Friday 5: Toronto Treats

It’s that time of year again. Valentine’s Day! Love it or hate it, it’s a great excuse to eat decadent treats. Today’s Friday 5 is a list of places for sweet treats in Toronto. 

Chocolate and red velvet mini cupcakes from Bunner's 

Soma

443 King Street West | 32 Tank House Lane

There are two locations in the city, but the one in the Distillery District is my favorite. It’s a romantic, historic part of Toronto full of boutiques and restaurants.

Soma has wonderful chocolates and treats for the everyday, but they are offering four layers of goodies in a beautiful stainless Tiffin Box for Valentine’s Day. According to their website the layers include: amaretti with kirsch & brandy soaked cherries, chocolate caramel sable, heart shaped ginger snaps, 5 berry pop (white chocolate bark with popcorns strawberries, cranberries, blueberries, cherries and raspberries), 10 truffles, and a Cosmic Heart (filled with hazelnut raspberry butter and surrounded by white chocolate covered pumpkin seeds). I don’t think I could say no to any of those things. Plus, the tiffin box looks so pretty and, besides, it's reusable!

The Chocolateria

361 Roncesvalles Avenue

S and I took a wonderful winter walk the other weekend just so we could try The Chocolateria for the first time. We picked up some chocolate covered Oreos, chocolate covered Twizzlers and chocolate covered quinoa cookies (gotta get those healthy whole grains in, right?). Everything was so delicious that we’re going to make it a little ritual to walk down every so often and refill our apartment with goodies. Next time with bags and bags of their famous chocolate covered potato chips! 

We have some leftover oreos and quinoa cookies. It's taking all of my willpower not to eat them all right now. I love this place!

Stubbe

653 Dupont Street

A tiny but pretty little shop tucked away from the hubbub of downtown. I’m very much in love with their sea salt dark chocolate bar. They also have a beautiful selection of truffles, tortes and cakes. Check out their chocolate champagne bottle for Valentine's Day. 

Bunner’s 

3054 Dundas Street West (The Junction) | 244 Augusta Avenue (Kensington Market)

A gluten-free, vegan bakery located in Kensington Market and the Junction. I had one of their muffins for breakfast Thursday morning and a mini chocolate and mini red velvet cupcake for a post-lunch/post-run snack. Yum! Those little cupcakes are fantastic! 

I’ve been searching for great vegan options in the city since I’ve cut out dairy. I generally only eat homemade treats now, but I’ve had a much harder time giving up chocolate (as evidenced above by my newfound love of The Chocolateria). I will definitely be making a trip back to Bunner’s for their cinnamon buns, full sized cupcakes and what looked like incredible chocolate filled chocolate “pophearts” (like a poptart/handpie). Check out their menu here!

MoRoCo

99 Yorkville Avenue

A fun shop for pretty macarons and other treats. They aren't quite Pierre Hermé or Ladurée level macarons, but I always really enjoy them. You can check out their Valentine's and everyday offerings online here. I haven't had it myself, but my friends loves their drinking chocolate. 

Beyond the retail space, there's a cute restaurant for brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, or dinner. It would be a fun date night spot, but I think it leans more girly than romantic. I often go with my best friend when she’s in town for lunch and a big pot of tea. The walls are lined with pictures of celebrities and their handprints in chocolate, so it’s fun wander around and see who has stopped by. The meals are nice and portions are small enough that you generally have enough room for dessert, which is good because it's where they excel. They even had a dairy-free flourless chocolate cake that was to die for when I was there last. 

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That's it for today. There are many more chocolate and treat shops to explore in this city. I've only touched on the tip of the iceberg. I will make sure to come back with a new list in the future! 

In the meantime, I hope you have a warm, lovely, and sweet Valentine's Day. I'm off to do some baking! 

Welcome February: Ink, Sobs, and Chocolate

This morning I woke up to an ice rink of a driveway. I spent over an hour helping spread road salt and sand. To top it off, I had headache, an empty stomach, and a bad attitude. I was miserable.  

Welcome February! You sure know how to make an entrance.

Now that I’m in warm comfort and I’m staring at the cursor blink at me smugly in Word, I can’t help but smile and think of part of Boris Pasternak’s “February:”

Black Spring! Pick up your pen, and weeping, Of February, in sobs and ink, Write Poems, while the slush in thunder Is burning in the black of spring.

-Boris Pasternak, 1912, from the Lydia Pasternak Slater translation (Read the rest here.)

So maybe that’s what February is good for, the disgusting weather encourages you buckle down and get something done before the glorious distraction of spring fever hits.

And Valentine’s Day comes at just the right time to give us another opportunity to eat copious amounts of chocolate. Chocolate is good for brains, it boosts serotonin and other neurotransmitters. And happy brains can start thinking “only a few more days until March!”

March’s mantra is “in like a lion, out like a lamb.” Just repeat that a few times a day and pretty soon, we’re knocking on April’s door. And April sounds like spring. April is hopeful. There’s an end in sight.

Oh, spring! Green! Birds chirping! Sunlight! No more frozen nose hair!

Where was I again?

Oh yes, back to Boris Pasternak and February. Ink and sobs and slush. Perfect words for this month.

Here’s a little song that I love to go along with today’s theme. Regina Spektor’s Apres Moi. The part she sings in Russian is the part of Pasternak’s poem that I posted above.

Just to bring this post full circle, since I am working on the Versailles Vignette Guide, Regina also sings “après moi, le déluge.” A loose translation would be “after me, the flood.”

The phrase is often attributed to Louis XV, suggesting he thought destruction would follow his reign. It has also been attached to Madame de Pompadour, one of Louis XV’s famed lovers, but no one really knows who said it. It certainly ties in neatly with the French Revolution and the fall of his successor, Louis XVI.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to brew some tea, scare up some chocolate, pick up my "pen," and take care of that tirelessly smug blinking cursor.

I hope you welcomed in February a little more kindly than I. Do you have any special ways you deal with this month? Let me know!

My Take on Oreos (with Cognac Buttercream)

Happy Holidays! It looks like we might have a white Christmas here after all! The past few days have been full of Christmas baking and most of it is finally done. We have lots of traditional favorites: shortbread, chippy chewy bars, World Peace cookies, and nanimos.

I, however, noticed a small sub-theme this year: booze. First it was a flourless chocolate birthday cake with cognac, next Gramercy Tavern ginger cake with stout and, then . . .

One night while I was thinking about what to bake this year, a little voice in my head whispered: "Cognac buttercream."

"Yes! But on what?" I asked the voice.

And it whispered again, "Oreos."

Oreos?

Oreos, you see, are my favorite packaged cookie. I can resist just about every packaged cookie except Oreos, so it's one of my missions make a good replica.

I've tried a few recipes but nothing is ever thin, crispy, or chocolately enough for me. And the filling is always a bit gross to make. A pile of shortening and icing sugar is just not appetizing. To be fair, that is essentially what Oreo filling really is, but if I don't have to make it, then I can pretend it's not disgusting. Call it cookie cognitive dissonance, if you will.

So instead of trying out another "secret" recipe, I thought I'd go my own way. This is my grown-up, decadent version. I think they're pretty darn good, if I may say so myself.

The Cookie

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's World Peace Cookies

I posted about my love of World Peace Cookies before. Their sable texture deep chocolate flavor with just enough salt to make them interesting always struck me as something that might make a good Oreo-type cookie. If Oreos, you know, went to finishing school/evolved/reincarnated as a higher life form . . .I mean, um, cookie form? (Dear God I hope I'm not offending Pierre Hermé.)

These are, basically, thinner, smaller World Peace Cookies minus the chocolate chips.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 11 tablespoons butter (softened)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Beat butter in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment on medium until creamy.
2. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla. Continue to beat on medium until creamy, usually another 2 minutes or so.
3. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, and baking soda.
4. While mixer is off, add the dry ingredients to the sugar/butter mix. Dorie Greenspan recommends putting a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to keep the powder from flying out at you when you turn it on. This works. Trust me. After you've placed your towel over the mixer, pulse it about 5 times on low. Check to see if the dry mix is incorporated. If not, then pulse it a little more until the flour is just incorporated. The dough should be crumbly, so don't over process the dough.
5. Pull out two sheets of cling wrap. Divide the dough in half, form into logs, and wrap the logs in the cling wrap. Mine were about 15 inches long and just over 1 inch in diameter, but feel free to make them a diameter you would like. Just remember that you will have to watch the cooking time closely later based on the size of your cookie.
6. Refrigerate dough for 3 hours. (Sometimes I cheat and throw them into the freezer for 20-30 minutes when I don't have enough time.)
7. When your 3 hours are up, preheat the oven to 350°F with the rack in the center. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
8. Pull your cookie logs out of the fridge. Using a sharp knife, cut 1/4 inch rounds. If they crumble and fall apart, just press them back together.
9. Place cookies on baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake one sheet at a time for 11 minutes. When you pull them out, the cookies will still be quite soft, but they firm up as they cool. Either cool them on the baking sheet or, after a few minutes when the cookies have hardened a bit, transfer them to a wire rack to cool to room temperature.

Cognac Buttercream

Adapted from Cupcake Project Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar (more if needed for your desired texture)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Cognac, rum, brandy, or liquor of your choice to taste. 2 tablespoon was perfect for me.

Directions

1. Mix butter and icing sugar on medium until creamy.
2. Add vanilla and cognac to taste. Start with 1 tablespoon and add (to the buttercream--but feel free to take a nip or two for yourself if you want) until you're happy with the flavor.
3. If you need to, tweak the icing sugar until like the texture.

For the cookies, you will need it to be stiff enough to not run when pressed between cookies, but soft enough to be piped.

Putting Them Together

When the cookies were cool and the buttercream was ready, I spooned the buttercream into a big freezer bag and snipped a small part of one corner off. You can use a pastry bag with a tip if you have one but there's no need to be fancy here.

From there, just pipe a dollop of buttercream onto one cookie, place another cookie on top and press down lightly. I recommend storing the final product  in the fridge to keep the buttercream firm.

I made another batch with rum buttercream, which are good, but there's something about the cognac that I love. I think it's the nice balance between the dark chocolate, the saltiness, and the sweetness that the complexity of the cognac really compliments.

These aren't Oreos, but I think I've found my "close enough" home-made version. In a way, they're better. I can play with buttercream flavors and the World Peace sables are just all around delicious.

I also highly recommend putting the cognac buttercream on top of Gramercy Tavern Ginger Cake. As much as I love it between the cookies, I think it tastes incredible on the ginger cake. Make sure to make the ginger cake and not the gingerbread. It's excellent for people who like their gingerbread dark, spicy, dense, and moist. I don't use a bundt pan because I think they're fiddly, but I have had success with cupcakes and shallow cake pans. I'm sure it would be great in a loaf pan as well. You just have to watch your baking time and keep an eye on it.

Now I just have one boozy dessert left, a Gateau Basque with brandied cherries for Christmas night.

I hope everyone who celebrates has a wonderful, warm, happy, lovely Christmas. And for everyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful, happy, lovely, and warm weekend.