Posted by Zach Brooks, November 7, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Photograph by Food in Mouth
Crumbs gave away thousands of cupcakes at 3 of their new locations this morning, and Danny from the blog Food in Mouth snagged one of their Baba Booey cupcakes (named after Howard Stern's radio show producer.) "Chocolate cake filled with peanut butter cream cheese. Covered with 1/2 chocolate cream cheese and 1/2 peanut butter cream cheese (frosted like a B&W cookie). Surrounded by mini peanut butter chips... and it's AWESOME." Crumbs has multiple location around the city. crumbs.com
Posted by Kathy YL Chan, October 20, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Editor's note: Every afternoon we like to post a short Sugar Rush to end your day. Think of it as the dessert to your daily blog reading. Plus, as an added bonus, every day between now and Halloween these Sugar Rushes will all be pumpkin based. It's the only way we could think of covering the enormous number of pumpkin sweets being offered in the city right now. Enjoy!
In the Autumn world of pumpkin cupcakes, many are quick to conclude that Sugar Sweet Sunshine holds the crown. That is until now. While the creations at SSS are sweet and fluffy creatures, a refined yet unpretentious take is found just a few blocks away. Meet How Sweet It Is. We touched upon this bakery once in the past, and we're back again—this time for the seasonal Pumpkin & Spice Cupcake. Rich with molasses, generous with nutmeg, and impossibly moist, the pumpkin makes its show in the form of a lush pumpkin-cream cheese filling. The smooth frosting gets piped over the surface, teetering on the brink of that perfect cake to frosting ratio.
How Sweet It Is
157 Allen Street, New York NY 10002 (b/n Stanton and Rivington; map)
howsweetitispastry.com/
Posted by Ed Levine, October 10, 2008 at 6:00 PM
A couple of years ago Nora Ephron wrote a hilarious piece for the New York Times Op-Ed page about her search for cabbage strudel. I had a bit part in the story as the person who told her where she could find cabbage strudel, namely Andre's Hungarian Bakery in Rego Park, Queens, a direct descendant of the legendary Mrs. Herbst's. Andre opened a cafe and bakery on the Upper East Side a couple of years ago, and I found myself there a couple of weeks ago. I bought a half-strip of buttery cheese strudel and a chocolate kugelhopf, which I have always described as a babka baked in a bundt pan.
The strudel was solid, though not quite as good as I remembered (the strudel dough wasn't quite as delicate as I expected). Ditto for the kugelhopf, which had a slightly grainy chocolate filling. Next time I'm ordering the cinnamon-raisin kugelhopf and the cabbage strudel, just to make Nora happy.
Andre's Cafe
1631 2nd Avenue, New York NY 10028 (at 85th Street; map)
212-327-1105
Posted by Ed Levine, July 29, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Photographs by Robyn Lee
Amy's Bread
Location Visited: 75 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY 10011 (Between 15th & 16th Streets); 212-462-4338; amysbread.com.
Additional locations at 672 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10036 (Hell's Kitchen) and 250 Bleecker Street, New York NY 10014 (West Village)
Service: Friendly, accommodating, and quick (except when you order a pressed sandwich)
Setting: Bakery counter with some tables and chairs. Look to the left and you can watch bread being made.
Compare It To: Balthazar, Sullivan Street Bakery, Mangia
Must-Haves: Ham and cheese biscuit, grilled cheese and tomato sandwich, Cuban sandwich, cherry cream scone, butterscotch cashew bar, lemonade, lemon mouseline cake.
Cost: $10-15 for a sandwich, cookie, and drink.
Grade: B+
Here at Serious Eats world headquarters we work in what can only be called a sandwich, bread, and baked goods-challenged neighborhood. For sandwiches we have Salumeria Biellese, but it limits itself to big, meat-centric sandwiches on unsatisfactory bread (they still haven't taken me up on my suggestion to carry Sullivan Street Bakery stirato). The bread and baked goods situation is even more dire. Basically, we've got nothing unless we're willing to brave the line at Whole Foods.
Over the past few months while going down to Chelsea Market for various meetings, I rediscovered Amy's Bread. To the people who live near or work in Chelsea Market, Amy's Bread is a godsend. And to those people I say, do not take Amy's Bread for granted. Proximity should breed support, not contempt.
Almost everything Amy Scherber and her hardworking crew make—from bread to cake, from cookies to sandwiches, from pizza to focaccia—is damned tasty, with a few items reaching the level of serious deliciousness. Scherber brings a taste, know-how, and pride to everything she sells here, and the result is an eatery I would kill to have in my neighborhood. She has proven herself to be a dough wizard; the breads, cookies, and cakes all have a chance for greatness. And even though all the sandwiches at Amy's Bread are premade, usually a sandwich no-no as far as I'm concerned, she manages to transcend the limitations of that tired genre.
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Posted by Kathy YL Chan, July 21, 2008 at 6:00 PM
For a spin on the typical doughnut twist, head to Koryodang Bakery in K-Town. The flavor and texture of a classic yeasted takes a turn with this aptly named "Sweet Rice Twist" in which mochi flour gets used in both the dough and in the mix sprinkled over the fried pastry. Couple that with high-gluten All Trumps flour and the end result is a subtly sweet, chewy doughnut that never comes close to embodying the word "fluffy" but bears a slightly nutty charm all its own. It's the one doughnut you can have for breakfast without suffering a sugar high.
Koryodang Bakery
31 W 32nd Street, New York, NY 10001 (nr. Broadway; map)
212-967-9661
