bellwether

I officially hate race conditions and non-thread-safe code. Bah. Debugging meant that I was at work almost 12 hours today. Yay me. This means that I deserve frozen yogurt. :)

Blueberries are starting to come into season--I found a 2 lb. box at the grocery store for $5. This of course means Blueberry Frozen Yogurt...

I think I'll being saying this quite a bit, but best frozen yogurt ever.

( Blueberry Frozen Yogurt! )

The straining step was absolutely necessary--after processing the blueblerries, there was a very thick slurry of skins and seeds to be filtered out. I didn't end up using kirsch, as I didn't have any on hand, so I substituted vanilla extract to add some alcohol. I liked the whiskey last time in the lemon, but I didn't really want that particular flavor this time. I'd like to try chambord--I think that would be good.

Recently, the New York Times featured an article on the Quest for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. This quest starts with the Tollhouse cookie recipe, off the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag, an easily defendable starting point. Millions of bakers have successfully made these cookies to delighted oohs and ahhs.

It turns out, Nestle left a key instruction out of Mrs. Wakefield's (the owner of the Toll House Inn, where the cookie recipe originated) original recipe. Practically, this instruction would not have been well received by many home bakers--specifically, the step that was left out was to let the prepared batter age to allow the flour to fully hydrate. Additionally, the NYT recipe suggested the addition of a sprinkling of sea salt on the cookies.

A and I tested the NYT recipe, testing the cookies resulting from batter aged 0 hours, 24 hours, and 36 hours. This was a real chore, I can tell you. At 0 hours, the cookies spread very easily in the oven, resulting in a thin chewy cookie--the principal difference at this point from the Tollhouse recipe is the salty sweet finish.

At 24 hours, the cookies were noticeably different. The chilled batter did not spread out, and as the NYT recipe suggested, there were distinct layers of crispy, chewy, and soft cookie. The cookies was also more golden brown. The 36 hours cookies were similar, but developed a much darker uniform golden color. In comparision, the 0 hour cookies were pale tan orbs.

Overally, in flavor, the 24 hour cookies and 36 hour cookies were not sufficiently different to warrant an additional 12 hours of waiting. Frankly, the 0 hour cookies were delicious, and perfectly acceptable. The sea salt sprinkling was fantastic, and I'll be incorporating that into other baked goods. This is definitely my new go-to cookie recipe!

I made blackberry frozen yogurt tonight, to try out a herb combo that I've been thinking about.

It was a hit--morganlf and glass_diamonds both liked it and urged me to write down the recipe... so, for posterity, here it is. I also liked it, but it was a bit seedy. Next time, I'd defrost the berries, puree them, and strain out the seeds before using.

Blackberry Frozen Yogurt

Frozen blackberries (1/2 a package)
4 cups of non-fat yogurt
2/3 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of pomegranate juice (non-sweetened)
2-3 Tbs lemon verbena leaves (a small handful)
3 Tbs sweet basil (a few large leaves)

Strain yogurt in cheesecloth for 30 minutes to an hour

Puree everything in a blender.

If *not* using frozen berries, chill the mixture in the freezer until really cold or partially frozen.

Pour into ice cream maker and freeze as per manufacturers instructions.