PW just wrote a story last week about the locally grown and canned Three Springs peaches available at The Fair Food Farmstand. They're good. Really good. $4.50 for a 1lbs. 12oz. can of peaches.

While I didn't need PW to tell me what I have in stock at the Farmstand, I didn't think about making peaches and whipped cream until this weekend. Some friends came over for dinner and brought over some Ibarra for spicy hot chocolate. I whipped up a batch of fresh whipped cream using the double cream available at FFF $6.50 for a sinfully delicious quart. And then I thought about the peaches I had just brought home from work. How I hadn't thought to do this at some point over the last month since we've been getting the Three Springs canned peaches is beyond me. But now, we'll have a bit of summer to last us until fresh peaches are once again locally available. And don't adjust your screens, that does say 38% milkfat – no messing around here.

The peaches are in a light syrup and packed to the brim. Peeled and sliced in half, they've been soaking in the goodness for several months now. Three Springs also canned them in heavy syrup and no sugar varieties, but we don't carry them at the Farmstand.

I like to half the halves and then cut them into sixths for nice chunks.

Half a quart (one pint) of cream plus one Tablespoon of sugar yields quite a bit of whipped cream. Lucky for us, we love us some whipped cream. If you've never had freshly whipped cream and only had ReddiWhip or CoolWhip, please do yourself a favor and try it out. It only takes a few minutes of time behind a hand mixer. If you really want a forearm workout, you could manually whip it up too and if you've got yourself a fan-cay planetary mixer, more power to ya. I only recently discovered freshly whipped cream. I won't be going back.

There are tons of cases of the peaches at the Farmstand now. Lots of heavy cream too. While you're there, check out the locally grown and canned crushed tomatoes the article mentions (and mistakenly states are not available in Philly). The only ingredients are tomatoes and salt – no preservatives! They're deliciously sweet and perfect for sauces (just made a sauce with a can plus onions, shallots, white button mushrooms, cremini mushrooms, garlic, oregano, sage, rosemary, hot pepper seeds, salt and pepper). I want seconds writing this post…

Since it's hard for me to eat nuts (I am sadly rocking adult braces for at least another few months) I figured I would make a graham-cracker crust instead. Then, I thought, wouldn't a chocolate cookie crust be even better? Then I figured I would do away with the raspberry sauce and whip up some cream on the side instead. So basically, I decided to make a different cake all together. There are a lot of recipes for chocolate tofu pie online and I combined a bunch of them to make this one. I made a terrible mistake by forgetting to melt the chocolate (you can see in the picture that the pie is a little grainy) but it turned out to be quite tasty nonetheless.

Ingredients

Crust:
20-25 cookies, crushed [I used Paul Newman's vegan version of Oreos - Newman-O's]
about 4 Tbsp butter or vegan margarine

Filling:
16 oz Silken tofu
1 package (12 oz) Chocolate Chips [If you are serving vegans, make sure the chips are vegan, many aren't!]
1 tsp Vanilla

Directions
To make the crust: Crush up the cookies. Mix with approx. 3 1/2 Tbsp of margarine or butter. Pour into a buttered (or margarined) pie plate. Bake at 350°F for about 8 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

To make the filling: Mix the tofu and vanilla in the blender. Melt the chocolate chips using a double boiler (or equivalent) over medium heat. Add melted chocolate to the blender and mix until smooth. Pour mixture into pie crust and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Serve small slices, as this pie is really rich. We served it with slightly sweetened, homemade whipped cream (Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market has some wonderful local heavy cream). I have not made vegan whipped cream yet, but I hear it can be done with coconut milk. If anyone has a tried-and-true recipe, I'm interested!

There was a huge Dutch festival a couple weeks ago at Reading Terminal Market, where Picky happened to be working at the time. He noticed that Beiler's was set up in the main seating area frying up fresh donuts. Without any cash on him, he didn't get a chance to sample the gigantic fresh donuts. He didn't recall seeing the donuts at the bakery in the past either. After the festival ended, he ventured over to the stand and sure enough, there were donuts (and buns)! Armed with some cash, he plunked down 75¢ for a vanilla creme donut and bit into soft and flaky dough oozing with fresh creme. Sure that Messy would also be a fan, Picky decided that the next tag team visit to Reading Terminal would definitely include a stop off for more treats.

Above is Messy's pick from the rack: a chocolate covered donut. While the donut was certainly fresh, Messy is not a huge donut fan and will probably go for a different treat next time. This didn't hurt Messy's perception of Beiler's — she is a big fan of their bread and has her eye on some of their other simple-but-hearty looking treats.

Picky's second sampling was a strawberry jelly and creme filled donut, a double whammy encased in powdered sugar. Life doesn't get much better than a good donut.With Beiler's being a walk up the aisle from Picky's day job, it would be easy to have too much of a good thing so he's limited himself (so far) to one return for a frosted blueberry donut. The only other blueberry donut he's had was a sad excuse of one from Dunkin' Donuts. In contrast, Beiler's blueberry donut burst with flavor. And the texture of a fresh small batch donut is to die for.

Aside from the donuts, we've also taken a liking to their fresh sandwich loaves. Their white and wheat breads run about $2.50/loaf and come in a bag that seems to be coated with oil or butter on the inside. We're not sure exactly what it is, but it's not hurting the flavor.

While the Dutch Market hours are only Wednesday through Saturday you can benefit from this bakery making everything fresh. Get there Saturday towards closing and you'll find treats marked down to $1.50 because they'll be closed until Wednesday.

Their best offering is the pumpkin creme filled donut. It's seasonal so only around October-November. But that makes them that much more special. Get 'em while they're around!

Messy ***1/2
Picky ***1/2

The final word: Fresh, homemade inexpensive baked goods.

Beiler's Bakery
Wed: 8am – 3pm
Thu – Sat: 8am – 5:30pm
Sun – Tu: Closed
215.351.0735

We got to see e at N. 3rd and got to, briefly, meet Alex of Le Petit Cochon. Alex's take is up here. But with Picky's lost contact, and resulting headache and disorientation, we had to grab our vouchers and go, missing all the breast-inspired treats. Yes, that was vouchers plural. We thought we were going to be sharing a Franklin Fountain dessert, but we got one each!

We knew the portions would be huge. We debated inviting friends to share. But, in the end, we decided to just pig out. Our server asked us how many spoons we wanted for each sundae. "Um. . .just one," replied an embarrassed Messy. The sundae is basically delicious vanilla ice cream with a slathering of strawberries and whipped cream. Huge. Simple. Yummy. Messy wanted a few more wafers, but made do with two. Messy could only eat half, but Picky was there to finish it all off. It should be noted that Picky had the unfair ice cream eating advantage having been raised in a family that owned a Carvel ice cream store growing up (he ate a ton of ice cream between the ages of 5 and 20). Here's the recipe for the Broken Hearts sundae straight from the Franklin Fountain website:

Broken Hearts

{recipe taken from The Dispenser's Formulary, 1910}

"…put a slice of BRICK VANILLA ice cream on a 6-inch plate. Cover the ice cream with fresh, sweetened, and slightly mashed strawberries, and over these put sweetened whipped cream; top off with two whole strawberries and serve with two nabisco wafers. Sells for 20 cents. {F. Varney}

The Brothers Berley have revived a wonderful dish (which sells for a bit more than 20¢ nowadays) and selflessly donated 50% of the proceeds garnered from people ordering that delectable sundae for a good cause. We're sad we missed the festivities surrounding the evening's events, but look forward to reading about them from everyone who made it out.

The full list of participating eateries can be found here and M&P will be at our favorite ice cream place in the city, Franklin Fountain eating up, what e called, "one sweet sundae" – we're psyched!

In addition to the various eateries around town and their marvelous creations, there's also going to be a launch party from 4p – 6p at N.3rd and movie at 9p at The Arbol Cafe.

Help spread the word and eat up!

You can go here for the recipe and below [and above] are a few photos of the process. The shot above is everything mixed in and just before we spooned the dough onto the cookie sheet.

We didn't have any parchment paper or a silicon mat, so used some aluminum foil. It worked okay, but the toffee stuck to it a bit and it wasn't the easiest thing to scrape off. Since then, we've bought some parchment paper for future batches.

And here's the first 2 sheets of cookies. We think all in all, they filled 4 of those Chinese food containers for storage. They didn't last long though, a little over a week and we had 4 left. The only thing that slows Picky down in eating them is having milk on hand to drink with the cookies; the only thing that slows Messy down are her cavities! Picky's gotta have his milk and cookies.

Two Fat Als (neither of which are fat!) baked themselves some of these delicious cookies too. Theirs look a bit different. Picky thinks our oven is running hot. Gotta pick up one of those oven thermometers that Mark suggests; his oven was running a solid 50° hot he found out!

The only trick about this recipe is finding the Heath 'Bits 'o Brickle' toffee pieces pictured here. So far, the gang has put together a shortlist of places to find them around them around Philly: Shop Rite down in South Philly and Fresh Grocer in University City. We took the trip down to South Philly and picked up 2 packages.

You've been warned. These cookies are addictive.

Picky wanted to finally head to a place that he's heard people rave about and read about for several years. We just never got around to heading over there while we were still in NY and always forgot to head there when we go back since we have our own pizza spots we like.

Joe's Pizza at 6th Ave and Carmine St has a nice slice.

The 2 [plain] slices we got were a tad overcooked with the crust charred, but it was nice, thin and crispy with a good cheese to sauce ratio and a nice crust.

The slice with the circles of mozzarella was cold (what's up with that?), but it was really good. Picky's favorite spot to get a slice in the city is at Ben's on Spring St & Thompson St in SoHo – it was a few blocks from his old office and was a consistently great slice (especially the Sicilian). He brought Messy there on at least one occasion and she did not like the slices they had there. The 3 slices were $7.

For a snack, we stumbled upon Amy's Bread in the Village. We initially wanted some Italian treats at Rocco's across the street, but the people behind the counter never came over to us so we headed across the street. While we were eating our treats, we were filmed by The Food Network who were filming footage for The Next Food Network Star so keep your eyes out! Who knows if we'll make the final 1 second cut.

Picky munched away on a black and white cupcake. The fancy paper wrapper was a challenge to get off, but it was worth it. The cupcake was nice and moist with a very thick and creamy icing.

Messy quickly picked out the coconut dream bar. She liked it more than the 'junk in the trunk' bar that Naked Chocolate Cafe offers, particularly because Amy's didn't have any nuts in it. The 2 snacks totaled just over $5.

It was a good eats day.

Grown on just one small block, at the highest altitude of Hacienda La Esmeralda in the Boquete region of Panama, Panama Esmeralda Geisha is an heirloom variety – known as "Geisha", after its probable origin in the Ethiopian region of Gesha. Characterized by an unforgettable jasmine-like fragrance and pristine citrus clarity, this coffee has been judged best coffee in Panama and has garnered ten first place awards in the last four years. Only 215 sacks of this rare coffee were produced in 2007, and on May 29, 2007, just tens sacks of Panama Esmeralda Geisha were sold for the highest price ever paid at an international coffee auction – an astounding $130 per pound wholesale.

Messy very much wanted in and Picky, not being a coffee drinker, was intrigued by the lure of this expensive coffee. Oh yeah, they were also holding the cupping at the Four Seasons with desserts paired to the coffee offerings. Messy (pictured above taking a sniff of the roasted Geisha in the Four Season's Courtyard) is a coffee addict, and until this event, an uneducated one. She has gone through many rotations in her coffee preferences, from Dunkin' Donuts light and sweet to soy creamer in whatever is on sale at the grocery store to her most recent preference: the darkest and cheapest version of fair trade coffee at Whole Foods with a little half and half. But, in general, Messy likes her coffee like she likes her wine: cheap but powerful. So it was quite an eye-opener to taste gourmet versions of her drug of choice. The coffees we tried were so good and so smooth that they didn't need to be dressed up with cream or sugar — even Picky was able to drink them black without experiencing any strange or bitter aftertastes.

In addition to the Geisha, we tasted (from near to far) the Columbia and Major Dickinson's Blend^®. The green beans in the photo above are unroasted Geisha with the roasted ones behind them. All of the coffee was prepared in Bodum French Presses, the smaller carafe was reserved for the pricey Geisha.

Our host from Peet's was the delightful Erica Hess, a Peet's Coffee & Tea's Coffee Educator, and an 11-year veteran of the company. She told us about the history of the company (Peet's gave birth to Starbucks and the coffee explosion in the rest of the country). She also told us a little anecdote about her first encounter with Mr. Peet while working at a shop in Berkeley. Mr. Peet walked around the counter and started to fiddle with the coffee. She thought, "Hey, this is Berkeley!" and let it go. Until she realized that it was Mr. Peet himself. He checked in on his stores regularly. Above is a shot of Erica showing us what the coffee cherries look like – they really look like cherries!

Erica described the roasting process in their new, LEED certified plant in Alameda, CA. All of their beans are roasted by hand in small batches and delivered fresh within 24 hours of ordering without warehousing. It's the careful roasting process which results in a distinctly smooth and un-bitter cup. Erica also explained the brewing process in detail. She loaded two tablespoons of Geisha beans into a grinder. She noted that you should a dedicated grinder for your coffee beans and to think twice before using the one at the grocery store. Mixing your spices and coffee beans will lead to some odd couplings of flavors and the grinder at the store can be a crapshoot with all the mixed beans. (At this point, Messy began to cringe thinking of her own coffee making strategy, which usually involves eyeballing, microwaving and rarely cleaning the pot.)

After grinding your beans, then comes the hot water. After boiling, let the water sit for 30 seconds. Erica warned that you don't want to hit the grinds with boiling hot water or else you'll burn them. It's okay to pour boiling hot water on tea though (except for a few varieties).

The secret to not having your French Press explode is to plunge about halfway and let the gases from the beans expand. Don't plunge all the way down until grinds have bloomed for three minutes (we're not going to lie to you — we had to look up the word "bloom"). Then, pour and enjoy ASAP.

From left to right are the Columbia, Major Dickinson's and Geisha. We sipped from each cup. Erica told us to slurp and aerate the coffee to get the full taste. The Columbia is more of an everyday coffee and was Picky's (his first favorite coffee!). The Major Dickinson's has a little more punch to it and was Messy's favorite. The Geisha had an incredibly different taste to it accentuated by tasting the other cups and going back to the Geisha – with each successive sip, the citrusy flavors were more and more apparent.

After one round of coffee by itself, we got to sample a plate of pastries prepared by Executive Pastry Chef Eddie Hales who has been with the Four Seasons since 1983.

First up was the chocolate cake with figs and honey.

Then came the croissant bread pudding with white chocolate shavings. This was Messy's favorite, even though it's probably too sweet to eat in large portions.

The tiramisu was delicious as well. This was Picky's favorite.

Lastly, the almond cake with pear jelly and diced pear on top. This went well with the slightly citrus-y Panama Esmeralda coffee.

We were supposed to be noticing the subtle differences in the flavors of the coffee and the desserts, and we certainly sharpened our (formerly nonexistent) skills in that regard, but honestly, all of the coffees and all of the desserts were delicious. We were given a bag of the Columbia and a two tablespoon scoop to use at home. This prompted us to buy a new grinder (Messy broke the old one in our recent move by knocking it off the top of the fridge.) Messy was also inspired to (finally) clean her $20 coffeepot. Even in the clean pot, freshly ground and properly measured, the coffee didn't taste as good as it did when Erica made it. It did, however, taste a hundred times better than Messy's usual morning cup — and we can thank Peet's for that!

And there's the scene after we were all done. Also on hand, at different times, from Philly were a couple bloggers: Foodadelphia and the video blogging dynamic duo that is Fork You. The Inky sent Rick Nichols and his column is here. We're not aware of spots around town that serve Peet's, but feel free to leave some comments if you do. You can get your Peet's fix at ACME through a new partnership and at Genuardi's. To ensure freshness, Peet's has a team of people making sure the coffee isn't on the shelves for more than 90 days.

Philly Flavors has been a Fairmount staple (located across the street from Eastern State Penitentiary) for over five years now, and they've just added a new location in Center City: 343 S. 13th St., just up the block from Dirty Frank's (and a conveniently short walk from M&P HQ!).

Washington Square West is quickly transforming into quite the foodie destination with spots like Naked Chocolate Cafe, Tria II, Vintage Wine Bar, and Mercato among the many new-ish additions.

The new Philly Flavors opened up shop last month at the beginning of fall and missed the summer season, but it's sure to win people over while the weather's still nice. To help drive some timid taste buds into the space, they're having a grand opening with free water ice this Thursday.

As we've said many times before, we are not from Philadelphia, and even though we have loved calling it home the past four years or so, we still don't really understand water ice. However, we're told Philly Flavors has some great varieties. We've tried the ice cream at the new location several times now, and it's been great every time. But the new location doesn't yet have our absolute favorite Philly Flavors treat — the overstuffed ice cream cookie sandwiches. We can't wait till they get those this way!

Philly Flavors II
343 S. 13th St.
267.519.8982
7 days: 2pm – 10pm

Naked Chocolate has become a go to spot for quick, yummy desserts at all times of the day – they're open until 11pm during the week! You can't count on always getting a seat, as the secret has long been out about this place. On the corner of Walnut and Juniper Streets, it's not exactly a hidden treasure, especially with full length windows facing Walnut Street that offer a tantalizing view of what's inside.

Naked Chocolate has so many offerings, it's impossible to put them all into one post – we've tried numerous times, but have given up – so we're going to start off on their classics and branch out from there. They're probably most well known for their their hot chocolate. It's not your supermarket Swiss Miss powder with hot water and dehydrated marshmallows. It's melted pure, rich chocolate served up with whipped cream and a rolled wafer (or a plump marshmallow, if you wish). The sizes start off small, espresso-size, and go up. You may balk at the tiny portion at $3.50, but remember, it's all chocolate. The first time we tried the hot chocolate, we both had the middle size, which they call "Indulgent" ($5) and it was too much for Messy; Picky finished off his and gladly sipped up the remainder of hers as well. The espresso-size "Petit" will most likely be enough for most, even the especially sweet-toothed.

And then there are their nudos. An ever-changing lineup of inverted, pyramid-shaped brownies with frosting on top ($2). We've done our best to have them all, but they keep thinking up new ones and there are also many other treats to test. To date, we've tried their chocolate chocolate (with walnuts), chocolate chip, peanut (pictured below), blondie and peppermint. Of these, we agree that the peppermint is best.

They have much, much more in their store (cupcakes, tarts, and Messy's favorite "Junk in the Trunk" bar will be featured later in their own post) and yes, they do also make their own chocolates in house, sold individually and by the pound.

We've become something of Naked Chocolate addicts, and it's especially hard to resist with the current PhillyCarShare promotion: buy one treat, get one free (under $6, baked goods only).

Messy: ****1/2
Picky: ****

The final word: Don't worry if there is no place to sit down — grab a stack of treats to take home with you!

Naked Chocolate Cafe
Mon – Th: 10am – 11pm
Fri – Sat: 10am – 11:30pm
Sun: 11am – 9pm
1317 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 735-7310