Cioccolati Italiani - Milano

With only two full days in Milan, I needed a strategy to maximize my gelati intake. The resulting strategy: focus on chocolate and eat as many flavors as possible in one sitting. On my first day, having gotten up before 8 am and powered through Da Vinci's Last Supper and Sant'Ambrogio (including paying homage to his relics, i.e. robed skeleton), I rewarded myself for a productive morning with a visit to Cioccolati Italiani at 10:30 a.m. Pictured above is a cold chocolate (cioccolato freddo) and a degustazione known as la storia del cioccolato. I couldn't eat/drink them all fast enough so I ended up with some soupy bits, but I attacked the best ones first, remaining cold enough to give me brain freeze. The highlight was the 70% Venezuelan chocolate with the 70% or 65% Nicaraguan putting in a decent showing. My least favorite was 45% Papau New Guinea (or some Pacific island), but that was only because it was milk chocolate. I didn't understand the chocolate that was flavored with Sicilian oranges since the orange taste was not discernible, but just as well since I don't like citrus with my chocolate. I'm a bit removed in time now to remember the specific taste, but I do remember after eating all of it that I fell into a happy chocolate stupor daze that persisted longer than the typical happy feeling I experience while and immediately after eating chocolate. It was probably the cumulative effect of all that dark chocolate.

The next evening, I regretted that I had not eaten gelato ALL DAY and decided to have gelato for dinner. I went to Choco Cult and had a scoop of cioccolato peperoncino and a scoop of dark chocolate fondue. The two scoops combined were probably the size of half of my face. I found a park bench and proceeded to do damage control by madly licking the gelati before it melted. It was an interesting combination of savory and sweet and definitely a meal in and of itself. Kind of like if I were to eat at a kosher dairy restaurant...maybe?

Score: 7 types of chocolate gelati in less than 48 hours. Vacation success!

Crumbs, Washington, D.C.

A few qualifiers, also known as damning with faint praise:

1. A cupcake, when done well, can be beautiful to look at and tasty...but in and of itself, is not a complex confection.
2. New York has an obsession with cupcakes that has infected DC, for the better in the case of Georgetown Cupcake, which should represent the minimum standard for cupcakes (and the fact that it represents what cupcakers aspire to as the gold standard is a sad reflection of the masses' standard);
3. I will try almost anything at least once and, like the child to whom cereal box prizes appeal, novel gimmicks will entice me every time.

After dinner at Busboys and Poets with my high school friends, one of them suggested a cupcakery in Penn Quarter called Crumbs, with original outposts in New York. The catch with these cupcakes was that they were filled. Excellent, I thought in my head, the more elements the better. Less may be more in architecture, but not necessarily in pastries.

We arrived towards the end of the evening so the selection was limited. Having bought Rocky Road ice cream earlier in the week, my cupcake of choice was the S'more; I like to have a theme running through my dessert selections at any given point in time. A s'more, which would be one of the few things that I could tempt me to camp, is melted chocolate and marshmallow sandwiched between graham crackers. In this case, it was a chocolate cake with marshmallow fluff filling, topped with chocolate icing, and two graham crackers flanking a line of three marshmallows. The cake was somewhat moist and aerated, but at least not memorable for being terrible (both the cupcakes and the cake slices at Cake Love are too dense, even when served at room temperature), the icing was not overly sweet but not buttercream alas, and the topping was well presented. I was lukewarm about the marshmallow fluff. I wonder if it is possible to sprinkle little marshmallow pieces throughout the cake batter, preserving their soft, marshmallow integrity? That might have been a better embodiment of the marshmallow component of a s'more. The textures of the marshmallow fluff and cake were too much like oil and vinegar mixing...perhaps a marshmallow mousse next time? But thumbs up to Crumbs for the creative attempt!

Bibiana, Washington D.C.

When we go out to eat, we usually don't go for Italian, but the dearth of good restaurants in Jerusalem left me wanting for Italian food. I am also not one for Italian desserts (except for gelati and an excellent, coffee-soaked tiramisu that I had recently) but if hazelnuts are God's gift to Turkey and theobroma is the food of the gods, then the combination, Nutella, must be Italy's gift to the world. I still haven't forgiven my parents completely for having withheld their knowledge about Nutella's existence, leaving me to discover it only at the late age of 18. But boy, have I been making up for lost time! Thus, when I saw that "Nutella" was on the dessert menu at Bibiana, I thought that no amount of pasta (truffle risotto to start, black spaghetti with seafood as the main) or cured meat (a planche of salumi) could preclude dessert.

The name of the dessert reflected its components...duh. Nutella ice cream or maybe gelato which a chocolate dusted hazelnut on top. Hazelnuts have a very cute shape, as do pinenuts, but walnuts are baroque. The plate was dusted with ground hazelnut and I used the melting ice cream to hoover the hazelnut dust. The main attraction was the Nutella fried pastry filled with Nutella. As you may have gleaned from prior posts, I LOVE fried dough. (On a sidenote, Cacao on Bethesda offered tastings of fresh beignets on the day I arrived to DC. I hope heaven will have never-ending supplies of Cacao's hot chocolate and those beignets). I've had churros filled with dulce de leche and chocolate (not together), but never Nutella...until now. Brilliant! One was not enough, but one was all they gave me. One of these days, I will invest in a deep fryer, after buying a Kitchenaid stand mixer, and hire a house elf to fry fresh dough for me on command. Oh yeah, and since this post was supposed to be about the Nutella and not so much about the fried dough (I was carried away in a moment of ecstasy), the dollop of Nutella that the fried dough rested upon was a bonus. And for inquiring minds who have seen me go through jars of Nutella, I managed to restrain myself from licking the plate.

Cafe de la Paix, Ramallah

Right on schedule, just a week shy of the six-month mark of my sojourn here in Israel/Palestine, homesickness and a touch of loneliness hit me. Fortunately, I have developed coping mechanisms after 12 years of living away from home in three different countries. My go-to source of happiness - chocolate! As pure, dark, and French as possible. I'm not an expert on the Tel Aviv patisserie scene, other than a Toronto-priced cupcake that was good but not mind-blowing, but Jerusalem's scene leaves me in despair, that is, when I can even find French-style pastries. I was intrigued to read about a place in Ramallah called Cafe de la Paix, which was supposed to be a western-style cafe (with Western prices) and French pastries. As luck would have it, Cafe de la Paix was located around the corner from the Sakakini Cultural Center, where I was going to see a concert in the garden. Imagine my delight when I arrive and see in the display case, the pastry shown above. After over ten years of eating this delightful concoction, I still have no idea what it is called, but I call it a chocolate mace. My beloved Premiere Moisson in Montreal used to bake this pastry, and attribute, in part, my affection for my first boyfriend to his habit of buying this pastry (and many other forms of chocolate) for me. Of course, once I moved to England and he moved to Toronto, the chocolate supply chain dried up and, predictably, the relationship ended in flames. Back to the chocolate mace at Cafe de la Paix...90% as good as Premiere Moisson's. Excellent chocolate quality, the chocolate mousse inside was slightly less dark than I would have preferred but not very sweet and held together very well. There were no small caramel delights inside the mousse, but the spikes were dense and a slightly chewy contrast to the soft mousse. Best of all, chocolate in this part of the world (in the summer) can almost always be paired with tart limonana (lemonade with mint, the greener the better). And thus, all was well in my world. Now, if only peace would come to the Middle East, driving into Ramallah, a mere 10 kms away from Jerusalem, be faster and checkpoint-free.

La Cuisine, Jerusalem

My apologies for having been short-sighted in naming this blog. For at least the next year, Patisseries of Toronto and I have relocated to Jerusalem so expect this blog to feature pastries from Jerusalem and the Middle East. I expect there will be times to come when I will be ignorant of the name of what I'm eating, but the photos and the descriptions are what count anyway.

This chocolate mound was not my first dessert in Jerusalem (that honor goes to little balls of fried dough soaked in honey and rose water at Pasha) nor my first dessert in the oPt (that honor goes to knafeh somewhere 10 kilometers from Nablus). But it is the first time that I had my camera and was on a deliberate mission to find a dessert for this blog. It was also a good way to memorialize the first week anniversary in my new apartment.

La Cuisine is a small patisserie in Rehavia, owned by Canadians. My wonderful real estate agent tipped me off to this place so I stopped in on a Sunday afternoon. Like everything else in Jerusalem, the prices are comparable to Toronto. The gentleman at the store warned me about it: "It is very rich and full of chocolate". Little did he know he was egging me on. He was also very helpful about telling me to let it rest for a bit at room temperature, which worked out since I got a little bit lost and wandered around.

At its heart, this pastry is very simple (probably the only thing in this region that is simple), consisting of a crushed hazelnut and brown sugar base and what is ultimately a mound of firm chocolate ganache. In terms of texture, the smoothness of the chocolate contrasted with the crumbly paste. I was rewarded with lumps of coarsely ground hazelnut, which I had the option of mixing into the chocolate ganache or eating on its own, if I pleased. I like having options when eating a pastry; it reminds me of the choose-your-own-adventure books of my childhood. Quality ingredients were used, which would expect from anywhere purporting to call itself a patisserie. The chocolate, although dark, was neither acidic nor bitter and the brown sugar in the base added the necessary touch of sweetness.

Admittedly, the density of this dessert was somewhat daunting and knowing that I had no more chocolate in the house for the next day, I saved some for the following evening. I ate the "leftovers" in candlenight on my patio with hibiscus tea (slightly acidic, but not very strong, thereby complimenting the chocolate well) and looked up at the banana tree's leaves and the stars. I might say that it was even better to eat amongst the pleasures of the night, without the critic's concentrated scrutiny.

Ma Maison

Lest it be said that I have failed to explore the suburbs of Toronto, with the companionship of my trusty Zipcar, Colin the Civic, I ventured out to Ma Maison in Etobicoke and ordered a Valencia. Pero, que pasa? I was disappointed by this pastry, which I chose for its looks. This order taught me a lesson about superficiality.

My first contact with Valencia was the hollow, light pink, shimmering chocolate ball on top. Remembering a similar chocolate ball on my Cacao pastry, I eagerly bit into this one. Hmm, tasted somewhat old and stale (for chocolate). This was not a promising beginning, but perhaps Ma Maison outsourced its chocolate and the pastry itself would be better.

My first impression of this pastry was its density. So dense that huge pieces of it remained stuck to my fork after I licked off my fork. It is essentially an uncomplicated pastry. Chocolate ganache (not shiny, again, perhaps a sign of age or bad tempering?) enrobed a simple chocolate mousse sans base. At its core was an explosion of dark chocolate rice puffs and dark chocolate pieces. I characterize it as an explosion because literally, when I cut into the center of the pastry, dark chocolate pieces and rice puffs jumped out at me. I have tasted and appreciated the rice puff element in a piece of pastry but this version failed on at least two levels. First, the rice puffs were soggy so the essence of a rice puff - light, airy, crunchy - was lost. Second, as a result of the soggy rice puffs, they seemed thicker and only served to exacerbate the density and heaviness of the pastry.

I try so hard to like pastries, but this one was a flop. It was uncomplicated and the one area where it tried to be creative, i.e. the core of the pastry, was poorly executed. Let's hope the chocolatines and croissants from Ma Maison prove to be more successful tomorrow morning.

La Bamboche

La Bamboche has two locations in Toronto, and I visited the one on Manor Road, just south of Yonge and Eglinton. I biked uphill on Yonge (which is not nearly as bad as biking up Avenue Road), and was rewarded at the end of my trip with this pastry shop!

I've ordered so many macarons that I think I can finally stop and declare that they are just not my thing (which is just as well given the prohibitive price). This macaron was caramel sea salt. I have no idea why it was colored pink, but it was a pretty color. The meringue itself was blah. But the butter cream and caramel inside was a revelation. As, you can see in the close up, it was as if the caramel had been injected into the butter cream. I have been known to eat butter on its own, which some people think is weird. When you add some cream and sugar to the butter and call it butter cream, somehow that makes eating it all right. I'm easy and won't quibble over this. Final verdict...silvanas, which I think are the Filipino equivalent of macarons (also meringue outside, but softer, and a butter cream interior) are superior to macarons, but the interior of this caramel sea salt macaron totally made the pastry!

By the time I arrived at La Bamboche, there was only one chocolate pastry left and it didn't seem very exciting. Rather, since I had read that the patissier was known for combining interesting flavours, I had this layered mango yuzu cake. Of note, obviously, are the two layers of mango mousse (sweet, but not cloyingly so) and the gelatinous layer of yuzu. Yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit. The last time I had it was as part of a sake cocktail. Yuzu is deliciously tart (the kind where you get nice chills just thinking about the tartness) and the combination of sweet mango and the citric acid of the yuzu makes this dessert pop with complementary flavors. Bonus points on the gelatinous texture of the yuzu, which I sometimes ate on its own to isolate and savour the flavour. Additional bonus points for attention to detail on the tops of the blueberries which were filled with some sort of gelatin to make the tops sparkle rather than being empty black holes.

I will return to La Bamboche earlier in the day when I can select from a greater variety of pastries and, hopefully, will score a chocolate pastry.

Given my penchant for a chocolate cranberry combination, I wonder how a chocolate yuzu combination would turn out?

The Beach House - Sudbury, ON

No need to travel to Scotland...a deep fried Mars bar is available only an hour's flight away from Toronto. Sudbury is my furthest northern destination in Ontario to date. The flight up over Georgian Bay (I think) was beautiful.

My business trip to Sudbury was nondescript, but the highlight was the final leg after work was finished and opposing counsel gave me a ride to see The Big Nickel. Following upon the heels of The Big Nickel sighting, I was dropped off at Bell Park where I dragged my suitcase along the boardwalk going for a walk. I surfaced near some parking lot where I figured I could call a cab when lo and behold, not only do I see an ice cream stand (in and of itself, not necessarily inspiring excitement) but a sign for "Deep Fried Mars Bar". I never had the opportunity to try this in Scotland (mostly because we were castle hopping and deep fried Mars bars weren't readily available at those venues). I have a distinct memory of sitting in the backseat while we drove out of Edinburgh thinking that I missed my last opportunity for aforesaid Mars bar.

Eight years later, my curiosity is satisfied and I heartily approve of this dessert. It's not a conventional pastry by any stretch, but the elements of a pastry are all there. As you can see from the photograph, the Mars bar is dipped in batter and dusted with cinnamon and sugar. Deep fried batter with cinnamon and sugar...churros deja vu! Due to the warmth of the deep frying, the chocolate covering on the Mars bar started to melt into the free flowing caramel and nougat. I am a sucker for chocolate and caramel; this combination perhaps bested only by chocolate and cranberry. Crisp exterior and gooey interior - it was all I could do to stop myself from inhaling the chocolate and caramel swirling about.

Cacao - Bethesda, MD

Disclaimer: Patisseries of Toronto goes international! Or at least, it goes wherever my travels take me. I would have expected the first non-Toronto entry to have been in Montreal, but my Easter visit to DC happened first and so I dedicate my first international entry to my hometown!

My mom's first experience of a macaron was in the Distillery District in Toronto and not very good so I had to make it up to her. Cacao has EXCELLENT hot chocolate (e.g. My parents wondered where I went when I suddenly left them, only to reappear several minutes later with hot chocolate and a boxed pastry). I'm not a huge fan of the yuppification of Bethesday Row, but it was worth it since Cacao has come along.

This dessert was a great combination of something new for my mom to try (raspberry macaron) and something for me (chocolate mousse). I didn't appreciate this aspect until I wrote my previous post, but 2009 must be the year of fuzzy desserts because the chocolate covering of the mousse was also fuzzy. Very rich, thick chocolate; I like my mousses on the dense side as opposed to being too aerated. The macaron was sweet and crispy on the outside but spongy and chewy in the center, all around great base for the chocolate.

Bonus points for aesthetics and the Easter theme. The white chocolate strips really did make it look like a bird's nest and the chocolate egg was edible. I'm not sure what I did with mini Fluffy Chick, but her fur/feathers were very soft. Clearly a quality bird ornament from a quality chocolate store!

Nadege Patisserie

With half an hour to kill before Girl Friday, my favorite clothing store in Toronto, opened on a Sunday, I decided to check out Nadege Patisserie, which had opened a few days ago on Queen West. The lady at the counter was incredibly nice and offered me a canele, which was not too bad for a custard-type dessert. She was also patient enough to describe each pastry for me because none of them had any signs or descriptions of what lay beneath the surface.

Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of the two pastries I ordered. So I will call them the fuzzy pink pear and the dark chocolate pyramid (since childhood, I have always believed in naming things pursuant to their description, e.g. Bluey and Yellowy). I also couldn't resist the sparkling water drinks on offer so I had a fizzy pomegranate and elderflower spritzer. Mmmm... Garden party, anyone?

I find myself growing more interested in the texture of pastries so the fuzzy pink pear was particularly intriguing. The thin white chocolate shell was covered by gritty, rough pink fuzz (unknown) and at the opposite end, i.e. the bottom of the pastry, was a soft spongy bottom. Great contrast. In between was a fluffy, mousse-like, champagne-flavoured filling, with mango and strawberry slivers. So light and airy, I felt like I was inhaling the pastry rather than biting into it. That was a sensation I don't often have when eating pastries. My only complaint was that the mangoes were too hairy, but that's probably a function of the kind of mangoes we have to endure in North America. Had she sourced mangoes from Cebu, it would have been sublime.

Since the first pastry was so light and it was nearing noon and I had biked around the city, I was hungry for more. The second pastry had to be chocolate...for so many reasons that do not need elaboration. By the way, dark chocolate, pomegranate, and elderflower are a dynamite combination! The fizz of the spritzer took the edge off the chocolate's bitterness. The dark chocolate cover surprised me because it was soft enough to score; not at all the hard shell I had been anticipating. It reminded me of the filling of my French Silk pie (which I haven't made since before law school, I think), but more bitter - which is a good thing for me. The bottom was solid, chewy chocolate - great flavor, but the texture was too chewy and hard. I don't like feeling like I have to work at chewing parts of my pastry. While I really liked the flavor of the chocolate that was used, I thought it was odd that the chocolate taste didn't linger. Good, solid dessert, but not one that I would return for over and over again.

Overall, this is a good patisserie and I hope they stick around - I heard the owner/manager saying that they planned to expand to a patio overlooking Trinity Bellwoods next summer. My only negative experience was that while I was taking my pictures and notes, the owner (I think) came up to me and demanded to know why I was taking pictures and wanted me to stop. I assured her that I was not a member of the press and that this was merely my hobby and offered to stop. She then had a weird explanation about not wanting too much fuss with pictures being taken. Very weird and it didn't feel very nice to be treated like a criminal after buying two pastries and spending almost $20 at her store.

Cava - Churros con chocolate

Once upon a time, Toronto had a franchise called Churrisimo, which cranked out freshly made churros. I was only able to sample it once before it disappeared. I was also the only customer when I visited, which should have been a sign of things to come. Rumor also has it that in the summer, there is a cart that sells churros by the harbourfront. But no chocolate, and what are churros without chocolate?

I had my pre-birthday dinner at Cava, which was chosen primarily because it offers churros on the menu and I had counted on tapas-style dining to result in a light dinner so there would be room for dessert. There was miscalculation on the dinner ordering so we were stuffed by the time dessert rolled around. Nevertheless, I was persuaded that freshly made churros with superior chocolate at Cava would be a better experience than going for a walk around the block and returning to Xococava for dessert.

The churros were warm and fat, crisp on the outside, soft on the outside. Texture was very promising. The chef tried to dress them up by oversugaring and putting cinnamon in the dough. I like cinnamon. I love cinnamon buns. But, as with everything, there is a time and place for cinnamon and cinnamon dough churros are not for me. Dulce de leche - fantastic for alfajores, but again, drizzling dulce de leche on churros is unnecessary. It is possible to make desserts too fancy. But oh the chocolate dipping sauce. Scrumptious! The thickness of the churros was necessary to transport the weight of the chocolate. My only regret was at the end, when all of the churros were eaten, the remaining chocolate was too thick to be drunk. Recalling my childhood lesson not to waste food, I scooped out the remaining chocolate with a spoon, closed my eyes and let it drip down my throat. The acidity caught in my throat. This was chocolate best eaten with something to temper it, rather than on its own. More churros, please.

Creperie La Brehandaise

On a day when everyone and their uncle interrupted my reading to inform me that they too had read The Outliers, it was fitting that I visit Creperie La Brehandaise, which was featured in this week's NOW magazine, rag for the masses.

This was an unplanned stop on a walk along Queen Street East. Although still full from a stupendously great brunch at Saving Grace (open omelet with caramelized figs, brie, and ham), curiosity got the better of me.

The crepe itself was okay, paper thin and on the sweet side, which I like. On the whole, unremarkable and I could have stayed closer to home at Crepe It Up if wanted a crepe on its own. La Brehandaise's strength lies in its homemade chocolate sauce. There is a world of difference between real chocolate sauce and impostors. This was such good stuff, it was a shame most of it decorated the plate so I had to scrape it off the plate with what little dignity I have. The sauce was billed as coconut chocolate sauce. Maybe there was coconut extract in the sauce. I really couldn't tell. But the marriage of chocolate sauce and coconut shavings pleased me. I also like coconut shavings and dulce de leche - I detect a pattern here. Dab of strawberry jam was a nice, slightly acidic counter.

Ice cream was vanilla. If I liked vanilla ice cream, I think I would have appreciated the fact that they used real vanilla to flavour it. As it was, I felt compelled to eat it before it melted, which meant that my chocolate bouts were periodically interrupted by pesky vanilla ice cream.

La Cigogne - Louis XIV

Louis XIV patisserie: beautiful to look at, but not as impressive to taste.



There are pastry shops that make sweet desserts that taste pretty good. Then there are pastry shops like La Cigogne that elevate desserts to works of art - a feast for the eyes and the tastebuds. Louis XIV only satisfies 50% of my senses, but I'm shallow enough that its glossiness blinds me (I'd make a terrible metaphor about the Sun King, but I won't inflict my Jack Aubrey sense of humor on my blog).



The ganache was as shiny in real life as in this photograph, but in consistency, rubbery and gummy. It detached itself like a layer of sunburnt skin from the pastry, which was somewhat bizarre. I really like the elevation of the pastry on the purple platform...except the platform didn't really taste like anything.

The pastry is comprised of layers of chocolate mousse, pear, and a black currant (?) base. The pear flavour was lost among the layers so I had to isolate and sample several times in order to identify it. The black currant base was delightful and a great pairing with chocolate. The pairing of these two alone would have satisfied me and was reflected in the overall color scheme of the pastry as well.

Cross-section of Louis XIV

Breakfast and Dessert

Today is Family Day in Ontario so I nominally have the day off. Since I have to do some work anyway, it might as well be done as comfortably as possible. After a traditional Filipino breakfast of rice, fried egg and longaniza, I looked for cookies in my cupboard. I couldn't find any but I wanted a snack so logically, my thoughts turned to ice cream which I had in my freezer.

Toronto's grocery selection of Ben & Jerry's ice cream is not very extensive (i.e. only one or two of the chocolate-based ice creams) so I usually end up getting New York Super Fudge Chunk, which is one of my favorites anyway. It went well with my post-breakfast coffee and I am ready to face the day!

I don't know why we, as a society, don't associate dessert with breakfast. It's not as bizarre as one might think, since people eat over-sugared danishes and Count Chocula cereals (hmm...I guess my affinity for the latter makes it seem perfectly normal to me to have chocolate ice cream before noon).

LPK's Culinary Groove (Part 2)

Hazelnut Praline Tart: hazelnut praline cream cheese mousse in a hazelnut cookie crust, garnished with caramelized hazelnuts (description from LPK's Culinary Groove menu)

My second tart from LPK's Culinary Groove was eaten a day later and turned out to be less successful than the passion fruit tart.

The crust of this tart was too moist, perhaps a function of being a day-old. It didn't do anything for the tart.

Although I am a BIG fan of Nutella (and still bear a grudge against my parents for keeping me in the dark about its existence for 18 years), I think hazelnut should be incidental to chocolate. This tart is deceptive because it's brown colour and the natural association of chocolate and hazelnut led me to believe it would be more chocolatey than it was. The flavour was all hazelnut and sweetness without any of the bitterness of chocolate that I had anticipated.

This tart is best eaten slightly chilled. My favorite aspect was the foamy texture of the hazelnut mousse, which eventually melted into a gooey, non-descript filling once the tart warmed to room temperature.

The hazelnut topping wasn't caramelized, but there was a nice caramelized sugar topping which glistened and provided the only bright spot to an otherwise very brown palate. After the visually-appealing passion fruit tart with its interesting flavours, the hazelnut tart was anti-climactic. It was all right as an every day tart, but it didn't make me sit up and think...this is a pastry worth crossing the city for.

LPK's Culinary Groove (Part 1)

Passion Fruit Truffle Tart: semisweet ganache and passion fruit caramel sauce nestled in a chocolate shortbread crust with cape gooseberry garnish. (description from LPK's Culinary Groove menu)

My first entry! I originally conceived of this blog as a mini-tour guide to the patisseries of Toronto, in the spirit of The Patisseries of Paris by Jamie Cahill. I have dialled down my ambitions and instead, have chosen to give my impressions of various pastries and hot chocolates available at Toronto shops. It also means that I can go back to the same place and try out new items!

I don't have any formal training in desserts or chocolate, but I continue to educate myself in cities all over the world at every possible opportunity.

LPK's Culinary Groove's Passion Fruit Truffle Tart looks well-put together and elegant with a touch of whimsy from the fresh flower. I aspire to look like this pastry when I go to work in the morning. I'm glad the cape gooseberry was replaced by the flower, although I remain in the dark regarding what a cape gooseberry looks like.

The crust is a very moist shortbread so it sticks together with a slightly nutty in flavor, very thick on the sides but thinner on the bottom. While I am not usually a crust person, the drawback to the thinner crust in this instance is that there was nothing to absorb the ganache and, especially, the jam-like passion fruit caramel sauce.

The passion fruit caramel sauce formed approximately 1/3 of the tart with the remainder topped off by the ganache. The sauce was not as pungent when the tart was still cold, but as it warmed up to room temperature, the caramel and the sweet elements in the passion fruit started to overwhelm the chocolate. There was an undertone of tartness to the sauce, which I enjoyed and I suspect would have been echoed in the missing gooseberry. My suggestion to improve this tart would have been to use a darker chocolate with some acidity to balance the sweetness of the sauce, which I found to be too cloying in the end.

I liked the texture of this tart. The flavours of the sauce were carried by the stickiness of the ganache so that they seemed to infuse the chocolate.