Chök
White Chocolate Butter Cookie Sandwich with Chocolate Ganache
White Chocolate Pistachio Cookie
Crema Catalana Donut
White Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Krönut
Carrot Cake
Pistachio Cream Croissant
Subtitled “the Chocolate Kitchen” and located in Barcelona’s tourist-dense El Raval neighborhood it was as part of a three-stop breakfast that a visit was paid to Chök, the combination of glistening Donuts both in the window and hanging on racks behind the counter giving the narrow storefront plenty of curb-appeal while those wise enough to poke their head through the door will be further enticed by more sweet treats served by a staff that is friendly, passionate and bilingual.
Self-described as an experimental kitchen, both the location at Carrer del Carme 3 and its newly opened satellite featuring a fully visible prep-area with baking classes offered several days each month, guests making their first visit to Chök will undoubtedly be impressed by just how much the team has managed to fit inside a long but not wide space where over fifty types of Pastry are laid out to impress in addition to a sizable Coffee setup and seating for 6-8 at a table and small bar in the back.
Built for the ‘love of chocolate,’ varieties of Milk, Dark and White playing into almost every item offered atop low-displays stretching several meters from the door, it was after several minutes indecision and chat with a young male clerk that the decision was made to invest in a half-dozen choices out of at least twenty that were more appealing than the rest, each one individually plated and delivered to the bar where first bites of the “Chök-Pop” featuring two Butter Cookies wrapped around Dark Chocolate Ganache and dipped in White Chocolate were every bit as sweet as expected while the multi-layered textures were all distinctive, and as a whole pretty great.
Using good ingredients to justify prices higher than many, the total bill just under €24, it was progressing ‘light’ to heavy that bites were next taken of a Pistachio Butter Cookie half-dipped in White Chocolate, the crispy rim and soft center clearly the result of bakers attuned to their recipes and the flavor surprisingly quite natural, just as it was for the light green cream piped inside a flaky Croissant that somehow managed to maintain its structure despite being filled well past 50%.
Never one to pass up Carrot Cake, in Chök’s case a two-tiered muffin with Cream Cheese Frosting that was moist and spicy without the addition of Raisins or Walnuts, it was with this item easily the least impressive of the morning that tasting concluded in two Doughnuts, the “special recipe featuring less sugar, less fat and shorter frying time” yielding an Sponge Cake like base filled and topped with bruleed Custard while the Krönut did not separate as much as would be expected, though the flavor of White Chocolate Glaze, Cream Cheese and housemade Strawberry Compote was still quite delicious.
http://www.chokbarcelona.com