It's all about YOU...

Good morning from the humble abode of the fabulous baker boys! I'm enjoying a day off from my "day job", taking time to update the menu page and to figure out what we should bake next. While I give that some thought, I'd like to take a moment to share something wonderful that happened to us last week. I was sitting at the lunch table at work, enjoying fresh vegetables (hey, man cannot live by chocolate and cheesecake alone, ya know?!), when Ashley approached and handed me a card and a sweet little box wrapped in shining white ribbon. I was prompted to open the card first, and the accompanying letter (scanned and posted here for you to enjoy, just click for a more readable image) caused me to well up with tears right there in front of everyone. (Ok, anyone who knows me well enough, knows that that I cry at the opening of a Hallmark card). After you read it, you will understand how humbled and speechless I was. If I had any qualms or questions as to the worth of our little business venture known as Joey Biscotti!, they are all dissolved and replaced with joy and the desire to keep plunging forward and become the best maker and supplier of sweet treats available to you lovers of fine, handmade, love-filled gooey chocolaty crunchy sugary salty sweet decadence!

Oh, and by the way - the box contained a donation which helped cover the cost of many of the samples we've been taking to work in the hopes of improving our recipes and drumming up some new and very satisfied additions to our customer base.

We love you all, and we love satisfying your cravings.

Ciao for now...

When life gives you lemons...

...make lemon curd! This is my motto this week. Many of you know that I was all set to take a 5 day cake decorating course this week - I'd payed for the class, arranged for all my work shifts to be covered, and prepared emotionally for the fun and hard work I imagined the class to hold in store for me. Well, last week, I received an email informing me that the class was cancelled due to a death in the family of the teacher. God love her, I hope she got through it and plunges ahead with life. That's what I decided to do with this free week I had in front of me. I've been using it to experiment with recipes, design tee shirts for the business, and bake my little heart out. Right now, as I type this, I'm making a variation of my Chocolate/toffee bread puddings, creating a chocolate mint version that I have a feeling will be addictive!

This week I've baked two different types of Biscotti, several tarts, and two dozen cheesecake pops (to be decorated this afternoon). I've made some changes to a menu I'm hoping to print up in the next few days, (for those of you who find a hard copy easier to digest than our on-line version!) It has been a great week, and I've found some new focus and desire to truly make this business work - to bring happiness to the many friends and new patrons of Joey Biscotti.

Can't you just smell the excitement from here?? Believe me, I CAN,,,along with bubbling, gooey, minty, chocolaty goodness in the oven...

Check back frequently, folks - I've got a lot in store for you and your discerning palates in the next few weeks...

Ciao for now...

The Birthday Cake

Hello, all... Steven mentioned my birthday a couple of posts back, and he was very nice about letting me make my own birthday cake... I am now getting around to blogging about it... Look at this!!!



It is a Choclate Walnut Torte with Cognac Cream and it is melt-in-your-mouth delicious! Have a closer look!



The cake is a bittersweet chocolate batter with ground walnuts and a little Hennessey cognac. It is then imbibed with a Cognac syrup before being topped with a Cognac flavored cream and THEN sprinkled with a walnut praline powder. One last look before we eat it all up!



Have a birthday to celebrate and need a cake? Check out our menu and order! That's all for now... more news later!

Daring Bakers April Challenge - Frozen Cheesecake Pops

Steven here, good friends, and I gotta tell ya - Joey turned over the honors this month to moi, yours truly, because he's such a great guy. I LOVE cheesecake, chocolate and just about anything you can add to it to make it even yummier. This month's challenge is to make "cheesecake pops" - lovely little balls of cheesecake on a stick, glazed with a delicious chocolate coating, and enhanced any way you choose to do so. I had a blast with this one. The basic cheesecake recipe is SO good, that we will surely incorporate it into future desserts. The consistency is dense and rich, just the right amount of sweetness, and holds its shape well - important when you are forming balls.

I started by combining the cheesecake ingredients, mixing them according to the recipe, and baking. The directions called for a 10" cake pan, but in lieu of that (we don't happen to own one that size- YET)...I used a 9" square pan which is a bit deeper than usual - we often use this one for brownies. I baked the cheesecake (longer than called for because of our freakin' oven which has a mind of it's own and never maintains a proper temperature.grrrrrrr.) Then cooled to room temperature and proceeded to chill the lovely golden mixture overnight. Saturday morning I woke up, headed straight to the utensil drawer for our ice-cream scoop, and dug into that pan to start forming 2 ounce balls. I wore rubber gloves because the mixture is sticky, and shaped the balls and placed them on parchment for the next step - freezing. At this point, Joey, with sticks in hand, plunged the lollipop handles into the balls and we shoved them into our already bulging freezer for several hours, during which we ate, shopped, and I rested while Joey made a Tres Leches cake for a co-worker's birthday.

That afternoon, the chocolate came out of hiding and warmed itself by the fire for the enrobing of the balls.

We dipped some of the balls into crushed chocolate grahams, then into three different kinds of melted chocolate - some in white chocolate (tinted green as we had bought it for St. Pats and not had a chance to use it), semi-sweet and bittersweet. While still warm, we immediately rolled them in various toppings: multi-colored jimmies (see photo), mini cherry chips, toffee bits, chopped toffee peanuts, and for a few we just covered one type of chocolate with it's opposite drizzled on top...its such a lovely tray of goods.











I hope you all get to try these - we surely will add them to our menu, and can't wait to see the look in your eyes when they roll back in your head. Several who tasted them at work today said they had little mouth orgasms (if you'll pardon the use of the word).

More comin' atcha soon - stay tuned...but don't stay hungry - order from us NOW!

A Very Special Day!!

Ok, what do you do when the guy you love bakes his own birthday cake??? Gosh, I'm Stumped, but the very least I can do is to wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOEY! This is such an important day, and because you bring so many sweet endings to other people's days, its only fitting that yours begin with wishes for the most amazing year of your life! Remember - this is YOUR year, and you will reap the rewards of having been so good to so many for so long. Kharma, people...now THATS a "just" dessert!

Today I am baking my sweet/tart - sweet flaky crust shell, a layer of lovely chocolate brownie, topped with Lime curd and baked until just set - so delicious. It's a variation on Ashley's Dilemna - hers has a chocolate crust and the filling is lime and drizzled on top with more dark chocolate...I just wanted to shake things up a little.

Be sure and check back in this coming sunday when we post about our latest Daring Baker's challenge - this one will leave you like a man in the desert - probably so in need of sweets that you'll want to lick your monitor screen - but don't! - order some from our menu instead!

We love all of our good and supportive friends, family and co-workers, and we hope you'll continue to enjoy our posts and, more importantly, our sweets. We bake so much love into them that they will set your hearts on fire - like mine is for Joey!

Ciao for now, good people...

If at first you don't succeed...

...Just eat the darned thing and make another one! That seems to be our motto lately - not that we fail often when baking something terrific. Tonight Joey made a "Night the Lights went out in Brooklyn" cake for a co-worker's wife's birthday, and for some odd reason, something didn't go quite right and he's in the middle of making a second one (at my insistance, I'M the perfectionist who cannot let something out of my sight when it's been paid for and is expected to be not only delicious, but to LOOK delicious.) It's one of my flaws and I swear I'm working on it) - but when you're trying to do something professionally, to have it taste AND look like it it came from a bakery, then you go the extra mile - or, as in tonight's case, stay up late making a second cake because you want to give your patrons only the best you possibly can. Poor Joey - he's the best and is being quite a sport. It's tough when you work a full time job and can only bake in your off hours. If something goes wrong, you have to put in the extra hours to make it right - so tomorrow may be a sleepy day for us both.

On the plus side, last week I asked my friend, Ashley, to suggest something for us to try next (we're always looking for input from our friends, family and co-workers.)
She thought about it a moment (I could tell she was battling with herself over what favorate flavors to spring on me!) and her eyes lit up and she said something to the affect of: "You know, I've been craving lime and dark chocolate lately - think you can do something combining those?". Well, that sounded excellent to me - and so I started rummaging through the recesses of my mind for recipes that could work in combination. I decided to make a tart. Mildly sweet chocolate crust, a thick layer of lime curd, and drizzled on top with bittersweet chocolate. I gotta tell ya - it was SO GOOD(if I do say so myself!. It is definitely one we will be adding to our menu.

This weekend is the company bake sale to raise money for the AIDS Walk, and of course, everyone expects wonders from our kitchen...so I'm thinking of doing Cupcakes a la Night the Lights went Out in Brooklyn: rich chocolate cake, filled with delicious pudding, wonderfully milk chocolaty frosting and more cake crumbs mashed into the frosting - its so good it will make you want to slap someone. And if there is time, some mini tarts like the one described above - I'm sure those will sell, and its for a great cause.

More from the kitchens of Joey Biscotti soon, so Ciao for now, dessert fans....

Daring Baker's March 08 Challenge

hello...

We had made this cake once before for one of Steven's co-workers, and we considered it a practice run for this month's challenge... we decided to stick to the recipe as written, for the most part, and i made a couple of mistakes...

1- i added too much lemon juice to the frosting and
2- too much raspberry filling between the layers, as opposed to the photos in the book, which show thinner layers...

one different thing we DID do was toast the coconut before covering the cake with it...

anyway... when all was said and done, it actually was quite tasty... When Steven took it to work today, one of his co-workers stated that it lifted her spirits!

Therefore, I consider our work done! And now, the photos...

Spring is here, the grass is riz...

...I wonder where the birdies is? (ok, thanks to my Father - the king of weird poems, I have that little ditty in my head this week.)

Today, Joey is in the kitchen making a lovely Raspberry coulis for this month's Daring Baker's Challenge, and thats all I'm allowed to say, until he blogs about the finished product. On my day off this week, I tried a twist on my famous Chocolate/Toffee bread pudding, and made a lovely pale citrus version. Imagine oven crisped cubes of orange and lemon imbued pound cake, layered with a lemon and lime accented white chocolate pudding...is your mouth watering yet? I had a blast coming up with this one, and it has given me a renewed sense of adventure in the kitchen. I can't wait for you all to taste these lovely treats!

In May, I am finally biting the bullet and investing in a professional cake decorating course, because I'm tired of doing sub-par presentatations (though a lot of people love the home-made look of our sweets, because they say it lends a rustic air to the presentation.) I, being the sagitarian perfectionist that I am, just wanna make things more professional looking (especially when we open a full fledged bakery business in the future).

Be sure to check out the latest additions to our ever-expanding menu, and drop us a line (joeybiscotti@hotmail.com) or call us at 212-841-5426 to order some of our handmade yumminess for your next special occasion (and believe me, "special occasion" can mean anything from birthdays, anniversaries and bridal showers, to first dates, bad mood destroyers, chocolate cravings and/or, well -you name it - they are all special to your own unique individual situations.)

Enjoy the lengthening days of spring (more hours to munch Mutt cookies, get jazzed on Joeltz, or just lavish in a slice of Spring Break cheesecake!)

Ciao for now -

'Da boys

b'gosh & b'gorra!!!

Cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day!!! These are a sour cream chocolate cake, filled with mint cream cheese, topped with a vanilla, chocolate, or mint buttercream, sprinkled with tiny shamrocks or two-tone green shot, and then a hand-made green chocolate shamrock is embedded in the icing... YUMMY!!!

New cake on the block

joey, here... home from work and not feeling too well, BUT... I wanted to tell you about our newest creation... the Chocolate Raspberry layer cake... We made this for Valentine's Day, and, just to add a bit of the essence of that holiday, we made semi-sweet chocolate hearts to put on top!


This cake is based on our famous Sour Cream Chocolate layer cake since it uses that same recipe, but THEN, it's filled with a raspberry-cream cheese filling (made with our homemade raspberry coulis), and then topped with a bittersweet chocolate butter cream... For the Valentine's Day version, we made the chocolate hearts and placed them on top of the cake, and then dusted with cocoa powder... and this is the result!!!


We are working on some things for St. Patrick's Day as well as Easter... more news on that a little later...

Eat. Your. Cake!

joey

That peach cheesecake...

joey, here, with another attempt at the Peach Cheesecake... A very close friend of mine suggested layering the peaches on a layer of the batter, which seemed to work, but there is still too much moisture in the batter... So, for my final attempt, I am going to try sliced fresh blanched peaches... wow, that's a lot of adjectives... I'll let you know how that one turns out... For now, here is what it looked like...



more news as events warrant!

And now for something entirely different...

Steven here, and may I say - our kitchen always smells so darned good...it's no wonder I've gained 10 lbs since starting this process..oy....

Yesterday, at the request of a co-worker, I came up with a combination of Cheesecake and Carrot cake (both favorites of mine) and this afternoon we are gonna cut it and taste it and take the rest in for sampling at work tomorrow. It has layers of both types of cake, and the scent of it baking was driving me crazy yesterday - but, patience IS a virtue, and it had to chill over night - so today, watch out - I've got my knife and fork at the ready!

On a side note, I want to talk about Art. Yes, Art. It inspires, enrages, thrills, calms, enlightens and fulfills so many of the needs of man. Last night, Joey and I had the supreme pleasure of seeing the current revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical, Sunday in the Park with George at the Roundabout theatre (Studio 54). Having appeared in a touring production of it about 15 years ago, I had convinced myself to go see this version with an open mind - (when you are a performer who has done a show, it is SO easy to get a preconceived notion of how it should look or a performance should feel). Well, I was blown away. I really hadn't thought anyone could improve upon the original production, but this one will last in my memory as one of the most beautiful productions ever to grace a Broadway stage. Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell were fantastic as Georges Seurat and his mistress, Dot. Perfect performances that brought new depth of emotion to the characters they played. But perhaps surpassing even these lovely performances, was the set design. I'm not usually a fan of modern technology (I don't even own a cell phone or an Ipod)..but the use of projected animation in this production is fantastic. You literally see the painting come to life before your eyes. I highly recommend that anyone who appreciates color and light and beautiful music see this show while it is here - it happens to be a limited run engagement, so run (don't walk) to your nearest computer terminal - oops, you're already sitting at one! - and get your tickets. (after reading this blog and ordering some scrumptious goodies, of course!). You will be so glad you did, and the memory of it will last your whole life through (has anyone else noticed how so much of what I say and/or type is lyrically related???)

Go soak in an evening of eye-popping and ear-soothing Art, and then come home and have a slice of cheesecake!...what are you doing still sitting there? Go!

Ciao for now....

So, about that Peach Cheesecake...

Joey, here... this was a creamy peach filling on top of a short crust and then finished with an orange marmalade topping... however, i tried something different from our basic recipe and layered jarred peach slices, that I had drained (the juice went in to the filling), on the blind-baked crust before pouring the filling... I think this caused the crust to become soggy before Steven had a chance to get it to the samplers... But as he pointed out, that seemed to be the only criticism...

Have you ever seen a resin-topped table, in which objects seem to float within the surface? That's pretty much how this cheesecake looked with the orange marmalade topping... the little bits of orange peel seemed to float in a sea of orange-peach clearness...

I am going to make this one again and post a photo of it so you can see what it is I am talking about... I think I'll leave out the sliced peaches, though, or perhaps chop them and mix them in to the filling!!

more news as events warrant...

What the heck IS the next holiday?!

Well, folks, we've been trying to figure out what to make next (I think we'll be in that state for several years to come!)...and since our last post, we've come up with a simply fantastic creamy Peach Cheesecake; our own variation on the famous Brooklyn Blackout cake which, in a nod to Vicki Lawrence, we have affectionately dubbed "The Night the Lights Went Out in Brooklyn".

Then there's the fantastic sister to our Sour Cream Chocolate layer cake in which we've slipped in several layers of seductive Raspberry Cream Cheese filling. When I took this one to work I had to jump out of the way to save my own life, since my co-workers were wielding knives and forks galore in an attempt to devour this devilishly yummy goodness. There are a couple others I can't quite put my finger on at the moment - so I'll let Joey tell you about those when he gets a moment in front of the computer screen again soon. Meanwhile last week, in a moment of dreaming about our future, I happened to be browsing Craigslist to find bakeries for sale in the area (even though we don't plan to open in New York, it's interesting to see what's out there and what they are asking and including in the deal - it's great research.)...well, I stumbled across a lovely character from Brooklyn named SuzyO (her eBay name) who happened to have recently closed a couple of restaurants and wanted to get rid of a large quantity of bakery boxes (whoo hoo!)... We jumped at the chance to buy them from her, so Joey and I grabbed a luggage cart, jumped on the "L" and headed to Greenpoint to make a new friend and add to our collection of packaging materials (now, WHERE do we store them, you may ask - and I'll let you know when I figure it out!)

Suzy is a wealth of information on chef wizardry in general, and had some wonderful ideas that she gladly passed on to us about how to improve upon a couple of our existing recipes, and some great ideas to keep in mind for future creations. Thanks, Suzy - we'll think of you every time we box up a pie!

We're working on coming up with something fantastic for Easter (maybe some wonderful egg-shaped mini cakelettes in fun flavors and dusted with pastel sugars) and of course, we've got to give the people what they want on St. Patrick's Day... perhaps a Mint Chocolate cupcake which will be adorned with a "wearin' o' the green" mound of lovely bright green minty frosting... just a couple ideas we are tossing around...

This weekend is the February Daring Bakers challenge, so I think we'll be up to our necks in flour once again. Wish us luck - and be sure to stop by and order something yummy for your next party, romantic dinner for two - or just to nosh in front of Desperate Housewives...

Ciao for now, fellow sweet-tooth bearers...

Some tasteful feedback, if you will...

So, today, in a HUGE error in judgement, the company I work for (my "day job", I suppose) had a celebration of sorts and ordered several cakes from one of our fellow well known bakeries here in the Big Apple. One of my co-workers, when asked if she intended to have a slice, referred to Joey Biscotti and said: (a direct quote) "Once you've had Caviar, who wants tuna fish?"

Now I ask you - is that not a fantastic vote of confidence for our "little engine that could" (and WILL)?

I'm thrilled! And Joey is musing over the possibility of baking a peach cheesecake this week to put on our ever expanding menu....we'll keep you posted, fellow sweets seekers. Now, back to the kitchen!

Ciao for now....