Houston Food Blog

​Berripop is the current designer drug in a long line of addictive frozen yogurts. The consistency is smooth and creamy, with surprisingly few calories.

The locations at Greenway and Uptown Park rotate flavors rather haphazardly, keeping customers on their toes and checking in regularly for the occasional surprise. Staples include blueberry, raspberry pomegranate, mango, peach, black cherry and acai berry. On rare occasions, there's green tea.

​Yesterday we talked about the soup at Star Snow Ice, the amazing restaurant tucked away in the corner of a plaza off Bellaire and Beltway 8; today we take on its sweet offerings. Snow ice, a common dessert in Asia, has gained in popularity here. It's served two different ways. One version comes with fresh fruit, shaved ice, condensed milk and, sometimes, salty plum syrup; the other is a savory dessert-snack hybrid consisting of various beans, egg puddings and other odd ingredients that might shock the conservative palette. We decided to go for the "mixed fruit snow ice" and were not disappointed.

​The Bavarian cream-filled Bismark is the thing to get at Daily Donut on Barker Cypress just north of 290. The cream-filled donut there was delicious, while the raised donut was stale and lame. Though Daily Donut calls this a Bismark, some would disagree with both the usage and the spelling. Exactly what is or isn't a Bismark is one of those pastry pilpuls that you could spend the rest of the week arguing about.

Photos by Lauren McKechnie

​Necessity is the mother of invention. For those long stretches between Easter and Halloween when candy is in short supply and groceries dwindle--here's a simple recipe to squash late-night sweets cravings.

Estimated prep: The time it takes for infomercials for the Topsy Turvy to transition to episodes of Simply Ming. Start with two slices of bread -- wheat if you must but white if you're going for authenticity. Spread Nutella on one like you would peanut butter on this sandwich's inferior daytime counterpart. Give the other slice a Paula Deen-style helping of butter. We're going for near-equal parts of Nutella and butter here. Add sprinkles for that necessary crunch. Combine.

Enjoy feeling confident that if anyone were to witness your midnight misdeed, unlike chips or ice cream or that bowl of Count Chocula, they need never know what lurks between your slices of bread.

A magnificent photo of the completed sandwich is after the jump.

​Go to the Polish food store next door to Polonia restaurant on Blalock and Campbell on Saturday morning at around 10 a.m., and you can get your paczki hot out of the fryer. Polish paczki are jelly donuts made with an extremely rich pastry and a fruit filling -- this week the paczki at Polonia are filled with rose hip jam. They sell for $1.49 each at the store. Paczki are also served for dessert on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Polonia restaurant for $2 a piece.

​Coffee Toffee with Dutch Chocolate was our first Tasti D-Lite (1707 Westheimer) experience, and by no means will it be our last. Nestled in the corner next to a Berryhill, this cozy franchise is a little difficult to find the first time.

Don't expect a huge, punch-you-in-the-face flavor at this "skim-milk-based dairy treat" establishment. Instead, enjoy a light, revitalizing, slightly less-sweet ice cream cone packed with a walloping 75 calories. The calorie count is where this dessert really outshines those shady frozen yogurt places popping up everywhere. This really is an almost not-bad-for-you option for your sweet tooth.

It's the subtle nuances of flavor we appreciated the most at Tasti-D. These cats will even let you pick your own flavor and make it for you right there on the spot, and it's available in larger pint-and quart-size containers to take home. With more than 100 flavors, making a choice can be a little intimidating. Luckily, we ran into a Tasti-D fan named John who compiled a list of must-have flavors for Eating Our Words.

​The glazed old-fashioned at Best Donuts on Braeswood at Hillcroft in Meyerland was excellent. It was also much bigger than the sad, stale little raised and glazed donut I sampled there. While I stood at the counter, I could see hot donuts cooling on a rack in the back, but I couldn't convince any of the non-English speaking employees to get me one. Whether they truly didn't understand me--or they just didn't want to go get me a hot donut -- I am not really sure.

​This week I baked vegan cinnamon rolls. Before I started the project, I envisioned myself exhausted at 2 a.m. with my arms and forehead coated in flour, waiting for dough to rise for the second time before baking. I had never baked with yeast before and was anxious about an I Love Lucy-style dough-monster disaster. Lucky for me, the cinnamon rolls were in the oven by ten, and my apartment smelled like the Keebler elves' tree house. Baking with yeast turned out to be an awesome experience. I watched my first dough ball fluff up to twice its size before punching it to deflation like a prizefighter.

The rolls came out golden brown on the outside and tender and fluffy on the inside, with the mottling of cinnamon and brown sugar along the curves. The only thing I would change about my next batch is to make more filling for a stronger, gooier cinnamon roll.

J.C. Reid

​On a recent drive through central Texas in search of unknown barbecue finds, my friend and newbie food explorer Alison chimed in from the back seat as we drove through the small town of Smithville, Texas. "Hey, did you guys see that Dairy Queen sign back there? It said 'Pumpkin Pie Blizzard.'"

What? We were on a quest for meat and brisket and sausage and ribs and other such manly fare. We had no time for an ice cream dessert, even if Blizzards are a Texas tradition. We zipped out of Smithville and headed west to Lockhart. We had some decent barbecue there, but nothing new or unknown. On the way out of town, another Dairy Queen appeared by the side of the road, and it too had a sign advertising the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard. We decided to stop and give it a try. Turns out it was the best find of the day.

​There's a picture window in the front of Shipley's Donuts on North Main where you can watch the baker rolling out the dough for each new batch of donuts. While you're standing in line, you can look over to the right and see the donuts coming out of the fryer and getting glazed. It's not quite as orchestrated for spectators as the Krispy Kreme assembly lines were, but it's still fascinating to watch your donuts getting made.

​
The lady behind the counter at the Donut Wheel at Bellaire and Boone across the street from Hong Kong City Mall swore that the glazed donuts were fresh out of the oven. They weren't. They were totally mediocre. I also sampled a buttermilk donut -- the one that looks like a blown tire.

​When Lawrence Shipley Sr., Lillie Shipley, and Helen Shipley posed with employees at the original Shipley Do-Nuts bakery at 1417 Crockett Street in 1936, glazed doughnuts were selling for five cents a dozen. Shipley's Donuts are an old Houston tradition, but are we loyal because of nostalgia or because of the way they taste?

​When you walk in the front door of Bakery Donut at 1203 11th St. in the Heights, you are overwhelmed with all the choices. There are lots of kolaches, twisters, filled bars and all sorts of breakfast food. The bacon sandwich on a whole wheat English muffin looks awesome. And the donut case itself is a riot of color. I figured I had found one of those stellar little mom-and-pop doughnut shops that put the chains to shame.

​Southern Maid raised donuts fill a hole in my life. The hole where the Krispy Kreme used to be. On March 8, 2006, a day that will live in infamy, Krispy Kreme closed its six Houston locations due to a dispute with franchisee Lone Star Donuts Ltd. The North Carolina donut chain still has locations in Austin, Fort Worth and other parts of Texas. And it has vowed to return to Houston, but so far no news.

Photos by Margaret Downing

​A new cookbook called The Worry-Free Bakery arrived in Eating...Our Words' inbox the other day. It both promoted the worth of sweet desserts, and promised recipes that were fat free.

Author Kumiko Ibaraki, a former public health nurse who left nursing to go to culinary school, later founding a culinary school of her own, has re-made a bunch of popular recipes to lower their fat.

Sugar, that's a-ok in Ibaraki's book. In fact, as she puts it: "Most people think of sugar as fattening, but it's okay. Your body burns it off fast so it's a safe ingredient to use. Your body can easily break down the sugar and convert it into energy."

She goes on to say that sugar "helps raise serotonin levels in your brain, which helps stabilize your mood.

"So, with that knowledge, be at ease and make as many treats as you want for you and your family."

Okay, seems like maybe we left the planet here (a planet where a whole bunch of hyper, obese kids live), but the photos are great, the instructions clear and the food looks delicious. So we turned the cookbook over to the Houston Press resident master baker, Babbette Sandoval, who a day later showed up with a tray of treats.

"I think they're okay," she said, "but I have to warn you, they do taste healthy."

​Hostess Cupcakes celebrates its 90th anniversary this year. But you wouldn't recognize the original chocolate cupcake that came out in 1919 -- the signature seven squiggles and cream filling weren't added until 1950. Americans currently consume more than 600 million Hostess CupCakes every year, making it the world's largest-selling cupcake and the baking company's No. 1 product. The Hostess Twinkie® comes in second.

This week's sweet Snackshot comes to us courtesy of mlsnp and the House of Blues:

From the photographer's description:

"Dessert table at a private event ~ House of Blues Houston"

Vegan mint chocolate chip cupcakes

​Having a few things to celebrate with a vegan friend, I decided to order a cake from Jodycakes. Even though Jody Stevens bakes regular cakes, she specializes in vegan, gluten-free and organic varieties -- not that you could tell from the flavor that anything is "missing."

My hand-delivered cake was dark chocolate-almond, with chocolate buttercream frosting. It really was beautiful, with buttons of frosting around the edges and shaved chocolate sprinkled on top. Better yet, it tasted delicious, with hands-down the best buttercream frosting I've ever eaten and a moist, flavorful cake. We were so pleased with it, we embarrassingly hogged the entire thing between the two of us.

Photo by J.C. Reid

​When it comes to chocolate, there's the good stuff, and then there's the really good stuff. Once you get past mass-market chocolate like Hershey's, the next step up is Godiva and Ghirardelli, which are both certainly good-quality and widely available in Houston.

But the really good chocolate traditionally comes from Europe. Parisian chocolatiers such as La Maison du Chocolat and Chocolat Michel Cluizel, and Belgian makers such as Neuhaus and Leonidas, are just a few of the standard bearers of truly great chocolate. In the past, acquisition of such chocolate usually involved a trip to New York City or to Paris or Brussels.

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

So cute you want to pinch them. Or eat them.

​Cupcakes are by their very definition almost too twee to engage in a battle of any kind. But no foodstuff is allowed to stand idly by in culinary wars, and cupcakes have been pressed into service this week in spite of their soft cakey bodies and mushy frosting heads. And as it turns out, there wasn't much of a battle this week at all.

Photo by Robb Walsh

​Sagahún Chocolates in Portland, Oregon makes some of the most interesting chocolate confections in the nation. The chocolate barks get their crunch from nuts, pumpkin seeds and crushed, salted corn nuts. They take their scents from edible flowers and lavender. And they contain potent doses of jalapeño, ancho and other chiles. I am not talking about a dainty little dusting of pepper -- I am talking about enough chile to make your mouth burn.

I have often wondered if the 2000 movie Chocolat was modeled on Sagahún's owner, a beautiful artist-turned-chocolatier named Elizabeth Montes. Montes was an artist in New York when she started apprenticing to chocolate makers and learning the craft. She was forever changed after reading the Florentine Codex, the natural history of the New World written by Fray Bernardino de Sagahún. The priest wrote about the Aztecs mixing chocolate with flowers, chilies and honey. Montes took the ancient Mesoamerican approach to chocolate as her inspiration, and in 1999, she started a company called Sahagún. In 2001, she moved to Portland, where she cooked up her candy creations at home and sold them at farmer's markets. Her business took off when she opened a tiny shop on 16th Avenue in downtown Portland.

I once made the mistake of giving Sagahún chocolate to a loved one. Now they won't settle for anything else. There is plenty of great chocolate in Texas, but I still mail-order magical chocolates from Sagahún for special occasions.

Photo by Robb Walsh

​"We sell a bunch of junk," Whole Foods founder John Mackey told the Wall Street Journal when he announced the new focus on health foods that's supposed to be taking place at Whole Foods this fall. Mackey hopes to stop the decline in the sales of beans, nuts and whole grains, which is down from 15 percent of Whole Foods total sales to something like 1 percent. Mackey wouldn't promise that Whole Foods will stop selling junk like candy, cookies and other unhealthy foods, however. So it should come as no surprise that Whole Foods is preparing to enter the Space City cupcake race this week.

The macaroon is a sort of existentially confused food. In France, a macaroon is a colorful cookie sandwich. In the U.S., we generally think of coconut macaroons first, but they are often made with nuts as well. Rumor (or Wikipedia) has it that in Australia, macaroons often have a jam filling - so jealous! At any rate, screw the cupcake fad - here are five of the best macaroons in Houston.

Photos by Nikki Metzgar

​5. Three Brother's Bakery
You can't tell from the outside, but the recently reopened Three Brother's Bakery has a sleek new interior. Like many desserts here, the macaroon is a classic. It's moist, almost creamy, baked brown on the outside and dipped in chocolate on both ends - a combination that never grows old.

The rest, after the jump.

Photos by Robb Walsh

​The thermometer in the car said 100 degrees on Saturday afternoon when we stopped for ice cream at Ritter's Frozen Custard on North Fry Road in Katy. Ritter's serves scoops of frozen custard in a variety of flavors. We sampled the rich vanilla and chocolate-flecked strawberry romance flavors. Frozen custard is never hard-frozen like conventional ice cream. That makes for a pleasantly soft texture, but it also means that the ice cream melts faster.

Ritter's is a franchise of a custard stand that started in Indiana. In the Northern climes where frozen custard is king, the places that sell the stuff seldom have an interior. You sit outside on a picnic table or loiter along the boardwalk with your ice cream. That's part of the charm. So when entrepreneurs import frozen custard stands to Houston, they try to replicate the experience.

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

​A newly reopened La King's on Galveston's Strand looks for all the world like the inside of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, the fanciful sweet shop from the Harry Potter novels. Wood floors moan softly underfoot while marble counters seem to glow from within and lights twinkle off the metal soda fountains and glass tumblers lining the walls.

Tables scattered throughout the store are covered with centerpieces exploding with candies, ribbons, streamers and toys -- gift baskets to make any child insanely happy -- while families stroll throughout the shop, grabbing up scoops of ice cream, parcels of fudge and giant glasses filled with shakes and malts. Towards the back, a jolly man in a white hat and apron twists a six-foot long piece of taffy on a long conveyor belt, much to the amusement of the gathered crowds of children.

La King's is back.

Photo by J.C. Reid

​Nutella, for those who've never tasted it, is the "original creamy, chocolaty hazelnut spread." Popular in Europe (it's made in Italy), Nutella is mainly eaten at breakfast or for dessert by smearing it on bread or a croissant, or folding into a crepe. "Nutella" is a brand name, but like "Kleenex" or "Xerox," it has been "genericized" to refer to any spread made with hazelnuts and cocoa.

Nutella inspires fierce passion in its diehard fans. Brand-name Nutella is indeed creamy, with a consistency and taste of chocolate icing, but not as sweet, and with a nutty aftertaste. I admit to being a fan -- one of my favorite breakfasts is a made-from-scratch, hot-out-of-the-oven croissant slathered with Nutella and washed down with a double espresso.

My first experience with Nutella came during a college summer abroad in Italy. My roommate was a chubby Greek kid named Dimitry. Dimitry would sooth his crippling homesickness by constantly spooning Nutella out of a container he always carried in his bag. Turns out it's a great comfort food. In the ensuing years I've continued to eat Nutella off-and-on, picking up a small jar at the supermarket or, if circumstances warrant, a jumbo container at Costco.

Recently, I received an email newsletter from the Midtown Farmer's Market announcing a new vendor that features homemade, artisanal "Nutella." This past Saturday I decided to stop by and check it out.

So where would you rather be on a hot day in August than the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory in Brenham? Tours are $3 for adults and $2 for kids and seniors, weekdays only. Better get there early in the morning to sign up, the tour is very popular this hellaciously hot summer.

​Meyerland native Chef Sara Brook oversees the mini-empire known as the Dessert Gallery Bakery and Café, with three Houston-area locations. An entrepreneurial spirit, Brook previously owned a bakery, The Executive Sweet, and a chocolate sauce company, The Great Chocolate Cover Up, and hopes to expand her current franchise nation-wide.

What inspired you to become a pastry chef?
I had a baby-sitter who taught me how to read using the back of a cookie package and I learned to cook cakes in an Easy-Bake oven. My daughter Jennifer just gave me the 25th anniversary edition Easy-Bake to commemorate my 25 years in business.

Did you consider culinary training?
Not really. I studied sociology and computer science at the University of Texas and briefly considered law school. What I really always loved to do was make desserts. I started my first business in my parents' kitchen soon after college.

How would you describe your typical customer?
They're people with some emotional investment in homemade desserts. I mean we don't make anything European or fancy--we provide simple desserts people recognize from their childhoods. People in line at the counter talk about things their mothers made.

This week, Robb Walsh explores the vast world of Houston's ice cream parlors in the feature story, "The Scoop." In the course of writing his article, he ate more ice cream than Napoleon Bonaparte did at the Ziggy Pig in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (but didn't get a pin afterwards). He imparts the wisdom gleaned during his research below, as he shares his top ten ice cream experiences in Houston.

Photos by Paul S. Howell

​10. CreamWorx
8817 Hwy. 6, Missouri City
281-778-2732

CreamWorx is an independent frozen-­custard maker down on High-way 6 south of Sugar Land. The custard can be flavored with a complicated syrup injector system, but the final product comes out too soft. Forget the "flavorizing" machine and get a large waffle cone of the rich chocolate custard with a topping of crushed pecans.

This week's sugary Snackshot comes to us courtesy of Gary R. Wise and Maison Burdisso:

"Maison Burdisso Parisian Macarons
At Farmer's Market every Saturday
3701 Travis Street
Houston TX 77002"