A Weekend of Failures

Just in case you guys were beginning to think that I share only my baking success stories, I'm going to tell you about my weekend. I followed one recipe and performed one culinary experiment. Both were failures. More on the recipe later. Here are the details of the experiment (which has nothing to do with baking, by the way).

Have you heard of Pinkberry? No? Well, it is the hottest craze in frozen yogurt these days! While their stores keep to the upscale neighborhoods within California and New York, several copycats are trying to cash in on the trendy, tart and tangy frozen concoction--which is good news for the rest of us who don't live anywhere near a Pinkberry. Even a little yogurt shop here in Chandler has a version of this yogurt (in which I may or may not indulge every Thursday evening after Mommy Boot Camp). Basically, it tastes like plain yogurt, frozen. I mean, if you have an ice cream maker and 32 ounces of plain yogurt, how hard can it be, right?

Well, the results of this experiment were less than stellar. After my yogurt was freezing for about thirty minutes, I snuck a taste. It wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't Pinkberry. I added a quarter cup of sugar and it was closer, but it was nothing remarkable and, really, nothing more than very cold plain yogurt with sugar. Then I stuck it in the freezer and a couple hours later I enjoyed a tasty cup of shaved yogurt. It was frozen solid and the best I could do was shave it out with the ice cream scoop. Maybe one of those new soft serve ice cream makers would do the trick, but that appliance is a little too specialized for a spot in my kitchen. Pinkberry does list the ingredients on their website, but who has guar gum and propylene glycol esters in their pantry? Don't try this one at home, kids.