Cold Coffee With Ice Cream

 Chocolate, men, coffee - some things are better rich.  ~Author Unknown.

I can bet my last piece of chocolate cake if most of the Indian population is not craving for a cool drink at this moment:-)) Its getting hotter by the day and for a coffee lover like me, nothing better to beat the heat than a tall glass of cold coffee.  Caffeine in any form is most welcome and if its Cold Coffee with a scoop of ice cream, its achieves the status of a dessert.  And, now I can't really resist this... At the cost of sounding immodest, I prefer my creamy home-made cold coffee to the ice-diluted ones in the fancy coffee shops. And since its low-fat, makes it all the more of a delight.  This low fat version compensates a tiny little bit for adding the scoop of ice cream, making me feel less guilty:-))

Ingredients:

Skimmed Milk 1 Cup

Powdered Sugar 2 teaspoons (or sweetener)

Skimmed Milk Powder 1 teaspoon

Instant Coffee Powder 1 teaspoon

Vanilla Essence a little more than 1/4 teaspoon

1 Scoop Vanilla Ice Cream

Grated chocolate for garnish

Heat 1/4 cup milk in a saucepan. Add the sugar, instant coffee and the skimmed milk powder, stir to dissolve everything well. Heat on low heat for about 30 seconds. Take off the heat. Mix this milk with the rest of the milk. Stir in the vanilla essence.

Pour about 1/4 cup of the coffee in an ice tray, cover with cling film and put it in the freezer. Chill the rest of the coffee till serving time (for at least 3 hours). Put the chilled coffee in a blender, add the cubes of frozen coffee and blend well till thick and frothy. Pour into a serving glass, top with the ice cream. Grate some chocolate over the ice cream and serve immediately. Sip on with straws slowly... and enjoy!!! And don't forget the tall spoon for the ice-cream!

Please Note: It is very important to freeze some part of the coffee and blend it with the rest of the chilled coffee. It helps keep the blended coffee really chilled and also avoid the taste getting diluted (by addition of normal ice). Adding the milk powder gives creaminess and thickness to the coffee.

Adding coffee powder to hot milk gives it extra flavor as compared to directly adding it to the milk.

This recipe is also my entry to Madhuri's 'Serve me Some Juices, Shakes, Smoothies' event.

P. S: Am still trying to learn my way with the camera and this is the best I could do. And pictures of glasses at that! Whew!! Somebody give me tips please !!