It’s time to say “good-bye” to 2025 and share favorite recipes for the year.
Red Lentil Soup by Melissa Clark. I was lucky enough to hear Melissa Clark speak this year in San Francisco. Even luckier that she handed me this recipe on the way out from her presentation. This recipe has a huge fan base and I am now one of them. Cindy
Cherry Clafuti by Once Upon a Chef. I’ve made this a few times with cherries we picked in Brentwood, Calif. It’s a family favorite. Laura
La Vina Style Cheesecake with Cider Salted Caramel Sauce. My daughter very much enjoys this Basque Cheesecake. Made this several times in 2025. And a necessary accompaniment to the cheesecake is this cider salted caramel sauce. Aida
Pistachio Shortbread by NY Times and Ilene. Since pistachios are all the rage in 2025 the NY Times posted a good one. And, a second one with a comment, “I Loved This” Ilene.
Microwave Sticky Toffee Putting by Ali Slagle. My favorite for 2025 was something I made very late in the year! And made only once, although I could see making it weekly! Takes about 10 minutes with ingredients I usually have on hand. Joan
The days are getting shorter and school is in full swing. So it’s time to say “good-bye” to La Toque de Cindy’s 2024 cooking camps. We had a very fun summer with topics spanning from bread making to savory weeknight meals to my favorite topic, chocolate. Chocolate Champions camp has become a tradition for more then 10 years in a row. This summer was special as I brought back chocolate from Southeast Asia and Malta to share with the students. We play a game in which students need to guess what is in a chocolate bar besides chocolate. I was so surprised when one student guessed my trickiest, durian. I brought back the “Best of NY Times” camp after giving it a rest for several years. My favorite recipe from that camp is Eggplant Adobo but the students were far more critical of all of the recipes when they posted reviews to the NY Times website . For bread making you can’t beat the Food Geek’s sourdough bread recipe. It took us several days to make it but it was well worth the effort.
I am always on a quest for good (and unusual) chocolate. This time I found it in Malta. At first I thought there was a single source, the Malta Chocolate Factory in Bugibba. It is actually a chocolate shop with chocolate making facilities on premise rather than a factory. Most of it hand made. They have a wide selection of chocolate bars, truffles and bon bons. The most unusual was flavored with prickly pear cactus. My family enjoyed a truffle making class there. You can see us in the photo with the stylish hats.
What was quite a surprise was the Chocolate District, a small quaint coffee and chocolate making salon in Valletta. Even more surprising was the Tar Rahal chocolate I found at the fish market in Marsaxlokk, some of it flavored with figs.
I am always on a quest for good (and unusual) chocolate.This time I found it in Malta.At first I thought there was a single source, the Malta Chocolate Factory in Bugibba. It is actually a chocolate shop with chocolate making facilities on premise rather than a factory. Most of it hand made. They have a wide selection of chocolate bars, truffles and bon bons.The most unusual was flavored with prickly pear cactus. My family enjoyed a truffle making class there.You can see us in the photo with the stylish hats. What was quite a surprise was the Chocolate District, a small quaint coffee and chocolate making salon in Valletta.Even more surprising was the Tar Rahal chocolate I found at the fish market in Marsaxlokk, some of it flavored with figs.
Stenciling is a wonderful way to put a “wow” factor into your cake decorating toolbox. It’s very easy to do but looks stunning. Press the stencil close to the top of your cake. Dust some confectioner’s sugar over it. Gently remove the stencil. You’ll have an incredibly beautiful cake in no time. This photo shows a stenciled cake we recently made at a cooking birthday party.
You can cut your own stencil, use a doily or buy a stencil on these websitess.
Designer Stencils carries a large collection including a baseball themed set
Confection Couture has so many to choose from. Check out their graduation stencil.
Cake Art carries some very artistic ones. I love the blooming cherry tree.
After a recent episode on “Somebody Feed Phil” about Iceland, I got very curious about the country and it’s food. I almost went as far as to book a family vacation there. We had some resistance to the cold and a yearning for a warmer holiday spot so that concept was postponed to a later, more adventurous travel.
Just after that we had a house guest just off the plane from Reykjavik. His “in kind” treat for us was chocolate from Iceland. I know that sounds a bit crazy but it’s true and something new to me. In case you’re in the market for some exotic chocolate, this is a great find. I am going to try to resist eating the Noi Sirius bars before summer. If I can do that it will be in one of the chocolate taste tests in my Chocolate Champions Summer Cooking Camp in August.
Southeast Asia is now a treasure trove of interesting chocolate. I returned from that region recently with a suitcase full of chocolate after visiting chocolate stores and “factories”, admittedly hobbling to and fro with a cane and my hubby to support me. Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia have been growing cacao trees for many years but it’s just in the last 10 that they are making bar chocolate, truffles and bon bons. Here are some of the places I visited and you may want to head there on your travels.
Penang, Malaysia
Georgetown Heritage Chocolate was our first stop as we eye spyed the sign while walking (or rather hobbling for me) through Georgetown. The shop keeper was very nice and explained how they import conching machines from India and conch for 24 hours to get their chocolates super smooth. On my journey after this I found that everyone in the region was buying these same machines. One could only do small batches with these but they seem to be working for everyone. This store didn’t have single origin bars in stock but we picked up a few Malaysia / Ghana mixed ones.
Harriston does a great job of attracting tourist buses and selling customers on their wares but I wasn’t super impressed with their chocolate. Of interest were their ruby pink chocolate bars. These are made from pink cocoa beans, at least that’s the story they sold us on.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
In the grocery store, I found Beryl’s chocolate chips. Made in Malaysia but just “so so”. That must be why they are at the grocery store and not a fancy shop. They were fun to add to my collection as they are definitely “made in Malaysia”.
Next stop was Chocolate Concierge which we found via an internet search looking up “chocolate, Kuala Lumpur”. Their chocolate was fantastic, each bar representing a specific single origin growing region in Malaysia. They also had a bar called Temuan which is sourced from indigenous growers. The laksa bon bons are especially delicious. It’s in a shopping center and just a counter store but well worth visiting. Later that day I found out my sister-in-law is a friend of the owner. What a small world.
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Wat Chocolate may have been the most interesting “factory’ we visited as it’s only 2 years old and crazy hard to find. Our tuk tuk driver had no idea where this place was but we pointed it out several times on our phone after we found this gem via a Google search and we eventually found it. We were pleasantly surprised by their “factory” tour which walked us through their chocolate making process, all hand done. I have a goofy photo of my hubby with a hair net but I promised I wouldn’t share that with everyone. I picked up a great cinnamon bar, 2 kilos of cocoa powder and a few other goodies. They just may have been happy to offload that cocoa powder at a discount price since they are using the cocoa butter for their bon bons but I could not see how they would use the powder.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Being inspired by the Somebody Feed Phil Netflix show, we headed to Maison Marou. This “factory” was even more than Phil promised and so fun. You could see the “factory” through a plexiglass window but the bean roaster was in full view for customers to enjoy. I loved their map on the wall showing the bean origin of their single origin chocolate bars. As it was our last day on the trip I snapped up quite a few of their bars after enjoying a hot chocolate in their café.
What I realized I had missed were some bars with funky local ingredients so I snapped up a few bars at the airport and paid a pretty penny ($7 USD per bar vs. $4 at the shops in the city). But I found some durian bars to buy which are not to my taste but a super fun idea for a Southeast Asia Chocolate Tasting class.
I am a super fan of the New York Times cooking crew. They have so many inventive recipes and are “in the know” on the latest food trends. Lately they’ve invited key chefs to join them from time to time such as J Kenji Lopez-Alt and Yotam Ottolenghi, both masters in the kitchen. Your kids can learn both basic cooking techniques and the most popular recipes from the New York Times this summer.
I’m offering 2 weeks of classes called “Best of NY Times” June 5-9 and July 17-21. To enroll in this cooking class series go here. We’ll be learning how to make these and much more.
While in NYC and Scottsdale last week I enjoyed many meals out on the town. Some were good, some were drab, some looked lovely. Although I pride myself on my cooking I do keep a list of restaurants. Some to try out and always ones where I’ve dined. They get a one to five star rating. On this trip Victor’s Café got my 4 star rating. It’s the oldest Caribbean restaurant in NYC. Check it out next time you’re in the theatre district. Here are some food photos from that trip: Ble Striped Cocoa (with the best hot chocolate in town), the gyro cart after the St. Patrick’s Day parade, Jue Lan’s chicken saray inside a converted church in Chelsea.
Eating out is fun but often the best cooking is often what you do at home. Come help the young chef in your family learn how to cook by signing them up for my “Spring Break Cooking Camp” April 3-7. The New York Times has a great article on Kid Friendly recipes. Frankly, I don’t know if all of the kids who I teach at La Toque de Cindy would be keen on some of these. But, if you join my Spring Break class I’m open to taking suggestions if they are your kids’ fancy. We’re cooking from Smitten Kitchen and the New York Times wealth of fabulous recipes that week.
It’s been such a long time since I wrote a blob post. Sorry about that. Just being a sloth. Well, La Toque de Cindy is back up and running and welcomes private parties from here on out until summer camp begins on June 5. If you’d like a bit of armchair cooking wisdom, sign up to be a member of my new Facebook Group called “Cooking in Palo Alto”. It’s a forum for cooks (or those want to be cooks) to share ideas about cooking in Palo Alto and culinary events around the area.
My first post on this group will be in a few days when I head for Whole Foods for their $1 per oyster sale on Fridays. I’ll post a recipe and a cool and safe shucking tool I bought at Sur La Table at Town and Country.
Come learn how to make the tastiest and most beautiful cookies ever. In this 5 day cooking series we’ll bake a variety of cookies every day. Fortune cookies have been a hit with past students and I’m bringing those back. But we’ll try out some cool cookie tools I bought this year: embossed rolling pin, cookie stamps and a two color cookie press. For extra fun we’ll follow the taste test of The Pancake Princess and try out at least two recipes of black and white cookies.
