Practically perfect red velvet cake

Yield: 3 8-in round layer cakes

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cups Whole milk

3 1/2 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar (or white distilled vinegar), divided

3/4 cup Unsalted butter

2 1/4 cup Sugar

3 Eggs

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

3 Tbsp Red food coloring

2 3/4 cups AP flour

1/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 tsp Salt

1 1/2 tsp Baking soda

Method: 

1. Combine milk and 2 Tbsp of cider vinegar.  Set aside.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour 3 8-in cake pans. 

2.  In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, allowing each egg to fully incorporate before adding the next.  Add vanilla and red food coloring, allow to combine completely.  

3. Sift together flour, cocoa powder and salt.  Pour half of the flour mixture into the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix on low until fully combined.  Pour in half of milk/vinegar mixture and allow to incorporate on low.  Scrape down sides of bowl.  Pour half of remaining flour mixture into batter and mix again.  Add in remaining milk and vinegar mixture, allow to incorporate and then finish with remaining flour mixture.  Scrape sides of the bowl again to make sure everything is fully mixed. 

4.  In a small bowl, mix baking soda and remaining 1 1/2 tsp of cider vinegar, allowing the baking soda to fully dissolve.  Pour into batter and mix on low.  Divide batter evenly among the three pans and place in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. 

Serving tips:  

-- Allow cake to cool fully before assembling.  

-- Frost with vanilla buttercream or cream cheese icing.  

-- Dust LIGHTLY with cocoa powder

-- Serve with coffee!

Cream cheese icing- 2 ways

There are 2 ways to make a great cream cheese icing.  The first is a little more time consuming if you don't have basic vanilla italian buttercream on hand, but it's texture and depth of flavor is incomparable.  The second is the more common recipe that even the Cake Boss uses.  It's easy, tasty, and accessible.

Recipe 1- Cream Cheese Icing 

Yield:  8 cups

Ingredients:

4 cups Best buttercream ever
4 cups Cream cheese

Method:

1.  If your buttercream is cold and solid, place in mixer bowl with whisk attachment and beat on high until buttercream is smooth again. 

2. Add in cream cheese and beat until smooth.

Recipe 2- Cream Cheese Icing

Yield: 4 to 5 cups

Ingredients:

10 Tbsp Unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 8-oz packages Cream cheese
2 cups Confectioners sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Method:

1.  Place butter in large bowl.  Beat on medium to high until smooth.  Beat in cream cheese until fully mixed.

2.  Add in sugar, 1/2 cup at a time until smooth.  Add in vanilla, mix well.

Best buttercream ever

This buttercream icing does require a stand mixer & a candy thermometer to make, but it is simply the best tasting icing you'll ever prepare!  Be sure to read the whole recipe through before starting to understand the timing right.

Yield:  9 cups

Ingredients:

2 cups Sugar

1 cup Water

1 cup Egg whites (about 7 eggs)

1/2 tsp Salt

1 pinch Cream of Tartar

3 cups Unsalted butter, room temperature

1 Tbsp Vanilla extract

Method:

1. Combine sugar and water in medium saucepan and place over medium high heat.  Stir until sugar dissolves, then turn to high heat and place candy thermometer in syrup.  Allow sugar water to boil and heat until the temperature reads 238 degrees F.

2.  Meanwhile, combine egg whites, salt and cream of tartar in bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment.  When sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees, begin whipping egg mixture on high.  With the mixer running on high, carefully and slowly pour the hot sugar syrup down the side of the mixer bowl in a steady stream (congrats! you just made a stabilized meringue!) Continue to let the meringue beat on high until the bowl has reached room temperature.  Depending on how hot your kitchen is, this could take 10 - 20 minutes. 

3.  Meanwhile, cut the butter into tablespoon servings.  When the mixer bowl has reached room temperature, begin to add butter, one tablespoon at a time to the meringue with the mixer still running on high.  Once all the butter has been added, it will seem as if the buttercream has curdled- give it a minute, it will come together.  Once the buttercream is smooth, beat in the vanilla. 

4.  Store in airtight container in refrigerator. Buttercream will become solid after it's chilled, but can be brought back simply by using the whisk attachment on the stand mixer and beating on high.  

Pittsburgh bakery gossip

Apologies for the lack of a pastry to talk about yesterday. I've been on the hunt to confirm or dispel bakery rumors I'd been hearing all last week and now have enough credible information to share with you the stories of some hometown classic bakeries that closed, might close or might be selling.


First, Coco's Cupcake Cafe in Shadyside. I'm a little late to this story, but Coco's was one of the first bakeries that was willing to hire me and teach me the ways of cupcakes and incidentally, it was the first bakery I went to in Pittsburgh, so it holds a special place for me.


Coco's closed on June 27, 2010. They'd been in business for 3.5 years and were building a strong following for their freshly made cupcakes. We've already discussed that Vanilla Pastry is doing some of the best cupcakes you'll find in town, but Coco's certainly had a niche. Their cupcakes were baked fresh every morning and they also made sure that each day, they had 2 vegan flavors for the vegan, egg-free, and dairy-free community.


With interesting flavors and special attention to beautiful details, Coco's was a unique little cupcake store with a lot to offer. So when they closed suddenly at the end of June, it was a shock to many. Of all the reasons a bakery might close- lack of business, poor cash flow management, low quality product- Coco's suffered none of these. Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, their lease was not up for renewal for another year and they had no plans in place to move, so it was just time to close the doors.


Another bakery going through some big changes is Sugar B's in Venetia, PA. If you visit their website, you'll see that Sugar B's has closed. A husband and wife owned operation, Sugar B's was all about scratch baking and family friendly atmosphere. When the husband passed away, the wife decided her heart wasn't in it any more. For the time being, Sugar B's is closed, but they will be reopening sometime in the future, as she was able to sell her business. We'll see how Sugar B's does with it's new owners.


Finally, and this was the biggest rumor I'd heard last week, Prantl's Bakery. The Prantl's family sold their bakery about 3 years ago to the current owners, but the rumor was that Prantl's was either closing or selling again. According to counter employees, neither is happening. But then again, these plans aren't always shared from owners to employees so we'll just have to keep our eyes and ears peeled for the true story.

Peachy keen recipes for summer

To go along with our Peachy sweet pastries article:  

Grilled Peaches with Whipped Cream

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 Freestone peaches (white or yellow)

2 Tbsp Cinnamon

2 Tbsp Granulated sugar

1 cup Heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup Confectioners sugar

Optional: Fresh mint leaves for garnish

Directions: 

1.  Turn on grill and warm up to medium heat.  Carefully slice each peach in half and remove pit.  Peel if desired.  Mix the cinnamon and sugar, set aside. 

2.  Place peaches on the grill, face down and cover.  Grill no more than 2-3 minutes each side.  Carefully remove from the grill.  Meanwhile, beat heavy cream and confectioners sugar on high until it holds stiff peaks.  

3.  To serve, place 2 peaches on plate.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, top with a dollop of whipped cream and garnish with a fresh mint leave. 

______________________________________________________________________________

Peach & Pecan Bars

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients: 

2 cups Flour

1 3/4  cup Packed brown sugar, divided

1 cup COLD Butter (2 sticks)

1 jar Peach preserves

5 Eggs

1 cup Honey

1 pinch Salt

1 tsp Vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups Whole pecans

3 Fresh peaches

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl, mix flour and 1 cup of brown sugar.  Cut cold butter into cubes and using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut butter into flour mixture until crumbly.  Press down into a greased and floured 9x13 aluminum pan.  Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden.  

2.  When the crust has cooled, warm jar of peach preserves for 30 seconds in microwave, then carefully and evenly spread across crust. 

3.  Meanwhile, mix eggs, honey, remaining 3/4 cup brown sugar, salt, and vanilla in a bowl until sugar dissoves.  Carefully fold in pecans.  Spread pecan mixture evenly over crust.  Reduce oven temperature to 275 degrees F and bake for 40 minutes.  

4.  Meanwhile, peel and pit the fresh peaches and cut into 8 slices each.  After 40 minutes of baking, remove the pecan bars from the oven and place slices 8 across and 3 deep.  Place bars back in the oven and bake for 5-10 more minutes.  Allow to cool completely before cutting. 

_____________________________________________________________________________

Peach Almond Crumble

Serves 8

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup Rolled oats

3/4 cup Flour

1/2 cup Brown sugar

1 pinch salt

3/4 cup Slivered almonds

8 Tbsp Room temperature butter

1 bag Frozen peaches or 4 Fresh peaches, peeled, pitted and cut into 8 slices

1/4 cup Granulated sugar

3 Tbsp Cornstarch

1 tsp Lemon juice

2 Tbsp Cold butter

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Butter 8 6-oz ramekins or 1 2-qt baking dish.  Mix oats, flour, brown sugar and salt in large bowl.  Add in almonds and mix well.  

2.  Cut in butter with pastry cutter or 2 butter knives until mixture is crumbly and well moistened.  

3.  Combine peaches, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice and mix well.  Divide peach mixture among ramekins.  Cut 2 Tbsp of cold butter into 8 pieces and place one dot on each ramekin. Top with crumble and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.  Allow to cool completely before serving. 

Pittsburgh ice cream perfection

So although I've yet to find a great granita in Pittsburgh, I know where to get amazing ice cream; and it's not in the freezer section at Giant Eagle.

We could belabor the history of ice cream, but we'll skip it because it's rather long.  Ice cream and it's cousins have been a special treat since the time of the Persians in 400BC, so you get the idea.  Instead, we'll skip straight to present to talk about how ice cream is made now.  

Most true ice cream recipes for home production are a variation of a frozen custard.  Custard is made by bringing eggs, milk/cream, sugar and flavor to almost a boil and allowing it to thicken.  Once the custard cools, you add in more cream and then transfer it to an ice cream maker and let it do it's magic.  See an example recipe here for the most basic of flavors, vanilla.

Large scale production of ice cream is not truly all that different- the equipment is just bigger and fancier.  Ben & Jerry's actually produced a video showing how ice cream is made in their factory, and you'll notice, it's really not too different from what you do at home. Check it out here.  We pasteurize when we heat the custard and we homogenize when we mix in the cream.  We just call it heating and mixing.

Speaking of Ben & Jerry's...did you know they learned how to make ice cream at the Penn State Creamery? And that the Penn State Creamery is where most people go to learn how to make large scale production ice cream? 

Now we get to the best part of all the ice cream talk.  Not the part where we chat about the history of ice cream, or how to make it at home or how Ben and Jerry's makes theirs.  We get to the part about eating ice cream.

Hands down, Dave and Andy's in Oakland continues to have the best ice cream in Pittsburgh.  They have a 91% satisfaction rating on Urban Spoon with 291 votes.  That's saying something.  They also have countless great reviews from newspapers, magazine and most importantly customers.  They mix up fresh flavors all the time and even offer frozen yogurt to the slightly more health conscious folks.   Notice the lack of a link to their website?  They don't have one.  Their following is just strong enough that there is no need.  People stop by regardless.   Plus, the waffle cones are fresh and the little M&M sitting at the bottom just make their ice cream experience memorable and nostalgic every time. 

Another great place to visit is Mercurio's Mulberry Creamery in Shadyside, just above Girasole.  Now, due to USDA regulations, which require anything above 10% butterfat to be called ice cream, and anything below it a "frozen dessert", Mercurio's actually calls their ice cream gelato, which only has 7% butterfat.  Anyway you look at it, ice cream, gelato, frozen dessert, it's just plain delicious.  This year, they were chosen as the best place to get a gelato by Pittsburgh Magazine.  They also have a 94% satisfaction rating on Urban Spoon (though a far smaller amount of votes). 

Two other places to check out for great Pittsburgh ice cream:  Oh Yeah! Ice Cream and the Milkshake Factory.  Oh Yeah! offers a lot of cool flavors, mix ins, fresh made waffle cones and is special dietary needs friendly, catering to the lactose intolerant, vegan, etc.  Their soy ice cream is actually really delicious, which is great to know when you love ice cream but can't eat it due to lactose intolerance and can't stomach the soy stuff from the grocery store. 

The Milkshake factory also does a great job with have fun, custom flavors each day.  Plus, each week they have a milkshake happy hour from 4-6.  Who could resist? 

As a Pittsburgher and ice cream fan, I feel quite lucky to be surrounded with such great, local ice cream.  Don't you?

Dave and Andy’s Strawberry Cookies and Cream Frozen Yogurt on the Sugar Love Scale

Taste ♥♥♥♥♥
Texture ♥♥♥♥♥
Appearance ♥♥♥♥♥
Overall ♥♥♥♥♥

Melon Granitas, your grown up snow cone

We have reached the late summer (and hopefully a well-deserved break from the uncomfortable heat) and yet we have yet to talk much about ice cream or snow cones or sorbet or gelato.  Although it doesn't seem to fit perfectly in pastry-land at first glance, ice cream's root come from custard while sorbets, shaved ices, and more all fit well into the Sugar Love world and are the perfect complement to your summer barbecue.

So first in our series of icy summer treats, we'll begin with granitas.  Granitas originate from Sicily, though they are common throughout all of Italy.  They are similar to sorbets or Italian ice, but tend to be much more coarse in texture.  Your basic granita recipe requires sugar, water, and some sort of fruit flavoring that is partially frozen.  This is your basic recipe, but you can get much more creative by adding citrus zest, herbs, champagne or sparkling wines, liqueurs, and more.

This grown up snow cone has been featured in multiple food magazines in the past months- August's Food Network magazine, September's Bon Appetit, and the April Food and Wine have all paid homage to the fruity treat.  The recurrent theme you'll see is melons and citrus.  These two fruit groups play especially well together in a granita, and with melons of all kinds coming into season in the mid-west and mid-atlantic regions, what better time to whip up a melon granita?

Here are a few recipe ideas beyond what's linked above to get you started:

Cantaloupe Granitas     These would be delicious if served with a little bit of prosciutto as a complement.

Honey-Dew & Sake Granitas   Try adding a bit of fresh minced sweet basil to this granita. 

Melon Trio Granitas   Try mixing a little of each flavor into each serving cup and garnishing with a bit of zested orange peel.

One unique quality of this fruity, refreshing treat that we don't often see in our Sugar Love exposes is that it can be considered healthful.  You use a relatively low amount of sugar for many of these to allow the fruit to really shine through as the hero.  

I've yet to find a killer granita here in Pittsburgh, but I know they must exist somewhere.  In the meantime, visit your local farmers market to pick up a melon and try a melon granita recipe.   Or, just substitute for some Rita's Italian Ice and know that you are pretty darn close!

S'more Cookies Recipe

To go along with my s'mores article, here's an easy recipe for a yummy s'mores cookie. 

S'mores Cookie

3/4 cup Unsalted butter, softened (1.5 sticks)

½ cup Butter-flavor shortening

1 cup  Brown sugar, packed

2 Tbsp Molasses

½ cup Granulated sugar

1 Egg

1 Egg yolk

1 tsp Vanilla extract

2 cups All purpose flour

1 cup Graham cracker crumbs, divided

1 tsp Baking soda

½ tsp Salt

1 ½ cups Semi-sweet chocolate chunks

2 cups Miniature Marshmallows

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2.  Cream 1/2 cup butter (or 1 stick) and shortening until fluffy. Add in brown sugar, molasses, and granulated sugar and mix until creamy.  Add in eggs and vanilla, beat until well mixed.

3.  Sift together flour, 1/3 cup graham cracker, baking soda and salt.  Slowly mix into wet ingredients, adding chocolate chips until just combined. Meanwhile, mix the remaining graham cracker and butter until mixture is crumbly by using a pastry cutter or pulling two butter knives in opposite directions through a medium sized bowl.  Set aside.

4.  Form ½ oz to ¾ oz cookies, place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 5 minutes, then sprinkle graham and butter mixture on top.  Place back in oven for 3 minutes.  Remove from oven immediately and place on cooling racks lined with parchment paper.  Cookies will still be soft and gooey, so be careful!

5.   Immediately and carefully arrange 3 to 4 mini marshmallows atop each cookie.  Using a kitchen torch, brown the marshmallows.  Allow to cool completely before serving. 

Tip:  If desired, melt 1 cup chocolate chips until smooth and drizzle over cookies before serving.  

Molten, lava, souffle, chocolate, cake

You'll know it as a molten chocolate cake, a chocolate lava cake or a chocolate souffle tart.  While there are always slight nuances in a recipe, this delicious eruption of hot chocolate in the center of a warm chocolate cake is tantalizing no matter what name it masquerades under.  We'll just call it Sugar Lovin' delightful.

Now a restaurant go-to dessert menu item, this decadent variation on chocolate cake, brownie, souffle, mousse or pudding is accredited to New York Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.  In 1987, he was in a hurry to finish a dessert and pulled a chocolate cake out too soon.  The rest is molten delicious history. 

This is not the type of dessert you'll find in many bakeries.  Given the need to serve it hot to truly capitalize on the effect of the gooey center, you'll often only see it on restaurant menus, often served with fresh whipped cream or ice cream of some sort. 

The basic methodology remains the same for any recipe you might find.  First, you melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over simmering water.  Next, you beat your eggs and sugar until they are tripled in volume and then gently fold the eggs into the chocolate, one third at a time.  Depending on the recipe, you might add a small amount of flour before pouring the mixture into ramekins, mini-foil pie pans, or cupcake molds.  Again, depending on the specific recipe, your oven temperature and time will vary a bit, but these cakes should not bake for more than 15 minutes. 

The beautiful thing about making molten chocolate cakes at home is that they are easy and still seem fancy.  The key is to get the basic recipe down and then allow yourself to play with complementary flavor.  Here's a good basic recipe to get you started from the Joy of Baking.  I like this because it accurately describes some key techniques in nailing a killer molten cake at home.  Once you've got the basic recipe down, you can play with flavors- like mint, cayenne pepper, ginger, coffee, etc simply by adding a little bit of spice or fresh herbs to your batter or flavor extract.  

This weekend, I was granted the lucky opportunity to visit the Hot Chocolate restaurant in Chicago, IL.  Mindy Segal, one of the owners, has been a James Beard Award for Oustanding Pastry Chef nominee four years running and has her own bakery and restaurant in the Wicker Park neighborhood.  Her signature dessert called Chocolate #1 is a chocolate souffle tart (a variation of molten chocolate cake that is baked in chocolate pie-like crust) served with a homemade pretzel and salted caramel ice cream.  The ingenuity of flavor, the texture and the presentation were simply outstanding.

However the flavor balance and complexity was off.  The tart itself just felt as if it were missing a crucial layer to tie it all together and the ice cream and pretzel weren't helping it get quite there.  Molten chocolate cake from Grand Lux Cafe (a chain and sister restaurant to the better known Cheesecake Factory) was more satisfying.  The other desserts at our table were simply outstanding and I wouldn't want it to appear as if Hot Chocolate's desserts weren't top notch- the chocolate souffle tart just wasn't the best thing on that particular menu. 

Here in Pittsburgh, I'd recommend Eleven's version of the molten chocolate cake.  It's fairly straightforward, but its simplicity helps enhance your appreciation of the fine dessert.  You can also find a gluten-free version of this cake at Tusca, at the Southside Works.

Sugar Loving cravings delight in a molten chocolate souffle lava wonderland!

Hot Chocolate's Chocolate #1 on the Sugar Love Scale

Taste ♥♥♥
Texture ♥♥♥♥
Appearance ♥♥♥♥
Overall ♥♥♥.5

Old Post 21: Priory Fine Pastries on the North Shore, not so fine

Priory Fine Pastries is located in a historical sweets manufacturing site.  The building they operate out of is the original manufacturing site for the Clark Candy Company, producer of Clark Bars.  Sadly, the history of that building isn't bolstering the quality of the pastry. 

The shop itself is inviting and friendly and the staff is attentive.  You also have a great selection to work from- breakfast danishes, doughnuts, biscotti, cakes, cupcakes, cobbler, mini-pies, whole pies, breads, etc.  The Priory also has a decent web presence for a small business.  They write a blog, have a facebook page, a twitter account, a you tube channel, and maintain a nice, informative website. 

They manage to do so many things right, but miss one key element of a pastry shop- consistent taste!  Sugar Love ordered a mini-cheesecake, a peach raspberry cobbler, a cookies and cream cupcake, a carrot cake cupcake, an orange scone, a mini coconut cream pie, and a white chocolate lemon biscotti,  After just one bite of each item, all but the scone, biscotti and cobbler were thrown away. 

The cheesecake was beautiful, but very sour tasting for cheesecake.  There seemed to be a disproportionate amount of sour cream to cream cheese in this recipe.  The carrot cupcake was ok, just unremarkable.  It didn't seem to have either raisins or pineapple, which is customary for most carrot cakes, so it lacked that little extra bit of fruity sweetness.  The cookies and cream cupcake was decorated as a sunflower with a cute little lady bug on top, but had no cream in it!  It was just chocolate filled chocolate cake with chocolate icing and a cookie.  Cookies and cream should have a vanilla cream filling, right?  The worst was the mini coconut cream pie.  They used neither a meringue or a whipped cream topping.  It seemed to be a flavorless buttercream atop the custard, which was also lacking flavor.  Overall, the coconut cream pie was the most disappointing.

The light at the end of the tunnel was that the biscotti was very tasty.  White chocolate and lemon permeated the dry, crumbly cookie and would have been extra delicious with a coffee.  The scone was also very good, although it definitely ranged on the sweet side of the scone spectrum.  The peach raspberry cobbler was good, but the raspberry was almost an afterthought.  Heavy on peach, light on raspberry. 

That said, none of the pastries were tasty enough to keep around.  While the Breton Cake from Jean Marcs is still be snacked upon, the Priory Pastries sat for a few days untouched after the first few bites.

With a little bit of recipe tweaking, the Priory could be a really great little shop.  For now, you'll just need to be careful about what you order to satisfy that Sugar Loving craving you might have.  

Priory Fine Pastries Peach Raspberry Cobbler on the Sugar Love Scale

Taste ♥♥♥
Texture ♥♥.5
Appearance ♥♥.5
Overall ♥♥♥

Old Post 20: Bringing Bretagne to Pittsburgh, Jean Marc Chatellier Bakery

His slogan- when taste matters.  His delivery?  Nearly perfect.

Nestled in the middle of Millvale, Pennsylvania (of all places) is a French-style bakery so close to a true French patisserie that it transports you to Paris, even if for just a moment.  While Jean Marc Chatellier's is on the smaller side, the selection is not.  You can choose from an array of delectable tarts and breakfast pastries and round your choices off with cakes, cookies, and the irresistible Breton cake, a buttery Bretagne-style shortbread.  

This bakery has been the "great white buffalo" (reference Hot Tub Time Machine) of the Sugar Love bakery stops.  Each time it's been on the list to review (and this has been weekly for about a month), Jean Marc's has managed to stay just out of reach.  The first few times it was up for review, time was the issue.  A drive to Millvale just wasn't in the cards.  Then, at the end of July, time was not a problem, but Jean Marc's was closed for 2 weeks of holiday.  Ah, to be French. 

Then, this week, knowing they were open, the drive was made on Monday only to find that Jean Marc's is closed on Mondays.  The more elusive the bakery became, the more determined the Sugar Love craving became.  Yesterday, finally (!), the bakery was open and time came in abundance.  For as small of a shop as it is, you could easily spend 15 minutes salivating over his creations.  Sugar Love chose a croissant, a cinnamon croissant, a sweet brioche loaf, a chocolate rum pecan torte, an apple tart, a fresh fruit tart, a blueberry almond tart, a slice of raspberry mousse cake, a slice of cappuccino tiramisu cake, and a breton cake. 

Now, Jean Marc's was recommended for his croissants, which did not disappoint (although admittedly, Bouchon's were a little bit tastier).  They were moist, buttery, flaky and tender, as any good croissant should be.  The cinnamon croissant was especially tasty.  However, it was the Breton cake and the raspberry mousse cake that stole the show. 

Raspberry mousse cake is something you could probably find at another bakery.  However, Jean Marc's mastery of the thin layer of chocolate genoise paired with a lighter-than-air raspberry mousse is something that you couldn't find anywhere else in town.  It was quite simply beautifully, delectably, delicious.

The Breton cake is not something you can find at any other bakery and it's without a doubt, worth the trip.  When you think of shortbread, you are likely thinking of a barely sweet, buttery cookie that is iced. This French-style shortbread is nothing like that.  Jean Marc's is moist and buttery and lightly sweet, but has the texture of a cake, not a cookie.  To give you an idea, take a look at this link with a recipe for Breton cake.

Jean Marc's offerings were consistently delicious.  Almost everything would have been rated an overall 5 on the Sugar Love scale.  His attention to detail is shown in the meticulously appealing baked goodies he serves at his bakery Tuesday-Saturday.  For a true taste of France, come to Jean Marc's.

Jean Marc Chatellier's Breton Cake on the Sugar Love Scale

Taste ♥♥♥♥♥
Texture ♥♥♥♥♥
Appearance ♥♥♥♥
Overall ♥♥♥♥♥

Old Post 19: Hop off the bus at the 61C Cafe

The 61C Cafe is located at 1882 Murray Ave, right on the 61C bus line route. That's actually how it gets its name.  You could hop off the bus and grab a pastry and a coffee en route to where you are headed, but should you?

While supporting local institutions is important to the Sugar Love lifestyle, in this instance, for the money you pay, you'd be just as well heading to Starbucks. 

To begin, the service was....awkward.  That's the best word I have to describe it. 

The iced latte was just ok.  It tasted as though it had far too much milk and not enough coffee.  They were out of croissants late in the day (bummer, but that's what you get when you wait until late in the day), which is the recommended pastry from here, but there was enough available to get a decent sampling.  Sugar Love tasted the Raspberry Mele, the Pound Cake, the Apricot Danish, the Espresso Chocolate Chip cookie and the Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip cookie.  In this rather large grouping, the only standouts were the Raspberry Mele and the Pound Cake.  

The raspberry mele has a crispy, sugar-coated pastry crust that wraps around a raspberry filling.  It's actually rather delicious and satisfying.  The pound cake does a pretty good job as well.  It's simply dusted with confectioners sugar and has a slight lemon vanilla flavor.  The biggest problem with this pound cake is that it is made as a cupcake, which causes a slightly odd texture for pound cake. 

The rest of the goodies were rather forgettable.  The two cookies were chocolate based doughs and just didn't have a very chocolate-y flavor to them.  They were kind of stale and dry.  The secondary flavors did not pop either.  The espresso and peanut butter just didn't come to life in the cookies.

If you find yourself stopping at 61C for coffee and a pastry, maybe just go for regular coffee, not the latte.  And stick to the raspberry mele or perhaps the croissant if they have them.  

61C Cafe's Raspberry Mele on the Sugar Lovin Scale

Taste ♥♥♥♥
Texture ♥♥♥♥
Appearance ♥♥♥.5
Overall ♥♥♥.75

Old Post 18: Road trip to Las Vegas: Bouchon Bakery at the Venetian

So imagine if you will, taking a 4 hour airplane ride to hot and sunny Las Vegas, NV.  You hail a cab and head straight for the Venetian, the Venezia tower.  Then it's up to the 10th floor to a little bistro called Bouchon. That's the destination of today's article on Sugar Loving sweets. 

Normally, we don't cover restaurants, but today's article takes you from fresh made beignets in the restaurant to butter croissants at the bakery outpost.

We'll begin with the restaurant itself- Bouchon.  As nearly all Las Vegas restaurants go, Bouchon in the Venetian is not the main location.  The home location for Bouchon Bistro and Bakery is in Yountville, CA, near Napa & Sonoma wine valleys.  As a Thomas Keller project, Bouchon is known for it's outstanding and thoughtful cuisine, but we'll know it today for it's perfect beignets and melt-in-your-mouth croissants. 

Let's begin with the beignets, which you can only get in the restaurant itself.  If you don't have time to do an entire meal experience at Bouchon, then just sit at the bar, order a latte or cafe au lait and ask for the beignets of the day.  Of all the things you can do in Vegas, this is one of the least expensive and most satisfying.  For $7, we received an order of three cinnamon spiced beignets with a chocolate dipping sauce and an apple butter and two raspberry filled beignets. 

Their perfection is hard to describe.  For the cinnamon spice beignet, you are greeted with a crunchy and sweet exterior dusted with cinnamon and sugar and then ushered into a pillow of delicious cake doughnut.  As an added bonus, this beignet was fresh made and still warm when it reached our table.  The raspberry filled beignet was wonderful as well.  It was bursting with what one can only assume is homemade raspberry jelly.

After you've satisfied your beignet and coffee fix, wander down to the casino floor directly below.  Hiding behind the escalator is the retail outpost for Bouchon's bakery.  Bouchon Bakery, which does all of Bouchon Bistro's bread, has a great variety of sweet little treats, from croissants to fruit & custard tarts to chocolates. 

If you are brave enough to face a possible sugar overdose, then here are some recommendations for things to try:

1.  Plain Croissant:  they really nail this traditional french pastry.  Even with nothing in it or on it, you can devour this croissant's buttery, flaky, and tender deliciousness in no time at all.

2. Lemon Currant Scone:  if you don't like things that are super sweet, this is a great option.  They make their scones the more traditional way, i.e., only slightly sweeter than a biscuit and much less sweet than a muffin.  The lemon and currants create great flavor balance.

3. Strawberry Croissant: this is a brilliant little pastry, so different from what you would expect.  When you think strawberry croissant, you are probably thinking of a filled croissant, similar to a pain au chocolat.  This croissant is very different. They cut the tops off of a regular croissant and fill it with fresh strawberry slices and a crumble topping that is then baked.  The best way to describe the crumble topping is to refer you to those strawberry shortcake frozen popsicles you used to find everywhere.

4.  Espresso Macaron:  it's not a macaroon, it's a macaron.  A parisian macaron to be exact.  The cookie itself is a meringue based cookie flavored and filled with a ganache style filling.  This cookie is to die for.  It's light, it's creamy, it's unexpected.  To give you an idea of the difference in the two cookies- macarons and macaroons, here are some recipes. 

Macaron:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/parisian-macaroons

Macaroon:

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/coconut-macaroons-2/Detail.aspx

But seriously, you have to try that cookie. 

Anymore, with bakeries, you find yourself choosing between small specialty shops that don't offer a wide selection and old school, traditional bakeries that are a get in and get out kind of operation with most of the offerings tasting just ok.  With Bouchon, you get the delicious taste and special treatment of each sweet that you would at a specialty bakery and the wide selection of goodies you would find at a traditional bakery.  That's a tough combination to beat. 

Bouchon Bakery's Espresso Macaron on the Sugar Love Scale

Taste ♥♥♥♥♥
Texture ♥♥♥♥♥
Appearance ♥♥♥♥♥
Overall ♥♥♥♥♥

Old Post 17: Big Dog Coffee, not just for Java

As we all know, coffee shops are rarely serving just coffee these days.  To truly be a cafe, you've got to offer at the very least some sort of pastry or bread or snack to go along with the coffee, a comfy chair to sit in and a newspaper to kick back with. 

Big Dog Coffee at 27th and Sarah St. in the South Side is doing so much more.  If you are a dog lover, you must, must come to Big Dog Coffee where you and your pooch are more than welcome to relax in the cool and quaint cafe or on the sunny deck.  Aside from offering delicious coffee and friendly baristas, the little shop also has an oatmeal bar, a selection of daily fresh soups, and a variety of pastries. 

They get their pastries from a variety of local bakers- from full shops with store fronts to home bakers with businesses to friends who know how to make a killer cranberry bread.  You can also easily recognize the best coconut macaroons in town- no, not Sweet Tammy's, Enrico's!

Months and months ago, they had a chocolate gob which was out of this world delicious, but during this particular visit with Pete and Coop (my dogs), there were none.  Faced with indecision- the oatmeal bar with two dogs in hand or a granola bar - convenience landed on the granola bar.  This homemade granola bar was stuffed to the gills with peanut butter flavor and smooth, delicious texture.  It was a real treat with oats, raisins, peanut butter and nuts packed into one delicious bar. 

The raspberry-filled scone was somewhat of an afterthought.  It hadn't been part of the decision set, but it was intriguing because it was a filled scone.  Upon tasting it, it was almost like have a sweet, lemon-y biscuit filled with raspberry jam and flattened.  It was tasty, but a little unexpected. 

Each treat was complemented with a delicious cup o' latte and a wonderfully friendly set of customers who obligingly paid attention to Pete and Coop who wanted oh so badly to eat some of those treats behind the counter.

Stop by Big Dog Coffee and try the oatmeal bar and send your comments! It's on my list of things to try if I ever make it down that way sans dogs. 

Big Dog Coffee's Granola Bar on the Sugar Love Scale

Taste ♥♥♥.5
Texture ♥♥♥.5
Appearance ♥♥♥
Overall ♥♥♥.5

Old Post 16: Edward Marc Chocolatier & the Milkshake Factory

Hello woman's heaven, brought to you by Mr. Edward Marc, the Chocolatier and the Milkshake Factory. They have created the ultimate temptation by pairing two of the most perfect foods on earth in one sinfully sweet store.

Located at 1705 East Carson Street in the Southside, for ice cream lovers and chocolate aficionados, the Chocolate Shop and Milkshake Factory is easy to find and easier to love. While they do make some of the chocolates everyday in the store, such as the chocolate covered strawberries or the chocolate barks, most of the candies are made in their factory located in Monroeville (although it tastes as though each piece came fresh from the kitchen just a few feet away). As an added bonus, Edward Marc has a great selection of cute gifts- such as chocolate shot glasses- for every occasion.

When you first walk in, you are surrounded by chocolate, artfully displayed in gift boxes, gift bags, and for piece by piece consumption behind the glass. It's nearly overwhelming when it comes to the selection. You might not know where to start, but if you ask the helpful staff, they can guide you to some of the best pieces of chocolate you might ever have the pleasure of tasting.

If you had to pick only 3 sugar loving pieces of chocolate (and that would be painful to only choose 3), the Vanilla Salted Caramel, the Amaretto Truffle, and the Almond Toffee would be a great place to start.  The little bag the friendly staff chose today had much much more to offer- a coconut milk chocolate bark, a chocolate covered oreo, a french chocolate meltaway, and chocolate covered almonds- but the 3 mentioned above where definitely standouts.  The Vanilla Salted Caramel would be the top pick.  It has a wonderful combination of sweet dark chocolate wrapped around silky caramel and then a hit of intense salty flavor to balance it. 

The beauty of this store is that once you've hit the high note of your chocolate craving, you can waltz a little further down the aisle to the Milkshake Factory area, where you can get a delicious milkshake in 55 different flavors.  The flavor of the week was Coconut Mango, which makes a delicious take on a pina colada style drink. 

Ladies (and gentleman, if you are suckers for chocolate and ice cream) rejoice! Your two favorite guilty pleasures in one convenient location!

Edward Marc's Vanilla Salted Caramel on the Sugar Love Scale:

Taste ♥♥♥♥
Texture ♥♥♥♥♥
Appearance ♥♥♥♥♥
Overall ♥♥♥♥

Old Post 15: Allegro Hearth Bakery

Murray Ave in Squirrel Hill is a bakery jackpot.  In three short blocks, there are 3 bakeries, all offering a different type of sweet treat.  Sweet Tammy's for the kosher folks, Gluuteny for the gluten free and Allegro Hearth Bakery for the bread lover in you.

The Allegro Hearth is primarily a bread bakery.  They have multiple kinds of fresh made bread available everyday- rye loaves, boule, baguettes, etc- as well as a smattering of other baked treats.  

And that's about all there is to say about Allegro Hearth Bakery.  

In all seriousness, they are a very middle-of-the-road kind of institution.  With no website, it's hard to get to know the bakery, understand their full menu, or see what they see themselves as being.  The store itself lacks personality and is quite stoic.

The food is not much different.  While the kalamata olive bread was quite good, nothing else really stood out.  The French baguette was not very...French.  The texture of the crumb and thickness of the crust lent it more to a sourdough baguette. 

On the baked goods side, the lemon square was on the incredibly tart side and had a loose curd.  The blueberry crisp was flavorful, but definitely needed to be heated and served with ice cream to enable a truly enjoyable dessert experience.

One of their more unique items were the cookie cups.  They look like cupcakes, but they are actually made of cookie dough.  The appearance and texture though, are disconnects.  The brain tells you it will be a cupcake that tastes like a chocolate chip cookie, not a chocolate chip cookie shaped like a cupcake.   The problem with a cupcake shaped chocolate chip cookie is that it is incredibly dense and chewy and also very dry.  Not to mention the chocolate icing on top was hard. 

Overall, the Allegro Hearth was an ok bakery.  There just isn't much to it and they aren't putting out any kind of message about themselves for people to learn and respond to.  Stick to the bread and you'll be sure to get a loaf to satisfy your artisan bread craving, but don't expect to be blown away by it's deliciousness.

Allegro Hearth Bakery's Kalamata Olive Loaf on the Sugar Love Scale:

Taste ♥♥♥
Texture ♥♥♥
Appearance ♥♥♥
Overall ♥♥♥

Old Post 14: An Ode to my favorite desserts

This article is completely outside the bounds of my usual topic and focus, Pittsburgh bakeries.  But last night a friend made a blueberry cobbler with a vanilla custard sauce and homemade mango sorbet with gingersnaps and mint, and she asked me not to write about it. 

I assured her I wouldn't because I couldn't, but then I tasted it and I thought, why not just do an article for me?  Just one little article that remembers all my favorite desserts and Sugar Lovin' sweets I've had from all those home cooks that really knock it out of the park.  I've kept their identities at least a little secret.

So here it comes, my ode to all things sweet: 

To some Little Miss Debbie is the queen of all sweets
But they miss out on so many delightful treats
To all my home bakers who make all these goodies
Trust me, the 5 pounds extra I carry is worth all the worry
To eat your sweet treats is a true delight
Enjoy and know you are one of a kind!

A chocolate chip cookie made by miss Joyce
Will surely make them lift up their hands and rejoice
Moist and delicious, it must be nutritious
But I hardly get one when so many take a ton!

An apricot horn fresh from Bubs’ oven
Is the perfect example of good Sugar Lovin’
Tart and resplendent with good fruity filling
I eat one with my coffee each morning while chilling

Fresh fruit smoothies of blueberry and peach
From sweet sista Maria leave you without speech
And her brownie ice cream sandwich is a treasure
Sure to bring you lots of tasty pleasure

Tara’s scrumptious blueberry cobbler
Will inspire your inner gobbler
And her mango sorbet
Is not to be given away

A lemon square from Liz is a rare gift
Not to be shared with just any twit
Lots of sweet and a little bit of tart
Make this citrusy treat a true work of art

Audrey’s a winner when she makes you a dinner
But she’s the queen of bake
With her sweet coffee crumb cake
A little of which you’ll be begging to take

Theresa’s peanut butter cookies are hard to match
They are the highlight of my Christmas goodie stash
Made from a cookie press only once a year
I’m craving that crunch and holding back my tear

Jenny’s pig-licking-good cake just might say it all
Because what else could you call
A cake so delicious there is never any left over
And we're all left to snack on icky chocolates from Russell Stover

To all my home bakers keep making your goodies!
Because baking is love and sugar love is baking
Keep on sending me those things you are making!

Special thanks to Mom, Bubba, Maria, Tara, Liz, Grandma, Jenny and Theresa for your unforgettable goodies!

Old Post 13: Gluttony at Gluuteny!

While at Sweet Tammy's last week, a young girl ran in looking for the gluten-free bakery in Squirrel Hill. The friendly staff pointed her two blocks up the street, just before the Giant Eagle on Murray Ave.  Not one to squander a drive on 376 near the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, as soon as the Sweet Tammy's research had been purchased, it was off to the gluten-free bakery up the street.

Gluuteny is a small store that you could easily pass while driving by, but for those in search of GREAT gluten-free sweet treats, Gluuteny is a must-have.  Their model is to sell gluten-free, casein-free baked goods.  The in-store selection is quite decent, with an array of fresh baked cookies, muffins, brownies, cupcakes, bundt cakes and different sweet loaves such as lemon.  Beyond the everyday selection, you can also special order pies and cakes when you give them at least 24 hours notice.

One of coolest things Gluuteny is doing is selling their gluten-free flour mixes, making gluten-free baking more accessible to the home cook. At $14.49 for 3lbs, it's competitive with Market District and Whole Foods prices for gluten-free flour mixes (plus you support local small business when you buy at Gluuteny!). 

Now, in an attempt to be fair, Sugar Love tries all baked goods, without regard to special dietary needs, and ranks each on Taste, Texture, Appearance and Overall Experience.  However, when you are trying a baked good for a special dietary need, you are looking for it to taste as good as the original despite the necessary ingredient substitutions, which puts the bar a bit higher for that treat. You don't want it to have a completely different texture or be lacking that buttery flavor that makes sweet treats so irresistible.

Gluuteny clears the bar with ease.  The sugar cookie was one of the best sugar cookies you'll taste- period.  Not one of the best gluten-free, dairy-free sugar cookies, just one of the best sugar cookies.  The cranberry walnut cookie had a great, moist texture with a rich flavor that was really quite complex and balanced.   It almost tasted like they used butter, but knowing it was dairy-free, they couldn't.   The apple cake was also incredibly flavorful, although it was a bit light on cake and a bit heavy on apples.  Regardless, it was certainly tasty, and though it might have been sacrilege to the dairy-free gods, it was finished with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. 

The next time you are seeking a gluten-free treat, make the drive to Gluuteny  It's well worth the trip because one dessert from this bakery will please your gluten-free and non-gluten-free audience alike.

Gluuteny's Sugar Cookie on the Sugar Love Scale:

Taste ♥♥♥♥♥
Texture ♥♥♥♥♥
Appearance ♥♥♥
Overall ♥♥♥♥1/2

Old Post 12: Another "perfect" bakery (sarcasm abounds)

At Giant Eagle in Bethel Park, there is a display that reads "Pittsburgh's best chocolate chip cookies and macaroons." Sweet Tammy's bakery from Squirrel Hill is now selling Challah bread, chocolate chip cookies, and coconut macaroons to the mass of Giant Eagle consumers. But are they the best?

Sugar Love has a confessed snobbery for chocolate chip cookies. Everyone seems to think they have the best, but chocolate chip cookies are hard to get right. There must be a balance between chocolate chip and cookie and between a chewy and crisp texture. And given the last article about the best coconut macaroon ever from Enrico's, Sweet Tammy's was up against a lot, especially when she's willing to make the claim that hers are the best in Pittsburgh.

The chocolate chip cookie was disappointing. There was too much chocolate chip and not enough cookie. It was also very apparent that she was not using butter. But Sweet Tammy’s is kosher and dairy-free, so it’s no butter is forgivable, but not the disproportion of chocolate to cookie. The macaroon was better than the chocolate chip cookie, but was rather dry.

It's hard to truly judge a bakery by its packaged goods though, so it was off to Squirrel Hill to see Sweet Tammy's in the flesh.

A quick word on process: you do research with each article. You visit the website, google the bakery, and read up on it's Urban Spoon rating to get an idea of customer satisfaction. Sweet Tammy's has a nice Urban Spoon rating (85%) and she does communicate with consumers who make complaints. But on the opening page of her website she claims: "There are only a handful of perfect bakeries in America: Sprinkles in LA, Magnolia Bakery in New York, and now, Sweet Tammy's in Pittsburgh."

She's kidding right? A perfect bakery, on the same level as Sprinkles in LA and Magnolia in NYC? Sprinkles is the proclaimed start of the high end cupcake trend and Magnolia is one of the most famous American bakeries.

But back to the audacious little Sweet Tammy's. The selection of "perfect" sweet treats included another chocolate chip cookie (in an attempt to be fair), a snickerdoodle, a peppermint patty, and a pecan bar. The chocolate chip cookie fresh was better, but it still lacked the balance of chocolate to cookie. The pecan bar was forgettable- the caramel flavor was drowning the pecans, though it's presentation was very nice. The peppermint patty was ok, but there was a disproportionate amount of cookie to filling. You had to bite pretty far in to get any filling, though the filling was dead on a peppermint patty filling.

The snickerdoodle redeemed the trip to Squirrel Hill. It was moist and balanced and flavorful: a worthy Sugar Love sweet treat.

What Sweet Tammy's is trying to do definitely has an audience. A kosher, dairy-free bakery is needed and Sugar Love can applaud her for that. And overall, her baked goods were tasty. She also has one of the most beautiful store presentations and display cases in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, arrogant claims put her treats on a much higher pedestal than is typical and when they don't support the claim, it's hard to have a great experience.

Sweet Tammy's Chocolate Chip Cookie on the Sugar Love Scale
Taste ♥♥
Texture ♥♥
Appearance ♥♥♥♥
Overall ♥♥♥