travelling spoon brownies

• Have Spoon, Will Travel

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Ultimate thin mint brownies.

24 comments:

These look great - I love crackled tops :) Come share at my link party, please! http://www.dwellonjoy.com/2012/03/dwell-on-fridays-seven.html

yum, I so would make them in regular muffin tins, so I could say I only ate one.

Oh my do I love thin mint! Thank you so much for sharing at Mix it up Monday and I hope you'll stop back soon :)

This looks soooooo good! I want one right this very minute!

These look delicious! I love the thin mint as a garnish. I'd love it if you came and linked this up at Whimsy Wednesdays at www.thenymelrosefamily.blogspot.com/2012/03/whimsy-wednesdays-1.html. I'm following GFC and LF.

Just a bite, please! This looks amazing...I'll wait to try after my wedding as I have a dress to fit into and I think it would be impossible to just have one! New follower and glad to have found your creative little space on the web:D Enjoy your day!

I know what you mean! Just make sure you stash a box of Thin Mints (and congrats on your upcoming wedding!) :)

Love this! Thank you for sharing this at Whimsy Wednesday over at The NY Melrose Family.

Oh - super delicious and great looking brownies!! Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit! Hope you have a fabulous week! Jill @ Creating my way to Success http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

Ah....Girl Scout Cookies! I am cookie mom and ours arrived on Monday. (I also helped sort & load paletts and pallets of cookies for the council that day!) I have LOTS of extra Thin Mints, which might be dangerous! This looks absolutely divine! I am going to post a fun snack that I thought up using Thin Mints tomorrow!

Oh goodness, that would be dangerous for me, too! I can't resist!

WOW!! Rachel, these look scrumptious!! Just tweeted this. One more reason I need to buy Thin Mints. YUM!! Thanks for sharing at oopsey daisy!

The look amazing! Thanks for sharing the recipe! I would love for you to come share with my readers on Blog Stalking Thursday. http://thecraftyblogstalker.blogspot.com/2012/03/blog-stalking-thursday-31_07.html

Oh, yum. I love Thin Mints! And I know what you mean about holidays - Easter isn't for a few weeks and I'm already stressing about what to make!

Oh boy, I haven't even thought about Easter yet!

How decadently delish! YUM!

My eyes are just so huge right now. Those brownies really are the ultimate in thin mint brownies. I looove them!

chocolate mint - it never goes wrong! *slurp*

These look delicious!! Mint and chocolate...heaven! Thanks so much for linking up to The Creative Spark. I'll be featuring them tomorrow. Enjoy your Sunday! Jenn :)

Thanks so much for featuring them, Jenn!

Mmmm! Those look so so good! Stopping by from Sweet Indulgences Sunday.

These looks so yummy! Thanks for linking up to our "Strut Your Stuff Saturday." We hope you'll be back soon! -The Sisters

I made these as both mini and regular size brownie cupcakes, and everyone who tried them loved them! Thank you for the inspiration. :)

• United Kingdom /
• Ryton, England /

The Travelling Spoon

The chef at this confectionary restaurant cooks good brownies . The terrific service is its considerable advantage. Google users awarded the score of 5 to The Travelling Spoon .

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Easy Chewy Brownies

• August 31, 2022
• Cookies and Bars

HEY-YO! Today, we’re serving up another go-to basic. Is it possible that I’ve shared nearly 400 recipes on this site without dishing out a perfect brownie? This recipe is just that. If you’ve been looking for a homemade substitute for box brownies (let’s face it- they’re delish), look no further. These easy chewy brownies are a home run and a great back pocket recipe. Let’s check them out.

First Up: Science Stuff

Ok, nerds. Put your science hat on, and let’s think about what really makes box brownies so great. Aside from the ease, they’re also consistently delicious, right? They also offer a terrific chew, fudgy insides, and a dreamy crinkled top. How could we ever beat that at home?

Well, let’s tackle all of those things one by one. First up: ease. My easy chewy brownies come together in one bowl. Sure, there’s a few more ingredients than the box mix requires, but don’t we all feel better about that anyways?

Second, the chew. Here’s where a healthy balance of liquid ingredients (eggs and butter/oil) and dry ingredients is everything. Too much dry ingredients and we have cakey or (even worse) dense brownies. Too few and you’re looking at a greasy pudding.

Third, the illusive yet wonderful crackled top. Let me fill you in on a secret: it’s all in the sugar. Crackled glossy tops come from slightly dissolved sugar. We achieve that by melting the butter with the sugar in the microwave (or stovetop!), stirring until smooth and dissolved. Easy peasy!

This recipe yields an 8″ or 9″ pan of brownies that makes about 16 modest brownies. With crackled tops, chewy insides, and rich chocolatey flavor, they really are hard to beat. Here, I’ve added vanilla and a smidge of espresso powder; Ina Garten taught me those ingredients help make the chocolate taste more like… well, chocolate. (Hint: She’s NEVER wrong.) The sugar melts with the butter to achieve a glossy cracked top, and the addition of chocolate chips to the batter means they’re fudgy too. I have nothing against box brownies, but being able to say these are homemade makes me feel all kinds of good.

Get fancy with your brownies by switching things up. You can substitute in Dutch-processed cocoa for more intensely flavored treats. Fold in your favorite chopped nuts or flavored baking chips (hello, dark chocolate mint!) to spice things up a bit. These brownies also makes a terrific crumbled addition to your favorite no-churn ice cream recipes . Truly, this is one of the basics you NEED. PS- check out the difference between brownies made using regular unsweetenedweetened cocoa powder and ones made with dark cocoa powder!

Give these easy chewy brownies a try and let me know what you think! Happy Wednesday to y’all and happy baking!!

If you like this recipe you should try:

Peppermint Brownie Cookies Brownie Shortbread Bars Brownie Petit Fours Fudgy Brownie Tart Brownie Batter Cake

4.3 from 6 reviews

These easy chewy brownies are a simple one-bowl recipe that is a delicious substitute for box mix brownies!

• Author: Kate Wood
• Prep Time: 10
• Total Time: 10 minutes
• Category: Dessert

Ingredients

• ½ cup unsalted butter, diced
• 1 – 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Farhenheit. Lightly grease a heavy weight 8” square baking pan and set aside.
• In a large microwave-safe bowl, add the butter and sugar and melt in the microwave for 30 second increments, stirring occasionally, until the butter is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. (It took me about 2 minutes of microwaving.) Alternatively, you can melt these together over a double boiler on the stove. Add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously to combine. Add the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, salt, and baking powder. Stir, just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until the top is puffed and a toothpick inserted to the center only comes out with moist sticky clumps. Allow to cool prior to cutting.

11 thoughts on “Easy Chewy Brownies”

This recipe did not work for me at all. Just a puddle of goo. Is it possible the sugar and flour measurements are mixed up? I thought it seems off but there were several 5 star reviews so I went with it.

The best scratch brownies I’ve ever made, and easy! My 9 year old daughter made them with help. We doubled the recipe, baked in a 9×13 pan for 45 mins. One bowl prep made for fuss free cleanup. Thank you! 🙂

Absolutely the best brownie I’ve ever made!!! I’ll always make this recipe when craving a delicious, gooey, chocolatey brownie! Thank you for sharing this recipe.

Does this recipe really only require 1/4 cup of flour? Seems like not enough.

This is such a great recipe!!! 💙 love it. I just added one egg, and they were just how I like them. Great job, Kate! I will definitely use more of your recipes! 😊

This recipe tastes so nice and looks incredible. Highly recommend!

Thank you for the recipe, -Lewis

Nice and very informative blog, glad to learn something through you. food technology consultant

Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe with us !. Our restaurant Go Pappe, Best Cafe in Janakpuri has perfectly brought together the old world charm with modern cafe interiors and a spread that is sure to intrigue your taste buds. The ambience is cozy and inviting, with a warm and homey feel that makes you want to stay all day. The place is spacious enough for groups but still cozy enough for a date night out. The staff is very friendly, helpful and polite. The menu is extensive and has a variety of options to choose from. Please Visit : https://gopappecafe.in/

Just checking—-it might be a typo—-it took you 20 minutes to melt the butter and sugar in the microwave oven?

DELICIOUS! I made these late afternoon and by dinner time, my husband ate almost half! Thank you for this recipe!

Hi! This looks absolutely delicious, I can’t wait to try it!

I think there is a typo in the directions, you said it took about 20 minutes of 30-second increments of microwaving the butter and sugar. Did you mean 2 minutes, not 20?

Thanks! -Janet

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I’m Kate Wood. I love creative recipes suitable for life’s moments. Read more

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Host: Evgeny

Moscow, russia, a traditional meal and cooking class in moscow with a passionate chef, host offerings.

• Professional cook
• Transportation
• Cooking class
• Market visit

Meet Evgeny

Evgeny learned to cook from his mother and then on his own because of his passion for being in the kitchen from the time he was 5 years old! He constantly draws inspiration from his loved ones, as well as from world-famous chefs - Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver. Evgeny constantly likes to re-invent himself, learn new skills, take part in domestic and international competitions like the culinary festival ‘Gastreet 2018’. He was the winner of the cooking challenge at Taste of Dubai in 2018 and was the culinary partner for the ‘Harmony in High Heels’ and ‘Taste of Moscow’ events. He lives in an apartment in a suburb of Moscow with his wife and black cat, Gordon (named in honor of chef Ramsay - his cat loves well cooked beef, especially if it has been smoked!) Evgeny is passionate about sharing his knowledge about cooking traditional Russian dishes in a modern way and about his country’s culture. “I believe that being a chef is a profession that can make people feel happiness! I want each visitor to feel this happiness!”

What to expect

Please note menu might vary. If there are particular dishes you are interested in trying, please include your request in the booking form.

In-home meal: (1-4 guests) Evgeny lives in a modern apartment in a peaceful suburb of Moscow, Krasnogorsk. It is very close to Spartak stadium. Upon entering his home, Evgeny’s love for cooking and skill in the kitchen is very apparent from the awards and certificates received from various cooking competitions that are proudly displayed across the kitchen. While Evgeny introduces you to Russian cuisine and culture, you will be served fresh strawberries (or seasonal fruits) and rye bread spread with ricotta cheese, topped with grilled tomatoes. For Evgeny, Russian cuisine is borscht, cheesecakes, pancakes and dumplings. He can prepare a variety of dishes, however he especially loves to cook and eat products made from dough. For Evgeny it is very important that he cooks dishes that his guests will enjoy, so when he has family and friends visiting, he always checks their preference before planning the menu. He prefers to do the same with travelers as well, so please let him know if you have any special requests. Join Evgeny at the dining table to share a traditional meal that may include dishes such as okroshka (soup with vegetables and meat) and fried potato with meat, fresh dill and basil. End your meal with a dessert like syrniki (cheese pancake) served with strawberries, fresh mint and sour crème.

Cooking experience: (1-4 guests) Evgeny will offer you a variety of teas to choose from and his homemade kvas (a fermented rye drink) before you start your hands-on cooking class. During this 2-hour class, you will pick up tricks and techniques involving in preparing homemade Russian cuisine. You will help Evgeny prepare a three-course meal that you will share together later. You will start by cutting ham, cucumbers, eggs and radishes for your cold summer soup, okroshka. Next you will help to cut pork and chop potatoes for your main dish (Evgeny can offer another meat option - beef, chicken or vegetarian on request). The last dish you will make is a dessert of beautiful ricotta pancakes. You will grind mint with brown sugar before folding in cream to complement caramelized pancakes.

Market visit: (1-4 guests) Meet your host Evgeny by the Tushinskaya metro station and together take a taxi to his local produce store to pick out fresh fruit for the dessert that you will prepare later in the day. Please note, this is not a bustling market but a small neighborhood shop that sells fruits and vegetables. Here, Evgeny will teach you about different vegetables and ingredients that are staples in Russian kitchens. After your market store visit, you will walk 10-min through a picturesque park and pond on the way to Evgeny’s apartment for your cooking class and meal.

Notes: Evgeny is happy to prepare a vegetarian meal on request.

Languages spoken: English, Russian

Sample menu

• Entree: Rye with smoked capelin caviar, rye with ricotta and grilled tomatoes
• Soup or Salad
• Main: Pork and potatoes (another meat - beef, chicken or vegetarian on request)
• Desert: Syrniki (caramelized pancakes with mint, cottage cheese and seasonal fruits)
• Drink: Kvas (a Russian fermented rye drink, similar to coca cola) and tea

Evgeny met us at the metro station where we walked to his local produce store to pick out fresh fruit for our desert later in the day. Evgeny is very welcoming and professional. My favorite thing about the experience was how well Evgeny conducted the hands on cooking. It was by far the best hands on experience we’ve had on a Traveling Spoon visit. The food was plentiful and amazing throughout. Evgeny really has the knowledge and leadership to teach any visitor about Russian dishes and the different variations of how to make them. A quaint and gracefully organized eating experience describes what’s in store for anyone booking with Evgeny.

$62-$108 USD

• No waiting! Booking confirmed instantly
• 100% satisfaction guarantee or your money back
• Private experience

Pricing (per person)*

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Traveling Spoon connects you with meaningful culinary experiences, from private cooking lessons to homecooked meals in people's homes. Enjoy an immersive cultural experience that gives you a glimpse into the local way of life.

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Most of our hosts are able to accommodate dietary restrictions and allergies, including vegetarian and gluten free options. For vegetarian travelers, we have an icon on each host profile to indicate whether that host can also offer a fully vegetarian menu. There is a section in the booking form to note any allergies or dietary restrictions which will be sent directly to your host.

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Hosts typically respond to booking inquiries within 72 hours. If for some reason you have not heard from your host or if you have any questions you can always contact us at [email protected] .

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Your safety and security are our top priority. To ensure this, Traveling Spoon personally vets 100% of all hosts, including an in-person host visit, to ensure each host and experience meets our strict quality requirements.

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Some hosts offer transportation as an optional add-on for travelers. Typically this is round trip transportation with pick up and drop off at your hotel. Pricing is quoted per car. Specific instructions for transportation will be provided in your confirmation details when your booking is confirmed.

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Many of our hosts accommodate solo travelers. You can see if a host accepts solo travelers by looking at the traveler range found next to the experience descriptions on the host profile (indicated by the numbers in parentheses next to "In-home meal", "Cooking experience" and "Market visit").

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The best desserts in Las Vegas with Cake Boss Buddy Valastro

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“Cake Boss! Seriously? Can I get a picture?”

I watch as a woman shakes her head in disbelief, then squeals at the sight of Buddy Valastro. In the 10 steps it takes to walk from Buddy V’s Ristorante, the reality show star’s Italian restaurant at the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas, to Carlo’s Bakery, his dessert shop across the walkway, he is mobbed with fans.

“Of course,” he says. They stand in front of a life-size cutout of the cake boss to take a selfie.

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Columnist Jenn Harris joins your favorite celebrities to explore their go-to cuisines and restaurants in Los Angeles.

Valastro is dressed like any other tourist. His black polo shirt is untucked above his jeans. His hair is slicked straight back and he has a chunky gold watch on one wrist and a chunky gold bracelet around the other.

He takes a few more photos, then ducks into the kitchen. The windows lining the bakery fill up with iPhones as people press up against the glass for a closer look.

“It would be much harder for me to get around if I were wearing my chefs coat,” he says, gesturing to the crowd.

Valastro’s fans are enthusiastic, and from all over the world. His first reality show, “Cake Boss,” which chronicled the operations at his family’s 60-year-old Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, N.J., ran for nine seasons, airs in more than 200 countries and is dubbed in 45 languages. He has four other shows about to be released on various streaming services, as well as nearly 40 bakeries and cake vending machines around the country. His products are sold at more than 3,000 Walmarts.

Valastro, who on this trip to Las Vegas is helping the Venetian Resort celebrate its 25th anniversary, is taking time out to accompany me on a dessert crawl to some of his favorite restaurants and bakeries in the city. We begin, of course, at Carlo’s Bakery.

5:33 p.m. Carlo’s Bakery at the Venetian Resort

Valastro’s lead baker, Christina Nasso, emerges from a back room with a lobster tail, a cannoli, a brownie, a German chocolate brownie and a cookies-and-milk cake. These are all for us to sample.

First Valastro breaks the lobster tail in two, sending shards of pastry and powdered sugar flying.

“It’s the hardest Italian pastry to make,” he says, handing me a half. “Each one is still hand-opened and filled.”

The pastry shell is golden, with the layers pulling apart from one another like scales. My half overflows with a vanilla cream that’s as rich and smooth as ice cream.

It’s a pastry Valastro’s father, Bartolo “Buddy” Valastro Sr., taught him to make at the bakery as a kid. But when his dad died in 1994, Valastro had troubling replicating his recipe. Then, he says, his dad came to him in a dream to help.

“I woke up and had like chills,” he says. “The next day I went in and I was able to do it.”

Now he digs a fork into the cookies-and-milk cake, careful to build me a bite that incorporates all the elements of the dessert. It’s tender cake with bits of chocolate chip cookies strewn throughout and a milky filling that oozes. It’s Valastro’s take on a tres leches.

“If you don’t get the milk squirt, it’s not real tres leches,” he says.

Valastro is constantly coming up with new bakes, using time during his weekly two-hour massage to dream up new ideas. His brownie and newer German chocolate brownie are satisfying squares of pure fudge. The cannoli filling is lush velvet in cream form, made from 100% Calabrian ricotta.

“I pay a lot more per pound for it because you can taste the richness,” he says. “You know, sometimes people think that because you’re on TV or you have multiple locations that you’re commercialized, but we make everything every day and it’s scratch recipes.”

He grabs a vacuum-sealed piece of red, white and blue cake from a nearby display case.

“You become a food scientist,” he says. “We whip every single batter to like 7.1 viscosity and weigh it against the weight of water so we know we can put that much aeration. See how it’s like a tight grain here?”

Whether you have a slice of cake from one of his bakeries, vending machines or Walmart, each one starts at his 100,000-square-foot factory in New Jersey. There, he prepares around 20,000 pounds of cake batter a day, using his original recipes, and mostly on machines Valastro engineered himself. On the line used to make a new cake for Walmart, Valastro says he can put out 12 to 20 cakes per minute. He’ll need the efficiency and volume, anticipating that Walmart will run through 250,000 of his cakes in the span of just three to four months.

Valastro is once again mobbed when we exit the bakery. He tries to hide behind a pair of aviator sunglasses like a sort of Clark Kent disguise, but the crowd follows. There’s no disguising the cake boss.

6:07 p.m. Cut at the Venetian Resort

As we walk through the resort, Valastro tells me about the time he made a bar mitzvah cake for Sheldon Gary Adelson, the late, former owner of the Venetian. Valastro told Adelson that it was his dream to open a restaurant and bakery on the Las Vegas Strip. Adelson looked Valastro in the eyes and said, “You got a deal, kid.”

Buddy V’s opened at the Venetian Resort in the fall of 2013, followed by Carlo’s Bakery the next year.

“I’ll never forget the first time I stepped foot in the finished restaurant,” he says. “I looked down at the Strip and I started to cry.”

We sit at a spacious booth inside Cut, Wolfgang Puck’s steakhouse at the hotel. Valastro orders the banana cream pie from a dessert menu that includes half a dozen selections from pastry chef Nicole Erle.

“Whenever I come here, this is my favorite steakhouse,” he says. “I’m spoiled because chefs will always send me most of the desserts. That’s one good thing about being the cake boss.”

It’s a name that’s afforded him a certain level of celebrity in the nearly 15 years since the show premiered. But it’s a name he says he never really wanted.

“Honestly, I didn’t like that name at first,” he says.

Valastro was afraid people would hear the name and assume that he was arrogant. Maybe even a jerk. He didn’t want the show be filled with drama or focus on fighting with other family members.

“That’s totally not who I am as a person,” he says. “TLC assured me that it was just about how I run a family business., and once I knew what the show was about, I don’t think I could ever go back and not love and appreciate the name. I embraced it. I am the boss.”

When Valastro took over his dad’s bakery at age 19, he had no aspirations of being on TV. But he did want to make Carlo’s Bakery a household name.

His first step was to earn more money. In 1996, supermarket bakeries were putting small operations like his out of business.

“So if I do these like prettier cakes and put a little fondant on the cake, now I can get like $1,000 for a three-tier cake?” he says. “It was a no-brainer.”

He ordered “some of that fondant stuff” and taught himself how to decorate cakes. Pretty soon the display window at the bakery was full of his elaborately designed cakes featuring multiple tiers adorned with pretty piping and flowers.

A woman from Modern Bride magazine saw the window display and asked Valastro to prepare a cake for the magazine. He quickly became one of the premier wedding cake makers in the tristate area, with more than 200 publications featuring his wedding cakes over the course of a decade.

Valastro started doing TV cake competitions. After losing one contest, a cameraman approached him and told him he needed his own show.

“It got the thinking process going,” Valastro says. “I’m a thinker. I started thinking about the characters in my life in Hoboken and my family, and I started laughing. It was like a sitcom.”

Valastro called the Food Network and told them he wanted a TV show.

“They say, ‘No, we don’t really care, keep doing challenges,’” he says.

By now, it’s 2008, and Carlo’s Bakery is making 50 to 60 wedding cakes a week. One day, his sister calls and says that TLC is on the phone. No, not the band. The network. They saw him on one of the challenge shows and they’re interested in a cake show.

“I didn’t have an agent. I didn’t have a sizzle reel, but I pitched them the idea that became ‘Cake Boss,’” Valastro says.

TLC commissioned a pilot, then ordered 13 more episodes. Valastro and his family would eventually shoot 300 episodes of the show.

Our server interrupts our conversation to wheel over our banana cream pie. It’s more of a deconstructed pie that’s been elaborately reconstructed as a chocolate sphere speckled with 23-karat gold. He pours hot caramel over the top until it starts to melt and collapse in on itself.

Valastro uses his spoon to carefully scoop up the banana custard, vanilla wafers, caramelized banana and some of the fractured shell.

“I love that it has a really nice balance of chocolate with banana, and the texture of the wafers really drives it home for me,” he says. “But it’s the complexity and layers of banana in there. It feels like there’s banana puree in the cream and the caramel just really ties it all together.”

6:58 p.m. Piero’s

A Cadillac limo pulls up to the valet of the hotel to take us to Piero’s Italian Cuisine, a restaurant just east of the Strip near the Las Vegas Convention Center. It’s an old-school, red sauce place that’s been around since 1982.

We take a seat on a curved leather booth in the back of the dimly lit dining room.

“Anyone who knows Vegas knows that the food here is pretty extraordinary,” Valestro says. “You gotta love places like this where you can relate to the environment.”

Though he spends most of his time baking, between his wife, mother and grandma, Valastro says he’s always been surrounded by good Italian food.

“I would often go out to eat and wish I was at home because the food was so good,” he says. “I wanted to bring a taste of that to the world.”

Before he opened Buddy V’s, he partnered with restaurateur Elizabeth Blau and brought her and the entire team out to New Jersey for a big family gathering. His aunts, mom and mother-in-law prepared the family recipes that became the basis for the menu at the restaurant.

The rice pudding at Piero’s.

Buddy Valastro speaks with Jenn Harris at Piero’s.

Now, Valastro has “a lot of concepts in Vegas,” including Pizza Cake at Harrah’s, run by his father-in-law, who had a pizzeria in New Jersey for 30 years. At the Linq Hotel there’s the Boss Cafe with pizza, sandwiches and desserts. Just outside the hotel is Buddy’s Jersey Eats, where he serves food you might find at a carnival, like Jersey Rippers and chicken wings. He’s getting ready to open another pizzeria on the Strip.

He has a warehouse and freezer in Vegas where he stores his products. Valastro is bringing in pizza dough, cake batter and various other foods to fill, top and bake off at his Vegas restaurants and bakeries from the main facility in New Jersey at least a couple of times a week.

“I’m a high school dropout, but I feel like you’re born with a business instinct,” he says. “Being a problem solver and never giving up, being a dreamer and overachiever, you accomplish things.”

Our server comes by to drop off a bowl of rice pudding and another filled with chocolate budino. The rice pudding is impossibly weightless on the spoon, like a cloud of rice and whipped cream.

“This is creamy and dreamy,” Valastro says. “It’s cooked to perfection and the little bits of orange zest and cinnamon are so good.”

There is a handful of black cherries soaked in syrup on top of the budino. It has a deep, dark chocolate flavor and a consistency that’s stiff but silky.

“You have to have it with the cherry to balance the sweetness,” Valastro says before licking his spoon.

He’s right.

7:13 p.m. Dominique Ansel at Caesars Palace

At Dominique Ansel’s bakery inside Caesars Palace, Valastro does not order the Cronut, the croissant-doughnut hybrid pastry Ansel is known for. Instead, he gravitates toward the cinnamon roll, key lime pie and waffle.

Though the waffle is presented in the shape of a waffle, it’s a stunning brown butter hazelnut almond dacquoise with a caramelized pecan mousse. The cinnamon roll is an airy cinnamon chiffon cake around a Honeycrisp apple compote and mascarpone mousse.

“It’s the perfect balance of texture and flavors, not over-sweet,” he says. “You get the apples and cinnamon and the little bit of chocolate on the outside for some crunch.”

He finishes with a spoonful of key lime pie that’s about as wide and tall as his mouth.

“The meringue is fluffy and marshmallowy,” he says, “and the curd is not overly tart.”

Riding high on sugar, we duck into the limo on our way back to the Venetian.

“Hey, it’s me!” he says excitedly. He’s pointing to his life-size cutout outside the Pizza Cake restaurant at Harrah’s. “I still get such a kick out of seeing that.”

I ask him how he feels about being a celebrity chef, and he shakes his head with a laugh.

“I never thought of myself as a celebrity,” he says. “It’s good for business, but nobody’s perfect. We service a lot of people and sometimes it’s an off day, but I only know what I can do and I know my stuff is made with love and integrity.”

He shrugs his shoulders and holds his hands up, just like he does in all the life-size cutouts.

“Hey, there’s nobody harder on Buddy Valastro than Buddy Valastro.”

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Jenn Harris is a columnist for the Food section and host of “The Bucket List” show. She has a BA in literary journalism from UC Irvine and an MA in journalism from USC. Follow her @Jenn_Harris_.

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