Local Baked Goods & Cookbook Win

On another food blog, "Leanne in Wonderland" your Chocolate Priestess won a cookbook about cupcakes that you can see to the right here. Not all of the recipes are for chocolate though I'll point out that you can bake whatever you like and then decorate it. We have a birthday coming up and the birthday boy picked one of the designs for us to try -- sadly without chocolate so I'll review this book later when I make something chocolate from it.

In past entries I've revealed a few of the baked good available from my local food coop, Bloomingfoods. Today I want to talk about a few more in case local folks are looking for vegan, organic or simply coop chocolates to try this upcoming weekend. These three products were of very mixed quality though each item cost $2-3.

First, I got a piece of the chocolate cake with chocolate ganache. It looked beautiful as you can see to the left. This was a 0.17 pound slice of cake of 2.5X2.5X1.25in dimensions. The ganache alone is incredibly bitter tasting, so bitter that I literally grimaced. The cake itself tastes very cocoa but beyond that rather tasteless and pasty with brownie like texture. Together they created a lingering, unpleasant aftertaste that was deeply disappointing for such a pretty piece of cake.

The Tollhouse Cookie Sandwich with chocolate frosting was 3.5in diameter. It is made of two chocolate chip cookies with chocolate frosting layer between them. The frosting tastes very sugary and fluffy while the two cookies have that just slightly under baked quality that adds a bit of doughiness with little danger of contamination because they are actually baked to the appropriate temperature. There is a definite double buzz — light cocoa, medium level sugar. Honestly this was bit too sweet for my tastes the evening I have it so I shared it with the Milk Chocolate Acolyte. Following the Path for 6 of the 7 days in a week makes me less eager for sugars, and high fat content all of which this treat had in abundance.

Finally, and the best product of this trio, was the Flourless Chocolate Cookie
with finely chopped walnuts throughout it.Walnuts. It was big, measuring 4in across. It was also vegan with no animal products or by products on the ingredients list. It has a very dark bitter taste with an odd lingering after taste which becomes a bit too sour over time. The walnut taste though helped counter this a bit and I really love walnuts. The texture was more like a dense brownie than a cookie.

So baked goods from Bloomingfoods are really a hit and miss affair. I suggest getting only single servings like I did until you find things you like then invest in larger quantities.

Sisters and Brothers, may you too take the time to slowly appreciate what the Divine and human ingenuity have offered you in chocolate.

If you are reading in the eastern half of the Midwest, within driving distance to Bloomington, Indiana, don't forget The Chocolate Cult's first CONTEST.