Union Square Donuts x The Sinclair Kitchen: Dueling Donuts Brunch

We've discussed the fact that I'm not a morning person. In relation, I'm also not a brunch person. I just don't see the appeal. Breakfast and lunch are two entities that are perfectly fine seperately in my opinion, I don't understand why they had to be married together. I for one am comfortable enough with myself to drink beverages of the alcoholic variety with breakfast if I really want to. I digress (I could go on forever about my dislike for the institution of brunch otherwise); after all, I did make an exception over the weekend.

On Saturday, The Sinclair Kitchen hosted Dueling Donuts, a brunch focusing on gourmet doughnuts and cocktails to match. The competitors? Current regional cult favourite, Union Square Donuts versus the masterminds behind The Sinclair Kitchen. When I first heard of this, I just couldn't resist*! I called up a friend that I knew would be all over this with me and we made a reservation. What could be better than a brunch revolving around doughnuts and cocktails? Being sat outside on a rooftop deck on possibly the last beautiful day of summer.

In Round One, we were presented with a smoked miso caramel doughnut covered with crushed pretzels and cocoa nibs from The Sinclair and a brown butter hazelnut crunch dougnut from Union Square Donuts. My favourite of the two was definitely The Sinclair's savory and sweet entrant. I, for one, did not appreciate that Union Square Donuts just sent out one of their staple doughnuts, not something they came up with for the occasion. The cocktail pairing was named Buck Turbo and was comprised of Barismo cold brew coffee, Overholdt rye whiskey, and Montenegro whipped cream. While I am a coffee obsessive, whiskey is not my thing at all. I gave this drink a sip but just couldn't stomach it, so I opted to pair my doughnuts with Bailey's on the rocks. 

Round Two definitely had a tropical theme going on. The Sinclair sent out a five-spice cake doughnut covered in a milk glaze and sprinkled with Fruity Pebbles cereal. Union Square Donuts presented a custom item entitled the Hannalei Bay, enrobed in a strawberry glaze with coconut and lime. The accompanying drink was named The Fez, made up of Goslings rum, Cava, tiki bitters, and allspice. I think I preferred the Hanalei Bay dougnut; that strawberry glaze is ridiculous, I just want it on everything. 

If I'm being honest, I walked out of there noticeably jittery. It was basically two plates of sugar bombs in one sitting. I thoroughly enjoyed it regardless though and if the opportunity ever arises again, I will probably go for it. While there were ballots to vote for which doughnuts liked better, I never heard who won. In my opinion though, everyone's a winner if doughnuts are what's for breakfast. 

*As a side note, as you can imagine, none of these were gluten-free. I have a sensitivity, not a life threatening allergy so I do occasionally binge indulge in a little bit of gluten. 

La saga Couleur Café, par Carte Noire

Transitioning into a new job while simultaneously phasing out of the old job has been completely consuming these past few weeks, which is why I've sadly been so quiet. I've neither had the energy to bake anything at home nor to trek out to new bakeries. So to fill the void, I've been indulging in a little bit of literal foodporn that conveniently combines two of my favourite things, patisseries and coffee. 

French instant espresso company, Carte Noire, commissioned this stunning series of advertisements back in 2012. The last segment in the series, Rose (fourth one down), came out last summer and made the entire campaign go viral.

To my personal disappointment, Carte Noire only had ROULIER & LHOMME create four. They did such a superb job however that I never tire of watching them over and over again.

Some people try to argue that food isn't erotic. Show them any one of these, case rested.

Which one is your favourite? Let me know in the comments below or find me on Twitter. I hope to be finally settled in to both the new job as well as the new house later this week, so follow me on Bloglovin' as well for updates on posts.

Les gâteries faciles de Immaculate Baking Company

If you ask anyone that knows me, I'm a fiend for cookies. I'm talking Cookie Monster level. Back in the day when my diet was primarily gluten, I was going through several packs of cookies a week. I could walk into any café and probably walked out with a cookie either for immediate consumption or to hold on to for later. Nowadays, being a gluten-free Cookie Monster just isn't sustainable. Ready-made cookies in stores are smaller in volume than the glutenous kind and significantly more expensive (with the risk that they'll be disappointing). 

My major qualm with baking chocolate chip cookies from scratch is the insane number of ingredients required. Almost all of the recipes I've looked over call for three kinds of flours, two kinds of gums, extracts all over the place, et cetera. I do want to tackle them eventually, but that's honestly a project for a Test Kitchen day, not a quick fix on a Sunday in between work and errands. So I went to the store, my mind already set on getting a pre-made mix, but then I went even further, by just grabbing a pack of gluten-free chocolate chunk cookie dough by Immaculate Baking Company. It's the lazy solution for freshly baked, chewy cookies without compromising quality. 

Found in the dairy section, you pick up a pack, bring it home, pre-heat your oven, open the pack, place the already measured balls of dough on a cookie sheet, bake, and voila! Basically perfect chocolate chip cookies. Immaculate Baking Company definitely nailed it on the head with these. Personally, I'm probably going to start having these on hand just in case something comes up (i.e. when I want delicious chocolate chip cookies in the blink of an eye). 

What's your favourite comfort cookie? Leave a comment along with your go-to recipe (or preferred store mix) or let me know on Twitter. You can also see what I'm up to on Instagram and stay updated via Bloglovin'. 

La crème glacée la plus "cool", chez Churn2

On Labor Day, I was fortunate enough to not only have the day off from work but also to not have to do any moving whatsoever. To toast the ending of summer, we naturally went out for ice cream. After all, is there anything better on a hot day?

Located on Harvard's Science Center Plaza in Cambridge, Churn2 is a sort of semi-permanent food truck, you could say. Operating out of a repurposed shipping container, it's only around for the hot season.

The available flavours change daily and will be announced on their Twitter along with the day's hours of operation. I chose Wild Berry while my comrades selected Salted Caramel. Using liquid nitrogen, each order is made on demand directly in front of the customer, thus being the coolest ice cream around in my opinion (see what I did there?). Said to be a healthier way to make ice cream, it did indeed feel airier and lighter, but just as delicious (if not more so) than traditional ice cream in classic shops. We cleaned our bowls, satisfied. My chihuahua, Ziggy, agreed.

What are you going to miss the most once summer is over? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.