Overdue Post 3: Cinnamon Buns

After this last post, I will be exonerated of guilt about overdue posts. Here's the last buttery creation that Zoe and I created over Thanksgiving.

When I say buttery, I mean that we chopped up a lot of butter and threw it into the chilled dough. We rolled it out and saw the chunks gleaming in the dough, screaming CHOLESTEROL in our faces. Then we melted some more butter and drizzled it on top with a spoon, watching the yellow fats disperse all over the dough. And we threw some sugar and cinnamon on top.

Our hands were gooey with butter and dough, so we didn't take any pictures of this process. Take note that this was the "light" recipe for cinnamon rolls! Zoe has the details of the recipe somewhere in her mom's records.

So now for the pictures.

Don't they look good unbaked?

Um, delicious! And Zoe's food porn picture will now follow. Shield your eyes if necessary.

Overdue Post 2: Cut-out Sugar Cookies

I confessed to Zoe one night that I had never made cut-out cookies. We simply had no cookie cutters in our house! She cooed and said, poor Vy! We'll make them when you come over to my house for Thanksgiving.

And that is what happened. I included Zoe action shots.

Zoe's friend Cordelia came over and joined in on the fun. She was a cut-out cookie virgin, too, so we both had wonderful first experiences that day!

I can't give you the recipe for these cookies because it came from one of her mother's cookbooks. (Was it the King Arthur flour one?) In any case, we whipped up some colored icing by eyeballing a mixture of powdered sugar and milk. (Zoe also worked out the details on this one. If you remember, leave a comment!)

But the important part was not that they were delicious and edible. The important part was that we made VERY CUTE BEE COOKIES. Marketable cookies.

Look at that meticulous HAND PIPING! We melted chocolate chips in the microwave and cut off a corner of a sandwich bag, I think. Very professional.

And here's the rest of the pic dump. The hand piping idea was great, because we could make designs on our huge sheep cookies and decorations on the other ones.

We also made some dinosaurs and a creepy moon with a single chocolate chip for an eye.

The day was a success.

Overdue Post 1: Max Brenner

Max Brenner thrives off of the creation of "chocolate culture" which holds chocolate to an elevated standard of purity and beauty. Check the website. And the decor. It's out of control.

There are also pipes running throughout the whole restaurant in Philly, purportedly carrying chocolate from the kitchen to mixing barrels on the restaurant floor. Zoe pointed out to Amy and me that the entire Max Brenner character is fake, despite the fact that his bald head was printed on every object in the restaurant.

Chocolate mania aside, the menu is incredible. Most of it consists of ultra-decadent desserts, though they also serve real food. To my surprise, the food was actually good. We shared a grilled chicken panini with goat cheese, spinach, tomato, and black olive pesto. The fries were tasty, too.

We may have consumed the other available panini as well (tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, aioli) but I don't have any photographic proof. Suffice to say it was pretty good, too.

But here comes the best part: DESSERT. We decided to go with the classics, and order fondue and a chocolate heart.

We ordered the warm trio chocolate and toffee caramel fondue, which came with banana bread, strawberries, bananas, and a little grill to roast marshmallows with. It was delectable! My picture of the entire fondue setup was overexposed, so content yourself with a picture of the grill.

The banana bread was moist and delicious on its own before being dipped in chocolate and caramel. And, while the strawberries were not in season, who could resist strawberries and dark chocolate?

We then ordered the red heart: a chocolate cake filled with molten chocolate and raspberry sauce. Oh, oh my.

Did you notice that it comes with creamy vanilla ice cream topped with a hard chocolate shell? That there's a dish of dipping raspberry sauce and yogurt?

They served us more sauce in the cutest, most scientific little food vessel I've ever seen.

I wanted to take it home with me.

We devoured these foods, and went home quite full, though with our pockets somewhat empty. I think it was about $70 for the three of us. We also decided that it was definitely worth doing again, with completely empty stomachs, with dessert only. After we had saved up some money.