A Market Addiction: The Death by Chocolate Drops
I wanted to highlight what is arguably our most successful item, Kei's chocolate drops. We keep making more each week and we keep selling out long before market close. The drops are made with Ghiradelli chocolate chips and cocoa powder, egg whites from local sources, and powdered sugar. They're flourless - because, hey, that just makes more room for the important part - the chocolate.


I think the magic of these cookies is that the outside is crispy and the inside stays soft. If you pop them in the microwave for a couple seconds the chips will remelt, ratcheting up the intensity with a molten chocolate drop.

We've noticed people that tried a Drop in previous weeks come back and buy a bag full! This week we even did our first special order of chocolate drops for a local party.

We tested some chocolate drops using white chocolate and found out that the market goers are largely true chocolate lovers. They want their chocolate, and they want it dark, bittersweet or semisweet; none of that white chocolate or milk chocolate nonsense!

What's up for Saturday
Welcome to our first of three Italian menus. For this week's offerings, we'll be holding over the Chocolate Drops, Peach Galettes (shown below) and Peach Buttons. The local peaches from Montoya Farms are still just too good to pass up and we're pretty sure that there would be an outcry if we stop making chocolate drops.



New to the baked item menu is our Three Nut Biscotti, which combines pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, and chocolate. Now I don't drink hot coffee, so I'm pretty picky about biscotti. If it doesn't taste great without a coffee dunk then I'm not interested. Kei did a great job with these; I've been happily nibbling on our test batches sans java for the past couple of days.

On the grill we're going back to sandwiches, with the Eggplant Capicola Panini. I'm using local eggplant and onion from La Plazita Institute and Erda Garden along with hot capicola and mozzarella cheese. This is all layered in ciabatta from La Quiche Parisienne.

Eggplant Spreads
We'll be making a simple roasted eggplant spread for our paninis this week. Both Asian and standard eggplants are in the market this week, and a roasted spread is a great option for a simple summer appetizer. You don't need to slice the eggplant or weep out bitterness - this is pretty much the easiest thing to do with an eggplant.


Here's your market shopping list: eggplant, onions, a head of garlic, and some fresh bread. Set your oven to 450 degrees, pierce the whole eggplants with a fork several times, lightly coat with oil, and put them on a baking sheet. Roast until they are soft and the skin begins to blacken. Meanwhile, slice the onions thinly, and saute on low heat with a pat of butter and a drizzle of olive oil. As the onions caramelize, slice the bread, rub with a peeled garlic clove, and lightly brush with olive oil. When the eggplant is done roasting, let it cool, slice in half lengthwise and and scoop out the inside. Combine in a bowl with your caramelized onion and add salt and pepper to taste. Toast the bread (on your grill is a nice way to go). Then top toasts with the spread or put the spread in a dish and let guests scoop or spread on their own.

Variations: Top toasts with goat cheese, like the sun dried tomato from Old Windmill Dairy. Amp up your eggplant spread with some briny ingredients like diced olives or capers. Other good spread adds are chopped fresh tomatoes or roasted garlic. A drizzle of balsamic vinegar over the finished bruschetta is a nice and easy variation. Instead of using toasted bread this also goes good with pita wedges.