Friday, June 24, 2011

Iced Capps the Easy (and Cheap) Way

Looking for an easy but luscious alternative to those yummy but oh-so-pricey iced coffee confections at your favorite coffee shop? Here's one for you - a rich, chocolately iced "cappuccino" with little fuss, that makes a family-sized blenderful of summertime yumminess! :) We threw together this recipe yesterday, on a hot, muggy afternoon, and we all loved it. With these proportions, it is truly more like a nice, cold, rich cappuccino, but feel free to increase the ice and/or ice cream proportions in the recipe if you want it to be more like a milkshake. And of course, you can scale down the ingredients if you only want to serve one or two. Either way - YUM!

Blender Iced Cappuccino

-4  (6 ounces each) cups VERY STRONG coffee (I used decaf coffee, and about 2 tbsp of grounds per coffee-pot-cup of water. Coffee pots usually measure cups in 6 oz servings, not the 8 oz of a measuring cup.)
-1/2 cup instant chocolate milk powder (I'm sure chocolate syrup would work just as well :) )
-1 quart vanilla ice cream
-Handful of ice cubes
-Extra ice cubes for each glass

 Combine the first four ingredients in a large blender; blend until very smooth. Pour into ice-filled glasses and serve. Serves approximately 4-6 adults.

Any extra cappuccino can be chilled in the fridge until needed; it will be of a slightly thinner consistency since the ice cream and ice cubes will have melted, but it will be fantastic over ice nonetheless. :)

*Out of chocolate milk powder or syrup? No vanilla ice cream? Just substitute chocolate ice cream instead. :)