Special Sweets – The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures

TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: Valentine Food Gifts

nibblerella — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:54:25 +0000

One of five alternatives to Valentine
chocolate. Photo courtesy Williams-Sonoma.

Situation: You need a great gift for Valentine’s Day. The recipient doesn’t want chocolate candy.

Solution: five recommendations for delicious food items that aren’t chocolates.

Our Valentine Top Picks include:

1. Godiva Chocolate Vodkas & Chocolate Liqueurs

2. Patron XO Cafe Dark Cocoa, a chocolate- and coffee-infused tequila.

3. Cakeslider Creations push-up pops filled with buttercream-frosted cake.

4. Richart Chocolate Chocomacs, innovative macarons filled with ganache and topped with a chocolate paillette.

5. Two Hearts Bakery Heart-Shaped Pies On A Stick (a Williams-Sonoma exclusive)

Read the full review to learn more about these luscious choices.

Kouign-Amann, A Great Yet Little-Known Pastry From France

nibblerella — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:00:48 +0000

[1] This buttery Breton pastry makes an addictive addition to your morning coffee (photo by Corey Lugg | © The Nibble).

[2] A seasonal pumpkin kouign-amann pastry (photos #2, #3, and #4 © Patisserie Chanson | New York City).

[3] The inside of a lemon-poppy kouign amann.

[4] Fresh out of the over, topped with fresh fruit.

Seldom found in French bakeries in America, kouign amann (pronounced (kween ah-MAHN) is a Breton pastry (from Brittany, a region in France).

This laminated pastry is time consuming to make, but the payoff is something distinctive and wonderful. If you’re a baker, bake some. Or splurge and have them sent from a top baker as a treat.

> See the full review to learn more about kouign-amann.

> June 20 is National Kouign Amann Day.

> Check out all the pastry holidays.

THE HISTORY OF KOUIGN-AMANN

Kouign-amann is a rich, buttery regional specialty of Brittany, France. It was created in the town of Douarnenez around 1860 by a baker named Yves-René Scordia.

The name is a compound of the Breton words kouign (cake) and amann (butter). In the Breton language*, compound words are sometimes hyphenated to indicate that they form a single concept.

Thus, kouign (cake) and amann (butter) are hyphenated to describe a specific type of cake or pastry rather than a generic butter cake.

According to the story handed down, Scordia, faced with a shortage of ingredients for cake, improvised by using an abundance of butter and sugar in a bread dough.

He folded the dough repeatedly in the fashion of laminated pastry†, creating layers similar to puff pastry, and then baked it slowly. This caramelized the sugar and butter and created a crisp, golden crust.

Kouign-Amann is often described as a denser, more caramelized cousin of perhaps the most famous laminated baked good, the croissant, with a crisp outer shell and a soft and layered crumb (interior).

Kouign-Amann remained a regional specialty of Brittany until after World War II. Then, improvements in transportation made Brittany more accessible, leading to a tourism boom. Visitors from France and beyond discovered Brittany and its foods.

By the late 20th century, prominent chefs and food writers helped to promote Breton dishes, particularly in Paris, where many regional French restaurants were established.

In the 21st century, interest in traditional and artisanal foods surged worldwide. Breton pastries like kouign-amann began appearing in bakeries across Europe, Japan, and U.S. High-profile chefs and food TV shows further increased their visibility.

The pastry has become a staple in many French bakeries and has been featured on culinary shows like The Great British Bake Off, cementing its place in the pastry pantheon.

In the U.S., artisan bakeries began to craft varieties with fruit and chocolate.

Traditionally, it is made in large “family size” rounds, but modern bakers also make individual-sized portions (like Danish pastry).

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*Breton is its own language, not a dialect of French. It is a Celtic language, closely related to Cornish (spoken in Cornwall, England) and Welsh. French is a Romance language derived from Latin.

†Laminated pastry refers to any dough that is made by incorporating layers of fat and dough through the process of lamination: Butter is shaped into a flat, rectangular block and placed atop a rectangle of dough. The dough is folded, rolled out, and folded into thirds (like a letter) or a book fold (folding both ends toward the center, then folding in half).

Croissants, puff pastry, Viennoiserie, and similar doughs are made in this fashion. The layers that puff up when baked due to steam from the butter and water in the dough. Here’s more about it.

PRODUCT REVIEW: Scharffen Berger Chocolate

nibblerella — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:30:59 +0000

The Scharffen Berger logo features an
ibex mountain goat and three stars.

In 1996, winemaker John Scharffenberger and physician Robert Steinberg made a mark in the history of chocolate, shaping the current trend of “micro” (small-batch) chocolate bar production in the U.S. and, as a result, decentralizing the production of fine chocolate bars in Europe. Their fine artisan chocolate grew so popular with consumers and pastry chefs that, in less than 10 years, they helped build a great demand for artisan chocolate in America and were purchased by the country’s largest chocolate maker, Hershey. The line is certified kosher by OU.

Buying a gourmet chocolate bar used to be as simple as choosing from a slender selection of milk, dark or the occasional white chocolate bars (See Peter Rot’s review of the world’s best white chocolate bars), some embellished with nuts or dried fruits. Dark chocolate might be labeled “semisweet” or “bittersweet,” without any other indication.

A lot has changed in the last ten years, as more people have become focused on learning about chocolate (and all categories of fine food). Today, there is an amazing diversity of chocolate for the asking, thanks to consumer interest and to passionate chocolate makers who produce couverture and bars from raw cacao beans. (See Peter Rot’s choices of the best microbatch chocolate makers in America—individuals or tiny companies that produce great bars.)

Read the full review on TheNibble.com.

New Product: Can Chocolate Predict The New President?

nibblerella — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:54:52 +0000

Some people look to the Gallup, Zogby and Harris polls to gauge the presidential preference of the American public. But chocolatier B.T. McElrath is measuring public opinion on a “gut” level: chocolate sales. “Campaign Buttons,” round dark chocolate melt-a-ways that have been selling like—hotcakes?—since early June. They feature cocoa butter images of Democrat or Republican vintage campaign buttons. They’re available at specialty food and gift retailers nationwide, as well as directly available at www.btmcelrath.com. Since August 15, the company has begun issuing weekly postings on the political temperament of the country based on chocolate sales. The current numbers have the Democrats with a slight lead, 51% to 49%. However, this is a poll where you can vote as many times as you like! Five pieces in 60% cacao semisweet chocolate are $10.70.

Read more about chocolate in THE NIBBLE’s Chocolate section.

B.T. McElrath’s democratic chocolate
buttons.

TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: Dough Ray Me Artisan Cookies

nibblerella — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:28:17 +0000

We’re always on the lookout for “special” cookies, to bring (or send) as gifts or to serve as a light dessert at the end of a fine dinner. And when we invite friends and neighbors for tea or coffee, we like to set out something noteworthy yet effortless: impressive cookies. Alas, with the expense of running an artisan bakery these days, it’s not easy to find something noteworthy, much less impressive. The cookies in the case at most of our local bakeries and specialty food stores are pretty unexciting and not worth the calories. Meet Jon Dough—a.k.a. Jon Chazen, a pastry chef who is at the ready with a solution to the dull cookie blues. His company, Dough Ray Me, specializes in what we call mignardises (min-yar-DEEZ, from the French for “precious”)—although Jon Dough is too down-to-earth to use the term. Mignardises are a type of miniature baked good, also called petit-fours (you may get a plate of them at the end of dinner at a fine restaurant). Mignardises can take many shapes, and Jon’s are bite-size cookies. The ten varieties range from familiar flavors (double chocolate and peanut butter-chocolate) to the less familiar (hazelnut-cardamom and sesame-gingerbread).		Dough Ray Me cookies are so petite, they can sit on the saucer of a teacup.
The versatile bites are most welcome for entertaining, as a light dessert or a garnish for more elaborate desserts, and as a snack for people who deserve the best. Beautiful packaging choices makes these cookies a “precious” gift for any occasion. Party-givers can buy them in bulk. Read the full review of Dough Ray Me and then order your own stash. You can find more of our favorite cookies in the Cookies Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.

TODAY IN FOOD: It’s National Chocolate Caramel Day

nibblerella — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:15:31 +0000

Celebrate with Béquet‘s Salt Chocolate Caramels, shown here with Espresso and Mocha.		Today is National Chocolate Caramel Day. No arm twisting needed! While the traditional caramel flavoring is vanilla, the buttery bites have been variously flavored with chocolate, coffee, maple, lemon, habañero—whatever appeals to the imagination of the candy maker and palate of the buyer (and, let us tell you—the habañero caramels from Cowgirl Chocolates are the bomb—and a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week). We went crazy for caramels last summer and nibbled on every one we could find, culminating in a review of our favorite caramels. People keep sending us more to taste, but we haven’t yet found any that we want to add to the list. Quality caramels are made with sugar and brown sugar, butter, heavy cream and the best flavorings (sea salt versus ordinary salt, the best maple or chocolate flavor, etc.). Like anything else, you can’t scrimp on the quality of your ingredients. It needs to be real vanilla, the freshest butter, etc., etc., etc.
Caramel is sugar that is melted into a syrup and cooked until the sugar crystals turn into a dark amber liquid. In this form, it can be used to coat nuts (that’s what pralines are) and popcorn (called “toffee popcorn”). Whisk in some butter, remove it from the heat and add cream, and you have a delicious caramel sauce. Cook those ingredients to what is known as the “firm ball” stage (245°F), and you get buttery, chewy caramel candy. Keep cooking the caramel to the “hard-crack” stage (290°F) and you’ll get crunchy toffee. Read about more of our favorite caramels in the Old-Fashioned Candy Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.

TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: Lisa’s Cookie Shop

nibblerella — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:52:55 +0000

NIBBLE readers have the option to read our Top Pick Of The Week product review on TheNibble.com, or get it by email. It is emailed on Tuesday mornings at 8 a.m. By 8:37 a.m. on Tuesday, we got an email from this week’s Top Pick, Lisa’s Cookie Shop, saying that their “website was being hit like crazy” and they were “receiving a ton of online orders.” What does this mean?

1. People really like chocolate chip cookies, and Lisa’s other offering, bar cookies.
2. Photographer Claire Freierman did a very convincing job, making those cookies and bars look great on the page.
3. People are up really early reading their email, because the Top Pick has a national readership, and only about 25% live on the East Coast.

Lisa’s crunchy chocolate chip cookies.

The crisp, crunchy, wonderful chocolate chip cookie group includes Chocolate Chip Coconut Chocolate Chip cookies and Kitchen Sink (with cranberries and macadamia nuts). You could make meal of these cookies and never feel ill, they seem so wholesome and nutritious. We know, as we’ve done it five or six times while “researching” the review. Just the fragrance of butter, chocolate and other fine ingredients leaping out of the bag might be satisfying enough for those who feel the need for restraint. The soft, chewy Pecan Bars and Raspberry Bars are equally magnificent. The Pecan Bar is like a pecan-coconut pie-in-a-bar. And THE NIBBLE staff flipped over the moist, tender Frazzleberry Cookies—shortbread thumbprint cookies, rolled in coconut with a big well of lush raspberry jam. Everything is baked to order, so read the full review and order yours. Find more of our Top Picks Of The Week in the Top Picks Archives on THE NIBBLE online magazine.

NEW PRODUCTS: Starbucks Chocolate

nibblerella — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:15:42 +0000

Chocolate lovers: New temptation has been put in your path. Starbucks has launched a new collection of artisan-style chocolates, developed with the Artisan Confections Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Hershey Company (the subsidiary includes Dagoba Chocolate, Joseph Schmidt Confections and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker). Master chocolatiers have created a portfolio of chocolates with flavors inspired by Starbucks coffees and Tazo teas. And, they are darned good. Made with high-quality cacao and other premium natural ingredients, the collection is artistic, flavorful…and extremely affordable. It includes Tazo Chai, Passion[fruit] and Citron tea-infused chocolate tasting squares; Caffè Mocha, Chai, Espresso, Caramel Macchiato and Madagascar Vanilla Bean Truffles; and Milk Chocolate Covered Caffè Verona Coffee Beans. For those who like their chocolate plain, there are dark, mocha and milk chocolate bars and tasting squares. The tea-infused tasting squares are dynamite—perfect with a cup of coffee or tea, or just a burst of fine chocolate. The Citron square is an epiphany, Passion is perfect, and the Chai is enchanting. The milk chocolate-covered coffee beans are among the best we’ve ever had, plump and robust (and let’s face it, if these two companies together can’t master a chocolate-covered coffee bean, who can?). And yes, the truffles are very good too.

Look closely at the shape of these bonbons, filled with chai-flavored creme: They’re tea cups!

But the best thing is the low price: The various bags and boxes retail for $2.99 to $5.99 (individual packages) at grocery, mass retailers, club and drug stores nationwide. Alas, the chocolates are not available in Starbucks stores at this time…but I suppose we’re lucky. It would be just too easy to get a bag of chocolate with that cappuccino. Every day.

Read our full review of Starbucks Chocolates.
– Read about more of our favorite chocolates in the Chocolate Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.
– Read our review of Dagoba Chocolate.

– Read our review of Scharffen Berger Chocolate.

FOOD HOLIDAY: St. Patrick’s Day

nibblerella — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:37:02 +0000

St. Patrick’s Day will be celebrated on Monday, March 17, 2008, honoring the feast day and date of death of the priest and patron saint of Ireland, who died on March 17th around 460 C.E.

The first St. Patrick’s Day parade actually took place not in Ireland, but in New York City on March 17, 1762. Kilted bagpipers and drum corps drawing enormous crowds (a few years ago, we joined them to see both a kilted Sean Connery and a suited Mayor Bloomberg march).

These days the holiday is celebrated not just by people of Irish descent, but people of all backgrounds, in the United States, Canada, Australia, and even in countries where there is no Irish population, such as Japan, Russia and Singapore.

In Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day was traditionally a religious holiday (pubs closed). But in 1995, the government decided to use St. Patrick’s Day as an opportunity to drive tourism. It is now a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, fireworks and other attractions.

Bake shamrock cookies for a St. Patrick’s Day treat. Photo courtesy Eleni’s.

Corned Beef And Cabbage and Irish Soda Bread are some of the favored treats of the day, along with Irish beer, Irish Cheddar, Irish Coffee and anything green—from bagels and beer to broccoli soup and green-tinted chocolate chip cookies (add 1-1/2 teaspoon green food color to your favorite recipe).

Our own NIBBLE celebration focuses on food and drink, starting with a selection of sweets you can order for gifts, a St. Patrick’s Day party, or just to treat yourself and your family. Take a nibble of our recommendations.

ENTERTAINING: Academy Award Nominee Cookies

nibblerella — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 12:24:28 +0000

Who wouldn’t want to take a bite out of Johnny Depp?		Invite the Best Actor and Best Actress nominees to your Oscar party—at least, in cookie effigy. Every year, we spring for these cookies from Eleni’s, a New York City bakery that specializes in hand-decorated cookies in every conceivable design. They outdo themselves with their Academy Award cookies, creating a set of Best Actor and Best Actress cookies with great likenesses of the performers. The only downside: 16 of these cookies are about $60, plus shipping. But, sometimes fun doesn’t come cheap. Read our review of Eleni’s Cookies, and find our other favorite cookies and brownies in THE NIBBLE online magazine.