Monday, February 22, 2010

Cold Coffee With Ice Cream

 Chocolate, men, coffee - some things are better rich.  ~Author Unknown.

I can bet my last piece of chocolate cake if most of the Indian population is not craving for a cool drink at this moment:-)) Its getting hotter by the day and for a coffee lover like me, nothing better to beat the heat than a tall glass of cold coffee.  Caffeine in any form is most welcome and if its Cold Coffee with a scoop of ice cream, its achieves the status of a dessert.  And, now I can't really resist this... At the cost of sounding immodest, I prefer my creamy home-made cold coffee to the ice-diluted ones in the fancy coffee shops. And since its low-fat, makes it all the more of a delight.  This low fat version compensates a tiny little bit for adding the scoop of ice cream, making me feel less guilty:-))





Ingredients:
Skimmed Milk 1 Cup
Powdered Sugar 2 teaspoons (or sweetener)
Skimmed Milk Powder 1 teaspoon
Instant Coffee Powder 1 teaspoon
Vanilla Essence a little more than 1/4 teaspoon
1 Scoop Vanilla Ice Cream
Grated chocolate for garnish

Heat 1/4 cup milk in a saucepan. Add the sugar, instant coffee and the skimmed milk powder, stir to dissolve everything well. Heat on low heat for about 30 seconds. Take off the heat. Mix this milk with the rest of the milk. Stir in the vanilla essence.

Pour about 1/4 cup of the coffee in an ice tray, cover with cling film and put it in the freezer. Chill the rest of the coffee till serving time (for at least 3 hours). Put the chilled coffee in a blender, add the cubes of frozen coffee and blend well till thick and frothy. Pour into a serving glass, top with the ice cream. Grate some chocolate over the ice cream and serve immediately. Sip on with straws slowly... and enjoy!!! And don't forget the tall spoon for the ice-cream!

Please Note: It is very important to freeze some part of the coffee and blend it with the rest of the chilled coffee. It helps keep the blended coffee really chilled and also avoid the taste getting diluted (by addition of normal ice). Adding the milk powder gives creaminess and thickness to the coffee.

Adding coffee powder to hot milk gives it extra flavor as compared to directly adding it to the milk.

This recipe is also my entry to Madhuri's 'Serve me Some Juices, Shakes, Smoothies' event.
P. S: Am still trying to learn my way with the camera and this is the best I could do. And pictures of glasses at that! Whew!! Somebody give me tips please !! 

11 comments:

M D said...

Cold coffee reminds me of my college day hang-outs at coffee days. I am not a coffee lover, but surely love cold coffee with vanilla cream on top. Your post tempts me to create my own cold coffee. What a delight that we can now make them at home!

Nithu Bala said...

Hey, I love this..

Priya Narasimhan said...

refreshing drink/dessert..i too have the same kind of glass. :-)
i am not great at photography, but one tip i got from some blogger friends which really works for me is to take photos in the natural light basically in the morning when there is sun light..

Deepa G Joshi said...

ohh one of my all time favorite drinks..such refreshing one..really its getting hotter and hotter day by..this is a comfort..

M D said...

Hey, I am not good at photography, but through trial and error have managed some decent photos. I hope this helps you too. Some tips to help you on this:

1. To get a better photograph, ensure you do not use flash. It camouflages the true colors making the photo look monotonous and flat. Place the food near a window sill where there is ample indirect sunlight coming through, but not direct harsh light.

2. Have the macros option on your camera enabled. They fetch good photos for close-ups.

3. Have a contrast background against the food color. Ex: Using a black/chocolate brown colored table-mat as a background for the white colored coffee, so that the cream colored coffee stands out on the dark background. This will also bring depth to the grated chocolate on the coffee, again brown against cream).

4. Adjust the color tones, brightness, contrast using a good photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom/Picasa. Google for initial help on how to use them. They will enhance the photo quality.

I have shared a few tricks which I use on my photos. I hope it helps you too ;) Do let me know :)

Nina said...

Awww my all fav one...this ones the best.Great pic too:)

Suma Rowjee said...

Hi Priya and Mallika! Thanks a ton for sharing the tips, so very nice of you to do so!

Anonymous said...

Oh gosh, I dont know how I missed this one. It looks really inviting Suma...and you're so right about home-made cold coffee being better than the ones served with all the fancy fare at coffee shops at 5 times the cost!! I'd rather make my own...I second you!

Geetha said...

oh oh oh .... I so so so so want one now!!! Trying to grab the glass off the monitor!!!

Shubha said...

how did i miss this one??

Unknown said...

My fav have been wanting to try them....urs tempt me more!