Blueberry Chocolate Hazelnut Yogurt

I love yogurt. I also love Nutella. One of these things is obviously better for me, so I tried to make it taste a little bit more like Nutella. It's probably one of the best desserts I've had in awhile.

There is a distinct hit of hazelnutty chocolate, with each crunchy nutty bite, accompanied by the sweet tartness of the blueberries and the twang of the plain yogurt. If you're not a fan of plain yogurt twang, try subbing greek yogurt, as it's milder; beware, though, that with stirring it will lose much of its thickness.

If you're trying to make something for a dinner party, this would also make a great dessert parfait--embellish plain granola with hazelnuts and dried blueberries and layer it with chocolate yogurt. Add a pretty layer of fresh sliced strawberries on top for bonus points.

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Chocolate Yogurt with Dried Blueberries and Hazelnuts
serves 1


1.5T unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5T powdered sugar (***note: you can also use 2.5-3T of sweetened cocoa powder)
1c plain low fat yogurt
20 hazelnuts, toasted
0.25c dried blueberries (or sub dried cherries)

1. Put the cocoa powder and powdered sugar in a bowl; whisk together with a fork or small whisk.
2. Add about 0.25c of the yogurt, and mix thoroughly with the cocoa powder. One the mixture is homogenous, add the remaining yogurt and stir until mixed.
3. Sprinkle the nuts and dried fruit on top.
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Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Updated: The Yogurt Parfait

Dan and I like to eat yogurt with breakfast. This summer, we ate a lot of yogurt with granola and fresh berries. It's kind of difficult to get fresh berries in the Jersey winter, so we've had to adapt. It's also somewhat time consuming to make homemade granola, and nuts are expensive.

Piquant Parfait = yogurt + frozen blueberries + cereal

We like two kinds of cereal in particular. I prefer Kashi GoLean Original, while Dan prefers Honey Nut Cheerios. It's kind of like eating milk and cereal with some berries thrown in, except it takes a lot longer for your cereal to get soggy. I also like plain yogurt more than milk, so this is especially delicious for me!

What's your favorite breakfast food? Let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com. 

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Homemade Yogurt: Why You Should Make It Too!

You probably learned at a young age to put the milk away promptly and in the coldest place in the fridge. So if somebody told you to leave the milk out in 100°F weather and actually eat what you got the next day, I can understand why you'd be squeamish. Especially if they told you they'd added bacteria to said milk.

Of course, if you've ever eaten yogurt, that's exactly what you're doing. To make yogurt, you basically add bacteria to milk and then let it incubate at a bacteria friendly 100-110°F. Gross.

Really, though, there's nothing gross about it! The bacteria you add are no more harmful than the yeast you add to bread or the dust mites that sleep in your pillow. (Less harmful if you have allergies!!) Here's what happens:


At around 110°F, the bacteria you add are in full activity--like tourists on a summer beach. They eat up all of the lactose in the milk, a form of sugar that many people can't digest, and produce lactic acid, the same thing that makes your muscles burn when you work out.

Just like lactic acid makes your muscles uncomfortable, it also makes the yogurt uncomfortable--for other bacteria, that is! The high acidity that makes yogurt a little bit tangy discourages the growth of the bacteria that make us sick. It also makes the milk curdle and form a jelly-like matrix of coagulated protein molecules. (The same thing happens if you add vinegar to milk!)

The first yogurts were made by just leaving milk out someplace where it could "catch" good bacteria (much the same way we catch colds!). These days, most people give the milk a push in the right direction by adding some good bacteria (in the form of already-made yogurt) at the start of incubation.

I've already posted on how to make homemade yogurt, but I thought I'd give you a few added benefits of making homemade yogurt:

1. Vitamin D
Lots of research has been done to show the benefits of vitamin D, particularly in aiding absorption of calcium. Unfortunately, most store-bought yogurts don't have vitamin D! Well, when you make your own yogurt, you choose the milk that goes into it, which means you can choose yogurt with vitamin D (and vitamin A) added.

2. Along those lines, you know everything that goes into your yogurt.
A lot of yogurts contain thickeners, like cornstarch or gelatin (watch out vegetarians!), artificial sweeteners and a lot of sugar. You may be okay eating those things, you may not. Personally, many artificial sweeteners give me stomaches and severe bloating so I avoid them. I'd also rather eat a yogurt that was thickened naturally from its wealth of good bacteria, rather than yogurt thickened with gelatin.

Bridge Creek Heavenly Hots

When I was a kid, my dad made these for us on the rare Saturday morning. Other pancakes have never lived up to these wonderfully light silver dollar pancakes. I made these for D and his parents this morning. They were a huge hit.

These little pancakes are light, fluffy and delicious.

The banana slice gives you an idea of just how small these pancakes are.
This slice is from the very end of the banana, so it's a small slice.

Of course, my dad has made a few updates to the original recipe. It makes them a little bit easier to work with. Even so, they're pretty easy to mess up.. my first attempt was fairly unsuccessful. I've tried to add as many tips as possible, so read the recipe all the way through twice before you make them.

Also, before I share this recipe, you have to promise me that you'll try them plain before you put anything on them. We used to eat them with my mom's homemade jam. Whatever you do, don't ruin them with that fake pancake syrup made of high fructose corn syrup and caramel color.

How to cook like a college student

aka 6 things you never thought to cook in a microwave...

Like any good college student, I have a microwave, a slow cooker, and no stove or oven in my dorm room. I resort to making a lot of things in the microwave. Over the past two years, here are a few of the things I've learned to make:

1. Rice - I always use this post as my guiding recipe.
2. Yogurt - see my earlier post about this.
3. Cupcakes - I like this recipe because you can do it all in the mug, which makes for easy cleanup. You don't get the nice chewy crust, but it's as close to a cupcake as I've seen without an oven! Delicious.
4. Polenta - see below for a simple 'recipe'
5. Spinach - see below
6. Eggs - see below

How to make dinner in the microwave:
1. Place 0.5 cup of polenta into a 4 cup microwave safe dish. Add 1.25 cups of water and two pinches of salt. Stir and microwave covered for 2.5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, rinse two cups of spinach. When the polenta has finished, uncover it, place the spinach on top, and microwave for an additional 3 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, crack two eggs into a flat bottomed microwave safe dish. Add salt, pepper and seasonings. You can also add a tablespoon of milk. (I like to add some pecorino romano, too)
4. When the spinach/polenta is done, take it out of the microwave, stir the spinach into the polenta and put the cover back on.
5. Place the egg in the microwave for 1.5 minutes. Check for liquid. If there's still liquid, microwave it for an additional 30 seconds.
6. Grate some good cheese (parmesan, romano...) onto the polenta/spinach, add pepper and any seasoning you want, slide the egg on top.
7. Wait a minute or two for it to cool down before eating.. it's hot!

Warning: this is quite a bit of food. If you're not super hungry, I'd scale down the amount of polenta. Microwave for less time in step one, but keep the same amount of time in step 2.

Yogurt!

Milk.

A couple of years ago, Dannon started advertising for a new yogurt called Activia. If you've ever seen the commercials, the ridiculous graphics and careful vocabulary are pretty amusing. But after a round of antibiotics left me constantly bloated and gassy, I was willing to try anything, no matter how silly the commercials.

Two weeks of Activia and things weren't perfect, but they were so much better.

Since then, I've gotten really into eating yogurt. I don't eat Activia anymore—once you make your own yogurt, it's hard to go back to the store-bought stuff—but I'm still reaping the benefits. Plus, on top of the probiotics, it's also a great source of calcium.

I've included a recipe for homemade yogurt below.