Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream

2012 James Beard Awardwinning Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

Gooey Buttercake, Goat Cheese & Figs
Riesling Poached Pears

I’m sometimes prone to exaggeration, but I’m willing to put it in writing, the 2012 James Beard award winner for baking and dessert JENI BRITTON BAUER is not a flash in the pan. Jeni’s is the Best Ice Cream in America hands down.

While not an obvious choice for alunchboxblog.com this review of Jeni’s transcendent flavors at reasonable prices feels like a total natural for those who are sitting at their desks looking for a good reason to leave their desks and get something to distract them from the work that needs to get done.

Owned by Jeni Britton-Bauer and Charly Bauer, these smart entrepreneurs have a way with milk and cream. Their video sort of says it all:  JENI AND CHARLY AND THEIR SPLENDID ICE CREAMS

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

900 Mohawk Street

Columbus, Ohio 43206

(614) 445-6513

Jeni's in the North Market

I think the job description for prospective employees on their site says a ton about the experience you get when a Jeni’s Ice Cream Ambassador “serves” you:

“Ice Cream Ambassadors (also known as, scoop shop employees) will be familiar with what distinguishes Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams from other ice creams; available to work weekends, late nights (past 11 p.m.), and at on-site events; able to provide consistent, world-class service to every single customer; exhibit passion for the community, an eye for detail, a willingness to clean (a lot), stamina (to serve people in long lines), and the ability to work in an exciting, fast-paced environment.”

These working men and women go beyond the extra mile, at the two locations I’ve been to in the Short North and in German Village. I cannot recall a time when a fast-serve product company expected and so enthusiastically received such incredible effort from their what I assume is low-paid employees. This place has an esprit-de-corps that the marines would envy.And like I mentioned, the flavors are out of this world. Before settling on my gooey buttercake, pear riesling sorbet, and my cognac’ed figs in goat cheese, 

Jeni's Flavors

I had the opportunity to taste a host of other incredible concoctions:

• Magnolia Mochi—a strongly floral ice cream with essential oils in a mocha base ice cream
• Icelandic Happy Marriage Cake—with a rhubarb compote in sugar syrup and crushed oatcakes
• Lavender Ice Cream—which the dad of the 3 year old who was licking her cone to death said tasted exactly like Fruity Pebbles with all the candy coating his daughter demanded.
• Hummingbird Cake—spongecake laced with pineapple in a banana, cinnamon and toasted pecan ice cream base

The list actually goes on and on, but I only remembered to write down these flavors and their profiles. By the time I started digging into my bowl, I began to get lost in the oral experience. The pears poached in Riesling made a sorbet with a granular texture that precisely replicated the experience of eating a ripe, soft Bartlett.

The gooey buttercake was a ST. LOUIS-STYLE gooey buttercake in a cake batter flavored ice cream, and then the pièce de résistance was the Goat Cheese and Cognac’ed figs. Come late spring, they switch out the figs for ripe cherries. Ooooooosh! It’s a glorious explosion of ice cream badness and flavor goodness that makes for an exceptional, one-of-a-kind experience only to be had in Columbus, Ohio.

Yeah, that’s right, Columbus.  Who woulda thunk it?

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The $100 Cookie

A Cookie Fit for a King

My office has a Christmas party that seems to feature a long-running cookie-making contest, and when my colleague Anne decided it was time to enter, that she was ready, I kinda didn’t take her seriously. She’s new here.

You see, this particular work environment is seriously competitive in the cookie baking department, and I figured that those who knew the judges would be able to rig the results. Besides, first place came with a crown that you would have to show off at your cubicle year-round and there was $100 in prize money!

$100?

I’m a doubter; Anne wasn’t gonna win. I mean I was all sunshine and light, “Sure you’ll win!  Absolutely!” But yeah, I had my doubts…

Last night was the annual holiday party at LEBANESE TAVERNA where we were treated to an open bar of LEBANESE WINES, which were much better than I’d expected. And so, after a couple of glasses, I find Shaiy coming up to me asking where Anne was. I’d vaguely remembered a conversation about carolers and a church group and well, she had to leave early last night from work to get to some event in Pennsylvania. Well, the facts got all conflated and I really couldn’t recall. That’s when they began to announce the winners. Best Name for a Cookie: “Gov. Christopher J. Christie’s Dietary Vitamin Supplements”

And the runner up cookie diorama seemed like a shoo-in.  I mean Occupy Northpole, really?  In no way an obvious concept, but fully realized as you can see from the image below:

Brianna's Occupy North Pole

But in the end, it was all about taste. And Anne’s Chunky Chocolate Delights have that in spades. While she’s not quite forthcoming enough about her baking secret, the 2011 Cookie Queen was kind enough to share some words after her victory:

“Most people claim to have a sweet tooth. For me however, it seems that I have an entire mouthful of sweet teeth. For as long as I can remember, desserts have been a vital source of my daily diet, so you can imagine my delight when I heard about the annual EDUCATION WEEK Cookie Bake-Off!

“I often pride myself in being a taster rather than an actual baker, but I saw this as a chance to test my own skills. When deciding on the type of cookie to make, I knew it had to have one particular ingredient and lots of it: chocolate! For that reason I came up with the Chunky Chocolate Delight.

The Baker and her $100 Cookie

“Like any other cookie, it calls for butter, sugar, eggs, flour, vanilla extract, and salt. In addition, it’s armed with six different types of chocolate and when mixed together this cookie is bound to thrill your taste buds. The types of chocolate used in this award- & crown-winning cookie must be kept a secret; however, if you wish to try your hand at this recipe the only required ingredient is: chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate.”

Oh these bakers…so secret

- See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/the-100-cookie/?preview=true&preview_id=1131&preview_nonce=058114a67f#sthash.SLzMqzP0.dpuf

Roasted Summer Fruit Dessert: Martha Stewart Treats

Roasted Fruits a la Martha Stewart

I kinda hate American desserts; they’re usually too rich, too cloying, and/or too sweet. Of all the chefs in the world, the very last one I could imagine making a normal, more continental post-meal treat would be Martha Stewart. I mean, isn’t she the cook whose bread recipe begins with, “First, weave a bread basket…”

Well, several years ago, my friend John introduced me to Martha’s GREAT FAST FOOD cookbook, and we discovered together how to cook interesting dinners on Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays. It’s a book that helps make cooking a cinch and looks so fancy.

MARTHA’S ROASTED FRUIT DESSERT is a total delight, reheats well at work the next day, and provides a real treat after the average ho-hum meal.

The process of preparing this for your next day’s lunch or that night’s dinner is really quite easy as well. You just place the quartered 2 plums, 2 nectarines and 2 peaches (or any myriad of other seasonal fruits such as bananas with pineapples, for instance) with a sprig of rosemary, sugar, lime juice, and butter to combine in a roasting pan. Put pan under the broiler for about 20 minutes, once you are just about ready to sit down to eat. Serve immediately over vanilla bean ice cream, Marscapone cheese, or plain Greek yoghourt. I cannot emphasize enough about how healthful this is and yet how lush this tastes.

If you are at the office, take the cold, roasted leftovers, and place in the microwave for about 30 seconds, then let sit for at least a minute. Let it heat again for another 30 seconds. Then place in the toaster oven, if you have one on “dark.” This last step does not need to be taken, but it can help crisp the fruit a touch if you toast in this way. The non-toaster oven option is to just microwave one more final minute.

Piping hot, place over and/or next to the cheese, yoghourt, or vanilla bean ice cream.

Impress your guests. Wow your colleagues. Eat as good as Martha Stewart does–now that she’s out of prison.

- See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/marthas-roasted-fruit-dessert/?preview=true&preview_id=954&preview_nonce=2a55f6cff0#sthash.8ihdW7NI.dpuf

Baked + Wired

MATTHEW0 COMMENTSFROM THE LUNCH BOX, REVIEWS

Jun 29

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Chocolate Satin Finishes First

Washington DC’s Best List Continues today with the selection of Baked + Wired. In direct competition with the television show-driven success of Georgetown Cupcakes, Baked + Wired is the red-headed stepchild to its more famous cousin.

There is no justification for the comparison. Baked + Wired beats Georgetown Cupcake every time.

This place is a cross between college-town cool and high end cupcake shop. They make treats of all sorts, well beyond the quickly becoming lame cupcake trend. Their pure elegant style in the presentation of their sweets is incredible.

Unporked Elvis Banana and Peanut Butter Cupcake

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And just inside to the right is a coffee house where you can snack on a slice of quiche or savoury pie before diving into their just desserts.

I’ll confess, my office is about 1 block from Georgetown Cupcakes and their daily tweets make it almost impossible to be rational about my judgement call here. But there is a sameness to Georgetown Cupcakes that there isn’t to Baked + Wired. And I say that even though I can get a free cupcake from Georgetown Cupcakes, Monday through Friday at the office, if I just lift my fat ass off my chair and walk the block to the sugar and flour factory that is Georgetown Cupcakes.

- See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/baked-wired/?preview=true&preview_id=3781&preview_nonce=56bd5797ef#sthash.FkQuqEFs.dpuf