Tag: chocolate

• Bouchon Battle – Valrhona vs. Scharffen Berger

  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…

  Written by

  Chuck

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  December 5, 2007

• Chewy Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

  Both batches of cookies turned out great and had a super nice texture — crispy around the edge, but still soft and chewy in the middle. I have never had oatmeal cookies made with Scharffen Berger chocolate. I loved the fruity, bittersweet chocolate with the oatmeal.

  Written by

  Chuck

  ·

  November 8, 2007

• San Francisco Cupcake Tasting Tour

  After last month’s NYC cupcake tour that put us in a cupcake coma, we decided to replicate the fun and go on a cupcake tasting tour in San Francisco. The cupcake scene in San Francisco is still in it’s infancy compared to NYC. There aren’t many pure cupcakeries in the Bay Area, but the number…

  Written by

  Chuck

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  October 30, 2007

• Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake

  Hungry Bear and I love good old-fashioned chocolate cake. Nothing beats a moist, tender and airy piece of chocolate cake for dessert. The hard part is finding a recipe that has the right cake texture, chocolate flavor and sweetness level.

  Written by

  Chuck

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  October 21, 2007

• New York City Cupcake Tasting Tour

  http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser.swf <!– Hungry Bear and I love cupcakes, but I think our friend, Aimee, is a bigger cupcake fanatic. Last month while visiting Jeff and Aimee in NYC, Aimee organized a cupcake tasting tour around five popular cupcake shops in the city. We even had a scorecard, created by Jeff, to rate the shops and…

  Written by

  Chuck

  ·

  October 8, 2007

• Chocolate Devil’s Food Cupcakes

  Jane uses a devil’s food cupcake recipe from the Food Network. The cocoa powder and chocolate brand used is Valrhona, so the cupcakes are pure chocolate delights.

  Written by

  Chuck

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  September 19, 2007

• Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

  We had ice cream cookie sandwiches for dessert last Sunday. The cookies for the sandwich are thick and chewy chocolate chunk cookies. The cookies on their own are absolutely delicious with a glass of milk or coffee. Our friends have enjoyed the chocolate chunk cookies many times, so we decided to add a new twist…

  Written by

  Chuck

  ·

  September 2, 2007

• Baked Hot Chocolate

  The first dessert I made from the cookbook was baked hot chocolate contributed by Heidi Friedlander, which she developed for Moxie, a popular Cleveland restaurant. I chose this recipe because it was simple to make with only four ingredients and the description in the book made me crave it.

  Written by

  Chuck

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  August 20, 2007

• Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory Tour

  One of my favorite activities with out of town guests is to take them on the Scharffen Berger Factory Tour. It’s a great outing, especially if your guests are chocoholics. Last month, I took my chocolate loving parents on the tour. The factory is just a small brick building, which means the tour takes less…

  Written by

  Chuck

  ·

  August 19, 2007

• Ad Hoc Restaurant – Yountville

  Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc is my absolute favorite restaurant in the Bay Area. I can’t think of any other restaurant that captures the spirit of Sunday Nite Dinner better than Ad Hoc. The food is rustic yet refined and served family style. The atmosphere is friendly, super casual and lacks any pretentiousness.

  Written by

  Chuck

  ·

  July 20, 2007