Cocoa Bella Chocolates

Cocoa Bella Chocolates - visited August 29, 2015

On my SF visit with my out-of-town friend, we stopped off at Cocoa Bella after lunch. It was in the same mall and, you know, because chocolate. They’ve got prime retail space on the street level of Westfield Mall in downtown San Francisco and they made the most of that space with their mouthwatering displays of chocolate, themed by geography and type. 

I’m not enough of a chocolate gourmand to really distinguish amongst the high end chocolates. Like in a blind taste test, I don’t think I could tell the difference between Recchiuti Chocolate and Cocoa Bella for instance (I know, I know, sorry, fine artisan chocolate makers). Between Hershey’s and Cocoa Bella, yes. Amongst the chocolates where you fork out big bucks for a tiny square, not so much. 

Still, I expect it would be good and it was. Super chocolate snobs say dark chocolate is the test of quality chocolate. Pfft. My sweet tooth says milk chocolate is the way to go. And the way I went was with a toffee milk chocolate. My friend got a bag of several dark chocolate peanut butter confections; we’ll leave her to enjoy that as her paleo cheat. I stuck with my toffee. 

If you do want some classy and delicious chocolates, Cocoa Bella is an excellent choice, even if, or especially if, you're a chocolate gourmand.

Milk Chocolate Almond Toffee

Oatmeal Coconut White Chocolate Cookies

Oatmeal Coconut White Chocolate Cookies - made dough September 27, 2015 from Big, Soft, Chewy Cookies by Jill Van Cleave

In another “use up the milk before it expires” baking move, I made this cookie dough one weekend and put it in the freezer for baking off at a future time. Later that week, my niece was attending a potluck with some friends so I suggested she might want to bake off some of the cookies and bring it with her. That’s why I make up cookie dough ahead of time, for these kinds of occasions. I told her to bake it on the convection setting for 10 minutes then see if it was done. Our ensuring conversation went like this:

My niece: It’s been 10 minutes but they don’t look done yet.

Me (checking the clock): It’s only been 7 minutes, not 10. Give it a few more minutes.

A minute later, my niece: How ‘bout now?

Me: Not yet.

30 seconds after that, my niece: How ‘bout NOW?

Me: Not yet!

Her: Iwannacookie!!

Me: OMG. Remind me never to take you on a road trip. (You know she'd always ask "are we there yet?" every 5 minutes.)

Yeah, that’s the comedy show that is me and my cookie-loving niece. And no, she’s not 5 years old, lol. And, if this post is picture-less, it's because I made the rare (very rare) mistake of forgetting to take pictures of it! When my niece made the first batch, it was at night and there was no natural daylight left so I didn't take a picture. No big deal, I thought, since there was still more cookie dough in the freezer and I could always take a picture of a later batch.

When my other niece came home for a night and wanted to bring cookies into her office the next day, I told her to bake off the rest of the cookies. Which she did. Which I also forgot to take pictures of. Ack. This may not be a big deal to some people but you're talking to me. Someone who pretty much takes pictures of every speck of food that crosses my path. My friends will tell you I'm not kidding. How could I forget?? Argh.

But since I did and since I don't have any milk left to make another batch of cookies, I will just have to describe them to you - these cookies stayed thick and didn't spread too much, the oatmeal gave them some texture and the coconut some chewiness while the white chocolate offered the sweetness to go with the brown sugar flavor of the cookie. In case that's too technical, the layman's term is "these were delicious". It's a tad different than the typical white chocolate chip cookie because of the oatmeal and coconut but that just made them better than the norm. They were a hit at niece #1's potluck and at the office of niece #2. My second niece even said one of her coworkers ate 3. Nice.

If anyone does make this, can you post a picture? :)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 large egg

¼ cup whole milk

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups old-fashioned oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

6 ounces white chocolate, cut into ½-inch chunks

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy and smooth. Add egg, milk and almond extract until just combined.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Add to the creamed mixture. Stir in coconut and white chocolate.
3. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze until firm.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Place cookie dough balls evenly on baking sheet.
5. Bake until edges of the cookies are golden brown and middles no longer look raw, about 12-15 minutes. Do not overbake. Let cool for 2-3 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Restaurant Review: Lark Creek Steak

Lark Creek Steak - lunch on August 29, 2015

I completely forgot to write this up at the time I went here so my recollection may be a bit sparse. Back in late August, a friend was in town from Florida so we decided to meet up for lunch in San Francisco the weekend she was out here. I rarely go to the city these days since I don’t want to deal with the traffic and taking public transportation requires a length of time only available on the weekends. Which is what I did the Saturday she was here.

We stuck around the downtown area and settled on Lark Creek Steak for lunch. Our timing was a bit early so we were there a few minutes before they opened (we gabbed the entire time while we waited) and had to share the large dining area with only a few other diners who also were eating lunch at 11 am.

My friend is on a paleo diet (most of the time), ignored the bread basket (more for me, ha), made very specific requests to paleo-ize her order of the pulled pork sandwich (just the filling, hold the bread) then threw our server with an order of onion rings. I was used to the quirkiness (I have my own) so it didn’t faze me and he must’ve had experience with all sorts of dietary finickiness as it didn’t take him long to recover either.

I myself went with a burger and fries. I wasn’t up for a steak so a burger seemed like the next best thing. I’ve been to Lark Creek before and I vaguely remember I got a steak on that first visit so I didn’t need to get one again just because I was at a steakhouse. Remember I had no compunction about ordering fish at Alexander’s Steakhouse either.

It was a good burger and the service was excellent so it was a pretty good lunch experience.

Bibingka - revisited

Bibingka, the sticky kind, again - made September 28, 2015

I did a spot of baking a couple of weekends ago, mostly to use up the pint of milk I had bought for the Chocolate Caramel Oatmeal Bars recipe. As you know, I'm still trying not to bake a lot since I don't have much time and I'm trying to cut back on sweets. And I really have cut back drastically. But I'm not dead either so I do get my hand in once in awhile.

I've been sitting on a frozen package of grated cassava for awhile, from the last time I had wanted to make bibingka and never got around to it. Plus, from my previous baking stockpiling period, I had a couple of packages of coconut flakes still in my freezer. It seemed like a good time to chip away at my stockpile and also use up the milk before it expired. Plus I had a craving for bibingka. My mom makes it often enough that I rarely make it myself but the last time she made it, it was for my parents' anniversary party and it was so popular, it was gobbled up by the other guests before I was able to get a piece. Nothing like being thwarted to make me want something.

So I made my own. This is my mom's recipe and super easy to make. Really, it is, even for the novice baker. It's also gluten free for anyone trying to avoid wheat since it uses rice flour. This time I baked it for nearly an hour and the texture was perfect. Chewy without being mushy or hard-chewy. Just perfect chewy. Plus I love coconut so anything with coconut browned on top is a good thing.

1 cup sweet rice flour (also known as Mochiko, can be found in the Asian aisle of most grocery stores)
1 teaspoon baking powder
16 ozs of grated cassava (can be purchased in 16-oz packages at Asian grocery stores like 99 Ranch)
2 cups milk
2 eggs
scant 1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
Sweetened coconut flakes, enough to cover the top of the batter in an even layer

1. Melt butter in 9" square baking pan in preheating oven as it heats to 350 degrees F.  Meanwhile, beat eggs until lightly scrambled.  Add in rice flour and baking powder and make a paste.  Gradually add in milk, mixing with a fork to keep the batter smooth and free of lumps, then add sugar and cassava until well blended.  Do not overmix - you don't want a light or cakey texture. Pour into pan, mixing well with melted butter.  Batter should be somewhat liquidy but not so thin that it can't hold the coconut topping.
2. Generously top mixture with coconut flakes.  Bake until coconut topping is golden brown and edges look crisp, about 45 to 55 minutes. You can't rely on the toothpick test for this one so go by appearance.  The middle should be firm enough not to jiggle when you shake the pan gently.  Don't bake for more than an hour even if the coconut isn't brown all over the top.

Restaurant Review: A Slice of New York

A Slice of New York - takeout on September 6, 2015

One of the pizzerias listed on that Top 10 list of pizzerias in my area was A Slice of New York. They have two locations and ironically, one of them was just across the street from where I used to live. I never went there back then because it was one of those things that was so close, I figured I could go there anytime. Only I never did and I ended up moving before I could ever go there.

This time around, their other location was closer to me and I wanted to try them so I ended up calling in an order from their online menu: the Rockefeller Center pizza plus a half order of their garlic rolls. They told me my order would be ready in 20 minutes and I dutifully showed up a little over the allotted time.

I went in the middle of the afternoon on a weekend so the place was almost completely empty. However, they did have a few other people picking up their pre-ordered pizzas so I wasn’t the only customer.

Inside this location, as part of the dining area, was an empty NYC subway car, decked out to look like an NYC subway car in keeping with the Slice-of-New-York theme. You can purchase pizza by the slice at the counter as well as order and pre-order pizzas. The counter person got my order rather promptly and I was soon on my way.

The garlic rolls were good but I have to give the nod to the garlic knots from C&O Cucina in Southern California; so far nothing tops their garlic rolls. The pizza itself was also pretty good but I’m rather picky about my crusts. To me, what makes a pizza amazing is how good the crust is. I’m in the school of thick and chewy pizza crusts and that’s how I rank my pizzas: Zachary’s and Patxi’s head the list, Pizz’A Chicago is a close second and Premier Pizza vies for third. 

A Slice of New York was more on the thin side so I would have to group it as good amongst its other thin-crust brethren but it didn’t knock any of my reigning favorites off their pizza thrones. I’d go here again if I wanted a quick and easy slice of pizza but not sure I’d make a special point of going like I would for Zachary’s or Patxi’s.

Rockefeller Center Pizza

Caramel Apple "Flipped Over" Cake

Caramel Apple "Flipped Over" Cake - made September 26, 2015 from Cakes to Die For by Beverly Shaffer

It's finally officially autumn. We were still experiencing some residual summer heat when I made this so it wasn't cool enough for me yet but it's apple season nonetheless. I had milk to use up so flipped through my files of recipes I still need to try and came up with this one. It's a caramel apple upside-down cake and seemed just right for fall.

Two challenges for me with this recipe - one, I don't own an apple corer. So I couldn't make a nice neat cylinder down the center of the apple to make pretty slices. Turns out that didn't matter since you can't see the apples all that clearly once you add them to the brown sugar caramel and toasted pecans.

Bottom caramel pecan layer

Layer of apples

Two, I had more than enough apples from the two called for in the recipe to make a double layer of apple slices in a 9-inch pan. Actually, I worried I wouldn't have enough room for the cake if I used up all of the apples and made a third layer. So I ended up using 1 1/2 apples and ate the rest. There was just enough room for all of the cake batter to come to the top of the pan. I did fret momentarily that the batter would overflow the pan and cause an unholy mess in my oven but alleviated my concern by tearing off a large piece of aluminum foil and setting the pan over that in my oven.

Fortunately, it didn't come to that and nothing overflowed or spilled. This was hard to judge when it was baked enough because you can poke the toothpick straight down without hitting the apples or caramel on the bottom. Instead, you have to angle the toothpick so you're mostly poking through cake. Apples release moisture into the mixture so you don't want to underbake it too much or it'll be too mushy. And of course you don't want to overbake it either.

The caramel bottom didn't get flow-y caramel-y (you know what I mean) like it does in my Caramelized Pecan Pumpkin Upside Down Cake but instead set into more of a penuche texture once the cake had cooled. Still good but don't expect drippy caramel when you flip the cake over. Good news if you don't want to make a mess.

I really liked this cake. The caramel bottom (or top) provides a nice sweetness that complements the tartness of the apples, the caramelized pecans add a nice crunch and the brown sugar cake pulled the whole thing together. In fact, I liked this cake so much, I may replace the pumpkin upside down cake with this come Thanksgiving time. Just for a change of pace.

½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 tablespoons chopped pecans, toasted

2 large tart-crisp apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

Cake

1 ½ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter

2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup whole milk

1. Heat oven to 350⁰F.  Grease a 9” round cake pan.
2. In a small bowl with a pastry blender, combine the brown sugar and butter until crumbly.  Stir in the pecans.  Press onto bottom of cake pan.
3. Arrange apple slices atop sugar/butter mixture.
4. For the cake: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
5. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  Scrape bowl.  Add the egg and vanilla, beating until well combined.  Scrape bowl.
6. With mixer on low, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk to the sugar mixture, beating until mixture is combined.  Scoop batter into apple-lined pan; quickly and gently spread batter to smooth.
7. Bake for 34 to 46 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let stand 5 minutes on a wire rack, then run a knife around the inside edge of pan.  Invert onto a large platter.  Cool 20 minutes.  Serve warm.  Serves 8-10.