{Sweet Treats} Union Square Holiday Market

We love this time of year:  crisp cool weather, colorful Autumn leaves, and the holidays right around the corner.  I especially love all of the holiday markets that pop up around the city.  Yesterday, I walked around the Union Square Holiday Market and found plenty of great foodie gifts for my husband (and me!).

I immediately spotted these homemade cookies ($2 each).  I loved all of the interesting varieties including Hoi An (the cookie version of Vietnamese coffee with chocolate).  I ended up getting the fragrant Ambrosia with sundried pears, figs, sage, walnuts, and honey.  Make sure to check out this booth as they're not available in stores.  

For my husband's birthday (yes, he's a Thanksgiving baby - which explains his love of turkey!), I bought him his own brewing kit.  The Brooklyn Brew Shop was started by an industrious couple:  Stephen Valand and Erica Shea.  These two local entrepreneurs came up with this easy, at-home brewing kit that fits in tiny NYC apartments.  The kit ($40) comes with both equipment and your choice of mix.  The Gingerbread Ale and the Chestnut Brown Ale both sounded great, but I ended up buying the Chocolate Maple Porter.  My husband was so excited when I gave this gift to him.

So dangerous! Momofuku Milk Bar has a stand here too selling their popular cookies and pies.

I was so happy to discover these fanciful cannolis made by another enterprising couple, Anthony Fontana and Brielle Dahan.  They opened Stuffed Artisan Cannolis in the LES and sell all sorts of cannolis at the market ($2 each or 3 for $5).  Chatting with Anthony, I loved hearing about his passion for fresh ingredients.  His ricotta cheese is made with milk from grass-fed cows.  He also uses valrhona chocolate.  There were so many flavors and I wanted it all, but controlled myself and just bought the Banana Cream Pie cannoli, Pumpkin Pie cannoli, and a Peanut Butter cannoli.  So good!

Ooh! Here's the Sigmund Pretzelshop we tried out at the Hester Street Fair!

My last discovery was a good one.  nunu chocolates was tucked away from the other food stalls and I'm so happy I found it.  I met Andy Laird, who co-founded this Brooklyn-based chocolate company, with his wife Justine Pringle.  They started making chocolates to sell at Andy's concerts (it was something more memorable than t-shirts!) and people couldn't get enough of these artisanal treats. 

I loved all of the different chocolates, but for my husband, zoned in on the craft beer and liquor creations.  Amarula Ganache (memories of my trip to Kenya), Absinthe Delight, and Espresso Brandy all looked amazing.  But I decided to buy the Craft Beer Six Pack ($12) which combines a variety of craft beers with ganache.  The assortment changes all the time based on the fresh craft beers that have in their Brooklyn cafe.
My husband's eyes lit up when he opened this chocolate box (and he's not even a dessert fan!)  Our assortment contained ganache combined with his favorite craft beers:  Allagash Curieux, Founders Porter, Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA, Harpoon Munich Dark, Ballast Point Victory at Sea Imperial Porter, and Two Brothers Cane & Ebel Red-Rye Ale.

The Union Square Holiday Market continues until Dec 24th (11am - 8pm) and is located on 14th St at the south end of Union Square.