Creamy Lemon Dill Dressing From a Barking Dog

A couple of blocks from our apartment is a fun little cafe called The Barking Dog.  Somewhere between a diner and a cafe, they have good burgers, amazing beer battered onion rings, comfy Yankee pot roast and the best Cobb salad we've ever had.  It's huge, with lots of grilled chicken, bacon, blue cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, sprouts and a whole sliced avocado.  I usually share one with Brian as a starter but I'm perfectly fine with skipping the entree and just eating this salad as my meal.  That's assuming, of course, that I can have extra dressing because I really, really love this dressing.  Really.

Ever since the first time I tasted it, I've wanted to learn how to make it.  Of course I inquired but, Barking Dog is a mini chain and I was told the dressing comes in already made and nobody knows exactly how.  Hmm.  It's creamy, lemony and has a lot of dill.  That much is evident but exactly what and how much I needed to figure out.  I think, at this point, I have spent more time trying to crack this particular recipe than any other I've ever tackled.  In the process, I've made lots of tasty dressings but they weren't the Barking Dog dressing.  I even enlisted the help of a chef friend and brought her a sample of the restaurant's dressing to see if she could discern what was in it.  She did help me to realize there was far more sweetness than I had realized but there was still a lot of experimenting to do.

So, did I finally crack the code?  I would have to say, more or less.  It's not exactly exact but it's the closest I've ever come and...it's a really good dressing.  Using the full fat ingredients brings it closer to the original but nowadays I usually make it with low fat products since I've been eating a whole lot of it.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
1/4 Cup mayonnaise
1/4 Cup milk
1 Tablespoon sour cream
2 Teaspoons lemon juice
1 Teaspoon sugar
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh dill
Salt & pepper to taste

Add all the ingredients to a bowl, whisk together and season to taste.  You can leave it thicker by reducing the amount of milk to make a great dip for carrots and broccoli.  Thin it out with more milk for a wonderful salad dressing.  Makes approximately 4 generous servings.