If you’ve been a regular visitor of The CPB Gallery you know that I live in the NJ and recently took a road trip to Michigan and Illinois. This being the case, most of my cafe reviews revolve around the NY / NJ area but lately I’ve been blabbering about some of the many treats I ate on my trip to the midwest.

However, the other day I received an e-mail from a reader in Dallas, Texas asking about cupcakeries in her area that might be as good as Molly’s in Chicago, Illinois (which I loved). I’ve never been to Texas and wasn’t up on my knowledge of southern cupcakeries, so I did a bit of research.

Turns out The Dallas Morning News made a list back in 2005 (I didn’t look up every bakery on this list, so it could be a little outdated) of various cupcakeries in the area, in response to the crazy demand for cupcakes. Check out the full list at their site, which also includes recipes for Key Lime Pie Cupcakes with Coconut Meringue, Warm Chocolate Cakes with Molten Centers and Kid-Simple Cupcakes.

In related food dork news, a “Best Of” list was made by The Dallas Observer, chronicling the stand-outs in many different food cateories. I’m not sure how I encountered this list on my search as it doesn’t have any cupcakes on it, but it does include the best chocolate chip cookie in the area, and honestly if I had to decide between cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies, I would take the latter any day of the week. I’m old fashioned, what can I say? Luckily there was a tie for best cookie, so you can try one from J D’s Chippery and one from The Great Harvest Bread Co. and compare. In fact it might be so hard to decide, you should probably pick up extras just to make sure you’ve reached the right conclusion. ;)

One last Dallas spot I’m going to highlight is the ever talked about Sprinkles. Celebrities love them, regular people love them, but this reviewer is one of a few I’ve found that wasn’t nuts about them. She only gave Sprinkles a mediocre review noting, “I must say the peanut butter chocolate was really delicious … well, that is I loved the icing, but thought the cake part was just OK. My taste test concluded that on the ones where the icing was a 10, the cake part of the cupcake was only like a 6 or 7. Some of my friends thought I was nuts, but hey, we all have our likes and dislikes. Anyways, some of my friends could eat pure butter and find it delicious, so there you go.” Ouch, way to diss your friends, there.

In good news, if you don’t want to spend $3.25 for a Sprinkles cupcake even if Oprah thinks it’s the best thing since sliced bread, you can pick up their cupcake mix at Williams-Sonoma and make em at home. The mix even comes with the fancy little dots to decorate em with, and you don’t have to wait on line for 45 minutes to get them.

(Of course, if I were in the area, I’d still sprint over there for this chocolate peanut butter cupcake.)

Zzang!! Go ahead, say it - it’s fun… ZZANG!!

The Original ZZANG is one tasty chocolate bar.

I posted the description yesterday but here it is again:
“Made by hand at Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Charlie Frank uses the best ingredients you can pronounce. Starting with a honey nougat made with natural peanut butter, Charlie rolls it up in a sensual caramel made from muscavado brown sugar. The biggest and best peanuts we can find come next, and the whole endeavor’s finished off with a hand dip into a rich bath of 64% dark Ecuadorian chocolate.”

As a kid I was one of the few who preferred Three Musketeer and Milky Way Bars, but I love Nougat. Nougat’s a little weird - kinda chewy, kinda tough, but it complements chocolate nicely and makes a nice bed for other tastes and textures, such as caramel, nuts, etc. And Zingerman’s nougat definitely tastes different (and by different, I mean better) than the one in your average chocolate bar. Maybe that’s due to the honey, maybe it’s because they use natural peanut butter? Only they know I guess, but regardless of how they made it, I’m happy with the results.

The Zzang Bar is basically an amped up Snickers Bar. The chocolate coating is thicker and the chocolate is much more satisfying, being a higher quality dark instead of average milk chocolate. The “butter roasted peanuts” give the bar a really nice flavor as well. I think the Zzang helps proves that if you use better ingredients when you cook or bake just about anything, you will get better results.

The only criticism I can make when looking at the ingredients is that the caramel contains corn syrup which would likely bother some people. Not enough for me though. I am in love, and love is blind… when it comes to corn syrup. That’s how the phrase goes, right?

Taste tester was happy to partake in destroying it, since it doesn’t contain any tree nuts, also known as his arch-nemesis.

Another vantage point it has over Snickers - take a look at the packaging:

Someone decided to be evil and add that swirl background design as a subliminal way of hypnotizing me into eating more and more of it. So I guess I blame my gluttony on the designer! Yay!

I also love the illustrations of their products on their site and in their catalogue. Check out the fun interpretations of the above bar / packaging:

Snickers will always hold a special place in my heart and I’m sure I will keep buying them because they are cheaper and more readily available than the Original Zzang Bar. But I have a feeling every time I taste one I will be wishing it was a Zzang. Get one and taste it for yourself at Zingerman’s.

Read more about Zingerman’s in yesterday’s post.

Not the greatest shot, but that’s Zingerman’s Delicatessen in the background, the cafe is in the foreground and in between is an outdoor seating area for patrons to chow down.

The second Taste Tester mentioned going to Michigan for vacation, the first thing that popped into my head was finally getting the chance to visit Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor. We were actually staying about 2 1/2 hours west of there at the Canadian Lakes in Stanwood but luckily it was on the way.

I think I found out about Zingerman’s by coming across one of their products in The Southport Grocery in Chicago a few years ago. I was instantly hooked. I received some of their products including coffee, dipping oil and an incredible chocolate cherry bread for my birthday that year. Shortly after, I purchased Ari Zingerman’s book, Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating which was a feast for me since this was around the time I was really getting into food.

Of course I was quite disappointed when I looked up their store and found out they were all the way in Michigan. Even when I was living in Chicago, I didn’t have a car which made it too far a trip, and now that I’m living in New Jersey, I never expected an opportunity to go.

Well, the gods of gourmet food were on my side and off we went on our road trip. We got up to leave at 5:30 am just so we would make it to Michigan before some of their stores started closing at 6:00 pm. Is that crazy? Sure, but we’re okay with being crazy.

Zingerman’s has a few shops (which I’m still a little confused about so forgive me if I’m wrong) that include a Bakeshop, Delicatessen, Creamery, Cafe and Roadhouse Restaurant. Our first stop (could you guess?) was the Bakeshop.

That pic is only of half of the Bakeshop. The other side has a big case full of more beautiful pastries. Somehow after all this time I’m still a little shy when taking photos in someone’s cafe / restaurant. So I snapped this one quickly while the staff was in the back. Turns out they were very friendly and the girl behind the counter was even from New Jersey. Ah, I felt right at home!

So foregoing self control, I purchased:

Magic Brownies
Cocoa Cake
Cinnamon Rolls
Fresh Fruit Tarts
Cheddar Herb Scone
Italian Bread
Mexican Vanilla Sugar

Are you wondering where the chocolate peanut butter is? I purchased what I believe was the only chocolate peanut butter product there, called the Zingerman’s Original Zzang Bar. Here’s part of the description:

“Starting with a honey nougat made with natural peanut butter, Charlie rolls it up in a sensual caramel made from muscavado brown sugar. The biggest and best peanuts we can find come next, and the whole endeavor’s finished off with a hand dip into a rich bath of 64% dark Ecuadorian chocolate. You’ll make a lot of new best friends when you treat ‘em to this one. Or better yet, get a couple and treat yourself!”

I have a lot to say about this Zzang Bar so I’ll be posting a review of that tomorrow.

While in the Bakehouse trying to figure out if I should go ahead and spend my life savings buying their whole stock of baked goods, in walked Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of the Zingerman’s Deli. I’d read his book, had waited so long to get to see his stores and considered this a one time opportunity, so I introduced myself and had a little chat with him. He was very nice and it was fun for me to talk to someone who’s career I definitely admire. I was a little nervous; I think I started the conversation with, “Hi, you don’t know me, but…” haha, but whatever, it was fun.

After visiting the Bakehouse, we got back in the car for a short drive to the Delicatessen. Taste Tester ordered a pastrami on some very tasty pumpernickel bread and I wandered around experiencing a little over stimulation with all of the beautiful signs around me and gourmet foods. I was really impressed with all of the handmade signs - there were so many of them and they were everywhere!

The packaging, menus and flyers were also really well designed and fun. Buying a food product that’s well designed may not make it taste better but it definitely ups the experience, at least for me. This is the only photo I got to take of a treat purchased there (aside from the Zzang bar) because by the time I took photos, everything else had been devoured or at the very least, attacked. Poor baked goods, they never do seem to evade doom.

Of everything we ate I think the Cocoa Cake was my favorite and sadly disappeared in record time. The Magic Brownies were awesome as well. I never got my hands on a Cinnamon Roll but were told they were also great. I thought I went overboard buying too much at the bakery but a couple days after my visit when most of the stuff was gone, I wished I had bought more.

Maybe someday I’ll get to go back there. Until then, I’ll have to stick with ordering from their website. If you’ve never had the pleasure of trying their pastries or breads, I know they’re a little pricier than what you’ll find in the grocery store, not to mention you have to pay for shipping, but I promise it’s worth it. If you’re not convinced by the drool-worthy descriptions and fun illustrations, check out this interview with Ari. It’s an old one, but gives you a sense of his opinions about food and business and will most certainly turn you into a Zingerman’s fan (if you’re not already one).

Today’s post is dedicated to Susan, a chocolate peanut butter loving friend!

Okay, I’m taking a short break from all this product and restaurant reviewing to bring you a tasty cookie recipe. I constantly bookmark recipes for chocolate and peanut butter desserts and it’s rare, but once in a while I actually remember to check in my bookmarks folder and use one. This recipe really stuck in my brain since I’ve had a container of Trader Joes Mini Peanut Butter Cups sitting in my pantry for a little while. And I woke up yesterday with this intense cookie craving. You know how it feels right? So like any addict would, I immediately ran to the kitchen and made 4 dozen cookies. I only wanted one, but 47 back up cookies isn’t going to hurt anyone, right?

Taste Tester wasn’t as enraptured with these cookies as I expected him to be. His criticism was that I used really high quality cocoa powder for the cookie base (Askinosie Single Origin Natural Cocoa Powder) and lower quality peanut butter cups (Trader Joes), and the two didn’t mesh so well. He said the cookies would taste better with peanut butter chips.

Not so fast! I actually didn’t have the required two cups of mini peanut butter cups (some of them had gotten eaten by… someone… I think, I mean I wasn’t there so I don’t really know, just an assumption) so I slipped in 1/3 cup of peanut butter chips. He took another bite to see if I was telling the truth and responded with an “Mmmm” of acceptance.

I will agree with him that I thought the peanut butter cups had a little bit of an odd, maybe waxy flavor. But I really liked that the peanut butter in the cups got all melty while the peanut butter chips stayed firm.

So if you can’t get your hands on some other higher quality brand of mini peanut butter cups, maybe just chop up some larger peanut butter cups or just go with the peanut butter chips.

Get the recipe at A Mingling of Tastes. As I said, the only change I made was to use a little less than 2 cups of mini pb cups and added 1/3 cup peanut butter chips. Also, the cookies look a little fluffier in the photos on A Mingling of Tastes. I have a feeling this is either because I did not beat my egg whites enough or wasn’t gentle enough with the batter when I was combining the dry with the wet. This wasn’t a problem since I still really liked the cookies, just keep that in mind if you want really fluffy ones.

Another Note: (just incase you don’t read the post that goes with the recipe) she’s not kidding - they really don’t look finished when they’re done baking. They are barely set to the touch and your finger will sink into them if you press down. Just have faith and pull them out. Do a test batch first if you need to.

The ice cream in the above photo is the “Kiddie” size at King’s Trading Post Party Store. It’s got like three scoops of ice cream in it. Welcome to the midwest, everyone.

You can’t tell from the pic but it’s topped with chocolate ice cream and the bottom is peanut butter. The consensus was that the chocolate was really good and better than the peanut butter. Our cohorts enjoyed their vanilla, birthday cake (which was a fun multicolored flavor) and chocolate chip mint.

This convenience store / ice creamery / plant shop is about as unpretentious as you can get for a place that sells some really tasty sweets. It’s in the middle of nowhere and open til 10 pm which was nice since it seemed like nothing else in the area was open past 8.

I only had a couple bites of Taste Tester’s ice cream, but what I really enjoyed about our visit was the chocolate chip cookies. Mmm they were good! Nice and soft, but not undercooked tasting. Just perfect. Taste Tester though they were good but nothing special, but this isn’t his blog - it’s mine! I am a little ashamed to admit that I “accidentally” kept these in my room instead of the more accessible kitchen and ate most of them myself.

Seconds after taking this photo, I shoved the entire stack of cookies into my mouth!

Kidding… I’m more of a nibbler than a binger. At $2 per bag (five homemade cookies to a bag… maybe six since I can’t remember if I ate one before taking this photo) they were a good value. Should have bought more than two bags… like ten more.

If you ever find yourself in Mecosta, Michigan, stop by King’s Trading Post Party Store. Eat lots and lots and lots of really good ice cream and cookies and hey, maybe buy a plant while you’re at it.

We’ve explored some fancy shmancy cupcakes the last couple days, so I think it’s time to go back to basics. When you’re on a road trip, you may have destinations that will bring to you luxurious gourmet desserts, but along the way, a craving can hit, and the most convenient place to stop is generally a truck stop on the road. The last time we made one of these stops on a trip, I grabbed a Nutty Bar, which was an old favorite I hadn’t tasted in a long, long time. This time, I got to taste a re-furbished favorite.

Here’s my theory on how the Peanut Butter Oreo happened: One day, an original Oreo fell in love with a Nutter Butter. They got married and had a baby that had an Oreo cookie outside and Nutter Butter filling. They lived happily ever after… until I ate them! Bwahaha.

What a heart-warming story. On to the review…

The original Oreos are arguably my favorite packaged cookies. I have tons of sugary sweets in my house at any given time but can never buy full packs of oreos because I simply cannot control myself around them - they get devoured an at embarrassingly fast rate. So you’d think my favorite chocolate cookie with a new peanut buttery kick would be my dream cookie.

Well, I can’t say it is. I’d still take the original or the double stuffed any day of the week. There’s something about that vanilla filling in an oreo- it’s just so refreshing in between the layers of dark chocolate cookie. I reach for the peanut butter oreos because the autopilot in my brain demands “OREOS! MUST EAT!” but as I chew, I can’t help but wish it was a regular oreo instead. They’re good, but it’s no contest for me. Though I suppose not a bad option since I can actually keep this flavor in the house without making myself ill with gluttony.

On a side note, I love the new Nabisco Snack N’Seal packaging. They came out with these handy self sealing packages that keeps your oreos from going stale. Genius! I hated having to cover my oreos with tin foil or plastic wrap that would eventually get all bunched up and fail to be effective, rendering the last few oreos soft and lacking that wonderful crunch (they’d still get eaten, of course).

This review experience was puzzling because I love Oreos and Nutter Butters. How am I not in love with a hybrid of the two? Even though they weren’t quite as great as expected, I’d probably buy them again sometime. Try them for yourself and see if they stack up to the original for you. I’m sure that if we could find these at a small grocery store in Stanwood Michigan, they must be pretty readily available.

The incredible Vegan Peanut Butter Cupcake posted above is from The Bleeding Heart Bakery in Chicago (from flickr user The Bleeding Heart Bakery). Drooling yet?

Taste Tester and I were only in Chicago for two days, and since we bought over a dozen cupcakes on our visit to Molly’s Cupcakes we didn’t get around to visiting the other cupcakeries on my list. I still wanted to mention them though and hopefully when I’m in town next time I’ll get to stop in and see what they’re baking up. You should too!

Cupcakery #1: Bleeding Heart Bakery
I’ve actually been to Bleeding Heart a couple of times before, but I’ve only been to their former Chicago Avenue location and have yet to visit their new spot - and taste their fabulous looking cupcakes. They have a set of photos on flickr of various organic, gluten free and vegan flavors including that lovely looking Peanut Butter Cupcake in the above photo. If I am ever able to stop ogling that pic, I’ll be sure to get out and pay them a visit.

Cupcakery #2: Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique
We passed right by this bakery, but it was right after eating a full breakfast and it was a little too early in the day to be craving cupcakes. Because of this we didn’t go in, though of course later in the day when the craving hit, the regret set in. They sell a chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream and the photos on their site are pretty drool-worthy. I love the adorable bubbly flower design of their icing - their cupcakes look fun to eat.

Cupcakery #3: Cupcakes
This cupcakery claims to have “the best cupcakes anywhere!” so, I guess they’re not modest, but with “over 150 flavors and counting,” I guess they have right to be a little cocky. They even have dog cakes for your furry friend. It looks like they only post current flavors, which change weekly. They don’t have any chocolate peanut butter cupcakes this week, but I assume at least one out of 150 would be made up of my beloved combination.

If you’re not on a travel site booking a flight to Chicago yet, I don’t know how else to convince you… yes, I know that cupcake looks amazing, but quit staring and get moving!

Hi people! I missed you during vacation, but I’m back to share some fun chocolate and peanut butter adventures from my road trip to Michigan and Illinois.

Taste Tester, Taste Tester’s brother, and Jackie Brown (our Chocolate Labrador) and I drove from New Jersey to the Canadian Lakes in Stanwood Michigan, stopping in Ann Arbor on the way. After our stay in Stanwood, we spent a couple days in Chicago and then headed out for the long drive back home to Jersey. We tasted some truly delicious treats along the way! I’m not going to go through them in any particular order, so even though Molly’s was one of the last stops on the trip, we’re just going to go ahead and get to that first.

I first discovered Molly’s from some photos on flickr. Molly’s only had a temporary site at the time but it had some fun animation and a pretty logo and since I’m a sucker for both cupcakes and good design, I tucked it away in my bookmarks and made a mental note to check back sometime to find out more info. Taste Tester and I visit Chicago often (we both used to live there), so odds were good that we’d get to try these tasty looking cupcakes at some point.

To give you some perspective, at this point in time my favorite cupcakery in Chicago was Swirlz and my favorite cupcakery in the USA was Misha’s in Florida. Both of those cupcakeries are pretty damned good, so it wasn’t that I had low expectations of Molly’s, but after indulging in half a dozen of Misha’s Cupcakes the week before, I didn’t expect to be blown out of the water.

Well I should have.

I mean, just look at this cupcake!

And let me tell you, this cupcake lives up to it’s looks. I was blown away. Here’s the full description:

(If $3.75 seems a lot for a cupcake, calm down; this is only the price for the fancy filled cupcakes. The regular cupcakes are cheaper, but only a crazy person would pass up this cupcake over it’s price anyway!)

One thing that really puzzles me with the chocolate and peanut butter combo is that milk chocolate seems to go better with peanut butter than dark chocolate. I am a dark chocolate girl so this tends to frustrate me. However somehow, Molly’s has defied the odds and created a cupcake that somehow contains a peanut butter filling and topping that works extremely well with it’s deep dark chocolate cake and ganache. The only possible explanation I can come up with is that the ganache is very creamy so maybe the creaminess of it sort of mimics the creaminess of milk chocolate, helping it mesh better with the peanut butter?

Here’s some detail on it’s components:

The filling: The peanut butter filling didn’t taste like there was any sugar or butter mixed in, as is the norm with most peanut butter fillings and icings. If there were other ingredients, they did a great job hiding it because it tasted very, very peanut buttery. I’m a little confused by the cupcake’s description - it looks like it says PB & Butterscotch filling, but I could have sworn they were filled with straight peanut butter. Whatever the case, the filling was great.

The ganache: The ganache topping was wonderfully chocolatey and thick. One thing that’s hard about loving very dark chocolate is that most of the time when I order a dark chocolate dessert from somewhere, it’s too sweet, and not dark / bitter enough. Half the time I need to chase my dessert with a bite of real dark chocolate to satisfy my sweet tooth, which is sad. But halfway into this cupcake I was ready for a glass of milk and a nap. It was awesome.

The cake base: The sole complaint I have about the Ron Bennington is that the cake itself was a teeny bit dry. I still don’t know what Misha’s Cupcakes does to their cupcakes, but theirs are just so freaking moist. To review this cupcake, I tasted all of the elements individually - the cake, ganache, filing - and then took big bites, tasting the cupcake as a whole. When eaten together, you don’t notice the dryness of the cake because the super creamy ganache and filling balance it well. But a bite of the cake on it’s own was just okay, nothing spectacular. I’m not going to get to petty about this though. On the whole, it was an incredible cupcake. Maybe it doesn’t quite get the A+ but definitely an A / A-. Bravo, Molly!

The name: The people behind the counter were very nice despite my picture taking in their cafe (some places get annoyed with that). I asked why the cupcake was named after Ron Bennington and they said he’s an XM radio host and a friend of one of the guys that works there, so he got to make his own cupcake. Lucky bastard.

I also took a bite of my friend Adam’s Mini Red Velvet (see below - the other cupcake in the foreground is the Strawberry shortcake). Normally I love cream cheese icing, but sadly this one didn’t do it for me - it was too tangy for my taste. I’ve been buying Temptee cream cheese lately instead of Philadelphia because that sour tanginess is a little too much. I only had a very small bite though, so I’d be willing to give it another shot.

This was also disappointing because we already ordered a dozen cupcakes to take home, a third of which had this cream cheese frosting. Also, when we got home and opened the box we were sad to discover that they forgot to give us the other two Ron Bennington Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes we ordered! We were leaving first thing the next morning so there would be no opportunity to get more before leaving Chicago. At least I had a Chocolate Mousse Cupcake to ease my sorrows. This was essentially the same as the Ron Bennington, with chocolate mousse filling instead of peanut butter and no butterscotch peanut butter topping. So it was hard to be too upset when I had that to console me.

Despite the slightly dry cake, less than perfect cream cheese frosting and forgotten Ron Bennington’s, I have still been salivating while writing this review and would jump at the chance to eat another cupcake from Molly’s. It might not have been perfect but what in this world is? It’s a fun, friendly cafe that churns out delicious treats. If you are in the Chicago area, stop by and treat yourself.

Also, I may not have been nuts about the cream cheese frosting myself, but my friend Susan loved it. Adam also gave the thumbs up for the Key Lime and I enjoyed the Tirimisu, so there are plenty of great flavor options (even for vegans). They also have “Dirt ‘n’ Worms”, one of my all time favorite childhood desserts. This dessert, the swing set, sprinkle station, board games and well… cupcakes are all things that will tap into the kid in you when you set foot into Molly’s.

They still only have a temporary site, but you can check out their pdf menu for more info. You can see more photos from my visit on flickr.

So remember yesterday when I said I was going away for a little while? Well… I wasn’t kidding actually. Though I’m going on vacation, I will be posting when I’m able to, and well… I’m able to (at least today). And these photos found on flickr were just too crazy not to share.

Next time you find yourself wanting to make a fancy looking cake but don’t have any bags to pipe icing or dainty sprinkles to use, work with what ya got. It doesn’t have to be chocolate chips (though they do look neat in that spiral). If you have pretzels, roasted peanuts, whatever - just go at it and see what you come up with. Maybe you’ll accidentally stumble upon the newest, hottest way to decorate a cake. You’ll be the envy of pastry chefs everywhere!

Hey, it’s fun to dream.

Thanks to flickr user ryan_451 for sharing the photos! See more of his lovely work at Ryan Pennington Photography.

Sad to say but it’s time for me to take a short little hiatus here at the Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery. I will be away for a week and a half enjoying the sun somewhere in Michigan. I’m only bothering to write this by chance that I don’t have internet where I’m staying. If I do, I’ll be back to post here and there, if not, I’ll be back after my trip. Feel free to check in while I’m gone. I will be stopping at Zingerman’s, a super cool gourmet shop in Ann Arbor Michigan on the way and I’m sure I’ll be reporting on that at some point.

Enjoy the break and stay tuned - I’ll be back with more chocolate peanut butter fun before you know it! :)