Sugar Savvy

As I am now back in Australia, it seems fitting that I choose an Australian-made piece of confectionary to review instead of one of the many US-bought chocolate bars I brought back with me in my suitcase. Sweet William is a company that makes chocolates free from dairy, gluten, lactose, sugar, cholesterol, peanuts, trans fats, […]

Newman’s Own Organics is expanding its Newman-O’s Cookie line to include a new Peanut Butter Crème Filled Chocolate Cookie, and has generously sent me a sampler box so that I may review them for our Sugar Savvy readers.
For those of you not familiar with the company, Newman’s Own Organics was founded by actor Paul Newman’s […]

We’ve already covered one essential cookie — the sugar cookie — but today we move on to the peanut butter cookie. The perfect peanut butter cookie cookie recipe eluded me for a long time. Every attempt was either too dry or too cakey. Then, one day, I checked out the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook from the […]

If I remember correctly, Steve Almond wrote about tracking down the Idaho Spud in Candy Freak and watches them as they are made. He then eats one and hates it. You’d think that would have been enough to stop me from paying way too much for one at an overpriced candy boutique that charges a […]

The cover to “The Farmer’s Wife Comfort Food Cookbook” reminds me of the type of home and family Norman Rockwell made famous, where the wife is in the kitchen, the husband is relaxing with a pipe and the paper, and Johnny and Jane are carelessly playing outside. It’s no wonder that the recipes inside are […]

Cupcakes have been a timeless tradition, alongside cakes, for birthdays and baby showers. There is something about the icing on top of a petite circle of goodness and licking the icing off of your lip. Depending on the cupcake, one may not be enough. But then I tried Sprinkles Cupcakes, when it first opened here […]

Ah, Starbucks. Is there anything you can’t put into your coffee-loving maw? Or, more to the point, is there anything loyal Starbucks customers won’t put in their own coffee-loving maws? The company’s latest foray comes in the form of “artisan style” chocolate, which bears the following slogan: “When coffee dreams, it dreams of chocolate.” The […]

During my all-too-brief stay in Austin, Texas, several weeks ago, I spotted the unique design of Richard Kaplan’s Brown Paper Chocolates. Housed in little cardboard boxes, these chocolates come in hefty 4oz squares and a range of flavors that run the gamut from the tried-and-true (Dark Chocolate with Espresso, Kahlua, and Cocoa Nibs) to the unexpected […]

I am going to do it… reveal my favorite “gets them every time” secret to chocolate dipping success. 
What am I talking about?  Merckens Melting Wafers. I spend a lot of time dipping… anything I can get my hands on, really.  Why?  I find chocolate dipped sweets please any crowd, from the common, everyday you and me […]

There are many cupcake devotees out there, but I think my heart will always belong to the cookie. The number of cookie recipes is inexhaustible, but as much as I like to try new things, I often find myself whipping up a batch of the basics. For me, there are seven essential types of cookies: […]