Desserts

Akiko’s Cookies

April 4, 2010 Baking, Desserts, Events, Food

A japanese pastry chef, Akiko experiments with typical japanese flavors and ingredients in the more western cookie format. She calls these “sweets for adults” and it’s true, our kids didn’t much care for them. Which makes them the perfect cookie in our book – one a parent can eat alone, in silence. Though it is nice to share, it is also nice not to have to.

We’re most fond of the Kagoshima, made with green tea and shochu, a sweet potato vodka, because it is so unique – and makes a great tea break even if you don’t have time to make tea. The Aphrodite contains more traditional cookie flavors like chocolate and macadamia nuts. The cookies are individually wrapped in brown parchment paper and they can be rebaked in the oven in their individual wrappers for a fresh-baked treat.

Akiko will be in the store sampling the cookies from 2-4pm on Easter Sunday! Enjoy!

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

March 10, 2010 Desserts, Food, Ice Cream

When you look at the list of flavors we’re bringing in – Thai Chili, Salty Caramel, Cherry Lambic, Lemon Yogurt and Goat Cheese & Cognac Figs – you know why the NY Times says that Jeni’s Splendid ice creams have “surpassed the creativity of all other ice cream makers” and that their “intense, offbeat flavors would be worth a drive to Ohio.” Jeni’s makes artisanal ice creams, sorbets, and yogurts in small batches, by hand — from start to finish — with dairy from grass-fed cows, fresh ingredients from the Ohio countryside, and responsibly-raised exotics from around the world. Join us this Saturday when we’ll be sampling these intriguing ice creams!

Sugar & Spice Valentine

February 11, 2010 Coffee Bar, Desserts, Food

The new rose and vanilla marshmallows we have in from Whimsy & Spice are so gorgeously pillowy they make us wish our head was 10 sizes smaller so we could just rest our head on one and take a nap. Back in the real world, we’re dreaming of ways to use them for Valentine’s. Of course they’d be great in hot cocoa or served with tea or coffee but we think the sexiest way to showcase them is in a gourmet s’more. Pair them with the darkly spicy, chewy chocolate Cha Cha cookies from Lark Fine Foods and your favorite chocolate. The perfect combination if your Valentine is a little bit sugar and a little bit spice.

P.S. The city equivalent of roasting marshmallows over a fire is over a gas stove if you are so lucky or 5 seconds or less in the microwave . . .

My Vegan Valentine

February 8, 2010 Desserts, Food

Just in time for the 14th, Fine & Raw chocolates has some gorgeous Valentine’s wraps for their bars. These dreamy designs enrobe some delicious, dairy-free chocolate. Sweetened with agave nectar and plumped up with virgin cold-pressed coconut oil, fine & raw is a great way to woo your vegan valentine.

A Date for Dessert?

January 25, 2010 Desserts, Food, Fruit

The staff has been raving about the Del Real Medjool dates from California new to the produce case just for their taste. So we’re hesitant to ruin it for them by letting them know that ounce for ounce, dates have more potassium than bananas, are fiber-rich, fat- and sodium-free and packed with B-complex vitamins. These dates are sweet enough to make a delicious dessert on their own but we also have them in the pastry case stuffed with walnuts and dipped in chocolate. The sweet, rich date provides a luscious center – you won’t miss the caramel or ganache

Meet Your Maker: Patric Chocolate Tasting Tonight 5-7pm

January 8, 2010 Desserts, Events, Food

We’re thrilled to welcome craft chocolatier Alan McClure to Provisions tonight for a special tasting of his single origin bean-to-bar chocolates. Last year in the New Yorker, local Brooklyn chocolatier Rick Mast compared Patric’s 70% Madagascar Sambirano Valley bar not to a sunny day (which we could use one right about now) but to Mr. Darcy in “Pride and Prejudice,” by Jane Austen:

Ever thought, “Who in their right mind would spend that much on chocolate?” Give it a chance, Elizabeth; Mr. Darcy waits to be unwrapped. Even the most to-the-manor-born chocolate is relatively inexpensive compared to a bottle of wine, and just as transporting. Allow yourself Patric’s seventy-per-cent cacao bar from the Sambirano Valley, in Madagascar. Inside, you will find perhaps the most refined chocolate of the micro-batch scene. Cherry and plum will knock you on your rear in surprise.

Try the chocolate, then cross the street to Greenlight Books and buy the book!

Port and Chocolate Tasting This Weekend

December 16, 2009 Desserts, Events, Food

Both the Brooklyn and Manhattan stores are continuing a holiday tradition – our free port and chocolate tasting. Stop by the Manhattan wine store on Friday, December 18 from 5-7pm and taste chocolates from CaryMo Chocolate paired with our ruby, tawny and vintage ports. In Brooklyn on Saturday, December 19 from 5-7pm, NuNu Chocolates joins us and pairs their treats with port.

Speaking of sweet wines, the New York Times had an article swooning about Madeiras this morning. These fortified, oxidized wines are wonderful holiday treats. We carry the Rare Wine Company’s Historic Vintages – the Charleston Sercial in Brooklyn and the New York Malmsey in Manhattan.

Panettone, Stollen and Gingerbread Houses

December 11, 2009 Baking, Coffee Bar, Desserts, Events, Food

Just in time for the holidays, we’ve got some specialty items in the bakery – Panettone, Christmas Stollen from Balthazar and special-order gingerbread houses from Margaret Palca Bakes. Drop by Provisions on Saturday and sample the Panettone!

Panettone is a traditional Italian Christmas bread from Milan. The dough is cured through a proofing process that takes several days but gives the cake a distinctive fluffy texture. Nestled in the bread are bits of candied orange, citron and lemon zest, and raisins. A traditional accompaniment to Panettone is a sweet sparkling wine. Try our Alain Rendardat-Fache Methode Ancestrale Demi-Sec or Musva Moscatel.

Stollen ($15.99) is a traditional Christmas bread, dense and sweet, packed with almonds, rum-soaked dried and candied fruit, and nuggets of marzipan. Last year we brought this as a gift to a holiday party and heard from the host that it was amazing (her actual words: “what was that thing that you brought? it was incredible.”) Available by pre-order and we’ll be tasting it Sunday in Provisions.

Bring the kids to see the gingerbread house from Margaret Palca Bakes on display. They make a fun gift – we delivered a few last year and saw smiles all around. They can be preordered for $35.99.

Bacon Fat Caramel Recipe

November 30, 2009 Desserts, Food

This weekend’s NY Times Moment section featured “lard caramels” from some innovative folks in San Francisco but omitted a recipe. Our interest piqued, we made it a weekend DIY project to try to recreate them. We now know that yes, it is possible to make caramels from reserved bacon fat. But, like cloning, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

These turned out sweet with a flavor not unlike what happens when your bacon gets drenched in the syrup run-off from your pancakes.

Bacon Fat Caramels

Makes about 2 1/2 pounds

1 cup bacon fat – drained of any particulate matter
1 pound brown sugar
Dash salt
1 cup light corn syrup
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt bacon fat in a heavy saucepan. Add brown sugar and salt. Stir until thoroughly combined. Stir in corn syrup and mix well. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly. Cook and stir over medium heat until candy reaches firm ball stage (245-250F degrees on candy thermometer). Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. Pour into a buttered 9 inch square pan. Cool and cut into squares using scissors and wrap each piece in wax paper.

Try Pie Before You Buy

November 20, 2009 Baking, Desserts, Events, Food

We’re excited to offer you Thanksgiving pies baked by Margaret Palca this year. Margaret has been baking on Columbia Street in Red Hook since 1985 and we’ll be sampling her pecan, apple and pumpkin pies from 1-3pm on Sunday, November 22. Whether you’re serving rich, sweet pecan pie, tart and juicy apple pie or spicy and creamy pumpkin pie, you must place your whole pie order by Monday, November 23 at 9 a.m. You can order by clicking HERE.

Pie screams for ice cream and we’ve got the perfect pints. Adirondack Creamery’s vanilla ice cream is made in upstate NY from Madagscar vanilla beans and is always creamy, fresh and delicious. Adirondack also makes a Pumpkin Pie ice cream using real pumpkin and all-natural ingredients that is not too sweet and that makes a perfect post-Thanksgiving dinner treat all on its own.

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