Iced Cawfee

Yum - Yum - Yum. Just made my first batch of iced coffee.  True iced coffee is not the method of making a batch of hot coffee in your coffee maker and then pouring it in to a cup and adding ice. Trued iced coffee is done via cold brew method. Soaking coffee grounds in cold water for 8-11 hours. (Overnight on your counter top) It tastes SOOO good. Full detailed step-by-step instructions can be found on thepioneerwoman.com's website - titled perfect iced coffee.  I'm not at all going to try and re-create the wheel, but I will tell you what I've learned.

1) She makes 2 gallons worth of this dreamy concoction.  Yes 2 gallons - it lasts her 3 weeks. I was nervous to make that much so I scaled back the recipe to 1 gallon of water to approx. 2 1/2 cups of ground coffee (or 1/2 a pound - I weighed mine on a scale).

I drink decaf so I made an even small batch for myself based off an old article I found on-line.  1/3 cup of coffee to 1-1/2 cups of water. The first time I made it following that criteria it only made one cup, so the next night I made a triple batch - one cup of coffee to 4-1/2 cups of water. Much better and will at least last me longer than 1 morning.

2) Use the coffee she used - cafe bustelo - it's "espresso coffee" that is a rich, flavorful, dark roast, and ideal for cappuccino, espresso, or ICED COFFEE.  I found it at my local Wal-Mart.

3) Prepare for the mess.  Her photos are fabulous, but not realistic of my experience.  I made a huge freakin mess.  I bought a 'special' gallon bowl for this and made a rookie mistake. By the time you add the coffee to the gallon of water the darn thing was plumb full.  Plus the bowl I bought didn't have a lid or a pour spout. The pour spout is every important, otherwise you end up with this.

And that's my 'small' decaf batch. It was too frightening to take a photo of the mess the gallon made.

4) Unless you are super woman, have somebody help you with the pouring out the grounds step - so you can avoid the photo above when I tried to do it myself.

5) If you can, get good cheesecloth because it will make it much easier as you can then squeeze the cloth to get every last drop out. I tried a short cut this morning and use our coffee cone filter and a paper coffee filter. It wouldn't drain fast enough so I got frustrated and tried to squeeze the water out and then tore the paper and made the mess seen above.

6) Don't use regular ice cubes for your iced coffee or it will get watered down.  Freeze left over coffee (if you even know what that is, ha ha - that's for my die hard coffee drinkers who drink every last drop) and then use the frozen coffee cubes to add to make your iced coffee.

That's it. I hope you give it a try because it is totally worth it!  I'm too scared to try her version with the sweetened condensed milk. I figure my waistline has suffered enough lately after the knock you naked brownies.