I know, it’s crazy. It’s 30 degrees Celsius, and I have coffee on the brain—iced coffee that is. Iced coffee has become all the rage and I have been captured hook, line, and sinker. My weakness is the $1 vanilla iced coffee from a big chain or a Chiller when I can get them. I could easily get two or three a day, but that’s just not budget-friendly. So to save some money I have come up with a new recipe for iced coffee. It not only satisfies my craving, but tastes divine. It is a two-part recipe, but I promise both are easy. Prepare both in advance and store in the fridge in sealed containers for up to three weeks.
I make 2 cups at a time but if you are entertaining this summer you can easily multiply this recipe to make a big batch. Here is a great tip on how to avoid watered-down iced coffee!
Ingredients:
1 tbsp ground coffee per cup of water. I prefer freshly ground beans, but any would work. A coarse grind is better.
Boiling water
Pour coffee grinds into container and pour boiling water over coffee, stir.
Let sit 2-3 hours stirring once or twice with wooden spoon. Once coffee is a nice, dark color, strain it using a metal strainer lined with a coffee filter or a couple of sheets of cheesecloth. You don’t want any coffee grounds in the finished coffee so take your time.
Close your container of coffee and store in fridge until ready to use. use mason jars because they are plentiful and cheap (check local thrift shops), and you can pour boiling water into them. They are also easy to store and clean.
Vanilla Simple Syrup Ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Bring sugar and water to a boil over med/high heat stirring until sugar dissolves, add in vanilla and let cool. Pour into container and store in fridge about 3 weeks. Discard if it becomes cloudy. You can modify this recipe using 1/3 of a real vanilla bean cut in half, just let it simmer in the simple syrup, stirring continuously, for a minute then transfer it to the bottle. The taste will intensify as it sits. It is a more subtle taste overall though.
Here is the good part…
Fill a cup with ice—lots of ice
Add coffee until it’s 1/2-3/4 full. You will have to play with this part a bit. More if you want more of a coffee taste, less if you want creamier taste.
Add milk or cream until cup is almost full. I like 1% milk in my iced coffee.
Then add in the vanilla syrup to taste. I just let the vanilla decide.
What is your favorite summer beverage?
Republished from Nugglemama's Handful
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