Beverly Hills Brownie Company

 

After passing the new Beverly Hills Brownie Company several times, I finally stopped in to see if it was as good as it sounded. The store itself felt empty, a little cold and sterile. The brownies themselves looked like they were on display at a bake sale, which was cute but didn't match the modern decor of the space.

 

The selection wasn't too large, but enough. They had red velvet, gingerbread, mint chip, caramel blondie, walnut and cream cheese chocolate chip.

   

 They also had mini bite size brownies which were cute.

   

 I went with the simple classic, a good start to test the quality of the place. It was really good!

   

 It definitely had a strong coco and cinnamon flavor which I liked a lot.  Even though I enjoyed it, if I'm going to get a brownie in Beverly Hills, it's going to be from The Farm.

Sprinkles Ice Cream

The famous Sprinkles Cupcakes opened their new Ice Cream parlor this week, and obviously it has been packed everyday. Unfortunately I allowed myself to wait in the TWO HOUR line to see what all the fuss was about. Sadly, I was not impressed.

 

The store itself is very minimalist, but the flavors and sundaes seemed to be exciting and unique.

However, the exciting flavors like Peanut Butter Cup, or Capt'n Crunch were not offered at this time. Not only was that disappointing but the actual menu was physically in a place that was blocked by the masses of customers so everyone ordering had to have the servers recite all the options. Incase the wait wasn't long enough..

The TWO girls scooping the ice cream had very interesting methods of building the sundaes and sandwiches. Unfortunately I saw them throw out the cupcake bottoms once the tops were pulled off. It was like Seinfeld all over again.

A Red Velvet ice cream sandwich, with two cupcake tops and their Red Velvet ice cream.

A rather flavorless Red Velvet cone with Red Velvet ice cream and Rocky Road.

This mini cone might have been the savior. At just $1 this cone held more flavor than the other, and this portion of Rocky Road was perfect. The flavor was good, but not any better than Ben & Jerry's.

The Sprinkles Sundae

A double chocolate Sprinkles cupcake cut in half with a scoop of Red Velvet ice cream in the middle. This flavor cupcake is usually my favorite, but for some reason it tasted old. The ice cream was fine, but just tasted like vanilla, and not a special vanilla.

I didn't try these other goodies but they looked good. Overall I was completely underwhelmed, and honestly pissed. I expected so much more from Sprinkles! If you're going to eat real ice cream go to Milk or Sweet Rose. Maybe when Sprinkles has all their kinks worked out, like having a visible descriptive menu, serving the unique flavors promised on their website and staffing more than two people on a weekend night, I might give them a second chance.

Tender Greens' S'Mores Pop Tart

Tender Greens usually has good desserts, but this particular one was exceptional. While many bakeries have attempted to modernize the S'More, I think this was the best execution I've seen.

The base was a chocolate ganache stuffed dough, that had a similar texture to an undercooked biscuit/croissant. The massive marshmallow on top was perfectly caramelized. It was so good!

Vosges' Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

Vosges is one of my favorite chocolatiers so when I came across this mix I had to test it out, despite it's outrageous price tag.

It came with all the dry ingredients including large discs of their signature dark chocolate.

Using the Kitchen Aid, I slowly mixed in each part of the dry ingredients adding eggs, vanilla and heavy cream.

The dough was amazing. I could have stopped here.

The secret to the massive cookie size starts here. The instructions said to pile four balls on top of each other like a snowman. I only did three layers, which seemed to be plenty.

They came out so massive, but cooked evenly.

They were really tasty, crispy on the outside but super gooey inside. I would like to find the recipe so I don't have to buy this expensive box mix again!

The Fresh Diet

I decided to take advantage of a Gilt City coupon and try out one of the diet delivery food services, Fresh Diet. I loved it so much I extended my plan for another month!

I was able to avoid foods I don't like and pick out each meal (3 a day, plus a snack and a dessert). All of the food was extremely fresh, and honestly delicious.

Eating smaller portions has been a challenge, but having each meal mapped out makes my day so much easier.

I'm so happy with Fresh Diet, it's almost like having a private chef!

Bar Marmont's Hollywood Cake

This Hollywood Cake from Bar Marmont, named for the obvious decorative reference, is definitely one of my favorite chocolate cakes. It is thick as fudge and insanely rich. It's the kind of cake that sticks to the top of your mouth and requires milk. I love it so much.

Scarpetta's Vanilla Caramel Budino

This Vanilla Caramel Budino is Scarpetta's signature dessert, and also one of the best things I've ever tasted. The base was a thick vanilla pudding, topped with chocolate crunchies, salted caramel, and whipped cream. I may have to go back to Scarpetta just for this.

Little Dom's Ice Cream Sundae

Little Dom's has again proven itself to be superior to Dominick's. This gelato sundae was TO DIE FOR. The vanilla ice cream and whipped cream were both best of quality, but the hazelnut chocolate sauce is what made this so incredible. It was like a dark, hot Nutella. We licked that dish clean.

The Penthouse's Banana Split

I was very excited when I saw a Banana Split on the menu of The Penthouse at The Huntley Hotel, but was very confused when it arrived. I suppose it was a modern take on an old classic. The ice cream flavors were tasty, and the crispies hidden in the chocolate sauce were great, but something was off. Maybe it was the marshmallows that replaced the typical whipped cream, or maybe it was the tiny berries hidden throughout. It was good, but I doubt I'll order this again.

Izakaya's Mochi Ice Cream & Chocolate Molten Cake

I always worry desserts at Japanese restaurants will be subpar, but this Mochi Ice Cream platter from Izakaya was not only super tasty, but beautiful! I loved all the colors and flavors, it felt very tropical.

The Molten Chocolate cake, however, was my favorite. It was perfectly done, warm and rich with vanilla ice cream.

Cooks County's Buck Cake, Date Pudding & Semmifredo

I went to Cooks County for dinner the other night and had three amazing desserts! This was the Chocolate Buck Cake, similar to a lava cake, accompanied by Cardamom Coffee Ice Cream. It was good, but surprisingly not my favorite.

This Sticky Date Pudding was the winner! It was so gooey and dense with a very comforting flavor. It was served with Tangerines, Brown Sugar Ice Cream and Pecan Crisps.

This was something I've never had before, a Strawberry Rhubarb Semmifredo. It took me a minute to realize it was basically an Ice Cream Cake. It was amazing and came with Raspberry Sorbet and Short Bread Cookies. I loved it.

Valentine's Day at La Provence

As usual, La Provence has whipped up the most adorable sweet treats for Valentine's Day! The chocolate heart cake is still my favortie dessert they've ever made. It's dense, it's rich, it's perfect.

Pot du Creme

The French always get dessert right, which is why I was so excited to go back to Comme Ça last night.

We ordered the Pot du Creme which came topped with this delicious buttery cookie. It may have even been tastier than the chocolate..

The actual dessert underneath was great. Rich in flavor and dense yet fluffy in texture. You can never go wrong with a large bowl of chocolate.

Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies

Out of any homemade recipe or box mix I have ever tried (and there have been many), this Barefoot Contessa mix makes by far the best brownies ever!

Using my new KitchenAid, I mixed the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients that come in the box. The secret is melting the stick of butter with these chocolate morsels and folding it into the batter (which has more chocolate chips inside).

It's super easy and bakes pretty fast!

The brownies come out PERFECT everytime!

Marea

Despite the fact that Marea is a seafood restaurant, my pasta and all the desserts were not only beautiful, but delicious. These are fried doughnut holes with pear sorbet and chocolate sauce, so good!

Here is an apple tarte with coffee gelato, the best gelato.

This is the panna cotta with mandarin orange gelato.

And finally a hazelnut chocolate cake with mint. Everything was amazing.

Tiramisu di San Dona

Via Quadronno is one of my favorite NY lunch spots because I love their paninis, but after all these years I finally tried this Deconstructed Tiramisu, one of their specialties. The lady fingers are served with a bowl of mascarpone pudding topped with cocoa powder (on the left) and a bowl of warm espresso (on the right). It was so fun to dip and portion out each bite. Obviously once the lady fingers were gone I finished the pudding with a spoon. Incredible.

ABC Kitchen

After a long walk in the cold, fiending for dessert, some friends and I stumbled into ABC Kitchen where we begged them to stay open to serve us dessert. I'm so glad they did because this Sundae was life changing! The ice cream was salted caramel, and sat in a bowl of delicious dark chocolate sauce. It was topped with whipped cream, peanuts and caramel popcorn. It was so unique and somehow tasted like a Snickers bar.

I also ordered this chocolate ganache layer cake which was frosted with toasted marshmallow. It was also amazing! I can't wait to go back for dinner, and more dessert.