6 Local Sweets for Your Sweetheart
Our tasty picks for sugar-powered Valentines’ Day gifts made with love, right here in Portland.
Posted by: Allison Jones on Feb 01, 2012 at 10:00AM
11 Comments
Somewhere along the line, desserts and candies earned the peerless reputation for being romantic, sexy, and made with love. Maybe you’re more of a passionate pork belly lover, or have been known to swoon over a bottle of fine wine, but at the end of the day most folks think of sweet decadence when they think of culinary love. Here are some fool-proof picks for showing your love via Portland’s best candies, cakes, and cookies this Valentines’ Day.
1. Two Grand Central Bakery’s Shortbread Linzer Hearts for $2.65 (Available February 3 to 14)
Each of these buttery, heart-shaped shortbread cookies from Grand Central Bakery are filled with Glenmore Farms raspberry jam and dusted with powdered sugar. Or maybe you’re the almost-DIY type who’s short on time—pick up some of Grand Central’s U-Bake chocolate chip cookie dough or puff pastry to whip up your own goodies without the prep work.
2. Pix Patisserie’s French-Inspired Specials, $2.25-$8.75 (Available now through February 14)
This petite patisserie is serving up a dose of Parisian l’amour in sugar form, like their Truffle Heart (a caramel almond truffle and cinnamon macaron hidden in a heart of chocolate mousse), St. Honoré for St. Valentine (puff pastry with raspberry pastry cream, chocolate covered pop rocks, crème chantilly, rose macarons, and fresh raspberries), and heart-shaped versions of their crave-worthy macarons. In addition to their Valentines’ Day treats, one chocolate gift box at each Pix locations will feature a pair of real diamond earrings hidden amongst the candies!
3. Petunia’s Gluten Free and Vegan White Chocolate Raspberry Passion Tartlette for Two, $8 (Order online by February 8)
This decadent dessert combines a coconut macaroon cookie crust with white chocolate raspberry mousse and tangy passionfruit curd. The tartlette is finished with fresh berries for even more color and sweetness. Petunia’s online owner and chef Lisa Clark is also hosting a Valentine’s Day baking class on Sunday, February 12th. For $50 (if you reserve a spot by this Sunday), Clark will help you make White Chocolate Raspberry Passionfruit Tarts, Chocolate Strawberry Sweetheart Cupcakes, and Triple Chocolate Ecstasy Cupcakes.
4. Two Fresh Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries from Elephant’s Deli for $3 (Available February 13 & 14)
It doesn’t get more classic than two juicy strawberries dipped in smooth chocolate (to be hand-fed to each other, naturally). For a full fine dining experience at home without the work, the deli also has a full Valentines’ Menu to seduce your sweetheart. Order online or stop into Elephant’s Deli to reserve your desserts today.
5. Five Decadent (and Guilt-Free) Truffles from Missionary Chocolates for $15 (Available Anytime)
These chocolate truffles just took home the Best in Show and People’s Choice trophies at last week’s Chocolates For Choice event, and they also happen to be vegan. Yes, Missionary Chocolates are made by a naturopathic doctor to be as healthy as chocolates can be, but they’re also some of the best chocolates in town. For your sweetie, pick up a five-piece box packed with flavors like Meyer Lemon Explosion, Vanilla Salted Caramel, Trailhead Espresso, Dark Chocolate Delight, and Spicy Cinnamon Chipotle.
6. Gold-leaf icons from Alma Chocolates, starting at $15 (Available Anytime)
These stunning treats are inspired by items of religious reverence so you can show your darling you worship them. Made from solid single-origin dark chocolate and hand gilded with 23k edible gold leaf, Alma’s edible icons highlight the true value of sweets this time of year. Choose between sacred hearts, flaming hearts, amor hearts, or even anatomical hearts for the more literal-minded lover. Alma is also a one-stop shop for truffles, handmade candies, and ooey-gooey salted caramel sauce. That caramel can be spread on anything… but we’ll leave that one up to your imagination.
What about Petite Province? They have fabulous stuff!
Pastry Girl. It rocks!
7919 Southeast Stark Street Portland, OR 97215-2341
(503) 254-5433
Goddamit, Allison. Missionary’s chocolates are not some of the best in town. They’re awful. F’ing awful. And in a town with some truly good chocolatiers you shouldn’t be pimping crap. If you want vegan truffles, Wingnut makes something quite tasty and 100 times better than Missionary. (And while I’m being an asshole, I might as well say that if you’re going to limit yourself to six things people should get at Valentine’s Day, STRAWBERRIES should not be one of them, chocolate-covered or no. They’re going to be terrible this time of year. There are plenty of great things that people could be eating, mediocre chocolate covering out-of-season strawberries is not one of them.)
I love the taste and creativity of cookies made by Cookies By Design. They are a great gift and always a big hit.
Don’t forget about Sterling Cookies out of KitchenCru. They are the best in town hands down!
A wee bit shocked by extramsg missionary diss. Love the lemon! Yum. Got a pack at with my room at the Adrift hotel in WA. Now a believer.
Missionary Chocolates are actually some of the best truffles I’ve ever had, hands down, and I’ve eaten a lot of fine chocolate. Maybe for the folks who prefer milk chocolate Hershey’s bars or your run of the mill gas-station chocolates, Melissa’s truffles might be a little too classy for your unrefined taste buds. A great thing happens here- if they’re not your thing, that just means there’s more for me!
Seriously, treat the chocolate lovers in your life with a trip to Missionary Chocolates!
Um, hardly a gas station chocolate sort of person. However, I do encourage people to do their own taste testing. Compare against these local truffles/bon-bons:
Alma
Depaula
Xocolatl
Sahagun
And for a vegan-to-vegan comparison, Wingnut.
I would be glad to sit down with Melissa or Ruby — or Allison — and buy chocolates from all of these and Missionary. I’d also gladly buy a few of my favorites from chocolatiers around the country, if you like, or even just notable chocolatiers like Recchiuti, Christopher Elbow, or Jacques Torres, and explain why I believe that Missionary’s chocolates are sub-par. I will note that Alma and Sahagun are doing chocolates every bit as good as what these three make, imo.
extramsg why all the hate Geezzz. Sounds like you were not born here and also your boring. I love Missionary Chocolates and Alma. Im a working man ya know the 99% and for my money I will make up my own mind save us yours. Vegan Curry Lemongrass truffle or peanut butter cup from Missionary Chocolates then a two block walk for some sipping chocolate aka truffle in a cup from Alma and Im in heaven. Classic Valentine’s luxury sprinkles for the working man.
It’s not hate. It’s extreme frustration. There are only a few prominent sources of information on what to eat in Portland and the Portland Monthly is one of them. Allison had only six places to recommend. I’m sure that the people at Missionary work hard, but so do the other chocolatiers in town. Those that excel at their craft should get the recognition.
It’s best for the consumers — us 99% — who have limited funds and should be pointed in the direction of what tastes best so we don’t waste our money; it’s best for the Portland Monthly, so they can maintain credibility and not have food lovers roll their eyes at their recommendations or not trust their future recommendations; and it’s best for the chocolatiers, so that they don’t get a false sense of where they stand or how they’re doing and become lax in efforts to produce a quality product — or if they already produce a quality product, assume that quality doesn’t matter and start producing an inferior product and just be more clever at marketing.
btw, here was a run-down of some local chocolatiers I did two years ago that includes Missionary:
http://extramsg.com/portland-food/portland-chocolates-part-4-cocoa-velvet-couronne-ladybug-missionary-northwest-sweets-xocolatl-cocanu/