Frozen Hot Chocolate, Serendipity Style!

Tags: chocolate, copycat recipe, dessert, frozen hot chocolate, hot chocolate, Serendipity

A few weeks ago I was in NYC for literally less than 24 hours and one of the only things I was able to squeeze in other than what I was there for was a visit to Serendipity for one of my favorite treats…..the Frozen Hot Chocolate.  It is massive, chocolaty and perfectly ice-y.

When I got back home I told the boys all about the treat I had and said I would re-create our own version!  So…..I got to work

 

Here is your line up.  Please add one more hot chocolate to the picture.  I ended up using 5 packets.  Use your favorite brand of hot chocolate mix.  I used the Trader Joe’s brand of cocoa.  This literally takes 5 minutes to make, not kidding.

 

I had my little guy hop on the counter and help whip the cream and sugar.   Whip it until perfectly creamy.

 

Like so

Let’s start with the milk.  Pour it right into the blender.  PS…..LOVE my Blendtec!

Cocoa time!

Give it a good blend!

Add the ice and crush it up!

I found the perfect consistency and was in love

See those little ice crystals?!  Those are the best part.

Time for the sweet cream and chocolate!

I used mini chocolate chips, but you can used shaved chocolate that looks more authentic to the original

Ahhhh, wait until you try this!  Love!

A few boys I know enjoyed the treat

It was so fun bringing a little bit of NYC to my stinkers

Sweet Shoppers NYC Day 1

Tags: blog event, NYC

Photo via Amanda

What a great time I had in NYC last week despite the wicked cold!  No kidding, this was the first time in my entire 34 years of age that I have ever witnessed falling snow.  It was quite the experience for me, it’s beautiful!  I prefer enjoying it from a warm hotel room, but what the heck, I was only in NY for a couple of days, so I didn’t let it slow me down….much

I love this photo above that Amanda snapped of us Left:  Me, Susan from She’s Becoming Doughmesstic, Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod and Lori from Recipe Girl.  We really were just cruising through the streets of NY hunting for the best bakeries around.

Fist up was this adorable little bakery called Bouchon Bakery.  I wasn’t expecting much since it was just inside a mall but boy did it prove me wrong.  The vanilla macaron photographed a few photos down was probably one of the best things I have ever eaten, hands down!

Here’s the homemade Oreo Cookie, it was just so so if I am being honest.

A nice big Bouchon chocolate chip cookie.  Doesn’t touch Levain’s cookies, but this one was good.

Photo via Amanda

Here is the ever so fabulous Vanilla Macaron from Bouchon that I will never forget.  It was soft and cake like, almost like a cream filled cupcake which is probably why I fell in love with it so much

The inside goodness of the vanilla macaron, drooling just thinking about it.

This is what we had left….how embarrassing.  We devoured these treats.

Photo via Amanda

Such a fun photo that was taken with Amanda’s camera in Central Park.  Left:  Me, Maria, Lori and Amanda.

Photo via Amanda

Here’s another shot with the same gals swapped with Susan on the right   Susan happened to be in NY the same time we were there, how fun is that?

Photo via Amanda

Amanda and I….we were due for an updated photo together

We walked through this snowy weather to find our sweet shops.  Are we nuts?!

Couldn’t pass up stopping in Magnolia Bakery.  Such pretty cupcakes that happen to be mighty tasty too.

Magnolia employee hard at work

This was quite fun, we wanted to capture the yellow taxi in the background of the photo.  Luckily they passed by every couple seconds.

The berry crumble and chocolate peanut butter pop were incredible.  Actually the red velvet cheesecake and vanilla cupcake were great too.

Photo via Amanda

We popped in Alice’s Tea Cup for a few minutes.  Cute little shop.

Ahhhh, finally back to Levain Bakery.  This tiny little shop produces some crazy good treats.  Go find them next time you are in NYC!

Deciding what to order

Photo via Amanda

I think Lori said it best on twitter about this photo….this is what happens when a bunch of food bloggers get together   Let the photo shoot begin.

Photo via Amanda

We got to meet up with Maggie from Three Many Cooks for lunch at Patsy’s Pizza.  This was such a great day.  Patsy’s has a killer salad.  I just remembered how much I loved it.  Left:  Susan, Lori, Amanda, Me, Maria and Maggie

After lunch we strolled on over to Momofuku’s for some unusual desserts such as crack pie, birthday cake truffles, compost cookies and cereal milk ice cream.  They were all…..really interesting.  I’ll leave it at that.  My favorite was probably the birthday cake truffles.

Photo via Amanda

We kind of took over the upstairs library for our hang out/dessert eating session.

Photo via Amanda

Left:  Me, Susan, Maggie and Maria

Photo via Amanda

Walked back to our hotel through Time Square.  I don’t ever get tired of this gorgeous city.  The lights are unbelievable.

Photo via Amanda

After our cupcake adventures we had a fun pampering night with the folks from I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter who provided us with the trip.  We then had a PJ party in Amanda’s room.

Stay tuned for day 2 where we spend the morning at Butter Restaurant, met Chef Alex Guarnaschelli and saw Kim Cattrall during more adventures with ICBINB.

My Tribute To Levain Bakery

Aug 17, 2010 | Tags: Cookies, Levain Bakery, New York City, review, travel

I knew one of the things on my “absolutely do” list in NYC was Levain Bakery.  When I was in NY a couple years ago, I never made it there and I told myself this time I am going for sure!

Levain Bakery was on Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay and  the second I saw those beautiful gigantic cookies, I just knew I had to go!

Amanda and I had our big cameras ready to go and ordered one of every beautiful cookie they had.  Not even kidding, these were the best cookies I have ever had, by a mile.

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Martha Blogger’s Party, Subways and Donut Plant!

Aug 12, 2010

Photo via Amanda

Thursday evening rolled around and it was time to get ready for our Martha Stewart Blogging Party.  Amanda and I got dolled up and first stopped by a Smucker’s Dinner party.  As we were looking for a taxi we saw this very tempting bike taxi (below) and we decided to jump in.  We are lucky we are alive, it was a little crazy!  These guys zip in and out of traffic like they are nuts!

Our driver took a second to snap this photo of us

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Running Around New York City Day 1

Aug 10, 2010

This image of hotel from Google

Last week was such a whirlwind of excitement.  My buddy Amanda and I literally ate and shopped our way through NYC for 4 days straight.  I’m not even sure where to start.  Together we took almost 1,ooo photos over our 4 day visit!

Unilever put us up in this ultra Swanky and totally fabulous Royalton Hotel during BlogHer10 for some Culinary Fare and Pampering before and after the conferences. Can you get over how cool this place is?!  Take a look at our awesome room!

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