Yep, that’s me chillin with Ina Garten at NYC’s Fancy Food Show. We’re like totally BFF!

Actually, I may or may not have run up to her like a hysterical fan, babbled that I’ve seen every episode of every show she’s ever done and had Taste Tester snap this awkward photo. I also had brief (and slightly less awkward) run-ins with Rick Bayless and Rachael Ray, but more on them in a bit.

BTW you may notice that I am just now getting to write about this event which actually occurred in late June. Work has been so busy this summer that I was forced to take a little blogging hiatus and am still a little backlogged on posts. So this is me catching up a little. I had a great time at the FFS this year though and wanted to make sure this post finally got up. Hope you enjoy!

I have attended the Fancy Food Show three years in a row, only things were a little different for me this year because instead of merely spectating, I worked at the Askinosie Chocolate booth giving out samples and trying to make sales. Here’s Kesha, Shawn Askinosie and me at the booth. I think this shot was taken on the third day because we look a little tired and maybe a little strung out on sugar, but that’s alright.

Working their booth was a fun job since we got compliments all day long for how amazing the chocolate is. One of the things I love most about sharing my homemade baked treats is seeing the look in people’s eyes - that look of, “oh my god, that’s incredible!” before they even say it. I got to see that look on one person after another for 3 days in a row. It was pretty excellent, though a little difficult to stand in front of this almost entirely edible display without doing it in myself.

I did meet one poor kid that was allergic to chocolate and sadly declined my offer to taste it. My friend, whatever your name was and wherever you are, I sympathize greatly.

Before getting to the show, my big plan was to wander around and tweet about all of the chocolate & peanut butter that I came across. However it turns out that it’s somewhat difficult to tweet when you’re trying to appear personable, which generally doesn’t involve staring at your cell. Despite the non-tweeting, I do have some chocolate and peanut butter to share below.

Taste Tester was at the show with me on the first day and wandered around, scoping out the CPB scene while I tried my hand at selling chocolate at the booth. He reported back a few times, first to tell me that Ina Garten was a couple rows over (ahem, see dorky picture above) and later to tell me that Rick Bayless was also nearby. As you may have gathered from the raves about XOCO’s hot chocolate in my previous post, I am a Rick Bayless fan (who isn’t?) and wanted to swing by his booth to see what he was up to. For an excuse to say hello to him, we asked Shawn if we could share some chocolate. He offered up a jar of his new, dynamite Chocolate Hazelnut Spread.

We ran right over to deliver the jar and even though we bothered him in the middle of cooking, he was super nice. He asked what booth number Shawn was at and said he’d stop by. We assumed he was just being polite but the next day, he actually stopped by! He sampled the spread and I believe he used the word, “fantastic” and said something about wanting to swim in the jar. It’s understandable - this stuff is to die for. With just a few ingredients (hazelnuts, cocoa beans and sugar), it’s very natural and tastes really pure, unlike other chocolate hazelnut spreads on the market. They are the only people in the U.S. making it from scratch. You know you want some! Get it here.

I had the very fun job of designing the jar for this spread. I tried throughout the show to convince them to come out with a chocolate peanut butter version. Here’s hoping!

After the show closed on the second day, I decided to lead Shawn & Kesha to my favorite Venezuelan spot, Caracas (which you may know from the arepa Throwdown w/Bobby Flay) but with a 45 min wait, we decided to try our luck a few blocks up at one of our favorite pizzerias, Motorino. Everyday with Rachael Ray had published a pizza bracket a few months back where they listed the best pizzerias in the country and named Motorino as the best in our region. We were offered a table immediately with the stipulation that we had to be out of there in an hour. When we inquired who the table was reserved for, they told us that it was for Rachael Ray.

Now, it should be noted that I’ve been to the food show three years in a row and had never before seen any of my favorite tv chefs (while finding out after the fact that other bloggers have), and this was the 3rd one that I’d potentially get to see in the span of 2 days. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I just about lost my sh*t right there. I pretty much kept Food Network on 24/7 throughout my college years, so let’s just say that I have watched a lot of it. This may seem like small beans to a non-watcher, but I was excited (!).

Anyway, we ate our pizza quickly, all the while wishing we had stashed some chocolate bars in our purses so that we could leave one for her. Just as we left the restaurant, her car pulled up outside and she and her husband walked in. We decided to be polite and stay out of her way, so we only saw her for about 3 seconds, but it was cool nonetheless.

By the third day we were all a little tired. Up walked someone with a Serious Eats badge and I perked right up. I google subscribe to Serious Eats/LOVE IT and was happy to chat with another foodie/blogger type person. It wasn’t until a few minutes into the chat that I glanced down at the badge again and realized it said, “Ed Levine“. I guess I hadn’t known what he looked like previous to the chat, but have read many of his writings. Shawn walked up and the three of us chatted chocolate. He mentioned that he loved Askinosie’s Chocolate Salted Sorbet at Roman’s in Brooklyn. We had just gone there for dinner two nights before and I gobbled every last morsel of my scoop. He informed us that he had done a write-up of it, which you can read here. So, meeting Ed was pretty excellent as well.

Small tangent: that night in Brooklyn, we swung by Brooklyn Larder where the owner gave us a little tour of his shop’s space. I spied some salted peanut gelato! Oooh… (sorry for the blurry cell phone pic)

As Taste Tester made his rounds at the show, he also found Cavemen Cookies, maker of gluten-free all-natural cookies. Here’s a shot of some of their table display. I designed all but the cute little Caveman doll. The brand was later named one of the show’s best products on epicurious.com. How cool is that?

Taste Tester also helped me acquire some chocolate peanut butter samples from various vendors. Some pictures are below and more are here. I’ll do my best to dedicate individual write-ups to each product, though I am still pretty backlogged on posts from my hiatus.

Justin’s Nut Butters in Maple and Honey (how cute are these?). This brand also sells chocolate almond, chocolate peanut and chocolate hazelnut butters.

Larabar’s Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Energy Bar

and Q.bel’s All Natural Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Bars

More soon! :)

We took an architectural boat tour down the Chicago River…

took in a Cubs game where they actually won…

played some bags (that’s me and Adam ready to light it up)…

…and ate lots and lots of treats! I had made a list of Chicago sweets I wanted to hit during our trip and we got to taste quite a lot of them.

First up, Taste Tester enjoyed an awesome burger and what he described as one of the best chocolate peanut butter shakes of his life at DMK Burger Bar. That’s saying something because he’s definitely eaten his share of chocolate peanut butter milkshakes.

Next up was a cute little coffee house in Bucktown named Ipsento. I had seen praise on Yelp for their Nutella Mocha and knew I had to taste it. I am a fancy-coffee-drink kind of gal and this was right up my alley. I was actually a little hesitant, thinking it might be too rich for me at that exact moment, but it was perfectly balanced. It was indulgent, but just light enough that you could drink the whole thing without feeling ill. The chocolate hazelnut flavor was delicious while calm and soothing. If Ipsento was in my neighborhood, this drink would be a regular purchase for me, without a doubt.

They even had a batch of coffee beans roasting in the front area while we were there, so we left with some of their Organic fair trade beans in tow.

Also on my list were (of course) cupcakeries. Sadly and surprisingly we didn’t get to hit up our favorite standby, Molly’s, (Ron Bennington! Peanut Butter Nutella!) but we did try two new awesome cupcakeries: More Cupcakes and Sprinkles.

Somehow More only has a 3 1/2 star rating on Yelp, so I’ll admit to not having super high hopes. However, I’m happy to say that this particular time, Yelp got it wrong. This place was awesome!

Unfortunately I accidently deleted my photos during the first sync with my new iPhone. This one survived because I tweeted it before the tragic photo loss.

Clockwise from top left: Chocolate Caramel, Cookies and Cream, Red Velvet and the More Cupcake (chocolate with vanilla filling, topped with chocolate ganache).

I asked the girl behind the counter about chocolate and peanut butter but she said that the owner’s daughter is very allergic to peanuts so they don’t use them. I respect that, though I will simultaneously cry a little on the inside. These cupcakes were so good that I imagine angels would sing if they made a chocolate peanut butter version. *Sigh*

Taste Tester, Adam and I conducted our own little cupcake flight, splitting all four cupcakes between us. All were great, but the Chocolate Caramel easily took 1st place. The moist chocolate cake was filled with rich, gooey caramel that slowly oozed out as I cut it open. It was topped with layers of rich chocolate frosting and fluffy vanilla frosting. I’m pretty sure if I lived nearby I’d eat one of those every single day (so it’s probably a good thing for my health that I don’t). I went back shortly after our tasting to pick up extra cupcakes for friends. On the way there, I passed a lady in a chef’s coat and after checking out their website, found out that it was the owner. Had I known at the time, I would at least have high-fived her or something. Thanks for sharing your awesome treats, Patti!

As good as they were, I still wanted to find chocolate and peanut butter before leaving The Second City. Luckily, Sprinkles was mere blocks away, so we swung by for our second cupcake flight.

Sprinkles is a well regarded chain that somehow doesn’t have an outpost in NYC (though according to their site, an uptown location is slated for Feb 2011. Woo!). Walking up to it was a little intimidating - I’ve heard so much about it, including talk of this celeb and that celeb loving it - I was excited to finally get a taste! The pretty decor only amped up my excitement.

I loved the exterior - it felt like the entryway to some kind of cupcake theme-park fantasy land.

Staring at this window display, I half expected a soothing female voice-over to come on… “Welcome to cupcake heaven. Sit back, relax and enjoy the sugar high.”

We walked in and promptly said hello to the lovely chocolate peanut butter cupcakes that awaited us.

Of all that we ordered, I tasted the Chocolate Peanut Butter, Vanilla w/ Raspberry Frosting, Vanilla w/ Strawberry Frosting and Dark Chocolate. The best of the bunch was the Chocolate Peanut Butter and the worst was the Strawberry (the Strawberry frosting tasted mostly of butter than anything else - hate that! But the Raspberry frosting was delish). The peanut butter cake was moist and had a strong peanut butter flavor. Taste Tester described it as tasting similar to Elinor Klivans’ CPB cupcakes, which is saying something because he LOVES those. Theirs had chocolate chips and was covered in chocolate frosting. The chocolate frosting had a really nice not too light / not too heavy texture and was perfectly chocolatey. It was great on both the peanut butter cake and the regular chocolate cake.

Note that the background of this photo is a messy table. We had just stuffed ourselves with a delicious brunch at Dodo and proceeded to consume half a dozen cupcakes. That’s right - we don’t mess around. We wanted to pack in all of the deliciousness that we possibly could on this trip. And so we did!

Next came my second hot chocolate of the trip from XOCO. I think I may have given Taste Tester a deaf ear from going on about how much I enjoyed my first Barcelona “bean-to-cup” hot chocolate. Our intention on this particular night was to go out for deep dish but I was totally genuinely sad to find out that there was a 2 hour wait which forced us to eat another delicious meal at XOCO. Bummer! (Tee hee!)

This badly lit camera-phone shot doesn’t even do it close to justice. It was incredibly rich, thick and ahhhmaazing. It trumps City Bakery’s famous hot chocolate for me - seriously, that’s how good it was.

We polished off our sweets tour that night with a stroll down Navy Pier. A little walk only seemed fitting after downing 8 million calories, don’t you think?

Before leaving the area the next day, we met friends for a quick breakfast at one of our old haunts, Alliance Bakery in Wicker Park. I had a tasty Ham & Cheese Croissant, promptly followed by a breakfast dessert of Chocolate Peanut Butter Macarons. As you may know, I get a little extra excited at finding a chocolate peanut butter treat that I’ve never had before, and this was one of those times. Did I mention that I LOVE macarons?

This particular macaron basically tasted like a light Snickers bar in macaron form. I say ‘light’ because for as rich as it looks and sounds, it wasn’t all that intense. The chocolate cookies seemed to have a milk chocolate flavor instead of a darker chocolate and were filled with some kind of chocolate peanut butter frosting. They were especially light on the peanut butter flavor, but big pieces of chopped peanuts helped bring it up a bit. There was also a bit of caramel hiding inside. Overall, they were good but not mind-blowing. Their mere existence was enough to make me happy, though. And happy is a good way to end a trip!

Whew! That was a lot of sweets. Here’s a cheat sheet if you’ve lost count:

DMK Burger Bar: Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake
Ipsento: Nutella Mocha (though I noticed they also had some kind of giant peanut butter cookie, if you’re in the market for that)
More Cupcakes: They don’t have a CPB cupcake, but the Chocolate Caramel…mmmmmm.
Sprinkles: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake! The Dark Chocolate and Strawberry were great as well.
XOCO: Barcelona “bean-to-cup” hot chocolate - XOXO! Of course you have to get churros on the side, as well.
Alliance Bakery: Chocolate Peanut Butter Macarons

For more of my pics from Chicago and it’s various eateries, visit my flickr set.
For more Chicago sweets check out my previous posts here and here.

Til next time! :)

Double birthdays means double the birthday treats! Taste Tester and I celebrated our birthdays with Chocolate Opera Cake and Happy Face Peanut Butter Pancakes (see sketch after the break). Read on for the recipes!

Just a small note before you continue: some internet meanies have been tinkering with my site (jerks!). We are working on fixing the problem but for now, comments are temporarily turned off. If you’d like to comment or drop me a line, hit me up via the contact form or twitter @cpbgallery.

For my birthday last year, Taste Tester made me Salted Fudge Brownies, which were fantastic (it’s since been my favorite brownie recipe) and seemed pretty unbeatable. However, he was up to the task this year and made me what just might be the best birthday cake I’ve ever had. It was a very intensive, and very delicious three-tier chocolate cake with four fillings/frostings. Sound crazy? It was! We shared with the family, but I probably ate half of the cake all by my little ol’ self and savored every single bite.

It’s called Chocolate Opera Cake and the recipe came from our friend Kesha’s blog, Shared Sugar (originally from here). It consists of super moist chocolate cake layered with coffee buttercream, chocolate charlotte and coffee sauce. These layers all get covered in rich, thick chocolate ganache. Oh, and he made the cake using Askinosie Del Tambo (70%) dark chocolate. Ho-ly cow. Yum!

I had a hard time getting a decent photo of it, but here’s a slice so you can see the various layers. I made sure to get a piece of the cute little hearts he drew on top. Super sweet.

I managed to convince myself that since the cake had coffee, it was perfectly normal to eat it for breakfast the next day… and the day after that. Clearly aging has improved my logic.

I’m not going to kid you that it was easy to make because it definitely wasn’t. Poor Taste Tester slaved in the kitchen for hours making it, but he seemed alright with all the work after a single bite.

As you can imagine, when Taste Tester’s birthday rolled around, the pressure was on to keep the deliciousness going. Since his birthday was only two days after mine and we still had some leftover Chocolate Opera Cake, I wanted to make something different for him (aka: not cake). Luckily, he loves breakfast, so I decided to make fancy pancakes.

I started out searching the web for peanut butter pancake recipes. Since Taste Tester’s most regular criticism of CPB treats is that “there’s not enough peanut butter” I had to make sure and find a recipe with a decent peanut butter ratio. I found this one and decided it needed some tasty toppings.

A few google searches later, I had my birthday concoction: peanut butter pancakes topped with caramel sauce, caramelized bananas, homemade whipped cream and a few dark milk chocolate chips. I of course, couldn’t resist and had to make a smiley face pancake (the bananas were the hair, whipped cream made the face and chocolate dots stood for eyes). Unfortunately, I goofed a little and put the cream on first and by the time I was done adding the banana “hair”, the whipped cream face had melted and didn’t look so happy anymore. So, FYI, when you serve this: Add the caramel sauce first (drizzling some around the plate so that it all doesn’t soak into the pancake). Next add the bananas and then the whipped cream. Quickly dot with chocolate chips and serve.

It was a thoroughly delicious birthday week. We hope you enjoy our birthday treats as much as we did! Recipes after the break.

(more…)

Long time no see! That was the longest hiatus I’ve ever taken here on the blog, but it turns out that writing a book is a lot of work - who knew? It has been a great project to work on but has kept me away from here for far too long and I am so happy to be back!

The timing of the book deadline was actually perfect because it was due yesterday and today is my birthday! So my b-day cake will have to multitask a little by also celebrating the completion of my first cookbook! Wooo! Taste Tester is in the kitchen as we speak whipping up some kind of tasty 3-tier cake. Whoa!

I have lots to share with you including info about my cookbook (yay!) a giveaway from Nature Valley (yum!) and a whole lot of other CPB adventures to catch up on. I also got to help work the Askinosie Chocolate booth at the Fancy Food Show in NYC back in June and had a blast seeing what life was like in the booth as opposed to just being one of the many observers pilfering free samples. While doing so, I got to meet/see some very cool celeb chefs (Ina! Rick! RR!) and will share those experiences as well.

Aside from that, for the next couple weeks, Taste Tester and I will be working out of the Chicago area. We have already been here a week and when I haven’t been working on the book, we have been busy visiting family and friends and (as always) eating delicious chocolate peanut butter treats! So we have some things to share from the Windy City as well.

Chicago is such a pretty city on a sunny summer day. We’re happy to be back!

My first day in Chicago, I made sure to hit up one of my favorite coffee shops: Lovely. I’ve raved about Lovely before and have nothing but more raves after my latest experience.

I did some work in their cool, relaxing space with a latte, a delicious slice of Caramelized Onion Quiche and a Peanut Butter Cookie by my side. The cookie was soft and delightful. It was just firm enough, while chewy and slightly under-baked in the center. Yum, YUM! It’s available with chocolate chunks as well, but I was in the mood for the straight peanut butter. I can only imagine that it gets even better with the added chocolate!

Sunday was a pretty awesome day as well, which started with a great brunch at one of our favorite (and newly re-opened) brunch spots, Dodo (I had Vanilla French Toast w/Maple Sauteed Bananas - whoa!). We then headed downtown to catch the Freelance Whales play a great show at the Hard Rock Hotel before they headed over to Lollapalooza. It was probably the closest I’ve ever stood to a band I like, so that was pretty sweet (despite a little rain).

Oh the way to the show, we came across some of the Transformers 3 set which was also pretty kickass. It suddenly felt like we encountered the Apocalypse on a sleepy Sunday morning.

Also, on the way there we passed by Rick Bayless’s block of restaurants, which includes Frontera Grill, Topolobampo and a newer cafe called XOCO. I had a nice dinner at Topolobampo a few years ago, and was so excited to find that he opened up XOCO, which serves churros with *gasp* “bean-to-cup” hot chocolate. They were unfortunately closed when we passed by, but I hope to go back and try it before we leave the area. Can’t wait!

After the show, we enjoyed some cupcakes from a relatively new and well-regarded bakery called Bake over in Wicker Park.

I’ll admit that with a 4 1/2 star rating on Yelp, my expectations were high. Unfortunately they were out of their much-raved-about Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies, so I picked up four of the also-raved-about cupcakes instead.

Clockwise from top left: Vanilla Nutella, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Chocolate Cake w/Cream Cheese Frosting & Vanilla Cake w/Chocolate Buttercream.

Though the cupcakes didn’t quite live up to my expectations, they were okay overall. The Vanilla Nutella cupcake sadly didn’t have much flavor at all (I never would have known it had Nutella in it if it didn’t say it in the title) and the icing tasted overwhelmingly of butter. Like the Nutella Buttercream, the Cream Cheese Frosting tasted overwhelmingly of Cream Cheese. I understand not wanting to load your frosting with sugar but when it results in a one-note frosting, it doesn’t really seem like you’re winning the battle.

Icings aside, the vanilla cake was quite good and dense. The texture was closer to that of a pound cake as opposed to your average fluffy vanilla cake. The chocolate buttercream was thick and rich as well and really tasty, but tasted better refrigerated than it did at room temperature (I think because it got thick and fudgey as opposed to melty and buttery). The Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake wasn’t the most memorable in the world, but it was fine. The peanut butter frosting could have used a little more peanut butter and the cake could have been more flavorful and moist. Overall, it wasn’t the most exciting batch of cupcakes and I would seek my CPB elsewhere, but I would definitely go back for the tasty Vanilla Cupcake w/Chocolate Buttercream.

That’s all the CPB I have for now, but I should be writing more regularly once again and will be back to share more soon. Thanks for sticking with me through the hiatus!

Thanks for all of the well-wishes on the cookbook! I am pretty crazy excited about it so it’s hard to keep quiet on details. I can divulge that it will be out in a few months (yay!) but that’s about all I’ve got for you right now. More info soon, I promise!

Again, sorry for the slow and infrequent posts, but I really am working my butt off on the book at the moment. I will be back in fine blogging form in a few short weeks. In other exciting work-related news, I will be working at The Fancy Food Show for the first time (fun!) this weekend at the Askinosie Chocolate booth. I’ve attended the show as a spectator the last couple of years, so this will be a much different experience. I will even get to attend the Sofi Awards since they won a silver for their White Chocolate Nibble Bar and are up for a gold. Congrats to them!! They 100% deserve it. Also, a new product that I designed the label for - Chocolate Hazelnut Spread, whoa! - will be at the show, but if you’re not going to be there, you can check it out right on Askinosie’s website.

Since I’ll be busy this weekend and won’t be able to post new blog entries, I’m thinking of tweeting about all the chocolate and peanut butter that I find throughout the show. You can follow me on twitter @cpbgallery for the latest in CPB right from the Javits center in NYC!

Oh and in thanks for your awesomeness, I have a coupon code to share courtesy of another wonderful confectioner & exhibitor at the FFS, Jer’s Chocolates. If you fancy yourself a true CPB addict and haven’t tried Jer’s yet, what are you waiting for?? They make award-winning chocolate peanut butter bars that I can say from my own gluttonous experiences are quite delicious. Their line of products varies in shape, texture and spice but one thing is always constant: the glorious ever-presence of chocolate and peanut butter. In the words of Carrie Bradshaw, “Hello, lover.”

I’ve tasted all varieties of Jer’s Gourmet Peanut Butter Bars and Brittle Bites and can attest to their awesomeness. I remember being particularly fond of the very indulgent CaraMella and the wonderfully crunchy Toffee Break.

Ready to order? Just enter the coupon code at checkout to receive a 20% discount (valid through the end of July). The coupon code is: hrblog

Happy eating and thanks to Jer’s for sharing the chocolate peanut butter love! <3

Hi! I’ve missed you! Sorry it’s taken so long for me to write but I have a great reason for my absence: I’ve been working on a cookbook! I’m actually being commissioned to co-write the book for someone else so it’s not a book entirely about chocolate and peanut butter as you may expect, but I did manage to sneak some chocolate and peanut butter recipes into it. ;) I’m not sure I can share too much more about it at this stage of the game but I will update you with more information as I’m able.

We had a 3-day long marathon photo shoot for the book last weekend and needless to say after 40 hours of being on my feet and running around in the kitchen, I have not wanted to cook/bake a thing this week. Taste Tester has been very patient with the lack of food, and the fact that few chocolate peanut butter treats have emerged from our kitchen in the past weeks because of all the prep-work I’ve had to do for the book.

He was out running errands one day and came across Reese’s Dessert Bar Mix. It’s a mix for a no-bake bar with a chocolate cookie crust, peanut butter filling and chocolate topping. I may have divulged my distrust of no-bake recipes in the past but peanut butter bars like this one hold a special place in my heart because my mom makes one just like it that’s delicious. No-bake treats have the potential to be good, they just have to get it right and this one does!

The mix may not produce bars that are 100% as good as the chocolate peanut butter bars my mom makes, however these take literally minutes to whip up (I was done preparing it in less than 15) while the bars from scratch take quite a while. The box comes with four different pouches of mix and even comes complete with its very own pan.

Those of you out there into super natural products and baked goods my not be fans of the long ingredient list on the side of this box. However, I am a fan of the “everything in moderation” and feel that enjoying something like this once in a while is perfectly legal in my world. Perhaps one other fault aside from the ingredient list is that the chocolate could be better quality, but aside from that, they’ve got a great smooth texture and are very satisfying. They’re also very well-balanced; they aren’t overwhelmed by any one component (sugar, butter, chocolate or peanut butter) as it seems no-bake treats often are. The layers are all very harmonious. It kind of tastes as if you were to get a fresh Reese’s cookie bar straight off the line in their factory. It may not be a 5-star restaurant dessert but you get excited over it like a little kid.

To conclude, here are some advantages to this product:
- These are ridiculously fast to make for those of you craving a CPB treat with no time or energy to whip one up from scratch.
- Prep requires few dishes for those of you dishwasher-less folks like myself
- Only requires a microwave so it can easily be prepared in a college dorm or somewhere else that lacks an oven. Even if you have an oven, these would even be great to make on a super-hot summer day when you don’t feel like turning it on.
- They are a refrigerated treat which also makes them a cool, refreshing CPB treat for summer.
- They’re yummy!

Pick up some Reese’s Dessert Bar Mix and enjoy a super easy and yummy CPB treat!

Ever since I started this blog, the experience of going out to eat - whether it be for a meal or a bakery run - has changed for me. It’s become a bit of a scavenger hunt with the endless goal of finding more and more chocolate peanut butter treats to share with you. It feels like a win whenever the goal is fulfilled, but the win is all the more special when I get to try something I’ve never seen or eaten before. This was one of those wins!

We were on our way home from Williamsburg, Brooklyn last night when Taste Tester suggested swinging by our favorite bagel place, The Bagel Store. At 11:30 pm I was skeptical that they’d be open but he noted that we were in Williamsburg and bagels are “a great cheap drunk food”. We made it there with 1/2 hour to spare. Nice!

We were about to order our usual (which would be our favorite flavor: their a-may-zing french toast bagel) when we spotted peanut butter cinnamon raisin bagels - ! And right below those was a basket of chocolate bagels. Not chocolate chip bagels like they have at Panera - chocolate chocolate chip bagels. Jack. Pot. We bought a mixed bag of half a dozen bagels to take home and freeze. Freezing bagels works nicely for us because we don’t have to cross the tunnel, borough and bridge it takes to get to Williamsburg every time we want a Bagel Store bagel. To prepare them, you just microwave until soft all the way through, then toast.

While these crisped up in my toaster, I kid you not - it smelled like I was baking chocolate peanut butter brownies. The wait was killing me!

Of the two, I preferred the peanut butter cinnamon raisin. Taste Tester regularly eats cinnamon raisin bagels topped with peanut butter but I can’t do so because peanut butter + bagel would just be too much for me. So I got a nice compromise with this bagel: the peanut butter flavor without the added heaviness. It had just the right amount of peanut butter flavor too; it wasn’t enough to be overwhelming, just enough to satisfy and to set it apart from your typical cinnamon raisin bagel.

The chocolate bagel had somewhat of an odd flavor and texture. It was a little more crumbly than your average bagel. The chocolate flavor was very deep and cocoa-y with almost kind of a burnt flavor to it. It wasn’t near as sweet as you’d expect which is a good thing because no one likes a morning sugar rush.

To taste these bagels, Taste Tester and I ate half of each bagel. I topped both of my bagel halves simply with butter. I tried them separately, then topped the peanut butter half with the chocolate half to taste them together in the same bite, which was also quite tasty. I got to eat CPB for breakfast without a crazy amount of sugar. I was a happy girl!

While I can’t say the peanut butter cinnamon raisin and chocolate bagels were as good as their fellow french toast bagel, they were a totally worthy cpb adventure. The next time you’re in Williamsburg, swing by The Bagel Store.

Eating something dessert-like for breakfast is fun because it feels like you’re doing something against the rules. The other day I was thinking about how many chocolate peanut butter breakfasts I’ve made and eaten since starting this blog. So I made a flickr gallery for any of you breakfast lovers, complete with links to blog entries and recipes. Check out the photos on flickr.

I’ve had this recipe for Barefoot Contessa’s Banana Pancakes bookmarked for a while with the note, “Holy crap these look good.”

This may sound crazy to those of you who can easily whip up the perfect stack of pancakes, but for years I tried and failed to make a thick and fluffy batch. I tried lots of different recipes and different pans to no avail. Our weekend mornings would turn into piles of thin pancakes that were cooked on the outside and wet in the middle. I’d be left sitting frustrated with a mess of dishes to clean up while Taste Tester would politely eat up my lame pancakes and try to convince me that they were delicious.

After doing some research I finally figured out how to make fully cooked, fluffy pancakes (we’re talking 1/2 inch thick!). If you’re in the same boat as I was (or even if you’re not and just want to make damn good pancakes) this may help:

Super Tips For Making Super-Fluffy Pancakes
- Whisk the wet mixture vigorously so that your beatened eggs help make the pancakes fluffy.
- Once your wet mixture has been added to your dry, do not over-mix. Lumps make for fluffy pancakes.
- Fry up the pancakes in a stainless pan in vegetable oil or clarified butter. You may think I’m crazy for this one but I had tried a few different non-stick pans and even a griddle. I’d add butter and wipe it away with a paper towel as many recipes instruct you to do, with the same result every time: toasted pancakes with undercooked interiors. Vegetable oil may be a bit higher in calories than you’d prefer but if flavor and texture are your priority, give it a shot. They will be super fluffy with crispy edges! Use just enough to coat the pan to prevent sticking.
- I’ve never tried this tip before but, I’ve read that swapping beer for half he liquid in pancake batter makes them extra-fluffy, with a rich, yeasty aroma.
- Only use recipes that yield a thick batter. I’ve come across quite a few recipes now that result in a really thin sad-looking batter. Stay away - the thicker batters cook up much more evenly. Like the recipe below, for example…

Using the tips above (all but the beer one), I prepared Barefoot Contessa’s recipe for Banana Pancakes and topped them with Saratoga’s New York Maple Peanut Butter. Victory is mine! We emerged happy with full stomachs. :)

For your morning dose of CPB, you could also add some chocolate chips into the batter along with the sliced bananas and top with regular peanut butter. Aside from tasting delicious, adding peanut butter to your pancakes will help you stay full throughout the morning. Adding chocolate chips will make you feel like you’ve just eaten dessert for breakfast! It’s the perfect weekend splurge.

I hope this post helps any pancake-challenged folks like myself. You’re not alone - just take a deep breath and pick up the spatula. You can do it!

Recipe after the break!

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Hey there everybody - I’m happy to announce that you can now get your CPB fix via Twitter. Woo! So if I’m ever slow with posting here, you can get a small daily dose of CPB to tide you over til the next big blog update.

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My sister had seen Bobby Flay battle The Doughnut Plant on Throwdown with Bobby Flay so when we decided to spend the day in the city together, she really didn’t care where we went as long as she got to taste some of those doughnuts. I don’t exactly need much convincing to go to a famous bakery (especially one that has peanut butter & chocolate doughnuts!) so off we went.

Because I can never go to a bakery and purchase just one item, I left with 6 different doughnuts. Clockwise from top left: Peanut Butter & Jelly, Tres Leches, Blackout, Banana Pecan, Carrot Cake, another Peanut Butter & Jelly and a Coconut Cream.

Again, I failed to take a photo until a few bites had been taken, but if you’ve visited this blog before, you should be used to that by now. Besides, I deserved to eat them fresh since this box of 7 doughnuts cost me $16 & change. Ah, NYC.

I bought two PB&Js anticipating that Taste Tester and I would each want to eat a whole one. Sadly it was not so: the PB&J was the worst of the bunch! There was a faint peanut butter flavor on the first bite, but it was barely detectable after that. The jelly was fine but I thought overall the flavors should have been stronger. The texture was spot on and the doughnut was very fresh but the flavor was just blah. Upon taking a bite, Taste Tester declared that it tasted like Chinese food. Maybe the fried dough and peanut flavor reminded him of peanut noodles or something? I’m not really sure what he meant but I’m going to assume that Chinese food doughnut = bad.

The Blackout as well suffered a little blah-ness. It was far better than the PB&J but considering this doughnut has gotten some hype, I expected more. I enjoyed the pockets of chocolate pudding but thought the doughnut itself was a little dry and lacking in flavor.

Next up was the Coconut Cream. Ah, the Coconut Cream. I’ve read about The Doughnut Plant before and no one ever talks about the Coconut Cream. It was delicious! It had a very strong coconut flavor and whatever is in that luscious cream filling - it was so smooth and yummy. If only I had bought two of these!

The only other DP doughnut that I really enjoyed was the Tres Leches. It had these little pockets of what tasted kind of like vanilla pudding. It had a consistency that was kind of a cake / doughnut hybrid and had this ring of moisture around the edge that made it melt in your mouth. It didn’t really have a strong flavor aside from being sweet, but the texture was so lovely and really different than any other doughnut I’ve had.

To conclude, The Doughnut Plant experience suffered a bit from being over-hyped, but we came away with a few gems. If you make your way there, keep your eyes on the prizes: the Coconut Cream and Tres Leches. The Banana Pecan and Carrot Cake were good as well, but not stunners. I guess we’ll keep the search going for stand-out CPB doughnuts.

While we’re on this little doughnut kick, I just purchased this fun book dedicated to the donut by Sally Levitt Steinberg.

I got the book at the most adorable cookbook shop ever called Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks. I had been dying to go for a really long time. This is part of what I love about New York - would you have even noticed this little window walking by, let alone realize that it’s a treasure trove of Cookbooks?

Photo credit: Dave of Eating in Translation

It’s a small shop jam-packed wall-to-wall with cookbooks both new and old. Bonnie, the owner is clearly very enthusiastic about cookbooks and happy to chat with you about them.

Photo credit: cookstour

After my day in the city with Jenna, I came home and flipped through this new book of mine, only to find an excerpt on Mark Israel and his shop, The Doughnut Plant. It tells an interesting story of how Mark put his own modern-day spin on his Grandfather’s doughnut recipe by making gourmet (trans fat-free) doughnuts using fresh organic ingredients from farmer’s markets. Not having enough money for subways and cabs, he started out by delivering his doughnuts on his bicycle and managed to convince owners of coffee shops as well as Balducci’s and Dean and Deluca to carry his doughnuts just by presenting them with a box to taste. It’s a great story and makes me wish that I had liked them more.

The week after our Doughnut Plant visit, Taste Tester and I were wandering around with Lindsay and stopped by the Peter Pan Bakery, which had been on my list for a long time.

Here’s me and Lindsay posing with their chocolate-frosted doughnut. I don’t know if you can see, but she has chocolate on her mouth and I spilled sugar on my shirt. We were too excited about these doughnuts to be neat.

I enjoyed Peter Pan’s donuts a lot. Theirs were a bit more old fashioned than DP’s but still had creative flavors and were very fresh and tasty. My favorites were the red velvet, chocolate and coconut. They didn’t have any peanut butter doughnuts but the chocolate had a nice rich chocolate flavor and had great texture as well. Oh and while I paid $16+ for 7 doughnuts at The Doughnut Plant, I only paid $4+ for 5 doughnuts at Peter Pan. I guess rent is a touch higher in LES than it is in Greenpoint - heh.

And FYI, they make donut ice cream sandwiches in the summer. Did I just melt your brain a bit?

To taste the hottest doughnuts in NYC, head to Peter Pan Bakery and The Doughnut Plant!