Low Cal Low Fat High Flavor — Iced Coffee

I was helping my friend Susan put away her groceries and she pulled a 4-pak of Starbucks frappuccino coffee out of the frig.  She said, “here, give this to your husband.”  I said, “don’t you like it?”  She answered, “not at 200 calories per bottle!”  WHAT! 200 calories! Really? What is in there?  Coffee, milk, SUGAR and preservatives.  Susan likes iced coffee but not to the tune of 200 calories for 9.5 ounces.  As I was driving home I was thinking I could surely make iced coffee with less than 200 calories. As a part of the FoodBuzz Tastemaker program, I had just received a wonderful box loaded with recipes and samples of Sweet ‘N Low.  I got my little gray cells a scrambling thinking about how I could make iced coffee that Susan would drink.  Turns out I can make an iced coffee with less than 32 calories and it is absolutely delicious!  Shame on Starbucks.
A year ago my long-time friend Sue (of Victorio fame) told me about a recipe on the website of The Pioneer Woman.  My true confession is that until that time I hadn’t even heard of The Pioneer Woman. I know, I know, where have I been? Sue said Ree had just posted a recipe for Iced Coffee and that I should check it out.  One year later (slow learner here) I remembered that conversation and quickly Googled The Pioneer Woman Iced Coffee.  This recipe I am sharing is adapted from her recipe.  She makes her iced coffee 2 gallons at a time and since I am pretty sure I don’t need 2 gallons of iced coffee mix, I will share a recipe that makes one quart.  Since I have a French Press (that we don’t use) I started with that.  But you can use any container that will hold a quart of water.  Then I ground coffee beans to make 1/2 cup ground.  Ree says you can use “any ol’ coffee.”  I think the better the beans, the better the coffee, but you decide.

I added the coffee to one quart of cold water. 

I gave it a little stir and let it sit for a minimum of 8 hours and up to 24 hours.  This doesn’t need to be refrigerated at this point. Just set it on the counter and wait …
About 14 hours later I filtered the coffee. Since I was using a french press, which has a fine metal mesh filter, I used that first by pushing the coffee grounds to the bottom of the container.  I wasn’t sure if it actually filtered all the grounds so I also filtered through some muslin cloth.  If you aren’t using a french press, just skip this step and move right to filtering with a cloth.

When talking to Sue about this step she said, “uh, why don’t you just use a coffee filter?”  Duh. Why didn’t I think of that?  Okay, use cheese cloth, a piece of muslin OR a coffee filter 🙂 Because I had used the french press first, when I poured this through my muslin filter there was very little sludge and grounds left to filter.  I just poured this off into a glass measuring cup.  The results … pure, delicious, liquid gold!

Here is where the fun starts!  The first iced coffee was an afternoon treat for my Chief Culinary Consultant.  The Chief loves his coffee strong, creamy, and a little bit sweet.

I filled a mason jar with ice. (I was delivering this to him out in the shop and a mason jar fit the decor perfectly.) The newly made cold-brewed coffee was next.  Then I added two packets of Sweet ‘N Low which is about 1/2 teaspoon and 2 tablespoons of 2% milk.  I gave the whole thing a little stir and sipped a little taste.  WOW, this is good — even for a non-coffee drinker like me!
  
I added a swirl of real whip cream and delivered this liquid gold.  After a couple of sips he said, “it is every bit as good as the Starbucks frappuccino.”  Then he added, “no, it is better than Starbucks.”  Smart Man.  The remaining coffee was delivered to Susan and she was thrilled!

Iced coffee to cool off on a hot August day – wonderful.  Homemade and preservative free – great.  31 calories per drink – priceless!

Oh but wait … there’s more!  Just in case you want to really cool-off and crank this coffee drink up a notch, here are a couple of my favorite suggestions Bailey’s Irish Cream, Kahlua or Frangelico Liqueur.

AND  to avoid watered down iced coffee…freeze some extra coffee into cubes and add coffee cubes to your drink instead of regular ice cubes!

Thank you to Sweet ‘N Low for sponsoring this fun coffee drink and especially for making it possible to be sweet and NOT 200 calories!

~Blessings, Catherine

As part of the DailyBuzz Food Tastemaker Program, I received Sweet ‘N Low product and a stipend”.

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3:14,20 NIV