Local Dessert Tasting

We have had the opportunity to try a few desserts at some local restaurants this past weekend and they were so interesting and yummy that I had to write about them. The first one was at a restaurant that our friend's own and they were sweet enough to invite us with them for dinner there last Friday. The Filling Station is a diner style restaurant with amazing homemade food. They told us we HAD to try this particular dessert and we were definitely surprised at how great it tasted...especially since it's a fried Twinkie! We both commented that we couldn't remember the last time we had eaten a Twinkie. In fact, they never really were a favorite of mine. But, this one was fried and then covered with chocolate sauce and powdered sugar and served along with chocolate dipping sauce. Yum!

The next day, we went on a date for Sean's birthday and went to Corez in East Hills for drinks and dinner. Our waitress highly recommended the ice cream sandwich for dessert as they make the cookie and ice cream in house. First of all, it was huge! We each had half and it came with an amazing caramel dipping sauce. The caramel sauce could have been a bit thicker to stick to it better, but it tasted great. What a whimsical yet gourmet dessert!

Not that this wasn't enough, but we went to The Green Well immediately after for a few more drinks and when I told the bartender it was Sean's birthday, we were told we could get dessert for free. Why would we pass this up? Pure indulgence that night - two desserts! We went with the warm brownie served with vanilla gelato, caramel sauce, fresh raspberries and candied walnuts. Ok, that's enough...until birthday cake the next day.

Cookie of the Month - Chocolate Mint Sandwiches

We had company visiting for Easter weekend that I know likes the combination of chocolate and mint. So, I thought this would be the perfect cookie to try to make for them until they got here and I discovered they had given up cookies for lent. However, these will keep well in the refrigerator for a few days and I'll send some home with them! I made these chocolate mint sandwiches from a Martha Stewart recipe in her Cookies book and they are in the rich and dense section. Boy - is that true! First of all, the chocolate cookie dough was like the consistency of fudge and there are two of them with chocolate mint ganache in between and then a melted chocolate covering. They were very good, but a bit of chocolate overload for me. I'll stick with an After Eight mint for my chocolate mint fix. However, they are yummy and were very fun to make, although more time consuming than a normal drop cookie.

After making the dough, I flatted it into two discs and it needed to be refrigerated to chill. I made this a day in advance and chilled it overnight.

The dough was to be rolled out to about a 1/4 inch thickness so I used my roller bands to help me keep the dough a consistent thickness. It's still tough to get the consistency on the edges, but it worked out pretty well. I used a plain round cutter to cut all the cookies and baked them on Silpat lined baking sheets.

Now, this is when you'd be done with most cookies, but these needed putting together. We need to make the sandwiches! I made the chocolate mint ganache using Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate and used pure mint extract. I put a teaspoon of ganache in each cookie and squished it together to spread with another cookie on top. They went in the refrigerator for a while to chill and adhere before topping with even more chocolate. The topping was simply melted semi-sweet chocolate. I dipped each sandwich in and then placed them on a wire rack to and put them back in the refrigerator to harden. Before I put them in the refrigerator, I tried one and this was when they tasted the best to me. It was a bit messy since the chocolate was still soft on top, but that was the perfect time. You have a fudgy chocolate mint sandwich with warm melted chocolate on top of it! I thought the cookies would be crispy, but they were so nice and chewy even after being refrigerated. However, for serving, I would suggest taking them out of the frig to come to room temperature for a while. Or, do these as the dessert for a fondue party and don't put the topping on!