2012 Scharffenberger Bakery Crawl


Do you have a kickass cookie sandwich recipe that's worth $25,000? Then you need to enter the annual Scharffenberger Chocolate Adventure baking contest, this year's theme being Sandwich Cookies. 

Miette
As a pre-cursor to the start of the contest on October 1st, Scharffenberger hosted another bakery crawl in San Francisco for the media. I was lucky enough to be invited again. This year each of our four stops supplied us with a cookie sandwich using Scharffenberger chocolate products and one of the Adventure Ingredients.


Miette's Macarons
We started at the Scharffenberger store located inside the Ferry Building. After gathering our group we took less than 20 steps down the aisle to Miette.
Last year Miette was our last stop and we had to grab our desserts and run because we were behind schedule. Today they were our first stop and they had made for us Chocolate Macaron with Sumatra Coffee Ganache Filling. Even though I'm not one for coffee flavored anything, I LOVE a good macaron and these were delicious. 





Once again we climbed aboard a streetcar to continue on our trip. This year I stayed on the inside part of the streetcar since the sun never really came out and I'm too used to Sacramento heat. Brrrr!



Goody Goodie Cream & Sugar Dessert Salon & Cafe was our next stop. I had never heard of it. It was a small little place located in SOMA not too far from the SOMA Streat Food Park. This was a rather unusual cookie sandwich, with savory elements, super thin wafers, and just an overall odd combination that worked out well. The "Goodywich" was an Oil Cured Olive and Cacao Nib Wafer Sandwich with a Preserved Lemon and Basil Cream Filling. It reminded me of Giada Pamela De Laurentiis' panini with brie, chocolate, and basil. An unexpected combination that surprises you with how well it works.




The Ice Cream Bar was our next stop. A lovely, nostalgic place that looks like a 1900 soda fountain. If I hadn't been on a sugar rush already I would have tried some of their beverages such as the phosphates and lactarts. 



They had a gigantic cookie sandwich called the "Bee's Knees": Caramelized Honey and Milk Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiched Between Two Banana Cacao Nib Cookies. This sucker was the size of a small but thick burger. And even though I knew I shouldn't eat it all, I couldn't help myself. By the way, each stop also gave us a cookie sandwich to take home with us as well. Since the ice cream wouldn't have worked, the take home version was filled with a chocolate buttercream.





But it was our final stop that everyone was excited for - Macy's.  OK. Not really. It's just that Yigit Pura's new Patisserie is located in the Union Square Macy's (2nd floor). It was nice to see Yigit again, as he had done a demo for us at the end of last year's bakery crawl and had talked about the plans for his patisserie.   


Tout Sweet Patisserie actually just opened at the beginning of September, so just recently. We started in the Macy's demo kitchen down in the basement where Yigit made us his Chloe's Pasilla Spiced Cookie Sandwiches with Pasilla Chili Infused Chocolate Ganache and Cacao Nib Mudslides. Without a doubt they were the most decadent of all the cookie sandwiches we had. I was really sad when he cut the small morsels in half and that we didn't get a take home bag of this last cookie. Sigh. 


But he made up for it because after the demo we went up to the patisserie where he had samples of some of the delightful things he makes. And for those that drank, there was a champagne toast as well. 





The Tout Sweet Patisserie is brightly colored like a candy shop. The rose in the logo was Yigit's father's favorite and there are a lot of floral notes in the pastries as well. This is something I like since I love the taste of rose, lavender, orange blossom, etc. in desserts. The pastries are actually made off-site at a location in Potrero Hill. They are delivered to Tout Sweet four times a day, a schedule that Yigit insisted upon so that the pastries are always as fresh as possible. 


I asked Yigit if he knew anything about the next Top Chef: Just Desserts but he kept mum on that. He did say that he would be on the Top Chef Cruise in April. I really want to go and it isn't that outrageous price-wise, until you add on the that you also have airfare to Miami to consider. Well, maybe if I win the $25,000.

The Scharffenberger contest runs until January 2nd. You are required to use a Scharffenberger ingredient as well as one of the twelve Adventure Ingredients:

Banana
Cacao nibs
Coconut milk or coconut cream
Chili pepper (any type: fresh, whole-dried or ground)
Corn meal
Fresh ginger
Pine nut
Sumatra coffee
Sweet potato
Tapioca or tapioca flour
Tequila
Yerba mate tea


You can enter the Scharffenberger Chocolate Adventure contest here.


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