Vegan MoFo 2012, Papa Ganache: Relocated & Revisited

I gave a sneak peek into my 2012 MoFo theme yesterday, so let's start things off with a bang, shall we?  This weekend a group of good friends and I voyaged to the new location of Papa Ganache vegan bakery a day after their grand opening.

Having never been there, we all had our eyes peeled for the storefront.  What a welcome!

As if that wasn't enough, we were told that these adorable minis were samples.  Don't have to tell us twice!

After having loved the decor of the original location, I was happy to see that they'd brought the same aesthetic- and pans, to the new digs.

Their menu is clearly posted,

but the staff was kind enough to come out from behind the counter to give us the lowdown on the entire contents of the cases of goodies (and savory offerings of which we didn't partake).  These were all the gluten offerings for the day:

And all the gluten-free offerings:

oh darn; I meant to try that rocky road chocolate!

Super-animal-friendly in every way, they even welcomed me in with 89.  Holler at her stylish bag, why don't you; this is my view looking down at her adorable face on my hip.

I enjoyed a samoa cookie at their outdoor seating.

Crunchier (and significantly larger) than the Girl Scout samoa you remember; these- like everything else at Papa Ganache- are cruelty free!

And, true to form, I took home a few things for the esteemed tasting panel to judge.

You just can't pass up a moststess.

This was a good one: compact and complete with authentic cream filling.

Next up was the Boston creme, which didn't fare as well.  The cake and ganache were fine, although I thought the frosting was unnecessary.

But the real letdown was the filling, which neither looked or tasted like the traditional custard I love.  Bummer.

Then we were back on the upswing with the chocolate sundae cupcake: chocolate cake, chocolate filling, vanilla frosting, ganache topping, and a cherry.

The "adult-only (too much chocolate for kids)" chocolate obsession cupcake had my name written all over it.

I tried two of their gluten-free offerings.  First, the almond cheesecake.  This one was a bit too marzipan tasting for me; I prefer almond paste.

And then the pumpkin cheesecake.  I normally don't like chocolate with my pumpkin, but the drizzle was a nice addition to the creamy, mildly pumpkin-y cheesecake dessert.

While I'm not familiar with the area, I think it's wonderful that this vegan bakery has popped up in yet another area of suburbia as yet unsaturated with vegan foodstuffs.  Spread the veganism far and wide, I say.  Best of luck, Papa Ganache.

Vegans Take Over the Red Bank Farmer's Market

The Red Bank Farmer's Market runs Sundays from 9:00am - 2:00pm, May through November.  It's centrally located amongst other shopping, restaurants, and even an indie movie theater.  Plus, it's Jersey style: i.e., plenty of parking.  There are produce vendors, artists, and Blah, blah, blah; there's vegan food galore!

Is there a vegan in the tri-state area who hasn't yet heard of The Cinnamon Snail?

Keep updated on Twitter and Facebook to track the location of the "vegan lunch truck" throughout the week, but on Sundays in season you will usually find him at the Red Bank Farmer's Market. 

WFAS represent!

I would like to go on record as saying that we absolutely, 100% ate a real, bonafide, meal at the Snail before chowing down on dessert.  The breakfast I've been meaning to try but never seem to make it in time for finally met my stomach: blue corn pancakes with pignoli nut butter, blueberries, and maple syrup.  I swear we enjoyed  this with coffee before digging in to the goods sweet stuff, but I can't prove it because I somehow managed not to save any of the photos that I took of the meal.  Suffice it to say, it consisted of four large, corny, blue-hued pancakes slathered in scrumptious butter, drizzled with syrup, sprinkled with fresh blueberries, and topped off with a dash of confectioner's sugar.  As per usual with Adam's meals, much too decadent to rationalize having come from a truck; you actually feel guilty that you are not relishing each bite off of china with silver!

And then there are the desserts which are just as snazzy, but for which I hold no such guilt.  Trays upon trays of glorious baked goods:

I came to the market with a mission, and that mission was simple: acquire the chocolate peanut butter cheesecake donut, devour, repeat.  Here it is, a thing of beauty:

Oh my, but it was even better than it looked.  I get confused as to which donuts are considered "raised" and which are "cake" (what a vegan conundrum), but I think this is a raised one; so light!  Decadent chocolate glaze with a lush, peanut butter cheesecake double dollop; this ranks up there with my favorite donuts of all time.  Here's a shot of the cross-section:

VM can never resist the apple cider donut; it's so dense, crisp, and absolutely covered with wall-to-wall crunchy cinnamon sugar.

And then there was rain:

Even though we've been suffering a veritable drought these past few weeks, the quick onset rainstorm took us by surprise with its severity.  Armed with vegan goodness, I was unphased by the downpour; but, leave it to the ever-sensible VM to keep her wits about her and insist we seek refuge.  A GIGANTIC THANK YOU goes out to the kind folks at Tommy's Coal Fired Pizza who charitably allowed us to camp out in their covered seating area to avoid the storm.  We were a little full at the time, but I certainly wouldn't hesitate to beg them to serve Daiya patronize this restaurant in the future based upon their sincere kindness.

You can actually see the rain!

Cinnamon Snail Ain't the Only Vegan Game in town:

Yep, not one but two vegan vendors; our new friends from Papa Ganache can be found at the market as well!  We stopped by to grab some more chocolate say hello.  They have some gorgeous new items: fruit pies in assorted sizes, scones, and galettes.  Enjoy a sample and then try to resist leaving without a significant haul! 

Todd, co-owner of PG, is always camera-ready.

Being the health-oriented folks that we are, we both immediately chose Papa Ganache's tried and true chocolate chip cookies (only one made it home for the photo shoot).  Crisp, sugary, and amply chippified: how can you go wrong?  VM prefers their version with walnuts, but my preference prevailed on this visit!

We also took home something we hadn't tried before: their dark chocolate macadamia biscotti.   These are truly cocoa-y and, as you can see, bursting with HUNKS of high-quality macadamia nuts.  They come in small or large, but I'd recommend the large because, um, it's bigger.  More biscotti in the belly!

Oh right, there are vegetables here too:

Lest you think that we were so overwhelmed by the vegan sweets that we forgot that there is actual produce at the farmer's market, I give you exhibit A: a humongoid, curliqued, sweet squash.  Please don't look for exhibit B because this was our sole vegetable purchase (don't judge us!).

This is actually a very large plum.

One visit per person, per day...not here;
we ended where we began:

I intended to grab another chocolate peanut butter cheesecake donut from the Cinnamon Snail for the road*, but then I couldn't resist trying some of the other offerings instead.  Even VM, who adamantly proclaimed herself "beyond full" and insisted she didn't want anything...added another apple cider donut to the to-go order at the last minute.

The behemoth on the left of the photo above is a cinnamon twist.  Covered in glaze and sprinkled with cinnamon, it smells just like a French cruller.  Inside there is a thick, unexpected, bonus ribbon of cinnamon.  Well, I guess it's not unexpected anymore.

The additional, "unwanted" apple cider donut for VM.

This looked like a miniature coconut raspberry cake:

But it actually tasted like a super moist, fresh, raspberry muffin lighly iced (the way I like it) and rolled in toasted coconut.

Finally I tried the strawberry glazed donut.  Very similar to the chocolate peanut butter cheesecake donut, but subbing strawberry icing for the chocolate, peanut butter, and cheesecake.  What was I thinking?

The chocolate peanut butter cheesecake donut was definitely my favorite of the selections; it surpassed the extraordinary expectations I had for it and I definitely should have brought another one home.  Until we meet again, Cinnamon Snail!

* We noticed a lot of people at the market had come prepared with their own re-usable containers.  This struck us as an excellent idea and highly recommend it for future market visits.  Much like at a bakesale, though, I'd suggest bringing more containers than you think you might need.  Sometimes there is more veganity available than you expect!

A Nosh at Papa Ganache

Nestled in the fishy town of Keyport, NJ lies a relatively new vegan bakery, Papa Ganache.  Catering to vegans, allergy-sufferers of all kinds, and the public at large, it is a welcome addition to the often bleak, shoretown, vegan food landscape.

As an added bonus to the exquisiteness of their sheer existence, they proudly proclaim themselves "vegan" everywhere you look!  While I understand the logic behind vegan establishments choosing to omit the word (so as not to alienate the general public, etc.), I give much respect to those who say it proud.

Like any vegan bakery worth it's chips, Papa Ganache offers a rotating menu of cookies, cupcakes, cakes, loaves, and biscotti.  There are plenty of inventive selections and flavor combinations to choose from, so chances are you might have to order a vast assortment "for research purposes".

To this end, VM and I went with the following buffet nosh.  Please admire our restraint.

We jumped right in with the chocolate chip walnut cookie, which was large, crisp & chewy, and filled with walnut chunks and generous chippification.  Of late I have been trying to appreciate nuts in cookies for the added crunch and saltiness; this cookie delivered on all counts.  Most importantly, I didn't feel that the chippage quotient was sacrificed to make room for the nuts.  The personal-size chocolate chip coffee cake was fresh and warm out of the oven, perhaps unfairly making it an instant VM favorite.  It was delicious, generously filled with cinnamon, and sprinkled throughout with chocolate chips.  It is also available without chips, but I'm not sure why anyone would order such a thing.

The last item on this plate to be scarfed tested was the easy samoa cookie.  I have been meaning to make a vegan version of this cookie for ages, and really thought I'd buckle down and do it when VCIYCJ came out containing a recipe.  Fast forward a couple of years and now I don't have to bother because Papa Ganache has done it for me, no doubt significantly better (and much more beautifully) than I ever could have achieved.  Soft, filled with coconut, and expertly drizzled with creamy, dark chocolate; this cookie was excellent.  Could it have had something to do with the ultra smooth layer of chocolate coating on the bottom?  Perhaps.  Oh, and it's gluten-free (but you'd never guess in a million). 

Moving on to the next plateful of goodies, I tried the chocolate chocolate chip peanut butter cookie first.  Not my favorite chocolate/PB matchup of all time, but a valiant and respectable effort.  I would imagine it would sufficiently fit the bill for novice lovers of the combo, but I'm someone who can eat chunky PB straight out of the jar and still add whole peanuts and probably should just do that instead of complaining about things not being peanut buttery enough.  Did I still eat every last crumb?  Yes, I did.

And then it was time to bust into a cupcake.  Neither VM or I are huge cupcake fans, but with a case full of the beauties in a vast assortment of enticing flavors, it was hard to resist.  First we tried the almond joyous cupcake: chocolate cake topped with extremely coconutty buttercream frosting, a whole almond, and a thick shell of ganache: dark chocolate shell reminiscent of brown bonnet.  Can we have this on everything, please?  If chocolate/coconut is your thing (and if it isn't I don't want to know about it; clearly there is something wrong with you), this is the cupcake for you.  It is the cupcake equivalent of almond joy, but better because the chocolate is dark!

On a cupcake roll, I next decided to try a concoction that VM feared, but was what had brought me here in the first place.  Of course I kid; a vegan bakery opens and I practically manifest, but the discovery of the existence of the drenched Elvis cupcake surely sped up the process.  Here you have banana cake topped with peanut butter buttercream frosting, more of that delectable, dark chocolate shell/drizzle ganache, and a banana chip garnish.  Ta da!  While I am not a fan of cupcakes in general and frosting on the whole, this cupcake creation was a real winning combination of tastes and flavors.  VM & I play a game called, "If you came back tomorrow what would you order?" and this was my pick:  peanut butter, banana and chocolate goodness.

Last but certainly not least was the unassuming strawberry cheesecake cookie.  I had no idea what to expect, but it sounded so interesting that I had to try it.  Once again, VM was wary, made me try it first, and then excitedly took a bite when she saw my response.  We both agree that to call this a mere cookie is a vast understatement; it is like a cross between a light crumbcake, a shortbread cookie, a strawberry cheesecake, and a danish: all packed into a relatively small circle.  I have never tasted anything like this, and it too definitely made the list of what I would order again!  Note: this one was also gluten-free and I've thusly decided that those suffering from gluten intolerance really have it made.

Obviously, the trip was a success.  I would like to note that there are some adjectives that I couldn't bring myself to use throughout this review simply because they would have been too repetitive.  Suffice it to say that soft, moist, and incredibly fresh could describe just about anything and everything that we tried.  I don't imagine that you could make a disappointing selection, but I'm willing to continue to test in the name of research.

In addition to the yummy goodies, the actual Papa Ganache shop is gorgeous: a bright, clean, eclectic, and inviting space.  As a matter of fact, it reminded us of a cross between two of our favorite places: Lula's Sweet Apothecary and Back to Eden Bakery. They serve hot and iced tea and coffee, and there's even Wi-Fi if you want to wile away some time from breakfast into lunch without anyone judging your back-to-back sweet meals (who would do that?).  Bonus: there is even a small parking lot in front of the shop, so chances are you'll be lucky enough to snag a good spot instead of fighting for street parking amidst all of the water-minded, summer folk.  It's much easier to settle into the coziness of the shop without worrying that the world's worst parallel parker thinks they can fit...

Only adding to the warm atmosphere of Papa Ganache were Todd and Allie, two of the three owners that we had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with during our visit.  Community minded, committed to animal rights, and creators of righteous baked goods, these hard-working and friendly folks are the most recent additions to the long line of entrepreneurial members of the vegan community who are furthering the cause through, among other things, dessert activism. 

It was a pleasure visiting Papa Ganache, meeting Todd and Allie, and especially having the opportunity to enjoy all of the goodies.  I would highly recommend relishing some time (and baked goods) here; all are welcome.