Chocolates and flowers are the most traditional Valentine’s Days gifts, but men and women can live on bread alone if they try the selections from LMNOP Bakery and Idyllwild Bread.
“Valentine’s Day gives me a chance to bake something a little sweet and a little saucy,” says Anne Mayhew of LMNOP, which is based in Katonah. She’s baking a beet loaf, which she describes as “vibrantly pink,” mini chocolate babka, and chocolate-sourdough loaves, dubbed Dark Chocolate Sourdough Surprise. “Chocolate has a certain acidity which harmonizes really well with the acidity in sourdough,” she notes.
Chocolate babka from LMNOP Bakery. Photo courtesy of LMNOP Bakery
Beth Mansfield of Idyllwild Bread, found at The Market at Union Hall in North Salem and South Salem’s Gossett’s Farmers’ Market and Smith & East Market, generally has a chocolate bread in her regular rotation as an homage to Richard Bourdon of Berkshire Mountain Bakery.
For Valentine’s Day she’s baking a chocolate, tart cherry and Meyer lemon zest bread; loaves with Luxardo cherries and chocolate compound butter; buckwheat-cherry-and-candied-pecan sourdough, and a double chocolate malted wheat. Mansfield, who hails from California, says the double chocolate malted bread “is a love letter to Thrifty, a beloved West Coast drugstore ice cream.”
Idyllwild’s cherry-dark-chocolate bread. Photo courtesy of Idyllwild.
Eating bread with chocolate, Mansfield notes, allows people to eat something they can still feel good about while enjoying the taste of a dessert. “You’re still getting the nutritional value of the wheat,” she says, noting that the sweet chocolate is a nice balance to the malted wheat. “I can’t think of anything that goes better together.” Mayhew agrees that bread still gives customers their whole grains, and “with the beet loaf they’re eating vegetables as well,” she says.
A sampler of scones from New Castle Scone Co. Photo courtesy of New Castle Scone Co.
Chappaqua-based New Castle Scone Co. is offering a chocolate sampler gift box for Valentine’s Day. Owner Grace Baccay’s scones are perfect indulgences, and she’s purposefully kept them small to give customers the chance to try more the one. The sampler includes double chocolate, chocolate chip, and espresso-chip varieties.
“If people want to indulge they should do so with food with real quality ingredients,” she says, adding that her scones are versatile enough to be enjoyed for breakfast or as dessert.
LMNOP’s Valentine’s Day beet bread. Photo courtesy of LMNOP Bakery.
For those with nut-free homes, both New Castle Scone Co. and LMNOP Bread maintain nut free facilities. LMNOP and Idyllwild are 100% organic. Breads can be pre-ordered on the bakers’ websites, and New Castle scones can be ordered via its Facebook page for pickup at various Westchester locations.
Curious for more insight into everything from weddings and local business happenings to golf and hearty Westchester eating? Surf through all of our daily blogs.
