Homemade Iced Coffee with Microwave Simple Syrup

In my small town, we have several small coffee shops and a Tim Horton's.  It is a treat for us to go out for coffee.  With the warm summer weather, iced coffee is a wonderful, refreshing treat but the price tag is not!  I remember paying at least CAD$3.50 for a medium cup.  I think making this at home would be economical for a group of mommies at a playdate!

In general, I hate waste.  As an experiment, I refrigerated leftover morning coffee in a glass pyrex container.  The next day, I reheated it and enjoyed it.  My taste buds were not perceptive enough to notice a difference between today's and yesterday's home brew so I save leftover coffee now.  Hubby is the same.  One hot day, I decided to throw some ice cubes, milk and sweetener in some leftover coffee I had in the fridge and the rest is history.  I've read that some people complain about the bitterness and oxidation of coffee, etc.  It doesn't bother us.  Everybody's palate is different! 

To last a few days, I brew a strong pot of coffee, cool it down, and pour it in a nice pitcher for the fridge.  Serve with ice, your milk of choice and your sweetener of choice.  The ice cubes will dilute the cold coffee, so you may want to make your pot of coffee stronger.  For us, we are OK with a weaker iced coffee.  I don't need so much caffeine in the afternoon. You can even freeze your leftover coffee in ice cubes but I didn't want to stain my white ice cube tray.

Looking online, there is the "cold brew" method of making iced coffee, where you steep the coffee grounds in cold water for 8-24 hours, filter out the grounds and keep this concentrate in the fridge. But for this busy mom, I haven't felt the need to make it this way (yet).

 

Homemade Iced Coffee

- Cooled strong pot of coffee (1 1/2 to double strength,  if preferred)

- Ice

- Milk or cream of your choice

- Sweetener of your choice or simple syrup (below)

Make your normal or a stronger pot of coffee.  Let cool and transfer cooled coffee in a container and store in refrigerator.  Serve with ice,  milk of your choice and sweetener of your choice.  Enjoy.

Out of curiosity, I made a simple syrup in the microwave, as I have heard that it dissolves better in iced coffee than white sugar.  Simple syrup is 2 parts sugar dissolved in 1 part water. 

Microwave Simple Syrup

1 part water (e.g. 1/2 cup water)

2 parts sugar (e.g. 1 cup white sugar)

Microwave 1/2 cup water in a microwave-safe 2-cup glass measuring cup at HIGH 1 minute or until very hot. Stir in sugar; stir 20 seconds. Microwave at HIGH 30 seconds; stir until sugar is dissolved and mixture is clear. Microwave another 30 seconds if needed.  Be careful not to boil this mixture over.  Cover and chill until ready to use. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 1 month.

- Adapted from Southern Living's Super Simple Syrup

 I have a cool carafe of iced coffee in the refrigerator.  Feel free to drop by for a glass! 

Enjoy!

Pin It

Coffee Chiffon Rose Cake

Mother's Day weekend was lovely.  It was filled with lots of hugs, kisses, cards, presents, and time spent in the garden. 

Of course, I still had to make dinner, dessert, vacuum and wash the floors.  Nothing better to a mother than a nice, enjoyable meal and a fresh clean floor!

For dessert, I wanted to make a special Mother's Day cake.  With roses.  With coffee.  With fresh whipped cream.  Without chocolate.  In the past few months, I noticed that I was getting an allergic reaction to chocolate and cocoa.  It was enough for me to be very uncomfortable with a super itchy face after tasting the stuff.  I'm hoping that it is a temporary thing.  I developed a seafood allergy (hives) at age 16 and was somehow able to eat prawns, crab and lobster again after seven years! 

No worries, there are PLENTY of yummy things other than chocolate.  I'm patient and hopeful.  Maybe I can eat chocolate again in seven years.  In the meantime...

Here is my Rose Cake!  I was inspired by my friend's beautiful Rose cupcakes. (Thanks Q!)  I had the popular Wilton 1M star tip and the roses were very easy to pipe.  I followed I am baker's Rose Cake Tutorial and was able to make a very pretty cake with vanilla whipped cream.  I whipped the cream until it got to the stiff peak stage, about 4-5 minutes (the time depends on the brand of whipping cream, so keep a close eye). 

The coffee sponge cake recipe is from My Food Affair.  It is a very close adaptation of my  Vanilla Chiffon Sponge Cake.  With only the addition of instant coffee (I used decaf for the kiddies) and more sugar, the change was so good!  I was able to fill two 8" round pans and one angel food cake pan.  I cut up the extra cake (from the angel food cake pan) into smaller servings, wrapped them in cling wrap and then froze them in a large freezer bag to enjoy later.   

 The cake was not too sweet and the fresh whipped cream complimented the coffee flavour of the cake.

Coffee Chiffon Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour, or 2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons instant coffee
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
7 egg yolks (or 5 if using cake flour)
1 cup egg whites (8 egg whites)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Move oven rack to lowest position. Heat oven to 325°F. In large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Dissolve instant coffee with 3/4 cup water.  Beat in coffee mixture, oil, vanilla and egg yolks until smooth.

In large bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gradually pour egg yolk mixture over beaten egg whites, folding with rubber spatula just until blended. Pour into 2 ungreased 10-inch angel food (tube) cake pans.   

Bake about 25-30 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly. Immediately turn pans upside down onto heatproof funnel or bottle. Let hang until completely cool, about 1-2 hours. Loosen side of cake with knife or long, metal spatula; remove from pans. 

I decorated this cake with Vanilla Whipped Cream.  I doubled the recipe and was able to fill and decorate one 8" double layered cake with piped roses. 

Note: This batch yielded two 8" round cake pans, with the bottoms lined with parchment paper (baked for 15 minutes) and one 10" angel food cake pan for about 30 minutes.  Next time, I will bake the whole batch in two 9x13 pans for about 15 minutes for a bigger double layered cake.    

Soft and cloud-like, chiffon cakes go down too easy!

The cake turned out so pretty.  Perfect for Mother's Day!

[Edited to add: ] Here is another picture of a coffee sponge cake I made last summer.  Back when I was able to eat chocolate. 

 Luscious fresh raspberries on a coffee sponge cake with whipped cream and shaved Callebeaut dark chocolate.  Also very yummy!

Enjoy!

Pin It