Dan the Baker is more than a baker, it seems. Dan is a confectioner too.
Sure, you already know about his sourdough bread… and his multigrain bread, and his croissants and all the other breads and baked goods that come out of Dan the Baker’s kitchen. The products are well known for a commitment to organic, sustainable ingredients.
But the newest item in the line-up isn’t a bread or even a baked good: it’s chocolate covered Neopolitan Marshmallows ($3.50).
Like the rest of the baker’s wares, the Neopolitan Marshmallows are chock full of organic ingredients, including the sugar and the vanilla beans, and the covering of fair-trade, 65% dark chocolate.
It all makes a good-sized treat, bigger than a standard sized ice cube, anyway. From the outside, it’s a deep dark chocolate block. Delicious looking, but not particularly intriguing.
Of course, we already know it’s not solid chocolate there. The chocolate makes a good little shell that cracks and splits when you bite it, giving way to a springy tri-colored marshmallow. That marshmallow has a chocolate stripe, a vanilla stripe and a strawberry stripe.
The distinct marshmallow flavors of chocolate and strawberry aren’t terribly strong (like you might find in more chemically versions of Neopolitan combinations), what the fluffy stuff does best is provide a texture and flavor contrast to the intense chocolate coating. It’s the combination of the parts that makes this little confection glorious -take it apart, and the magic fades a little.
In any case, it’s impressively over the top: sweet and intense and melty and springy all at once, like something from Willie Wonka’s factory.
You can get your very own Neopolitan Marshmallow on Saturdays at the Worthington and Clintonville Farmers Markets. Or, the baker promises they’ll make appearances at his new location when it opens (soon) at 1028 Ridge Street in Grandview.
More information can be found online at www.facebook.com/danthebaker1.