Pinkberry

Bryan's family is from Southern California, so every Christmas we get the privilege of  enjoying a week of sunshine before returning to snow-piled-high Boston for the rest of the winter.

The past several Christmases, we never failed to seek out and visit (multiple times) the nearest Pinkberry we could find (usually about 7 miles away). Although I've tried many other frozen yogurt places, for some reason I have always liked Pinkberry the best.

Perhaps it's the bright, crisp yogurt flavor or the high quality of their fresh cut fruit. Whatever the reason, I always looked forward to Pinkberry as a treat - a once a year indulgence during my annual holiday trek out to California.

Imagine my sheer excitement when I found out that Pinkberry was finally coming to Boston! Not only that, a location just opened up right in Harvard Square a couple weeks ago.


Of course I was super excited when I found out the great news. Better yet, I had the wonderful privilege of attending the launch party, where frozen yogurt flowed and flowed. I've always been a fan of the plain yogurt (I actually most prefer it without any toppings! yes, call me boring, but I'm a purist). At times I'll venture out and get mochi or kiwi topping, which I like quite a bit as well.

Unlike me, most people love toppings, and the norm is to try several. You can be healthy and pick between a huge variety of fresh cut fruit. Or, if you prefer, there's no shortage of candy, crushed cookies, or various types of cereal from which to choose.
 
Mochi, pomegranate, and mango

I tried their new parfait, which mixes yogurt with granola and fruit. I have always been a huge fan of normal yogurt parfait, so of course I enjoyed this unique Pinkberry version.

Pinkberry was also introducing Lychee, their newest flavor. Although I thought it was pretty good, I still stand by the plain yogurt as my all-time favorite flavor.My friend actually thought the lychee was too tart and much preferred the plain yogurt which, ironically, was labeled as "tart."

All in all, I totally think Harvard Square can support several more ice cream/frozen yogurt places (still mourning the loss of my favorite ice cream place from Harvard Square). The more the merrier!

Welcome to the neighborhood Pinkberry!!!

FroYo (Frozen Yogurt) Popsicles

I love making frozen yogurt, "Pinkberry" style in the summer. I first started messing around with various recipes back in 2007 when I first started this blog. I've had a lot of success with the following recipe:

2 1/2 cups 2% fat Trader Joe's Greek style yogurt
1/3 cup 2% milk
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients and stir until everything is well mixed. Freeze in a commercial ice cream maker (you know I love my Lello Gelato Pro) for about 30 minutes.

The resulting yogurt tastes great out of the ice cream maker and taste really good with various fruit toppings. Unfortunately, due to the yogurt's low fat content, it does not freeze well. It becomes pretty hard - which means pretty unscoopable if you want some later.

So, what's a girl to do with her leftover yogurt? I could eat it all.

Or, I can put them in popsicle makers, mix it any fruit topping that may be leftover, and voila! Frozen Yogurt Popsicle!

They were really good. :)

FroYo (Frozen Yogurt) Popsicles

I love making frozen yogurt, "Pinkberry" style in the summer. I first started messing around with various recipes back in 2007 when I first started this blog. I've had a lot of success with the following recipe:

2 1/2 cups 2% fat Trader Joe's Greek style yogurt
1/3 cup 2% milk
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients and stir until everything is well mixed. Freeze in a commercial ice cream maker (you know I love my Lello Gelato Pro) for about 30 minutes.

The resulting yogurt tastes great out of the ice cream maker and taste really good with various fruit toppings. Unfortunately, due to the yogurt's low fat content, it does not freeze well. It becomes pretty hard - which means pretty unscoopable if you want some later.

So, what's a girl to do with her leftover yogurt? I could eat it all.

Or, I can put them in popsicle makers, mix it any fruit topping that may be leftover, and voila! Frozen Yogurt Popsicle!

They were really good. :)

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

Wishing you the best 4th of July weekend. I thought it was appropriate to share with you some red, "white", and blue pictures of fruit. :) I'll post next week the recipe for the yogurt popsicles that I made with them. For now, here's a teaser . . .

Enjoy the holiday!

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

Wishing you the best 4th of July weekend. I thought it was appropriate to share with you some red, "white", and blue pictures of fruit. :) I'll post next week the recipe for the yogurt popsicles that I made with them. For now, here's a teaser . . .

Enjoy the holiday!

Berryline Frozen Yogurt

Berryline is another Pinkberry-esque frozen yogurt place that just opened in Harvard Square this past weekend. It is located on Arrow Street, right off of Mass Ave in Harvard Square. I went there last night with people from my small group to try it out.

The place is owned and run by two biochemical engineering graduate (or ex-graduate?) students. The outside of the store is painted with whimsical colorful designs that make the place seem fun, casual, and inviting. Likewise, the two owners were very friendly, fun, and hospitable. The cafe sells coffee, fancy espresso based drinks, and frozen yogurt with toppings such as fruit, cereal, granola, and nuts. They plan on offering fresh fruit smoothies soon too.

Supposedly these two guys have spent the last year perfecting their recipe for frozen yogurt. When we went they had two flavors - original (which is essentially just simple yogurt flavor) and acai, which is a berry-like fruit from Brazil that has been quite popular lately with health nuts. The owner told me that the frozen yogurt was essentially fat free. Their goal is to offer healthy food, which is why they don't have boba. Instead, they plan to focus on fresh fruit smoothies, frozen yogurt, and coffee drinks.

We ordered the original flavor with pineapple topping. I thought the taste was pretty good. It had the fresh, tangy taste of yogurt. It was creamier (less icy) than the Pinkberry type yogurt. After eating many spoonfuls of the yogurt, I felt that it was a tad too sweet, and it was less enjoyable at the end. I was trying to remember what my last homemade batch had tasted like, and which one I liked better.

The owners were very friendly. We sat outside eating our frozen yogurt for quite some time. After about an hour, the owners came out and asked whether we wanted decaf lattes on the house. Bryan took them up on the offer and actually requested a caffeinated double shot latte. They happily obliged. They were eager for Bryan's feedback. He said that it was pretty good. They replied by saying, "please be honest with your feedback, cuz we want to make it better if it's not that good." He responded again by affirming that it's pretty good.

Berryline buys their coffee from a roaster in Hopkinton. Apparently the coffee that they receive has typically just been freshly roasted only a few days ago.

Anyway, we enjoyed our experience at Berryline and look forward to seeing what other new products they have to offer. They seem pretty open to suggestions. In fact, they said the number one request they've had so far is mochi topping. "We're working on that one" they say.

It looks like this place could be an awesome addition to all the other cool ice cream/dessert places in Harvard Square. Truly, you can never have enough ice cream places! So, if you happen to be in Harvard Square, you should definitely check out Berryline.

Berryline Frozen Yogurt

Berryline is another Pinkberry-esque frozen yogurt place that just opened in Harvard Square this past weekend. It is located on Arrow Street, right off of Mass Ave in Harvard Square. I went there last night with people from my small group to try it out.

The place is owned and run by two biochemical engineering graduate (or ex-graduate?) students. The outside of the store is painted with whimsical colorful designs that make the place seem fun, casual, and inviting. Likewise, the two owners were very friendly, fun, and hospitable. The cafe sells coffee, fancy espresso based drinks, and frozen yogurt with toppings such as fruit, cereal, granola, and nuts. They plan on offering fresh fruit smoothies soon too.

Supposedly these two guys have spent the last year perfecting their recipe for frozen yogurt. When we went they had two flavors - original (which is essentially just simple yogurt flavor) and acai, which is a berry-like fruit from Brazil that has been quite popular lately with health nuts. The owner told me that the frozen yogurt was essentially fat free. Their goal is to offer healthy food, which is why they don't have boba. Instead, they plan to focus on fresh fruit smoothies, frozen yogurt, and coffee drinks.

We ordered the original flavor with pineapple topping. I thought the taste was pretty good. It had the fresh, tangy taste of yogurt. It was creamier (less icy) than the Pinkberry type yogurt. After eating many spoonfuls of the yogurt, I felt that it was a tad too sweet, and it was less enjoyable at the end. I was trying to remember what my last homemade batch had tasted like, and which one I liked better.

The owners were very friendly. We sat outside eating our frozen yogurt for quite some time. After about an hour, the owners came out and asked whether we wanted decaf lattes on the house. Bryan took them up on the offer and actually requested a caffeinated double shot latte. They happily obliged. They were eager for Bryan's feedback. He said that it was pretty good. They replied by saying, "please be honest with your feedback, cuz we want to make it better if it's not that good." He responded again by affirming that it's pretty good.

Berryline buys their coffee from a roaster in Hopkinton. Apparently the coffee that they receive has typically just been freshly roasted only a few days ago.

Anyway, we enjoyed our experience at Berryline and look forward to seeing what other new products they have to offer. They seem pretty open to suggestions. In fact, they said the number one request they've had so far is mochi topping. "We're working on that one" they say.

It looks like this place could be an awesome addition to all the other cool ice cream/dessert places in Harvard Square. Truly, you can never have enough ice cream places! So, if you happen to be in Harvard Square, you should definitely check out Berryline.

"Pinkberry" Yogurt Recipe

I thought I'd try several recipes to see if I could make a good cup of frozen yogurt in the style of Pinkberry frozen yogurt.
















Recipe 1
2 1/2 cup Trader Joe's Greek-style yogurt (nonfat)
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir together all the ingredients and refrigerate for 1 hour. Then freeze in a commercial ice cream machine for about 30 minutes.

I tried this the other day and I thought it was way to sweet. I had already cut the sugar down from the original recipe. However, I could barely stand to eat it - it was so sweet. The texture was quite creamy, which is unlike the icy texture of Pinkberry style yogurt. The yogurt also does not freeze well. After sitting overnight in the freezer, it became quite hard - definitely too hard to scoop. It would have made a better popsicle.

Recipe 2
2 1/2 cups 2% fat Trader Joe's Greek style yogurt
1/3 cup 2% milk
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients and stir until everything is well mixed. Freeze in a commercial ice cream maker for about 30 minutes.

I tried this recipe last night and it got pretty good reviews from my friends. This recipe comes closer to achieving the icy texture of Pinkberry style soft serve yogurt, since it contains more water from the half and half and milk. I like the sugar level here much better as well. The frozen yogurt was light, refreshing, tangy (but not too sour), and slightly sweet. Because I served this immediately after making it, I was not able to check out its freezing capabilities. I'm guessing that it would become even harder, since it has more water content and still not enough fat. Nevertheless, if you plan on eating it within a few hours, it should have pretty good texture.

Recipe 3
1 quart Trader Joe's Lowfat Organic Yogurt
3 x 2.13 oz Yang Le Duo (yogurt drink)

I have not gotten around to this one yet because I need to buy the yogurt drink. I may be less inclined now since I really like Recipe 2. I'll update this blog entry if I ever make the third one.

"Pinkberry" Yogurt Recipe

I thought I'd try several recipes to see if I could make a good cup of frozen yogurt in the style of Pinkberry frozen yogurt.















Recipe 1
2 1/2 cup Trader Joe's Greek-style yogurt (nonfat)
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir together all the ingredients and refrigerate for 1 hour. Then freeze in a commercial ice cream machine for about 30 minutes.

I tried this the other day and I thought it was way to sweet. I had already cut the sugar down from the original recipe. However, I could barely stand to eat it - it was so sweet. The texture was quite creamy, which is unlike the icy texture of Pinkberry style yogurt. The yogurt also does not freeze well. After sitting overnight in the freezer, it became quite hard - definitely too hard to scoop. It would have made a better popsicle.

Recipe 2
2 1/2 cups 2% fat Trader Joe's Greek style yogurt
1/3 cup 2% milk
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients and stir until everything is well mixed. Freeze in a commercial ice cream maker for about 30 minutes.

I tried this recipe last night and it got pretty good reviews from my friends. This recipe comes closer to achieving the icy texture of Pinkberry style soft serve yogurt, since it contains more water from the half and half and milk. I like the sugar level here much better as well. The frozen yogurt was light, refreshing, tangy (but not too sour), and slightly sweet. Because I served this immediately after making it, I was not able to check out its freezing capabilities. I'm guessing that it would become even harder, since it has more water content and still not enough fat. Nevertheless, if you plan on eating it within a few hours, it should have pretty good texture.

Recipe 3
1 quart Trader Joe's Lowfat Organic Yogurt
3 x 2.13 oz Yang Le Duo (yogurt drink)

I have not gotten around to this one yet because I need to buy the yogurt drink. I may be less inclined now since I really like Recipe 2. I'll update this blog entry if I ever make the third one.