Friday, February 20, 2009

Cake and Yogurt-a quick review

So Yoplait has all kinds of new flavors now and they all seem to be baked goods related. I find this to be weird, but I gave them a shot anyway.

Cherry Cobbler-this was a weird pinky-red color and tasted worse than Maraschino cherries, which in my book is pretty bad.

Cinnamon roll-this was the color of a Flesh colored Crayola crayon. Terrible color aside, it wasn't bad, sort of a combo of weak cinnamon and cream cheese icing.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake-Strangely enough, this was the winner of the bunch. It actually smelled like pineapple and cake and even tasted a little cakey. The pineapple is what made it good, though. This one I would definitely get again.

Apple Turnover-not a new flavor, but one of my favorites. Another weird yogurt flavor, but very tasty apple & cinnamon

Lemon Meringue Pie-very important, you have to get the Yoplait Light Thick & Creamy version, NOT the regular texture light yogurt (which is actually Lemon Creme Pie flavored). My favorite yogurt EVER. It's not exactly lemon curd, but still a little tart and yummy. I need to get some graham crackers and try mixing it with the yogurt.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Almond Coffee Syrup


I've been looking for almond coffee syrup in stores near me for a while and cannot find it. Many have sugar free almond coffee syrup, but I've tried a few different brands and they all taste terrible. The sugar free vanilla and sugar free caramel taste fine, so I don't really understand why the sugar free almond is terrible, but it is. I've looked online and one can certainly order regular almond syrup from many different places, but shipping is just as much or more than the cost of the syrup. So, I decided I'd try making my own. I couldn't find a recipe so I just made simple syrup and added almond extract a little at a time until it tasted strong enough to flavor my iced coffee. I'm so glad I did this! It's fast, easy and cheap. I'll be making my own vanilla syrup from now on, too. I think the vanilla syrup may take a bit more than 1 tsp vanilla. I'll post an exact recipe once I make it.

Almond Coffee Syrup
2 c sugar
1 c water
1 tsp almond extract

Heat sugar and water on medium until liquid is clear (3-5 minutes). Do not boil. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Allow to cool. Pour into a bottle using a funnel. Store in refrigerator.

UPDATE:
After a few iced almond lattes, I decided that it wasn't almondy enough. So I upped the almond to 2 tsp and I think it's perfect. It's quite almondy, so you don't have to add so much syrup to your latte. You get a good almond flavor without it being sickeningly sweet.

Almond Coffee Syrup - UPDATED
2 c sugar
1 c water
2 tsp almond extract