Raising the Bar: nine house-made chocolate bars, the ultimate fancified junk food
Raising the Bar: nine house-made chocolate bars, the ultimate fancified junk food
Chefs are taking artisanal junk food to a whole new level of twee with decadent house-made chocolate bars.
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- A wafer is wrapped in salty peanut butter, sweet ganache and bitter chocolate marquise. It’s served with light banana crème anglaise and blackberry compote, for a taste that’s almost like a peanut-butter-banana-jam sandwich. $12. <br /> <br /> <strong>Lee,</strong> 601 King St. W., 416-504-7867.
- PB&J
- PB&J
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- 163888
- Chef Geoff Hopgood layers humble Rice Krispies with house-made toffee and white chocolate, freezes the mixture into tiny logs and spray-paints them with Valrhona dark chocolate. The bars crumble on contact, making a magnificent mess in the old-timey paper packaging. $8. <br /> <br /> <strong>Hopgood’s Foodliner,</strong> 325 Roncesvalles Ave., 416-533-2723.
- Cereal Killer
- Cereal Killer
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- 163889
- The adage that everything tastes better with bacon is proven at <strong>LA’s Italian + Bar,</strong> where a hard chocolate shell is filled with bacon-studded caramel and topped with guanciale. The result is sweet, salty and smoky. $10. <br /> <br /> 121 Richmond St. W., 416-368-2223.
- Caramel-Bacon Bliss
- Caramel-Bacon Bliss
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- 163890
- <strong>Lucien</strong> serves the most complicated Skor bar you’re likely to taste. The brittle, buttery centrepiece is topped with pistachios and sided by flour-free chocolate cake, pistachio ice cream and a puddle of sangria jelly. $10. <br /> <br /> 36 Wellington St. E., 416-504-9990.
- Toffee Crisp
- Toffee Crisp
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- 163891
- A layer of hazelnut-chocolate paste envelops a light, flaky wafer cookie. It’s topped with oregano ice cream, raspberries and a delicate sheet of hazelnut-streaked chocolate. $10. <br /> <br /> <strong>Brassaii,</strong> 461 King St. W., 416-598-4730.
- Hazelnut Case
- Hazelnut Case
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- 163892
- Pastry chef Colen Quinn carefully orchestrates a multitude of flavours and textures: feather-light brown sugar meringue, a brick of frozen chocolate marquise, a dollop of satiny milk chocolate mousse and a shard of wafer. $8. <br /> <br /> <strong>Pangaea,</strong> 1221 Bay St., 416-920-2323.
- Marquise and Meringue
- Marquise and Meringue
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- 163893
- From <strong>Stock’</strong>s so-called chocolate lab comes a trio of barks: Jivara milk chocolate with toasted pecans, dried cranberries, cocoa nibs and chili pepper; Caraibe dark chocolate with almonds, honey toffee and smoked sea salt; and Guanaja dark chocolate with toasted pistachios, almonds and cherries. $20 each. <br /> <br /> 325 Bay St., 416-637-5550.
- Fruit and Nuts
- Fruit and Nuts
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- Chef Stefanie Bishop riffs on the campfire treat with a stack of hazelnut wafers and chocolate cake coated in dark chocolate and topped with a dollop of gooey marshmallow fluff and sour amarena cherries. $12. <br /> <br /> <strong>Woodlot,</strong> 293 Palmerston Ave., 647-342-6307.
- S’mores Power
- S’mores Power
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- Chef Frank Parhizgar calls his concoction a deconstructed Mars bar, but it’s way too good for the name. He wraps flourless chocolate cake in ganache, sprinkles it with butterscotch brittle and serves it with peach sorbet and a strawberry macaron. $8. <br /> <br /> <strong>Frank’s Kitchen,</strong> 588 College St., 416-516-5861.<br />
- The Un-Mars Bar
- The Un-Mars Bar
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Bacon
Enough with the bacon already. It is so, not even yesterday, it is so, not even last week, it is dead already. What next? Please find what the next food trend is and get off the bacon nonsense.
Cereal Killer and Toffee Crisp would be my top choices. Everything looks nicely presented, but I have to agree that the bacon dessert combo is overdone like super skinny jeans and creepy moustaches.