Ah, happy December 1st, Sisters and Brothers! Your Chocolate Priestess has 12 more days to prepare for the biggest party her household hosts every year. Now, we make 90% of the food we share at this bash but some of you may be looking to buy treats or catering for your own parties. So I want to talk about some items you might consider. I have mentioned the Bakehouse in the past and today I want to talk about two chocolate treats I've had there but unfortunately not at the same time.
As the weather where I am turns colder you'll be seeing more and more reviews of hot chocolate drinks. At the Bakehouse in Bloomington, Indiana, I recently ordered the largest hot chocolate they had. Here you see it in a photo with a molasses cookie. The presentation was just off in this big travel cup and the product was too hot to allow the cocoa to come through. I let it cool and still the cocoa taste was rathe weak. Furthermore the chocolate and the milk started to separate meaning I had to stir it to keep it mixed and when I pay for hot chocolate in a restaurant, I think it should remain mixed without my need to stir, I can get that quality as you've seen from homemade hot chocolate drinks. The best thing about this was that I could break off pieces of the cookie and dip it and that was nice to enjoy.
A while back I bought two chocolate cookies from the Bakehouse as well and given that some of you may be thinking of buying cookies for your holiday parties, here are my experiences with each one. The Bakehouse's Chocolate Chip Cookie measures 4 inches across and as you can see is a nice light tan color with visible chocolate chips. There is no chocolate scent when take a deep breath of the cookie, in fact not a lot of scent at even though this was bought the day it was made. Sadly this is also the case with the taste which is primarily flour not even sugar though there is a hint of butter and a slight bitterness from the chocolate suggesting they are probably the semi-sweet type. The chocolate flavor builds up with each bite however making this an acceptable cookie just certainly not the best chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever had. The cookie itself has a firm, slightly crunch outer ring and then an inner soft center. The softer part has a stronger sugar, butter, and chocolate flavor than the crisper edges.
The Bakehouse also has a Chocolate Cookie and that is what I thought the Molasses cookie because they don't label their cookies, merely wrap them in plastic and place them in a basket and sometime the counter worker doesn't know what items are; that's a big problem at the Bakehouse. This measureas 4.5 inches across and has a light, uneven glazing of powder sugar. This cookies smells very cocoay and sugary and it tastes like a brownie. Not too sweet or bitter but a nice blend of those flavor in this soft cookie with a crisp crust all around it. This builds up both a chocolate and sugar rush and since it was the same price as the Chocolate Chip variety, I say choose this cookie instead.
Over all these are not the best chocolate items from the Bakehouse here in Blooomington but I hope my reviews give you some information to consider if you are in the area. Remember you can use the Search feature on this blog to find related reviews as well.
Sisters and Brothers, may you too take the time to slowly appreciate what the Divine and human ingenuity have offered you in chocolate.
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