Homemade Iced Vanilla Latte

June 4, 2013June 4, 2013 ~ Crystle ~ 4 Comments

I’m too caught up in the weather. I have a dozen or so cities saved into my weather checker favorites so I can regularly envy someone else’s weather. Santa Fe, NM, Bakersfield, CA, Oklahoma City, OK; you all seem to be having warmer weather than Washington State. I by no means miss the warm weather, but I do miss enjoying a cold beverage on a hot day, or walking out of an icy-cold movie theater into the sweltering summer heat. Those are the fondest memories I have of beating unbearable summer heat.

In honor of those missed (or hopefully, upcoming) summer days I’ve whipped up a delicious iced coffee drink; a subtle reminder that the seasons are changing. It’s brilliantly simple, and positively refreshing.

Iced Vanilla Latte Recipe

Ingredients:

For the Cold Brew Concentrate:

1 cup fresh ground espresso roast coffee (or the equivalent of making 8-10 cups in your coffee maker) – must be dark!

Cold water, enough to cover the grounds and fill the french press to the brim.

For the Latte:

One extremely generous splash of Vanilla Creamer, or a few pumps of vanilla syrup if you’ve got it. As you can see, I like my coffee drinks VERY WHITE.

1/2 or 1 cup cold milk, I use 2% — again according to preference

1/2 – 1 1/2 cups cold brew coffee concentrate, depending on how strong you like your coffee beverages

One small splash of half and half (optional)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

For the cold brew, grind espresso beans in grinder according to manufacturer directions. I use the setting to ration out grounds for 8 cups of coffee. Pour grounds into French press, add cold water to saturate the beans completely. Fill French press with water, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow coffee to steep for 8-16 hours at room temperature.

Then use French press plunger to separate the grounds from the brew. Pour into container with a lid to store in the fridge. I used a clean Nalgene water bottle.

Fill glass with ice, pour your preferred amount of coffee concentrate over ice. Add milk, creamer, vanilla extract and half and half, if using. Stir, and enjoy!

Vanilla Bean Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream

May 28, 2013July 30, 2013 ~ Crystle ~ 7 Comments

I’ve been enjoying myself far too much in the kitchen lately, meaning my once-kicked sugar habit is now on reprieve. An ice cream maker was finally added to my arsenal of small appliances, and it’s been busy churning frozen greek vanilla bean yogurt (what a mouthful!) nearly every day.

The greek frozen yogurt I’ve been making is wonderful when fresh, but I find that it freezes hard as a rock, making it cumbersome to scoop and serve a day or so after making it. So I gave in to a more traditional ice cream recipe, and made it a little lighter. And bonus!, it includes two of my all-time favorite flavors: vanilla and strawberry.

This recipe also had the benefit of an extra taste tester since my sister-in-law is in town. After touring rainy Olympia like we should have done as residents long ago, it was nice to unwind to a little ice cream served in a soda fountain glass, garnished with a fresh strawberry.

It’s also such a delight when my husband and his sister can play with Margot in the adjacent living room while I’m busy in the kitchen. During the work week when I’m at home alone, and Margot begins to cry, I usually keep working and holler “it’s okay honeeeey!” until I can hurriedly stop what I’m doing and rush to her aide. I already sound like a terrible parent, but I still have a house to run! Okay Moms, time to reassure me that that’s a sort-of normal thing for us to do.

Vanilla Bean Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 eggs

3 cups of 2% milk

2 cup half and half

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 Vanilla Bean – slice lengthwise and scrape caviar, discard bean

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup sugar free organic strawberry preserves

Directions

1. Using whisk attachment in mixer, beat eggs until light in color. Add sugar and beat until creamy. Add milk, half and half, salt, and vanilla bean caviar and stir well to combine.

2. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer directions. In my Cuisinart ice cream maker, it takes approximately 30 minutes to get a decent texture, but it still requires several hours freeze time to get a solid ice cream scoop.

3. Approximately five minutes before completion in ice cream maker, stir in half of the strawberry preserves.

4. Spoon ice cream out into 2 quart glass casserole dish, swirling in the remaining strawberry preserves.

5. Freeze for 2-5 additional hours, or until firm.

Notes:

In my Cuisinart ice cream maker, it takes approximately 30 minutes to get a decent texture, but it still requires several hours freeze time to get a solid scoop of ice cream. If you plan on making this ice cream for a group, or would like it ready by a certain time, I recommend giving yourself six hours to let the ice cream set.

Recipe adapted from Apple A Day: Oklahoma Farm Style Ice Cream.

Vanilla Bean Cream Soda

May 8, 2013May 9, 2013 ~ Crystle ~ 5 Comments

Record heat swept through our area earlier this week. You’d think that since I’m from Bakersfield, a city with some of the hottest summer days in the nation, I could swing the heat, no problem…this is not the case.

You see, in Bakersfield, CA we had this wonderful invention called the air conditioner. It’s a foreign concept up here in Washington state, mainly because they’d only be in use for a few days every summer. Our house is a two story, equipped with zero cool-air-emitting contraptions, making the days a little toasty when the temperatures surpass 80 like they did on Monday. Whoa, 80 degrees? Yeah, I know. Sweltering.

I’m probably the only person in Washington wishing for the rain to return. Fortunately, the temps dropped back down into the 70s, and rain is on the horizon (which reminds me, I’m pretty sure I’m going to love the cold weather in Alaska!).

This pop came to my attention when searching for a vanilla bean based beverage to take the edge off these warm summer days sans A/C. The original recipe, from Cheeky Kitchen, calls for granulated white sugar. I chose to use Agave nectar to sweeten it instead, since it’s a low glycemic sweetener. It absorbs into the body slower, preventing spikes in blood sugar. I kicked my pregnancy-influenced sugar habit recently, and didn’t want to completely relapse.

Vanilla Bean Cream Soda Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup Organic Blue Agave Nectar

1 Vanilla Bean – caviar stripped

1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

1/4 teaspoon Almond Extract

1 QT Sparkling Water – Chilled

Directions:

Slice vanilla bean lengthwise, use paring knife or spoon to scrape vanilla bean caviar into a large pitcher.

Add Agave nectar, and extracts to the vanilla bean caviar and mix thoroughly.

Add sparkling soda slowly.

Notes:

The caviar will separate from the mixture and float to the top. If you plan on serving immediately, I recommend topping the pitcher with copious amounts of ice. This re-integrates the caviar into the drink. Or, hold a spatula over the spout while pouring over ice in individual glasses to limit the amount of caviar going into each glass. This seemed to work for me.

Shelf life is about a 24 hours since the carbonation tends to disappear slightly with each pour.

Bonus!: to enhance your porch-sitting, spike this soda with white rum. It’s insanely delicious.

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