Coffee!!!

It’s time for a coffee blog. Yes, this week’s flavour is a Ben and Jerry's one and is called “Coffee coffee, buzz buzz buzz.” I am a big fan of coffee and I thought that we’d trying making a few different things with coffee this week. I will try out a couple of iced versions, some homemade iced and warm latte, and a dessert with coffee in it.

With Summer in full swing, I was feeling quite warm even first thing in the morning while I was sipping my hot coffee so I decided to try out a few iced cold coffee drinks to kick off my day. 

First of all I tried one that crushed up the ice like a Frappuccino.

*For all of these coffees, you’ll want to make your coffee stronger than usual so that you get better flavour when it gets diluted with ice/water (maybe cut the water in half; I usually do equal parts grounds and water when I make my regular morning coffee).

Blend about 1 ½ - 2 cups of ice cubes crushed up. Add ¾ cup of brewed strong coffee that is cooled along with ½ cup of milk/cream. If you want to, you can add some sugar (I prefer mine without) and a few drops of vanilla.

I also made one with whole ice cubes which I like better (see above pictures for the first steps). You can keep it real simple or make it a bit fancier. I made one with instant coffee in which you will need ½ cup of hot water and 2 tsp. of instant coffee, let cool. Then blend it with ¼ cup of cream and 1 tsp. of vanilla and pour over ice. If you make it with regular brewed coffee then blend a cooled 1 cup of coffee along with 1 tsp. of vanilla, 2-4 tbsp. of half and half and then pour over ice.

I love lattes, but they can be expensive and have a lot of calories, so these are some easy at home lattes that you can try.

For an iced latte try brewing 1/3 cup of coffee with 2 cups of cold water. Combine the brewed and slightly cooled coffee with 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and serve over ice. This makes lots of coffee so if you only want some then refrigerate some and pour over ice when you are ready to drink it.

For a warm latte, I kind of used the method that we did when we made London Fogs a while back. Start by brewing some really strong coffee. 

Pick the mug you want and then fill it half way up with milk or cream and pour into a saucepan. Then whisk constantly while it simmers on the stove (make sure you don’t boil). 

Fill your mug/mugs up with coffee half way, add a bit of vanilla, this is where you’d add syrup or sugar if you like it, and then when you have a nice foam on your milk that you are whisking, pour the milk into the coffee and top with the foam. You can sprinkle with cocoa or cinnamon.

Ok, so another must try and a must try that is at the top of my list, are these Oreo cookie ice cubes. Simply crush up some Oreo’s and line them in the bottom of some ice cube trays and top with the milk of your choice. Once they have frozen, add them to your morning coffee, iced or warm!

Coffee dessert time! We’ve been talking about different ways to drink coffee but now we thought we’d try a dessert with coffee as the main ingredient. Nicole isn’t a coffee fan so I have been testing out the drinks so far and have been taking over this blog and I’ll do the same for this dessert but maybe I can try and convince her to have some. I have chosen to make chocolate chip coffee cookies. These have a really nice strong coffee flavour; it’s not so much mocha like some coffee chocolate combos, you can definitely taste the coffee and chocolate separately.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cookie Recipe:

You will need...

½ cup of butter

½ cup of granulated sugar

¼ cup of brown sugar

1 egg

4 tbsp. of instant coffee granules

1 tbsp. of water

2 cups of flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. of cornstarch

½ tsp. of baking soda

¼ tsp. of salt

1 cup of chocolate chips

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the flour, powder, soda, cornstarch, some of the coffee granules, and salt.

Then almost melt the butter in the microwave and pour into mixing bowl. Mix in the sugars and then the egg until combined.

Dissolve the  rest of the instant coffee into the water and then add to the wet ingredients.

Now add in the dry ingredients slowly until completely mixed and then stir in the chocolate chips.

You can roll balls of dough and place on the cookie sheet for a more polished look or you can scoop the dough. It’s up to you.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Allow to cool a bit before removing from the sheet.