Autumn Martin Of Hot Cakes In Seattle's Smoked Chips
Put this chocolate in your pipe and smoke it
Autumn Martin is addicted to smoking.
No, we're not talking cigarettes; the pastry chef and owner of Hot Cakes in Seattle can't stop smoking chocolate chips ($15 for 8 ounces).
Martin first fell in love with the flavor of smoke as a child growing up on the Skykomish River in Washington; her father, a fishing enthusiast, smoked his fresh-caught steelhead trout and salmon, and she's fallen in love with the technique.
Incorporating smoke into her desserts wasn't easy: Her first attempts, using citrus, failed. Then Martin, who previously worked at Seattle's lauded Theo Chocolates, thought to apply her process to semisweet chips. She cold-smokes them over alder for 10 hours, resulting in chocolate that captures the woodsy essence of a campfire in a delicate package.
At Hot Cakes, they are melted into ganache and swiped across graham crackers for indoor-friendly s'mores, or added with Scotch in a boozy milkshake.
In our kitchen, we've given them a savory turn by chopping them and mixing them with spices for an exceptionally robust rub for steak or pork.
But our favorite time to cook with the chips might be breakfast: Their lingering, almost bacon-like flavor makes them the perfect addition to pancake batter.
Get a taste of the outdoors–no bug spray required.