Beat the Heat

This is a very non-Ecuadorian dish, but I have to share it because it makes living in the equatorial heat Worth It.  And, for those of you riding the heat wave in the US of A, it might provide some relief.  Here's the skinny:

Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt.  Believe it.

Here is a brief survey to help you decide whether you will like this recipe:
1. Do you like cookies?
2. Do you like ice cream and/or frozen yogurt?

If you answered Yes to both of these questions, this recipe is for you.

Basically, there are three steps:

1. Make cookie dough, but without the eggs.
2. Mix in yogurt.
3. Freeze it.

The keys to happiness are scattered about your kitchen - in your pantry and refrigerator - and all you have to do is gather them up to unlock the secret to fro-yo awesomeness.

Start by making the cookie dough. Put all the good stuff in a bowl. This means butter and sugar.  Mix it up real good.

Next, if you live in Ecuador or another place where there are no chocolate chips, you have to improvise.  Let's be snobs and use Ecuadorian-made chocolate - "true chocolate," as the label on this bar proudly announces. 

The company that makes this, La Universal, has a factory near downtown Guayaquil.  It is great fun to ride past it on the bus, because the block it is on always smells delicious.



Here is what our chocolate looks like on the inside: smaller bars, each stamped with the words "La Universal" so you don't forget what chocolate you are using. 

See that knife?  This is how we improvise chocolate chips.

Chocolate chunks, more like.

A few of these may have made it into my stomach at this point, but for the most part four fifths of the 200 gram bar of chocolate went into the making of our fro-yo.

...Chocolate goes with the dry ingredients...

...Mix the dry ingredients with the wet...

...And here is our eggless cookie dough.

Here comes the easiest part.

Mix a cup or so of yogurt into the almost-cookie dough.  Vanilla yogurt is sweeter, but plain works just as well.

Stir until the batter is all mixed together.  Make sure to swipe your finger down the spoon and taste, as shown in the picture.

Stick it in the freezer overnight.

Take it out in the morning and it should look something like this, but with a pristine surface if you have more patience than I and don't continually swipe fingerfuls of the stuff to check its consistency.

Breakfast, yum!