Max Brenner

For months now I've been fascinated with the opening of Max Brenner since the giant blow-up rat appeared on Boylston street in protest of the chain's apparent use of non-union construction workers. Elsewhere around the world the chain has been boycotted for its connections to Israel. When it opened last week scores of union workers stood outside handing out pamphlets and discouraging people from entering. This was a place I was interested in checking out.

Walking into the restaurant it's clear that the theme is centered around "Max Brenner Chocolate Culture" as the entire place smells like chocolate. To the left is what would best be described as a gift shop with various chocolate products, to the right is a long bar, and ahead is the main dining area. The atmosphere reminded me of Cheesecake Factory given the warm browns, oranges, and reds throughout.

The menu is huge, with everything from white chocolate cheesecake crêpes to the chubby smoked turkey club. There is a wide variety of chocolate-based beverages like hot chocolate, chocolate chai tea, and a mocha frappé using cocoa from all over the world. Since it was brunch time we decided to go with something sweet and something savory and split them.

I opted for the "illegal chocolate chocolate chocolate pancakes" with 60% dark chocolate truffle cream, pure milk chocolate shavings, spiced pecans, caramelized bananas. This arrived very nicely arranged with two cute beakers of white and dark chocolate sauces. The 3 pancakes were tasty enough, and it was an overall very chocolatey experience. At around 15 dollars I would have to say they were overpriced, but I was by no means disappointed.

Our other dish was the "Sliced & Diced Steak “Pillow” Panini" -char-grilled & thin sliced skirt steak tossed with
diced caramelized onions on a bed of asiago cheese crisps, baby spinach, roasted tomatoes, red pepper aioli. Underwhelming. For as much good stuff as there was in there it should have tasted better - more salt? Nonetheless the bread was nice and crisp and light, and the beef was good as well. The best part was the waffle fries dusted with chili and cocoa powder. Though I didn't get much of the chili and cocoa powder, it's hard to make a bad-tasting waffle fry, especially dipped in the red pepper aioli served alongside the panini. At about 16 this dish, too, was overpriced for what it was.

Overall I'd have to say I was disappointed. The food was okay, the prices were too high, and the atmosphere was non-descript. I will say, however, that some of their sweets like the "chocolate chunks pizza" and the "deep fudge chocolate cake & shake" do sound delicious, so if I were to find myself with a sweet craving I would consider coming back.

San Francisco: Day 1 or "It's My Birthday I Can Consume as Many Calories as I Want to"

This morning we hopped aboard Virgin America and made our way to one of our favorite cities, San Francisco. We have had this trip planned for awhile now. Our goal is mainly to explore the wineries of Napa Valley. We head out to Napa on Monday but until then we're happy to take in some of San Fran's signature treats. As today was/is my birthday, we decided we could splurge and eat all the stuff we love and not worry about how many evil calories we were putting into our bodies. Our first stop? In-N-Out Burger over by Fisherman's Wharf. We've written about In-N-Out before so I won't repeat too many details but for those of you who are not familiar with the joint, it's a fast food burger restaurant that specializes in fresh ingredients. The burgers taste great, the cheese actually melts on the burger and it's a much higher quality than McDonald's or Burger King. After our burgers I decided we needed to treat ourselves to some ice cream. As luck would have it (and as I planned it), Ghiradelli Square was just around the corner. After feigning interest in the store just to get a piece of free chocolate, we headed upstairs to the ice cream parlor for some sundaes. We both ordered the Gold Rush sundae which came with vanilla ice cream slathered in peanut butter sauce and rich hot fudge. Nuts and a cherry were sprinkled on top of fresh whipped cream to give the sundae it's delicious crown. Well, after all that we decided a long walk was in order and we meandered our way over to the Mission district. The Mission district is known for it's Mexican food, more specifically, the Mission Burrito. The Mission Burrito was invented in the Mission and is basically a huge burrito so filled with toppings and delicious goodness that it has to be wrapped and contained in a tinfoil sheet. The Mission Burrito supposedly was first invented at El Faro, a small restaurant on the corner of 20th and Folsom St. There, they simply call it the Super Burrito and as luck would have it, we discovered it was invented on this very day, Sept. 26th, way back in 1961. Well, the gods themselves couldn't have planned it better: me, eating a super burrito, on my birthday which just so happened to fall on the same day as the day the super burrito was invented. Perfect! Bry and I both ordered the super burrito, mine with chicken, his al pastor, both with everything on it. True to it's name, the super burrito was super....and by super, I mean big. Not only was it filling, it was satisfying and delicious.The perfect end to the perfect day. Stay tuned, we still need to try San Fran sour dough and a few other things before we head out to Napa!

L.A. Burdick: Handmade Chocolates

Waiting for some friends in Harvard Square today, we came across a small chocolatier called L.A. Burdick. I had never heard of them before, but a few people in our group had--apparently, they are pretty well known, and so we decided to go in and try a few select pieces.



L.A. Burdick is probably most well known for it's two "signature" items: chocolate penguins and chocolate mice. Both signature items are whimsical and very cute. The penguin is dark whipped lemon ganache with almond arms, dressed in dark and white chocolate. The mice come in three varieties: dark, milk, and white chocolate. Burdick also offers a variety of other hand-made chocolates, everything from almond chamomile to honey caramel truffles. At over $50 a pound, each piece ends up being about a buck. The mice and penguins are more expensive at $2.5 and $3.5 a piece respectively.


We decided to get a dark chocolate mouse (chocolate ganache with freshly squeezed orange juice, covered in dark chocolate), a Richelieu (a milk and dark chocolate interior with cherry liquor, cherries and cumin seeds), a fig (milk and dark chocolate interior with a balanced flavor of fig and port wine), an Orinoco (dark-milk interior, Caribbean spices, run and coca nibs, covered in chocolate and sprinkled with nibs), a lemon spice (whipped rum and lemon ganache, enrobed in milk chocolate and topped with grated Trinidadian spices), and an almond chamomile (roasted almond and chamomile tea, dark chocolate enrobed).


All of the chocolates were very good. However, we were disappointed in the intensity of the flavors. For example, in the Orinoco we expected a burst of Caribbean spices and yet, we tasted none. Upon further reading of our little chocolate pamphlet, I discovered that for L.A. Burdick their main goal is to give center stage to the world-class chocolates that they use in their recipes:

"We are careful not to mask their (the chocolates) complex flavor with the complimenting ingredients. If the spices, herbs, fruits, coffee and teas are too strong, you can't taste the variety of chocolates we cook with."

Ah-ha! That makes perfect sense then. The other ingredients are there as subtle hints to bring out the flavor of the chocolate, quite like when certain foods are paired with wines...the wine, not the food, is the star attraction. I must admit though, even after this explanation, I would have preferred that the other ingredients still be a bit stronger...I mean, why else label something chamomile is you can't even taste a hint of it? You might as well add the ingredients but not list what they are and people would think it was just wonderful dark chocolate. That's just my two cents.

Overall, we thought L.A. Burdick's chocolate was good, but it didn't blow us away. It was delicious chocolate but nothing truly unique. For the price, I would prefer Choco-Lee's in the South End. As for the signature mice? Besides the cute factor, they're not worth the hefty price tag...I've had better chocolate in Paris for cheaper.

Peter's Easy Molten Chocolate Dessert

This is a super easy recipe that makes for an awesome finish to any dinner party. The whole recipe takes about 25 minutes (including prep and baking time). Make the moltens right before you want to eat them because you'll want to serve them straight out of the oven. The top will be a nice chocolate crust but when you dive, a rich mouth-watering pool of gooey chocolate will emerge.

Ingredients
1 stick butter
1 1.5oz Hershey bar
2oz 100% cacao unsweetened chocolate (Ghirardelli is much preferred)
1 handful semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 (2/3 to 1-cup capacity) ramekins

Directions
Put a baking sheet in the oven on the middle rack and Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Butter the inside of ramekins or spray with butter Pam spray.

In a double boiler, melt all the stick of butter and all the chocolate together. Once melted, set aside and let cool for a few minutes.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, flour, and sugar. Beat in the chocolate/butter mixture.

Divide the batter evenly into the four ramekins.

Bake for about 20 minutes. The tops should look cooked but underneath will still be gooey.

Let your guests eat the dessert right out of the individual ramekins. Just make sure you warn them that the ramekins are still hot.

Easy, and trust me, absolutely delicious.

The Neiman-Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge

Ever heard the story of the Neiman-Marcus cookie? No? Well, the website Snopes.com sums it up like this:

"Neiman-Marcus charged a shopper $250 for its cookie recipe, not the $2.50 the woman had been expecting to pay. As revenge on the store for refusing to reverse the charge, she now provides the recipe for free and exhorts others to pass it along."

Long since proven as an urban legend, the cookie story still gets passed around the internet along with the "infamous" recipe. Neiman Marcus on their website sums it up like this:

"An urban myth is a modern folk tale, its origins unknown, its believability enhanced
simply by the frequency with which it is repeated. Our signature chocolate chip cookie
is the subject of one such myth. If you haven't heard the story, we won't perpetuate it
here. If you have, the recipe below should serve to refute it. Copy it, print it out, pass it along to friends and family. It's a terrific recipe. And it's absolutely free."

Well, with Neiman-Marcus providing a true N.M. recipe and with the endurance of the urban legend I thought it would be a fun idea to bake the two cookies and put them to the test. Which cookie was better? The real Neiman-Marcus cookie or the urban legend Neiman Marcus cookie.

Both recipes were fairly simple (I provide each one at the end of this post) and I was able to make both the same night. It should be noted that the urban legend recipe contains a lot more ingredients and is more of an oatmeal/chocolate chip cookie than the real N.M. recipe which is a twist on the classic c.c. cookie. These differences make it a bit harder to compare but we were up for the challenge.

The Urban Legend cookie's (ULC) dough was much more interesting than the Real Neiman-Marcus Cookie (RNMC) and in my opinion tasted better. The texture was great and the dough very thick (don't attempt to make the ULC with a hand mixer!). However, the RNMC had the most wonderful smell while cooking. It was similar to a chocolate chip cookie smell but more intense and just awesome. The appearance of the two after they were done baking was totally different. The ULC was more of a home-made rustic look while the RNMC were more sleek and traditional looking (but still a darker color than a traditional c.c. cookie). It's hard to judge which one looked better but they both looked delicious and I think it depends on type of look your going for.

As for the taste (which is what we utimately judged the cookie on), we brought the cookies to about a dozen people without telling them which cookie was which. What were the results? Split 50/50. Some people loved the oatmeal and nuts in the ULC while others felt that those ingredients didn't belong in a real chocolate chip cookie. The people who liked the NMC best all said it was more buttery and if they went and bought a cookie at N-M then this the NMC is what they would expect to get. Overall, everyone really loved both cookies but most people agreed that the real Neiman-Marcus cookie belonged at the store.

Recipes:


Urban Legend Cookie Recipe:


Ingredients


1 cup butter
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder)
12 oz. chocolate chips
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 of an 8oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (your choice but I used walnuts)
1 tsp. vanilla



Directions

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 66 cookies.



The Real Neiman-Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe:



Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips





Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds)

2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.

3. In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips.

4. Using a 1 ounce scoop or a 2 tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Paris

Last time I came back from Paris, I vowed to make my next trip all about the food. Well, Bryan and I just returned from our trip overseas yesterday and I have to say, I kept my promise! Below are some pictures I snapped along our culinary adventure. They are a bit heavy handed on the sweets but that's just my taste buds interfering with good "journalism". Enjoy!

Two baguettes: On the left, a "Traditional" baguette, on the right a "Rustic" baguette. The rustic baguette uses a darker flour and has a deeper and more rich flavor than the Traditional but I think they're both delicious.

The cheese is cheap and comes in a ton of varieties in France. America does not have anything that compares. Most of our imported cheese has already been sitting too long and you don't get the same taste as in a French market but you pay twice the price.

This cheese is called Morbier. There is a thin layer of ash in the middle of the cheese which harks back to a fun story of how the cheese was first made. A French woman would milk her cow first thing in the morning and then use the milk to make the cheese. She would cover the top of the cheese with ash so it wouldn't spoil from the air. In the afternoon, the French milk maid would milk her cow again and place that layer on top of her first layer. It's a cute little story and I was happy they still carried on the tradition. The cheese is a more mellow French cheese and absolutely delicious.

More cheese! This was only 1/5th of the varieties at one local market.



Here a French man lays out his seafood products on a busy sidewalk for people to buy. This is a typical scene in Paris. Fresh food daily.


Okay, so I admit it. I became OBSESSED with pastries. We were staying close to a two famous bakeries in Paris: Pierre Hermes (known for their French Macarons) and Gerard Mulot (a chocolatier but also my favorite pastry and bread-maker).

Cakes from Gerard Mulot

A cake from Gerard Mulot that I actually got to eat!

Gerard Mulot also had some amazing main courses. Take a look at that Coulibiac...the artistry involved in creating that pattern out of pastry...incredible!

This dessert cost me 4 Euro (roughly 5 bucks) but it was worth every cent. Raspberries laid on top of a column of cassis (A Eurasian currant (Ribes nigrum) bearing black berries) mousse that sat on top of a layer of dark chocolate which sat on top a layer of crunchy puffs with a drop of honey. French macaroon halves speckled the outside and a slice of apple was hidden inside on top of the dark chocolate layer. Simply heaven.

Pastry from a random bakery

More random pastry

A window display at Pierre Herme (the Louis Vitton of French Macarons) . These display macarons are much larger than their bite-size counterparts. The traditional bite-size macarons at Pierre Herme cost roughly $2.10 a piece.

The Plenitude: Chocolate & Caramel: Biscuit macaron chocolat, ganache au chocolat-caramel, eclats de chocolat a la fleur de sel

Mogador: Fruit de la Passion & Chocola au Lait: biscuit macaron, ganache au fruit de la passion et chocolat au lait

My personal Favorite. Rose: Biscuit macaron rose, creme aux petales de rose

One last Pierre Herme macaron. The name escapes me but it tasted even better than it looked!

An olive oil chandelier!

The french sell a huge variety of bottled water. The most popular is Vittel. This one was my favorite though. Bling H2O selling for around 36 US dollars a bottle. The "Bling" is written out in Swarovski crystals.

And last, but certainly, not least, I leave you with French CHOCOLATE!

Simple and delicious chocolate and peanut butter cookies!

This past week I found myself a bit bored one afternoon and decided to see what kind of cookies I could make with just what I had in the pantry. It seemed easiest to make a batch of what ended up being absolutely delicious chocolate and peanut butter cookies :-)
The recipe itself is very simple and uses nothing out of the ordinary. The ingredients are as follows:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter, preferably natural
1 ounce 99% unsweetened chocolate, melted
6 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces

In terms of the above ingredients, we did deviate slightly since we wanted to use things we had. Instead of dark brown sugar, we used lite. Instead of 99% unsweetened chocolate, we used a 75% variety. Lastly, we used jumbo bittersweet chips instead of breaking a block into smaller chunks. The cookies still came out delicious, but I'd be interesting in sticking literally to the recipe as well to see if the darker flavors make a difference.

Preheat the oven to 325 and line a 17x12x1 baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In your kitchen aid (of mixing bowl) combine the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar and mix on medium to blend, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the vanilla, egg, and peanut butter and mix for 2 more minutes. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix until just combined. Stop the mixer, then add the dry ingredients, save the bittersweet chocolate pieces.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the chocolate pieces.

Drop large mounds of dough, about 3 or 4 heaping tbsps each, onto the prepared baking sheet with about 2 inches in between each blob. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly cracked on top, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven and cool on the sheets, then on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Last but not least enjoy!

Our gâteau au chocolat

When I lived in France, this was our go-to cake (er, gâteau), and I decided to make it for Valentines' Day dinner tonight--after 4 years of not having it! It was so good, we thought we'd share.

I attribute this recipe to mes chers Lise-Marie and Mimo, who were masters at whipping-up this deliciousness for our many parties and Sciences-Po bake sales. In order to be true to the original that was given to me, I'll post that first followed by the conversion I used tonight.


Gâteau au Chocolat

200g beurre
100g farine
250g sucre
5 œufs
100g amandes en poudre
200g chocolat

-Faire fondre le chocolat.
-Mélanger le beurre moue & le sucre. Ajouter les jaunes d'œuf, la farine, les amandes, et le chocolat fondu.
-Monter les blancs d'œuf en neige et les incorporer
-Mettre au four (à 150ºC) environ 40 minutes.


Since I lost my trusty food scale during the last move, I used Julia Child's little conversion chart for measurements, making tonight's gâteau like so:

14 Tbs butter
3.5 oz. flour
9 oz. sugar
5 eggs
3.5 oz. almond meal (You can get this at Trader Joe's, or pulverize your own.)
7 oz. unsweetened or semi-sweet chocolate (I used Baker's Unsweetened, since that's what I like.)

-Melt the chocolate (I added about 1 oz. of espresso.)
-Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the yolks of the 5 eggs (conserve the whites), the flour, the almond meal, and the molten chocolate.
-Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Fold these into the chocolate mixture.
-Pour into a round cake pan (I used a 10" silicone mold.) Bake at 300ºF for 40 minutes.

Let cool for a few minutes and turn-out. Serve warm. We chose vanilla ice cream as an accompaniment, but it is also good by itself or with a raspberry coulis.

ChocoLee

I wanted to get Peter something fun and delicious for his birthday, so I stopped in around the corner at ChocoLee, pastry chef Lee Napoli's South-End chocolate shoppe. I love going in here, she's extremely nice and will gladly answer any questions you have.

Each order comes nicely wrapped in a chocolate-colored box tied with a pretty pink ribbon. Truffles are priced by the piece, other chocolates are priced by the pound.

Here are a few of our comments as we tried these delicious morsels.

Pumpkin - {at left} At first, you definitely taste the dark chocolate, but then the pumpkin comes out like a nice surprise! You could tell they were made from fresh pumpkin. Wonderfully (and seasonally) delicious! Peter's 2nd favorite.



Lemon Curd - {at right} Just perfect. Not too lemony...just lemony enough--the perfect balance of sweet and sour. The curd is light and, again, you can tell it's made with high-quality ingredients and is NOT artificial. This is Peter's favorite.



Chambord - {at left} These would be perfect to put an engagement ring on.



Dark Chocolate Ganache with Ginger - {at right} Delicious. Would be wonderful as a dessert after an Asian dinner. Also, the texture was fun with the crystallized ginger on top. 






White Chocolate Ganache with Apple and Maple - {at left} Another seasonal one. We couldn't taste the apple, but it had a nice maple flavor.



Poblano (truffle) - {at right} Definitely one of my favorites; but, it's spicy and not for the faint of heart. (Bob, stay away!) :-) 'Twould be a lovely end to a Mexican dinner...but you'll also want to have some of the lime curd chocolates on hand, too, for those, who don't take the heat as well! (BTW, chef Napoli also had this spicy chocolate sauce that she let me try while I was waiting. Yumm. It had a nice kick to it--similar to the Poblano truffles, but I would say less sweet and a little less spicy. She said she made it to go over ice cream, but that one of her customers also made a mole with it.)

Cardamom - {at left} Perfect after Indian food or an afternoon chai. Fresh. Peter said it had a very perfumy taste...he says people will know what he means by that. Cardamom is one of my favorite spices, and this spice has found a perfect match with chef Napoli's dark chocolate ganache.



Lime curd - {at right} The lime flavor is wonderful...like key lime pie--with chocolate! Of the two citrus curds, Peter likes the lemon best; but, I think they're different animals. These were also very good. Again, I think serving these after a Mexican dinner would be great?!


So as I said above, I really enjoy my visits to ChocoLee. If you read Peter's entry about Aroa Fine Chocolates, you'll remember that he wasn't a fan. BUT, he loves ChocoLee! Try it out next time you're in the area. On Saturdays (and other days, I think), she does chocolate beignets!