Elegant Iced Coffee

December 14, 2011 by paladinipotpie 2 Comments

Just in time for Christmas parties — this is a festive and easy drink everyone will love!

I heard the idea on a radio show back in the early eighties. Big chain coffee shops weren’t that common in those days, and I don’t think there was much marketing of the yummy, slushy, coffee drinks we take for granted today. So this iced coffee seemed like a new and novel idea.

I was driving as I was listening to the radio, so I couldn’t write down the recipe…but I’m not very good at following recipes anyway. A few days later I played around and came up with my version of the elegant iced coffee. I served it at a ladies’ Christmas party at my church and it became an instant hit!

It’s fondly referred to as the official drink of the Calvary Chapel Ladies, and I bet no fewer than 50 people have asked me for the recipe.

Ingredients

3 cups of double-strength, freshly brewed black coffee (You can use decaf)

1 cup sugar

1 quart half and half

2 quarts extra rich or whole milk

2 tablespoons vanilla (or you can use mint or chocolate…be creative.)

Directions

Pour the hot coffee into a large container and add sugar

Stir to melt the sugar

When the sweet coffee has cooled a little, stir in the milk and half and half

Stir in the vanilla

Now return the milky coffee to the milk containers. (You will need one additional quart container)

Freeze completely until the day you plan to use it

Allow it to thaw for 2-3 hours before serving.

The coffee will probably be in a soft icy chunk when you transfer it to your punch bowl. You can break it up with a wooden spoon or serving fork.

Serve at a slushy consistency.

This recipe makes about a gallon. That’s 16 cups. And each cup contains about 205 calories…but who’s counting!

Author: paladinipotpie

Welcome! My name is Andrena Paladini and this is a blog about family and love and faith and fun. I call it Paladini Potpie because a potpie is like an adventure in a crust. You never know what might come up, but it’s always going to be good! Think of the best potpie you’ve ever eaten…hot flaky crust holding a rich savory sauce and all kinds of pieces of meat and vegetables…and who knows what? As a family, we’ve chosen to live within the parameters of God’s love and protection. This is the crust of our Paladini Potpie. The crust never changes. Within this crust, the savory sauce of family love binds it all together. That is also fairly constant. But beyond the crust and the sauce we can add just about anything! Good ideas come our way and we’ve adopted and adapted them to add to what John calls our treasure box of memories. These stories and ideas from John’s treasure box of memories are the ingredients I’m putting into our Paladini Potpie. (Okay, so this ridiculous mixing of metaphors about treasure boxes and potpies is exactly what I’m talking about. Silly and ungrammatically correct. But both illustrations work… so we’ll mix them together and it’ll be just fine!) John and I have been married for 30 years. Our children have wonderfully doubled in number since David married Amanda, Monica married Dan, and Matthew married Sarah. And the newest little treats that have been added to our potpie are six adorable grandchildren - Ethan, Angelina, Nathan, Audrey, Maleia and Caleb! I hope you’ll subscribe to my Paladini Potpie blog, and keep up with all the fun new ingredients I add. Hopefully you’ll enjoy our stories and ideas, and find something you’ll want to put into your own potpie! Bon appétit!