A few weeks ago, a friend brought over sticky date pudding from Bakesale Betty and it was absolutely fabulous. We loved it so much we tried Betty's pumpkin and pecan pies a few days later on Thanksgiving. Both pies were excellent, particularly the pecan pie.

After all the great desserts, we had to check out the bakery for lunch to try their popular fried chicken sandwich. The shop is located in North Oakland's Temescal District. When we arrived at the small, unassuming corner bakery, the line was just out the door. It was a little chaotic as we tried to figure out what to order in the fast moving line. We quickly decided to order...

• Fried Chicken Sandwich ($7.25)
• Egg Salad Sandwich ($5.50)
• Lemon Raisin Scone ($1.95)
• Ginger Pear Scone ($1.95)
• Sticky Date Pudding with Caramel Sauce (price unknown)

Our order was taken by Michael Camp, who is an owner and married to Alison Barakat, a.k.a. Betty, a former cook at Chez Panisse Cafe. At the time, I had no idea who Michael was. He began putting our order together on a metal tray and asked for $16.00. Obviously, I thought he made a mistake and asked him for the total again, he said, "16 dollars." I asked if he included the sticky date pudding in the order because it wasn't on the tray. He replied, "it's on the house." Alrighty then! We ended up getting...

• Fried Chicken Sandwich
• Egg Salad Sandwich
• Lemon Raisin Scone
• Ginger Pear Scone
• Apricot Almond Scone (complimentary)
• Sticky Date Pudding (complimentary)
• Two Frozen Lemonades (complimentary)

Michael told us that he would bring out the sticky date pudding cake to us. We found a table, an old ironing board, in a sunny spot on the sidewalk and started digging into our bounty. The fried chicken sandwich was fantastic. The buttermilk-battered chicken breast was nice and crispy with cole slaw piled high on top of it. We really liked the lightly dressed, vinaigrette based cole slaw. The absence of mayonnaise in the sandwich and slaw was a big positive for us. Serving thigh meat instead of breast meat is the only thing that would make it better, since we prefer dark meat.

The chunky egg salad sandwich was equally as good. It was topped with peppery arugula, which was a nice addition. Both sandwiches were served on good Acme torpedo rolls. The egg salad sandwich was a decent size, but the chicken sandwich was a very generous portion.

The scones were light and flaky with interesting flavor combinations. Our favorite scone was the lemon raisin with plump and juicy raisins. The scones would be great for breakfast with a hot cup of coffee or tea. Hungry Bear enjoyed the frozen lemonade because of the balance between sweet and tart. It was too tart for me, but I have odd taste buds.

As we were finishing our sandwiches, Michael came outside and told us the sticky date pudding was sold out. He apologized and gave us a voucher for a free pudding cake along with two shortbread cookies. It was completely unexpected and unnecessary, but talk about a great way to build customer loyalty.

The line grew longer during the lunch hour and we saw Michael on several occasions giving away cookies to everyone in line. I was sold on the food itself, but the extremely friendly service has me completely hooked. It's now my favorite bakery in the Bay Area!

I'm excited about going back for the sticky date pudding and trying out the banana bread. Hungry Bear wants to sample the lemon bars. I also want to figure out which sandwich I like more, fried chicken or egg salad? It's a toss up right now. I can't guarantee you'll get the same amount of complimentary food as we did, but the quality of the sandwiches and baked goods alone will make you come back for more!

Tip: Go early for sandwiches or they'll sell out and you'll be sad.

Location & Hours:
Bakesale Betty
5098 Telegraph Avenue (at 51st Street)
Oakland, CA 94609
Tuesday - Saturday: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm
(510) 985-1213
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Chocolate bouchons are amazing cork shaped brownies found at Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery in Napa and NYC. The recipe is also used to make the warm chocolate brownie served at Ad Hoc, which is our favorite dessert at any restaurant in the Bay Area country. Every time we go to Napa, we have to get a fix of bouchons from the bakery or the brownie at Ad Hoc. They are extremely addicting!

Our friend, Brennan, is a total bouchon junkie. When we bring back bouchons from Napa, we have to give the brownies to Deb, Brennan's wife. Otherwise, Brennan will eat them all and neglect to tell Deb about their existence. We accidentally outed him once... oops! We thought he'd share at least one.

A few weeks ago, I made bouchons for the first time and I turned it into a battle between Valrhona and Scharffen Berger chocolate. The recipe calls for Valrhona chocolate, but I also wanted to try bouchons using Scharffen Berger. It's our favorite local chocolate maker and we've been baking almost exclusively with Scharffen Berger for the last 5 or 6 years.

Let the battle begin. The recipe uses Valrhona Equatoriale (55%) semisweet chocolate, which I couldn't find at the local supermarket. Instead, I used Le Noir Gastronomie (61% cacao), which was a good competitor to 62% semisweet Scharffen Berger chocolate. The bouchons are baked in 2 to 3 ounce flexible silicon timbale molds or baba cups. I haven't ordered the timbale molds yet, so I used silicon muffin molds. The muffin molds produce a small circular brownie similar to the brownie at Ad Hoc.

The difference in the batter was immediate. The Valrhona cocoa powder is Dutch processed and produces a darker batter compared to the naturally processed Scharffen Berger cocoa powder. In the slideshow, you should be able to notice the blacker Valrhona and the browner Scharffen Berger brownies.

Time to taste. Individually, the two brownies were each excellent. They both had a nice texture — a chewy, slightly crunchy exterior and a soft, moist interior. The Valrhona bouchon had a more intense, pure chocolate taste. Whereas, the Scharffen Berger brownie had a sweeter, fruity flavor. Hungry Bear, Deb and I preferred the Valrhona ones and surprisingly the bouchon addict, Brennan, liked the Scharffen Berger brownies more. When they were served at Thanksgiving, it was probably a 60/40 split in favor of Valrhona. In general, the people who chose Scharffen Berger tended to prefer milk chocolate over dark chocolate.

We were able to compare our brownie variations to bouchons from Bouchon Bakery... thanks Jane! Compared to the original, our brownies were very similar in taste and texture. It was hard to tell the difference, but our brownies were slightly less sweet than the real bouchons. Dare I say, we actually enjoyed our brownies more than the original!

It was quite a battle. One that needs to be repeated with different chocolates. Valrhona is the reigning champion, but who is going to step up to the challenge? Callebaut, Guittard, Ghirardelli, Lindt, I think you are being called out!

Note on the Pictures: I forgot to invert the bouchons before I sprinkled on the confectioners' sugar, so the browned top is facing down... damn! I might have to make some more to retake the photos. Who wants some brownies?

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