olives baked right in.

The olives themselves have the concentrated sweetness of raisins or prunes, dark and complicated. While they may seem a little jarring at first (particularly if you give them a quick glance and expect chocolate), a lot of salt and a lot of butter help bridge that savory-sweet divide. The sweetness is there, but in the background. Lark calls themselves "Cookies For Grownups," and judging by these, that's about right.

Lark Fine Foods

larkfinefoods.com

About the author: Carey Jones is the Editor of Serious Eats New York and co-editor of Serious Eats: Sweets. Follow her on Twitter (@careyjones).

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

Kansas City Tea Cookies are addictive little nibbles. They come in individual 6 ounce bags from Best Regards Bakery based in Olathe, Kansas. They look a bit like Russian Tea Cookies or Mexican Wedding Cookies, those melt-in-your-mouth, powdered sugar dusted wonders, but they're also crunchy and immensely satisfying.

Each cookie is precisely sized for one bite, and they come in flavors like lemon (clean and summer-bright) and margarita. For a memorably rich bite, go for the Chocolate Truffle cookies, which bridge the gap between cookie and deep chocolate truffle with a confident crunch. My personal favorites, however, are the Snickerdoodle cookies, crisp throughout and ridiculously light, almost airy in texture. They're flavored with cinnamon and one surprise ingredient—apple cider! Make sure to keep these in the pantry for midnight snacks, and don't forget a glass of milk.

Kansas City Tea Cookies by Best Regards Bakery

About the author: Originally from Honolulu, Kathy YL Chan writes A Passion For Food, where she chronicles her eats and travels adventures between Hawai'i, New York and beyond. She firmly believes that there is always room for dessert.

[Photograph: Jessica Leibowitz]

These are a treat for whisky lovers only. Not too sweet, but plenty strong, these Scotch-infused cookies are perfect for pairing with a cup of tea or coffee (or, ahem, something stronger.) Warm them up for a few seconds in the microwave, and don't be afraid of dunking!

These crumbly cookie sandwiches have a generous serving of hazelnuts in them; not just the dust and gritty nubbins you see elsewhere, but good chunks of toasted nuts, along with bits of dark chocolate that are deep enough in flavor to balance the assertive alcohol presence. The dense chocolate filling adds a second hit of chocolate, but this is a dessert more for whisky connoisseurs than for chocoholics.

$9/six cookies, available online.

About the author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks and co-editor of Serious Eats: Sweets

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

It's common knowledge that Dufour Pastry makes one of the best commercially available frozen puff pastry dough in the market. They use only butter (many companies don't), and their pastry bakes up tall, golden and supremely flaky, unexpectedly light. Sure, it's more expensive than most brands, but it's worth even penny.

Frozen puff pastry saves quite a bit of work, but if you're seriously lazy short on time, consider Dufour's pre-assembled hors d'oeuvres. They come in both sweet and savory, with many hovering in between. Think tiny puff pastry moons stuffed with cranberry-studded Stilton cheese or the seasonally appropriate pecan and squash puffs, crunchy with water chestnuts and scented with sweet orange zest.

I also like the phyllo dough options, especially the blueberries with goat cheese and herbs, and the boozy brandy-laced figs with both goat and mascarpone cheese. Everything is pre-assembled—all you have to do is turn on the oven and bake. Literally, effortless entertaining (or snacking)!

Dufour Pastry

About the author: Originally from Honolulu, Kathy YL Chan writes A Passion For Food, where she chronicles her eats and travels adventures between Hawai'i, New York and beyond. She firmly believes that there is always room for dessert.

[Photograph: Alice Gao]]

Nashville-based Chucklet & Honey Southern Bakery makes the sort of baked goods we associate with the South: homey, sweet, and pretty delicious. They're not for people with a 94% dark chocolate habit; they're for people who like a sweet and indulgent (but not too crazy) end to their meal.

While you can order variety sampler packs, which include reasonably tasty chocolate chip and maple oatmeal cookies, our favorite by far were the Double Chucklet Hazelnut ($19 for a gift box of 12). If you like the chocolatey sweetness of Nutella but want a little more of a hazelnut kick, you'll enjoy these. Imagine a really good bake sale chocolate cookie, a little underbaked (in a way many people will appreciate), with chocolate chips for extra-gooey chocolate pockets, Nutella to keep the whole thing sweet and super-moist, and chopped hazelnuts to actually amp up the hazelnut flavor that Nutella slightly lacks. A great hostess or thank-you gift.

Chucklet & Honey Southern Bakery

chuckletandhoney.com

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

Komforte Chockolates's tag-line explains it well: they make "savory combinations that are easy to love." It's true, they are easy to love, even though the flavor selection might sound quite odd at first glance.

Take the Ramen Noodle chocolate bar. The crushed up noodles are folded into dark chocolate, so it's reminiscent of chocolate-covered potato chips, and that touch of salt goes a long way toward satisfaction. (They also offer a Savory Ramen Noodle bar with onion and garlic powder as well as a bit of soy sauce. That one may be a bit much, even for me.)

Our unanimous favorite was a milk chocolate bar with Tortilla Lime + Salt—it has the perfect sweet-salty balance. We were also big fans of the milk chocolate French Toast bar, which is textured with bagel chips.

And for you white chocolate lovers, Komforte offers an Apple Pie + Graham bar. The graham cracker element is actually crushed graham biscotti, with hints of apple and cinnamon. Each 2.5 ounce bar retails for $3.49, the perfect size for keeping in your pocket for snacks, and a guaranteed conversation starter.

Komforte Chockolates

About the author: Originally from Honolulu, Kathy YL Chan writes A Passion For Food, where she chronicles her eats and travels adventures between Hawai'i, New York and beyond. She firmly believes that there is always room for dessert.

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

These all-butter cookies from the England-based Artisan Biscuits company are advertised as "biscuits for tea," and the box comes with a sleeve of oval-shaped cookies and a teapot in serene pastels. The flavors are pure and clean, including Vanilla & Cream, Chocolate & Raspberry, Honey & Almond, and my personal favorite, the Ginger & Lemon (pictured).

These cookies crunch then crumble at the bite, the lemon just as bold as the fresh ginger thanks to a generous proportion of lemon pulp. They're ideal for dunking, and if you were wondering which tea might pair best, have no worries, they're one step ahead with recommendations. Pair the ginger-lemon cookies with jasmine tea— the fragrant jasmine blossoms are well balanced by the slightly spicy ginger and a fresh seal of lemon. Match a pot of English Breakfast to the Honey & Almond cookies, Ceylon to Vanilla & Cream, and bold Assam to Chocolate & Raspberry. Tea or no tea, they're ideal for a light snacking when that afternoon lull rolls around.

Artisan Biscuits

artisanbiscuits.co.uk

About the author: Originally from Honolulu, Kathy YL Chan writes A Passion For Food, where she chronicles her eats and travels adventures between Hawai'i, New York and beyond. She firmly believes that there is always room for dessert.