{"id":2549,"date":"2014-03-06T15:00:59","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T21:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hillaryproctor.com\/?p=2549"},"modified":"2014-03-06T15:00:59","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T21:00:59","slug":"travel-eats-best-sweet-bites-from-4-days-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/06\/travel-eats-best-sweet-bites-from-4-days-in-nyc\/","title":{"rendered":"Travel Eats: Best sweet bites from 4 days in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travel Eats documents my food adventures outside of Chicago.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Black<\/a>
Black & white cookies, Lenny’s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No trip to New York is complete without indulging my sweet tooth. I couldn’t even make it 12 hours before I snatched up a jumbo black and white cookie from Lenny’s. This particular cookie was my vice when I lived there, and is the standard to which I compare all other black and white cookies (I try them pretty much whenever I can find them in Chicago or when I’m traveling). No other has ever measured up. The base is golden and spongy, with a thick coating of vanilla and chocolate glaze \u2013 the most prized bites are the ones down the middle that contain some of each glaze. <\/p>\n

\"Dark<\/a>
Dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookie, Levain Bakery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Where<\/a>
Where the famous chocolate chip cookies are baked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NYC is also home to another gold cookie standard: the 6-ounce chocolate-chip behemoths at the famous Levain Bakery on the Upper West Side. These cookies are completely bonkers: they’re dense mega-cookie masses that are somehow able to stay gooey on the inside and crisp on the outside long after they’re fresh from the oven. I’m partial to the chocolate-peanut butter variety, but you can’t go wrong with any of them. I brought home two of these cookies for my roommate, who had already experienced their greatness on past trips, and she reacted as if I had given her a winning lottery ticket. <\/p>\n

We found one more standout cookie at the Jacques Torres in Rockefeller Center. I already knew we were onto something when the cashier asked if we wanted it served warm, and saw a few of the dark chocolate chip cookies on a heating tray that was kept at the ideal melty temperature. Between the decadent cookie and sips of the rich “wicked” hot chocolate that was spiked with ancho and chipotle, I was teetering on the edge of chocolate overload, but I persevered in the interest of research!<\/p>\n

\"Warm<\/a>
Warm chocolate chip cookie and wicked hot chocolate with ancho and chipotle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And dessert didn’t stop at cookies. Other favorite treats included Doughnut Plant’s passionfruit-glazed yeast doughnut, which had a distinct and unique fruitiness, and a bite-size PB&J cupcake at SoHo storefront Baked by Melissa, which also won for cutest display case. Finally, the wrap-up to our brunch at The Spotted Pig<\/a> was a swoon-worthy slice of the restaurant’s signature banoffee pie that layered banana, dulce de leche, tufts of whipped cream, and shaved chocolate atop a thin crust. A sweet ending to the trip, indeed.<\/p>\n

\"Passionfruit<\/a>
Passionfruit glazed yeast doughnut, Doughnut Plant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bite-sized<\/a>
Bite-sized cupcakes, Baked by Melissa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Banoffee<\/a>
Banoffee pie, The Spotted Pig<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The details:<\/strong> Lenny’s<\/a> and Jacques Torres<\/a>, both 30 Rockefeller Plaza; Levain Bakery<\/a>, 167 W. 74th St.; The Spotted Pig<\/a>, 314 W. 11th St.; Doughnut Plant<\/a>, 220 W. 23rd St.; Baked by Melissa<\/a>, 577 Broadway.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Travel Eats documents my food adventures outside of Chicago. No trip to New York is complete without indulging my sweet tooth. I couldn’t even make it 12 hours before I snatched up a jumbo black and white cookie from Lenny’s. This particular cookie was my vice when I lived there, and is the standard to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[85,93,126,132,164,385,412,636,686,689,768,804,815,818,845,996,1149,1213],"class_list":["post-2549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel-eats","tag-baked-by-melissa","tag-banoffee-pie","tag-best-chocolate-chip-cookies","tag-best-hot-chocolate","tag-black-and-white-cookies","tag-dark-chocolate-peanut-butter-chip","tag-doughnut-plant","tag-jacques-torres","tag-lennys-nyc","tag-levain-bakery","tag-mini-cupcakes","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-sweets","tag-passionfruit-doughnut","tag-rockefeller-center","tag-the-spotted-pig","tag-wicked-hot-chocolate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}