Rosemary Schiacciata

I've been quite taken by making bread recently. I enjoy watching the bread rise and smelling it as it bakes. These two Italian flat breads, one rosemary and one potato, were loosely based off of this recipe.

What's your favorite bread recipe?

The All Chocolate Dinner Menu

Yesterday I mentioned that that I recently prepared, with the help of friends, an all-chocolate dinner.

Here is the menu:

Chocolate martinis

Zingerman’s chocolate bread

Green Salad With Cacao Nibs, Dried Cranberries, and Goat Cheese

Chicken mole with rice & black beans

Cupcakes & Brownies

Ginger hot chocolate

The chocolate martinis were a hit. The recipe called for chocolate nibs, which my friend found at Whole Foods. The deep chocolate flavor from the crème de cacao and the chocolate nibs were nicely offset by the sugar along the rims of the martini glasses.

The chicken mole recipe came from Isabel Allende’s book Aphrodite: A memoir for the senses.

The nicest compliment I received on the dinner was that it wasn’t too heavy, nor was it overwhelmingly chocolate-y. Cocoa was traditionally used as a spice in savory food. Sugar wasn’t added until the 1600’s. I tried to integrate both uses into the menu.

What is your favorite savory chocolate dish?

Zingerman’s Chocolate Cherry Bread

I’m not a joiner. When everyone raves about a restaurant, I usually find something wrong with it. My mother used to say I was “contrary.”

Everyone loves Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor. Even my father, in NJ, was excited to hear that we’d be moving to Ann Arbor because of Zingerman’s. It turns out he had been ordering online from them for years. That’s right – someone who lives right outside of New York City orders from this Midwestern company.

I was skeptical.

When I had an all-chocolate dinner party this spring, a friend brought Zingerman’s chocolate bread and their chocolate cherry bread.

“Two kinds of chocolate bread?,” I thought. “That’s ridiculous.” I was convinced it would be too heavy or a weird concoction of things that shouldn’t go together just so they could charge more.

With a chunk of smooth chocolate in my mouth, it was impossible to find fault with the enterprise that is Zingerman’s. Sure, they are crazy expensive (especially for Ann Arbor) and have complicated ordering rules in their deli, but they do produce and import some amazing food.

This bread, when toasted so the chocolate becomes slightly gooey like a brownie, is a luxurious breakfast toast. Be sure to add a little whole-milk butter.

It isn’t available everyday (see what I mean about the rules?), but you can call ahead, ask when it will be available and reserve a loaf or two. If you place your order by phone, everything will be ready for you to run into their busy deli and avoid the very long lines.

I bought a loaf to share with my parents on Thanksgiving morning. We couldn’t cook too much that day, right?

See, Ma, I’m perking up as I age. I just needed chocolate for breakfast.