Chocolate Peanut Gateau ($7)
Chiboust Bistro (14 Main St, Tarrytown 914-703-6550; chiboust.com)
Chef Jill Rose’s silky chocolate peanut gateau is more of a “chocolate bread pudding than a cake.” Its center is hollow, like that of a bundt cake, and filled with a creamy peanut butter ganache; the cake is glazed with chocolate.
Mexican Chocolate Pudding ($7.50)
Zephs’ Restaurant (638 Central Ave, Peekskill 914-736-2159; zephsrestaurant.com)
Chef and owner Victoria Zeph says, “Milk chocolate is for wussies.” She uses Callebaut Belgian dark chocolate in her Mexican chocolate pudding, which is flavored with coffee, ancho chili peppers, and cinnamon. Another chocolate dessert to try? The Rigó Jancsi chocolate cake, named after the 19th-century Hungarian violinist. The chocolate sponge cake has a thick layer of rich, chocolate filling, raspberry liqueur, and chocolate glaze.
Valrhona Chocolate Pudding ($5.95)
City Limits Diner (200 Central Ave, White Plains 914-686-9000; citylimitsdiner.com)
Pastry Chef Tracy Kamperdyk Assue takes this chocolate pudding to a sublime level by not only using Valrhona chocolate in her recipe, but infusing it with granules made of milk and dark chocolate and serving with a house-made whipped cream.
Soufflé Maison ($12.75)
La Crémaillère Restaurant (46 Bedford-Banksville Rd, Bedford 914-234-9647; cremaillere.com)
It’s rare to find soufflés—except at La Crémaillère. This light chocolate soufflé is a meal’s “pièce de résistance,” says one of its owners, Bobbie Meyzen. It’s made with Valrhona chocolate and served with either Grand Marnier or chocolate sauce and house-made cookies-and-cream ice cream—a sublime classic.
Brownies and Cream ($10)
Savona (2 Chase Rd, Scarsdale 914-798-0550; savonarestaurant.com)
Savona serves a Domori single origin chocolate brownie bar with mascarpone cream and a white walnut crumble.
The Warm Valrhona Chocolate Pastry Gift ($12)
Crabtree’s Kittle House (11 Kittle Rd, Chappaqua 914-666-8044; kittlehouse.com)
Chef Jay Lippin’s warm chocolate pastry gift served with crème a l’anglaise is a dessert legend on the Westchester restaurant scene. In 1992, Crabtree’s GM, Glenn Vogt, asked its pastry chef at the time, the acclaimed Peter Greweling, to make the world’s most amazing chocolate dessert—and the warm chocolate pastry gift was born; fluffy sponge cake filled with a rich chocolate ganache all baked inside phyllo dough and served with a crème a l’anglaise. “Kids return from college and come to the Kittle House to order the chocolate pastry gift,” says Vogt. It’s the kind of dessert that is seared into the memory.
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