Bakery Review: Alexander's Patisserie

Alexander's Patisserie - visited December 12, 2014

This is actually my second visit to Alexander’s Patisserie but I didn’t write up the first time I went because there was nothing to buy. Literally. Nothing. Unless I wanted fancy coffee and I don’t drink coffee so that was a nonstarter. But on my first visit, which was soon after Alexander’s opened, the shelves were empty. There was a sign on the door that even explained there was nothing left. Imagine my disbelief. Really? Really?? There were about 4-5 staff people who were standing around and the operational person in me cringed at the lost sales, mismatch of inventory to demand, bad customer experience, and every other cranky judgment I could make when my sweet tooth has been thwarted.

Fortunately, the second visit with my friends after our dinner at Doppio Zero bore more fruit. As in there were baked goods in the display cases this time, mostly individual-size classy-looking desserts, some bread products and macarons. That’s more like it.

Prices were a bit steep. As Queen of Cheap Eats summarized, the prices would be fine if you were dining in with some friends and chatting over a lemon tart or a chocolate orange thingie but if you were buying it for take-home consumption without the social aspect, it’s expensive.

Since we had just come from dinner, we were too full to dine-in with a second dessert. I opted to buy a lemon tart based on my friends’ recommendations and forked over the $6 to have it boxed up in a classy Alexander’s to-go box. Based on the counter person’s direction, I wrapped it in plastic when I got home and put it in my refrigerator since I wasn’t going to eat it until the next day. Also on his recommendation, I let it come to room temperature before trying it. 

As lemon tarts go, it was pretty good. The custard was nicely tart and the crust shell was good. After a rich dinner or during the summer, this would be a delicious treat to have. Unfortunately for the tart and my wallet, I was inundated with desserts and baking when I bought this so I only ate a third of it and couldn’t finish the rest, even a day or two later. It was a relatively expensive  taste test but I’m glad I at least got to try it.

Alexander’s Patisserie fits the bill if you’re looking for a patisserie or something that looks and tastes high brow. I myself am more of a homey baker, literally and figuratively, so I still prefer Icing on the Cake for my comfort baked goods.

Restaurant Review: Doppio Zero Pizzeria Napoletana

Doppio Zero - dinner on December 12, 2014

A few friends and I are starting to have a monthly dinner club going on. We meet at one of the many restaurants on Castro St in Mountain View and have pledged to try a different one each month. We’ve done Asian Box (or at least Queen of Cheap Eats and I have) and Blue Line Pizza so far. For December, we stayed on the same block and went to Doppio Zero, a little Italian restaurant. Doppio won out from the options we discussed since they took reservations and that made it easier for us to plan rather than hoping a restaurant on a popular street during the holiday season would have a table for 4 ready without a long wait.

I have a tendency to want to mainline carbs, particularly bread and pasta, so Doppio Zero is my kind of restaurant. There was the requisite bread basket with warm slices of baguette and a pleasing variety of options on the menu from pastas to pizzas and other traditional Italian fare. I went with the lasagna, one person got the gnocchi, another the ravioli and our fourth member got the spaghetti with clams. The mark of a good restaurant? We all liked our entrees. We even liked each other’s orders from the sampling we did from everyone else’s plate (we’re girls, we’re not shy about stuff like that). My own lasagna was delicious although the portion size meant I had enough for 3 more meals that weekend.

Gnocchi

Not only that but our wandering eyes noted all the delicious-looking orders being delivered to nearby tables and we started planning ahead to what we would want to order next time we came: the fried calamari appetizer for Queen of Cheap Eats, the pizza for another, the calzone for me. And the gnocchi for a different person who liked the sample she tried from the other person’s plate. 

Ravioli

The prices were reasonable as well, which is always a plus(!). Our wait person was nice, service was good and the manager (I assume he was the manager) stopped by our table to make sure we were happy. We were.

Lasagna

My only disappointment was the dessert. Doppio Zero’s dessert offerings leaned a bit too much to custard-y desserts (cheesecakes, tiramisu, etc) but I thought the chocolate cake was promising so we ordered 2 slices to split among the 4 of us. We toyed with the idea of each of us getting our own slice of chocolate cake but I think we were trying to be grownup and go with the sharing concept. Which turned out to be a good call as the chocolate cake was just okay. It was chocolate, it was decent but I wasn’t wowed. I suspect they contract out their desserts or don’t make it inhouse because it wasn’t the same standard as our entrees were. Still, the main courses were so good that none of us had any trouble foregoing our original plan of trying out a new restaurant every month and instead decided that for our next outing, we were coming back to Doppio to try out more entrees. Can't offer a better recommendation than that.

Restaurant Review: Reposado

Reposado - dinner on December 9, 2014

Happy New Year's Eve! Sneaking this in under the wire for 2014 (I'm still behind on blogging).

For our holiday team dinner earlier this month, my manager took us all out to Reposado, a Mexican restaurant near our office. Our amazing group assistant worked with the restaurant to provide us with a fixed menu which is typically the most optimal way to handle large group dinners. There’s enough of a variety of dishes that everyone should be able to find something to enjoy, the restaurant gets advance notice of what food is needed, and logistically everything runs more smoothly.

Not being a big fan of Mexican food, I hadn’t been to Reposado before but given the choice to his team about where to go, I voted for Reposado on the strength of the dessert offerings alone. There was a “caramel banana upside down cake served warm with caramel sea salt ice cream” on the dessert menu. Let’s face it, they had me at “carammmmm……”

Shrimp Skewer

Empanada

Reposado isn’t small but it isn’t too large either. The tables are arranged somewhat cozily but we scored a large countertop table that accommodated the more than a dozen of us at the dinner.  We even had our own personalized menu so we could all see what was coming. We started off with appetizers, moved to salads, were delivered our entrees then dessert. I have to say the service was quite superb. The wait staff moved seamlessly between courses and were prompt in clearing out silverware and dishes between courses.

Quesadilla

Green Rice (pesto)

The food was good. It’s still not my favorite but there were some highlights for me, including the I-can-tell-this-is-so-fresh salmon. The chicken mole was less of a favorite, more because I don’t like mole than how the restaurant made it. Mole has chocolate and my brain wants to process that if something has chocolate in it, I should be able to taste the chocolate like I would in a chocolate cake or fudge. But I didn’t and usually don’t in mole. And I didn’t this time either. Bummer. Although maybe it’s just as well since chicken and chocolate just isn’t something I’m culturally used to or have developed a taste for.

Filet Medallions (also very good)

Chicken Mole

We did get asked for our choice between the banana cake and tiramisu as that (besides the salad) was something we were individually served rather than sharing family style. I hardly need to say which dessert I chose. But I was a bit disappointed that the banana cake wasn’t served warm as advertised. The taste was good but I wanted warm. Sigh. First world problem.

Salmon Yucatan

Plantain Chips

Overall, I think Reposado did a really nice job with our team dinner and seems to be a good place to go for such events or even with smaller groups. Get the salmon if you go.

Banana Upside Down Cake

Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

Cheesecake Swirl Brownies - made December 7, 2014 from Yammie's Noshery

Excuse the anemic lighting in these pictures. I only had time to bake and take pictures of these when it was dark so no natural lighting here. This was like the Cheesecake-Swirl BrownieBites but the much easier version since you bake it as an entire brownie and just cut into bars. No messing with mini muffin tins and whether or not the brownie would pop out of the pan easily.

I think I just made these to use up more of the cream cheese packs I bought from Costco, not that I had any lingering love for a cheesecake-swirl brownie. Plus this was much easier to portion out, wrap up and include in my holiday gifts than the bites were.

My only issue with recipes like this is the cheesecake parts tend to brown before the brownie parts are done. In all the pretty pictures of cheesecake brownies I’ve seen, they always have perfectly pale, no-brown-spots cheesecake swirls. I swear they must have airbrushed those like models with flawless skin because for the life of me, I’ve never been able to have anything cheesecake-involved not have a little bit of browning to them. It doesn’t affect the taste and you know me as the Queen of Underbaking so I know I’m not overbaking the brownies. It’s just the darn cheesecake parts won’t stay uniformly pale while the brownie parts bake to fudgy goodness (not mushy mess).

Anyway, once you get over that, these brownies are pretty good and a nice way to dress up the brownie, even if you’re not a cheesecake lover.

Brownies
2 sticks of butter, melted
2 1/4 cups of sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups of cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups chocolate chips

Cheesecake
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg

1. Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
2. Melt the butter with the sugar in a pot on the stove over medium heat until bubbly, whisking occasionally. Allow to cool for at least ten minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add the cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and flour and mix well to combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the pan.
3. In a separate bowl combine the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla, and egg.
4. Make about one long trench at a time in the brownie batter with the end of a wooden spoon and fill it with the cream cheese mixture. You'll probably need about 5 trenches going across the long side of the pan. 
5. Take a knife and cut rows all the way through the batter the opposite direction of the trenches to marble-ize.
6. Bake for about half an hour or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs, not raw batter. Cool completely.

Cupcakery Review: Minicakes by Tasha

Minicakes by Tasha - visited November 29, 2014, Saratoga, CA

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t watch that much TV since (nerd alert), I prefer to read a book instead. But I do have a small handful of shows I watch, mostly Masterpiece Mystery (I’m a sucker for those British detectives), a crime show here and there (Person of Interest, NCIS) and, most importantly, I’m a slavish follower of Cupcake Wars. Every episode is extremely formulaic and I can be counted on to watch the same show multiple times and never remember who actually won until it’s announced (again). But that’s okay. I have a low threshold for amusing myself when it comes to anything food related.

One of the things I like about watching the show is finding out who the contestants are, what their bakeries/cupcakeries are and where they’re located. I’m particularly interested in any who are in my area. That’s how I first discovered Sift. And, last year, Minicakes by Tasha. Tasha won her episode (I can’t remember what the theme was) so I was particularly interested in trying her cupcakes. Back then she only had an online bakery and I tried ordering from her website for a Thanksgiving gathering. Unfortunately, she wasn’t open for the day I needed the cupcakes so we never did business.

However, I was looking for businesses to support for Small Business Saturday last month and I recently looked up Minicakes by Tasha again. I was pleasantly surprised to discover she had opened her own retail storefront last August. It was a little farther away than I normally go but I don’t mind going a little out of the way to support a local small business so I headed over there after Thanksgiving. 

The cupcakery was of comparable size to some of Kara’s Cupcakes or Sprinkles bakeries with the front half of the retail space being where you could enjoy your cupcakes and the back half containing the entrance to the kitchen and the display cases of cupcakes. As is typical with most cupcakeries, there are certain flavors available every day and some flavors are only available on certain days of the week. On the Saturday I went, I picked out a red velvet cupcake (available every day) and a Toffee Crunch cupcake that’s only available on Saturdays.

Minicakes by Tasha also offers, appropriately enough, mini cupcakes in the same flavors as the regular size cupcakes. Mini cupcakes are 2 for $4 and regular cupcakes are $3.25. If you’re a frugal, value minded cupcake consumer, you might notice the size of the regular cupcake isn’t that big. It’s actually the size of what a home baker would make, similar in size to Kara’s and smaller than Sprinkles. That’s actually not a bad thing if you don’t want to consume a lot of cupcake calories but some people like bigger sizes for their $3.25. I don’t mind the relatively smaller size of the regular cupcakes as it’s automatic portion control and $3.25 is a standard price for cupcake boutiques.

I thought the packaging was really clever. Tasha herself put the two cupcakes I bought in a clear cellophane bag with a clear plastic cupcake holder inside that would hold both cupcakes nicely in place. A Minicakes by Tasha sticker sealed the bag closed and it was just a nice, clean, simple package that showed off the cupcakes which I appreciated.

I also appreciated the cupcakes once I got home. The red velvet was nice but I have to admit I felt like I could make it myself. It was good but didn’t really stand out as anything different from what a good recipe could offer a home baker

But the Toffee Crunch was divine. It was a chocolate cupcake with “salted caramel swiss meringue frosting, ganache, and chocolate covered toffee pieces”. I know I can make a good chocolate cupcake and I could buy my own Heath Bar milk chocolate-covered toffee bits but the swiss meringue couldn’t be beat and certainly something I’m not likely to make as well. And remember I’m not a frosting person. But yup, I ate the whole thing, frosting and all. Normally I scrape off half the frosting from any cupcake (I did with the red velvet) but not this one. It was delicious.

Now I have to plot on how I can go back on a Wednesday for the Sweet Potato Cupcake, on a Thursday for the Salted Caramel Mocha, Friday for the Snickerdoodle, and Sunday for the Lemon Vanilla Bean. She’s closed on Mondays. If you live in the area, you might want to stop by Minicakes by Tasha and enjoy the calories before those new year's diet resolutions kick in. 

Caramel Almond Fudge

Caramel Almond Fudge - made December 13, 2014, adapted from Crazy for Crust

Christmas is over but I'm still catching up on posts for desserts I made over the holiday season. Fudge is another one of those once-a-year things I make this time of year. Partly because of my spotty history with fudge (failure, failure, success, failure) and partly because a little fudge goes a long way so I only need to make 1 recipe and it goes into more than half a dozen baked gift packs with some leftovers for work. Which makes it perfect for baked gifts to add variety with relatively little time sink.

I’d had a recipe for 100 Grand Fudge from Crazy for Crust pinned to my pinterest board for months now. It called for fudge swirled with caramel and dotted with rice krispies like the 100 Grand candy bars of my childhood (that my parents never bought me and I could only long for but….we won’t go there).  Anyway, I tried out Dorothy’s recipe with high, high hopes. Surely my fudge curse was broken with last year’s successful Almond Nutella Fudge. Er, maybe.

The fudge itself was easy to make, the caramel was flowy and promising and of course I love the Rice Krispies crunch which is what makes my Nutella Crunch topping in brownies such a favorite. But erk, something went wrong. Unlike with the Nutella crunch topping, the rice krispies softened up in the fudge mixture. I don’t know if it’s because the sweetened condensed milk had far more moisture than the melted chocolate chips and Nutella of the Nutella crunch topping but snap, crackle and pop they did not. Instead, I was left with chewy rather than crunchy rice krispies that had the texture of something that had been left to stale for too long then got rained on. Sigh. Once again the fudge gods laughed cruelly at my expense.

Not to be deterred, however, I tried it again and this time left out the rice krispies entirely and substituted whole toasted almonds instead. I know, that defeats the “100 Grand” candy notion but it was that or stale Rice Krispies with no crunch – you decide. This version turned out decently well but this is cheater’s fudge. Meaning sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips melted together to form fudge is a pretty basic form of fudge. It had the requisite sweetness but I noticed once it had cooled completely, it had pretty much lost its gloss. It wasn’t dry but I can’t say it was visually appealing either. I did like the fudge, caramel and almond combination though so I think I would substitute in my friend Jez’soriginal fudge recipe that I had modified last year and just add the caramel. Because, you know, fudge needs way more calories than it already has.

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
¾ cup whole toasted almonds
1 cup Caramel Bits (from an 11 ounce package)
3 tablespoons whole milk

1. Line a loaf pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Add caramel bits and heavy cream to a small, microwaveable bowl. Heat for 1 1/2 minutes on HIGH, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and smooth. (It may take up to 2 minutes.)
3. While caramel is melting, add chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk to a medium saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring until melted together. Add vanilla and almonds and stir to combine.
4. Add half the chocolate fudge mixture to the loaf pan (and then return the rest to the stovetop). Spread the mixture in the loaf pan and spread the melted caramel on the top. Give the fudge mixture that’s left in the pan a quick stir, then pour and spread over the top of the caramel. 
5. Let sit for a few minutes on the counter; then transfer to the refrigerator to cool completely before cutting.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies - Day 12: Nutella & Caramel Stuffed Double Chocolate Cookies

Nutella & Caramel Stuffed Double Chocolate Cookies - made dough on December 13, 2014 from Jacquelyn Clark

Merry Christmas Eve! To cap off the series of Christmas cookies, in case you were wondering, you can stuff Nutella, chocolate and caramel inside a chocolate cookie. Yup, I looked into it for you. Merry Christmas :).

In other words, here’s the recipe for you if that’s something you find interesting. I personally found it fascinating. The chocolate and caramel portions of the combo are achieved by cheating with Rolos or cut up Milky Way caramels. Make the cookie dough, chill briefly if it’s too soft and sticky, portion out the chilled dough into dough balls, flatten a dough ball in the palm of your hand, drop a dollop of Nutella in the center (having 3 hands help but if you have to make do with two, just go slow), place a Rolo or chunk of Milky Way caramel over the Nutella then draw up the sides of the cookie dough to pinch the seams closed and form a ball that fully encloses the Nutella and the candy.

If you don’t want to cheat, you could drop dollops of Nutella and melted caramel in the center then put a handful of chocolate chips over them but be warned it’s potentially harder to keep this neat and fully enclosed. Take my advice and cheat. It’s okay. Time these cookies because you don’t want to overbake them and these don’t give off the normal “I’m done” signals in terms of how they look. They won’t look dry or crack or puff up. Just time them and take them out at the 9-10 minute mark.

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup good quality cocoa powder
2 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks
flaky salt (fleur de sel or maldon), for sprinkling
nutella (for stuffing)
16 caramel-filled chocolates (I used Rolos and cut up Milky Way Caramels)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. 
2. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Remove from heat and stir in sugar & eggs. 
3. Add the cocoa, salt and baking powder and stir until combined.
4. Add the flour and stir well until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Using your hands or a cookie scoop, form 2" balls of dough. Make a hole in the center of each and stuff a rolo within the hole. Spoon approximately 1/2 a teaspoon of nutella into the hole, and seal everything within. Sprinkle with the flaky sea salt (if desired) and bake for 8-10 minutes.