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Chocolate Mochi Muffins Recipe

April 10, 2019 by Karen Solomon

I used to live and work in Kamiyama-cho on the island of Shikoku in Japan. I watched rice grow from every window of my tiny apartment. I taught English in four elementary schools and two middle schools, and in addition to leading an adult English conversation group with the inspiring farmers of my rural community, I also sang in the town choir. I learned a lot in Japan, including a love of taiko drumming, a deepened sense of obsession for Hello Kitty, and an appreciation for food that feels uniquely Japanese. It was at this point in my life that I fell in love with mochi in all forms. I still dream about a particular mochi stuffed with fresh strawberries and whipped cream that I once at in an Osaka train station.

Lately, and here in the SF Bay Area, that mochi love continues. Hawaiian ono mochi rich with butter? Bring it. But the colorful, flavorful hybrid mochi muffins of Third Culture Bakery in Berkeley inspired me to incorporate our chef’s chocolate (also known as ground chocolate) and single-origin cocoa nibs into this decadent treat.

The texture is quite different than a regular muffin; dense, chewy, and rich. The flavor is chocolatey, nutty, and not too sweet, making them perfect for breakfast. Since it’s rice flour, these are also gluten-free.

This recipe was adapted from Snixxy Kitchen.

Chocolate Mochi Muffins

Makes: 2 dozen muffins, Time: Under 2 hours

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil, melted, plus more for greasing the pans
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 cups mochiko sweet rice flour
2 ½ cups dark brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups Kokoa Kamili, Tanzania chef’s chocolate or ground chocolate
½ cup Kokoa Kamili, Tanzania cocoa nibs (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350°F and center the oven rack.
Grease the sides and the top of two 12-cup muffin tins with the coconut oil.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sweet rice flour, dark brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, then thoroughly blend in the coconut oil and the butter. Stream in the milk and the vanilla.
Add a tablespoon or so of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix with a hand mixer until completely combined. In four batches, thoroughly combine the dry ingredients into the wet, making sure the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Stir the ground chocolate into the batter.
Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups, filling each cup almost all the way to the top.
Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the cocoa nibs, if using.
Bake both tins together 40-50 minutes until the top is lightly brown and the muffin springs back when poked with a finger. Insert a toothpick into the thickest part of a muffin and make sure it comes out clean of raw batter.
Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy immediately. Store the muffins in an airtight container, or wrap them well and freeze for at least three months.

Chocolate Ganache Macaron Gift Box for Valentine’s Day

February 4, 2019 by Karen Solomon

Loving people can be sweet. But the love of a good cookie can be transformative! For the third year in a row, we are delighted to be tucking our kitchen’s handmade pink macarons into pretty bowed boxes special for Valentine’s Day. Crisp and chewy almond meringue cookies sandwich a Camino Verde, Ecuador single-origin chocolate ganache — this year with the flavors of the kitchen team’s favorite cocktails.

If you’re local to San Francisco, we can’t wait for you to see these – and, of course, to taste them! Mary and the whole kitchen team have been flooded with preparations. You can only imagine what 2,000 macaron tops and bottoms in petal pink look like when spread across our tiny kitchen. We’re only able to produce 100 boxes. And because they’re too delicate to ship, you can only find them at our SF Valencia Street and Ferry Building shops.

In the 2017 blog post Mary wrote the first year we offered this seasonal gift, she points out the difficulty of getting the texture of the cookies right while trying to make so many all at once. “The reason macarons are usually only found in bakeries and restaurants, rather than the home kitchen, is probably that they are a rather intimidating project to take on. Admittedly, if you don’t have a great deal of experience making them, even if you’re a professional baker like I am, the prospect of making macarons can be a little…frightening.”

Why the fear? “The thing about macarons is that something can go wrong at nearly every single step of the process, and they are delicate: the almond flour must be ground and sifted finely enough, the egg whites must be at room temperature, the meringue must be folded into the almond-sugar mixture enough (but not too much!). This process is known as macaronage, and when done correctly, it produces a thick batter that flows like lava but still holds its shape when piped.” Like many great elements of French cooking, the ingredient list for the cookies is simple: ground almonds, egg whites, and sugar. And quite literally, the temperature or humidity of the air can make or break these cookies. It is no small feat to get that perfect crisp-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside texture every time.

The single-origin chocolate ganache filling, made with our Camino Verde, Ecuador ground chocolate and rich cream to make it silky, takes a new twist every year. For 2019, it’s cocktail time! (The rich, chocolatey center will have the flavor of the spirits, but almost none of the booze.) Each box contains 10 macarons total with two of each flavor: Fernet, Mai Tai, Manhattan, Negroni, and Paloma.

The beautiful, reusable gift box is decorated with one of the pretty patterns we design ourselves, and finished with a satin bow we tie by hand. Find the macaron gift box in both of our SF shops February 13th and 14th, 2019, for $35. We’ll also have bouquets of flowers on hand on Valencia Street to help you woo your Valentine.

The 2018 Advent Calendar is Here!

November 2, 2018 by Karen Solomon

Michelle, who headed up this year’s Advent calendar odyssey, grew up in a German home where the holidays are huge, and Advent calendars are treasured handmade heirlooms. Just ask her and she will share her memories of the beloved daily dose of treats, toys, or coins to countdown to the holiday. And, of course, her and her sister’s giddy anticipation of trying to peek inside the pocket to see what tomorrow might bring.

Michelle is bringing some of this spirit to our 2018 Advent calendar–our largest to date by any metric. It’s the most we’ve ever made (800!), the most amount of chocolate collaborators we’ve ever worked with (12!), and the most holiday joy we’ve ever offered (tons!)

To make this project happen, we partnered with some of our favorite San Francisco Bay Area chocolatiers and treat makers to craft the Advent calendar of our childhood dreams. You have to understand that for these small mom-and-pop makers, creating an extra 800 or 1600 bonbons in the months before the holidays is a huge undertaking! We tip our hat to these small shops and thank them for squeezing us onto their busy production line.

This year’s calendar is also a collaboration with artist Maggie Enterrios. We’ve been huge fans of Maggie’s playful, detailed nature illustrations for years, and we were so excited that we finally had the chance to work with her on this extra-large project. Her gorgeous hand drawings of local birds, bugs, and botany brought this year’s design to a whole new level. The detailed lettering and calligraphy are from another artist we admire very much: Lisa Quine. Every calendar in the collection is numbered by hand and comes tied in a shimmering forest green bow. We are so delighted to share this delicious display of edible beauty with you and whoever shares your holidays (and your chocolate).

Each large calendar contains 25 hand-picked, treat-filled, reusable treasure boxes decorated with Maggie’s hand-drawn birds, animals, plants, or flowers that call the SF Bay Area home. The decadent confection inside each box is thoughtfully crafted by people who make the sweets we love. Crisp, smooth, or chewy; chocolatey, fruity, or nutty; the array of flavors and textures changes daily, though the quality and craftsmanship are in every bite. Each treat contains some element of our cocoa nibs or single-origin chocolate. To get you ready for what’s under the lid, know that some of the confection flavors include the Oolong Crisp Bar, Smokey the Bourbon, Gingersnap Praline, Speculoos Coffee Tile, Caramel Crunch, Mini Blood Orange Bonbons, and Burnt Honeycomb. You won’t want to miss out on this once-a-year celebration of art and chocolate! Get yours here.

2018 Advent calendar collaborators include:

Supplies are limited and this is expected to sell out. Shipping is only available within the continental United States.

New and Decadent in the SF Valencia Cafe: Camino Verde Coffee Cake, Chocolate Ganache Fig Tart, and More

July 25, 2018 by Karen Solomon

Ready to try something extravagant with your cacao nib brewed coffee? Come and see us at the SF Valencia street cafe for Chef Lisa Vega‘s baked goods featuring summer’s best fruit paired with chocolate.

Say hello to the fig tart with balsamic caramel, honey ganache, and crisp honeycomb.

Round like a bicycle wheel and named for a well-known French bike race route, meet the Paris-Brest pastry with hazelnut praline cream and chocolate ganache.

Ready for spooning, the chocolate pannacotta with rich tahini, nutty sesame soil, and tangy stone fruit is a contrast in tangy and sweet.

Don’t let the muffin shape fool you. This is our old-fashioned coffee cake with Camino Verde chocolate, bright cherries, and cocoa nib nut streusel.