When I was in Berkeley 2 weeks ago Cherrie and I went on a tour of the Scharffen Berger chocolate factory. It was just a few blocks from our hotel near the waterfront and my GPS drove us right to the door in the industrial section of town. The factory itself was a big surprise – it’s quite small. Having once visited the Nestle plant in Pennsylvania, I was expecting something dramatic, especially with the panache garnered by the Scharffen Berger line.

As I think I explained before, John Scharffenberger (spelling intentional) came to some reknown as a winemaker. After a couple of decades producing some very fine sparkling wine (a favorite of mine, his to be specific), he sold the business. Then he was approached by Robert Steinberg, a friend, and now his partner in Scharffen Berger, and they decided to start a chocolate manufacturing company, but only producing a high quality – European style – product. They purchased European, i.e. old, equipment. They wanted to capitalize on the known Scharffenberger name, but John had sold the rights to it with the winery. So, they merely added a space between the n and the b and made it into Scharffen Berger. It wasn’t quite building a business in a garage, but close to it.

They don’t make chocolate every day. Although likely some pieces of equipment are running most days. The roaster (the red thing right) was in a separate room (warm and if running, very noisy). The building probably isn’t 300 feet long and about 200 feet wide, and not only housed the factory floor, but offices, a restaurant and a store. Did I spend money in there? Well, to be sure. Did we taste chocolate? Oh yes, indeed. Probably the most important thing I learned there was about how to eat a piece of chocolate: put it into your mouth, hold it on the middle of your tongue, up against the roof of your mouth, and allow it to completely melt on your tongue. Don’t chew. Don’t move it around. You’ll savor the flavors far better, and it’ll last longer besides. Kind of like how you taste wine.

To the left is the photo of the cocoa bean crusher. A huge cauldron – I mean huge – of swirling, melting chocolate and the crusher rolling around in the middle. So, it was on a blog a few months ago that I read about a recipe in the new cookbook published by the Scharffen Berger partners, The Essence of Chocolate. Liking chocolate as I do, I made it and oh – my – goodness.
What flavor. Not all that difficult. I like bundt cakes, and this one doesn’t require anything but the cake itself. It does have a caramel sauce that is poured over the hot-out-of-the-oven cake, but otherwise, nothing else. No garnishes, although you could serve with a bit of vanilla ice cream. It’s rich enough, however, as it is. I will include the nutritional information about the cake, but for heaven’s sake, whatever you do, don’t read it. I’m going to put it in the smallest type available on this blog.
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I’m an avid reader of Cooks Illustrated. The magazine, founded and edited by Chris Kimball, is about recipes, of course, but the interesting difference is the fine tuning the developers do with each and every subject. Now you can buy special book editions of Cooks Illustrated recipes.

I’ve been a magazine subscriber, though, for probably 20 years. They take no advertising whatsoever, and each issue is about 24+ pages long. Each contains maybe 10 articles altogether, so it’s not overwhelming. They take a subject — like cabbage, let’s say, or brownies in this case — and they not only develop the recipe or a group of recipes, but the writer explains the process in great length and detail. I like that – I enjoy reading about the trials and errors. That may not be for everybody, however. So they talk about the ingredients process, sometimes the chemistry behind food combinations, and explain why using something in the recipe didn’t work and how she/he/they finally found the “right” recipe. Of course, it’s just their opinion, but I’ve rarely been disappointed by any of C.I. recipes. They also do taste tests of canned or bottled items – like tomatoes, (Muir Glen won the last time they tested them) or paring knives, or pie crust shells. That kind of thing.

So, back to brownies. This recipe was printed in April, 2004. The recipe developers and authors, Erika Bruce and Adam Ried, worked on this recipe for awhile to come up with their combination. After reading the article I just had try it. I was doing a dinner party that weekend for a fairly sizable crowd, and wanted something like finger food for dessert. The brownies were prepared, baked, and about an hour before the guests arrived I carefully cut them up and delicately balanced rows of them on an elevated cake stand and covered them with plastic wrap so they wouldn’t dry out before people got around to eating them. People began to arrive and someone oohed and aahed over the large stand full of brownies. She reached in and grabbed one and ate it right then. She was in ecstasy, she said. So, someone else had to have one. Then someone else. About a third of the brownies were gone before I’d even served appetizers (*$%!+$). But the consensus was that these were the best brownies. Do I agree?Absolutely. I’ve made them several times since then, just not recently.

So when I was telling my younger daughter, Sara, about the creation of my blog a couple of months ago, she immediately piped up and said,”Mom, the Best Ever Brownies have to go on your blog.” Now she’s an affirmed chocoholic from wa-a-ay back. But, this being 2007, I’d almost forgotten about them, lo these many years ago (3). Since I had a hankering for some chocolate today, and I’m meeting my friends Joan, Janet and Darlene later this afternoon for coffee, I thought I’d surprise them with a little treat. We have a new Peet’s that’s opened up about 4-5 miles away (we have another one closer, but it’s small). The new one is large and has lots of outdoor seating. And it’s not that crowded yet. I do love Peet’s coffee – they have a corner on the foam market in my book. I know, some people don’t like or want foam, but I love it. Theirs is dense and flavorful. Always. We buy our regular drinking coffee from Peet’s and have for years. I make espresso mostly, but Dave drinks Peet’s Decaf Sumatra nearly every day.

These brownies aren’t all that unusual, really. If you put the ingredients side by side with other brownie recipes you might not find much difference. It probably has more eggs – 4 – and not a lot of flour (although it is cake flour) which gives them a bit of a chiffon texture, so they’re not as cakey as some. There is a punch of chocolate in these, but they make 24, so really 6 ounces isn’t all that unusual. The color of the finished brownie is more like cocoa, or milk chocolate, but there isn’t any of either in the brownies. The chocolate flavor is certainly there, but it’s not like these are dense or chewy.
I’ve used Ghiradelli chocolate and Lindt too. And now I really like using Scharffen Berger. But in’04 people hadn’t gotten into designer chocolate like they have now. When I entered the recipe into my recipe program I noted back then that I didn’t have any unsweetened chocolate (which is what it calls for), so I’d used Valrhona dark instead and cut down on the sugar. Funny thing. I didn’t have any unsweetened chocolate today, either, so I used Trader Joe’s Bittersweet (it’s a Belgian chocolate) and reduced the sugar by about 1/3. The pan preparation is a bit unusual – you line the pan in both directions with foil (leaving the edges hanging over the sides, which you use to grab ahold of when you’re removing them), then spray the foiled pan with baking spray (the kind that has both oil and flour in it). I forgot to sprinkle the pecans on the top of these, as directed, but mixed them into the batter instead. Whatever you do, don’t overbake these, and it’s easy to do. I rely on my handy-dandy cake tester whenever I bake. My oven runs a few degrees hot, so I always cut down the temp by at least 5 degrees, sometimes 10, and reduce the baking time. These took 27 minutes today at 315 degrees.

You could make a half of a recipe, which might be less dangerous to have around. These freeze nicely, however. See how long these last in YOUR house! And Sara, these are for you.
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This isn’t my recipe. It’s from a new book on the horizon called The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz. So, how’d I find out about it? From reading food blogs, of course (The Traveler’s Lunchbox, to be exact)! Early in my blog reading, I heard about David Lebovitz and soon subscribed to his very entertaining blog.

David is an American in Paris (can you hear Gershwin’s music trilling?), although he worked for 13 years at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. I talked a bit about the dinner we had last week at that restaurant, and I recall one of the waiters mentioning the favorite dessert there is whatever cobbler is on the menu. Interestingly, David Lebovitz just wrote up a blog posting about a new rendition of cobbler using polenta, click here, and he talks about his stint at Chez Panisse. And totally off the subject of food – I sent out (to a bunch of my friends) a link to his blog after reading his “take” on Europeans, the French, the Italians, and the Americans on the subject of B.O. It’s also about the very American expression we hear everywhere, “Oh my God.” His write up is LOL (that’s cyberspeak for laugh out loud) funny. If you’re interested, click here. If you read it, read the comments at the bottom – they’re almost as funny as his blog posting.

How do you segue from body odor to ice cream. With difficulty, I think. But trudge on, I say. I tried this recipe from reading the blog, and once the book came out I ordered it for myself on Amazon for $16.47 (hardback). The book is chock full of very unusual combinations. Here’s a sampling of ice creams, sorbets or granitas in the book: Sweet Potato Ice Cream with Maple-Glazed Pecans, Roquefort-Honey Ice Cream, Oatmeal Raisin Ice Cream, Malted Milk Ice Cream (one of his favorites, he says), Chocolate-Coconut Sorbet or Black Currant Tea Ice Cream. He also includes some cookie or bar recipes that he calls “vessels” for serving ice cream. And he adds in a few toppings like glazed or candied nuts or fruits.

After falling in love with Banana Gelato at Gelato Vero in San Diego (see previous post about this) I was certain I’d like this rendition. You roast the ripe bananas in the oven with brown sugar and butter, then scrape out every last bit from the pan, and mix with the milk base, chill, and freeze. The brown sugar comes through, and it has a very full, rounded flavor of the bananas and caramel. It disappeared in no time, although I did serve it to guests, so there wasn’t much left after that. The best part is it’s low in calories and fat – yes, really, just 4 g of fat per serving – see nutrition info just below the recipe.
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Chapter 1 of the gelato story: After having made several trips to Italy in the last 10 years, I’ve come to be a real aficionado of gelato. And although I’ve had it here at home, it never seems to taste as good as it does there. Is it the air? Is it the fact that I’m on vacation? Is it just the romance of Italy? Or, more likely, I believe, milk in Italy is just different than ours, with a higher butterfat content, and the milk tastes different because of what the cows eat. I just picture all those Italian cows munching away on REAL grass and stuff, rather than the manufactured crap and exaggerated hormones American dairies feed their milkers in order to produce the highest possible amount of milk output. I’d love to be able to bring a half gallon of Italian milk home with me from some trip to Italy and see if there was a difference. Not likely with the TSA vigilant at the screening stations and us with 5-ounce limits of anything.

Chapter 2 of the gelato story: A few years ago when our friends Yvette & Joe were coming up to visit from San Diego, Yvette said she’d bring dessert. And, oh my goodness, was it wonderful. She frequents a little gelato store on India Street (Little Italy) near downtown San Diego. Called Caffe Vera, it’s run by a ubiquitous Italian man from the old country. His shop is small, his business brisk, and his gelato par excellence. Yvette brought her favorite, banana gelato, which we enjoyed after our wonderful dinner. We’ve been back several times to bring home a batch, although the banana flavor must be ordered in advance because he ripens the bananas for several days. I also made roasted banana ice cream a few days ago, but right now we’re talking about Lemon Velvet since it was my first, successful ice cream conquest.

One of the reasons gelato is different is that it’s made mostly with milk (whole milk), not cream as our traditional ice cream contains. So, theoretically, it’s a little healthier for us than ice cream. But any nutritionist would probably question my logic there. But anyway, I love making ice cream that doesn’t require making a custard (it’s traditional here in the U.S. – a sauce made with egg yolks and cream simmered until thickened, then cooled and chilled before freezing). So when this Lemon Velvet recipe appeared in the Los Angeles Times some years ago, I clipped it out in a flash because it contains more milk than anything else. The Velvet Turtle restaurant chain was widely known in Southern California for many years, and this recipe was a regular on their dessert menu. The original recipe is printed below. Normally I substitute the evaporated milk and the regular milk with Trader Joe’s fat-free half and half. And I usually add some heavy cream instead of the half and half called for.

So, now, we finally get the segue for what the photo is all about. Are you getting really bored wondering when I’m ever going to get to the recipe? Just a little more explanation. About 3 years ago when Dave asked me what I’d like for Christmas I said “a Cuisinart ICE-50BC Supreme Ice Cream Maker.” Now these dream machines aren’t cheap (photo from Amazon.com). At the time they were only available at Williams-Sonoma. So, with great anticipation I began making some different kinds of ice cream and gelato every few weeks. This is one of our favorites. Okay, now you get the recipe:
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