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How to Make a Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino
Oct. 6th, 2010 01:37 pmCue The Winner and give me my EXP: I have successfully made a Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino!
I now share my money-saving discovery with y'all.
This is based off brewing 6 cups of a flavored coffee, but the basic gist is to brew it stronger than usual because of the ice factor.
Time to Prepare: 10 - 15 Minutes*
* - Minus time to freeze coffee.
Ingredients:
6 Cups of Water
3 Scoops of Pumpkin Spice Coffee
1 Scoop of Regular Coffee - Your favorite brew
1/8 Cup of Sugar
Coffee Creamer
Powdered Sugar
Pumpkin Spice - As in the literal spice mix
Whipped Cream
A Blender
Straws
Step 1: Brew your coffee the night before & freeze it.
The longest step is getting the coffee cold, so brew it hours before you need it. Cold coffee needs to be slightly stronger because the ice chips have a tendency to dilute the flavor. Most flavored coffee blends are weak, and even making it strong with extra scoops does not help; instead, add an extra scoop of your favorite blend of regular coffee to correct this.
Immediately after it's finished brewing, pour it into two separate cups; this is for your blender's sake. Add in the 1/8 Cup of Sugar (or more...) between the two and only a LITTLE Coffee Creamer. The Creamer added will be to your taste, but trust me when I say you only need it to take the very edge off the black. Later on, the powdered sugar will take care of the rest.
Step 2: Thaw and blend your frozen coffee.
There are two ways you can do the thawing process - take it out of the freezer and let it sit on the counter for about half an hour to forty-five minutes OR use your microwave at half power. Either way works well enough; the coffee actually thaws very quickly. Dump one cup at a time into the blender and blend thoroughly until you have achieved the proper consistency.
Step 3: Season to taste.
It's probably prudent to taste the drink at this time; see how much powdered sugar you need and just add bits at a time. Also at this time, add in the Pumpkin Spice - again, to taste. This should, along with flavoring the drink, allow for you to see whether everything has been evenly blended throughout.
Step 4: Pour & serve.
Into your favorite glasses or mugs, pour out your completed frozen coffee treat. Top with whipped cream and a light sprinkling of pumkin spice, and enjoy with a straw!
The problems I continually ran into when making it with cold liquid coffee & ice were two: 1) It was difficult to get all the ice to blend without a really good blender 2) Achieving the proper ice consistency was a struggle without the coffee flavor becoming increasingly diluted. By freezing the coffee and blending it, both of these issues were solved, and it was a much faster process.
Obviously, the sweetening agents & creamer can be mixed up. Personally, I don't like the powdered sugar as much as regular sugar, but Ter prefers it, and it does solve the creamer issue. - Too much creamer, even the normal amount you use in an average cup of coffee, kills the coffee flavor once frozen. - If you want to make a mocha or caramel version, adding the chocolate syrup/caramel while blending works just as well as it does in the store, but it does sweeten your drink.
Aside from the cost benefits here of saving LOTS of money by doing it yourself, I'm pretty sure the calories are far less than what you get at your local Starbucks or Seattle's Best. ;)
I now share my money-saving discovery with y'all.
This is based off brewing 6 cups of a flavored coffee, but the basic gist is to brew it stronger than usual because of the ice factor.
Time to Prepare: 10 - 15 Minutes*
* - Minus time to freeze coffee.
Ingredients:
6 Cups of Water
3 Scoops of Pumpkin Spice Coffee
1 Scoop of Regular Coffee - Your favorite brew
1/8 Cup of Sugar
Coffee Creamer
Powdered Sugar
Pumpkin Spice - As in the literal spice mix
Whipped Cream
A Blender
Straws
Step 1: Brew your coffee the night before & freeze it.
The longest step is getting the coffee cold, so brew it hours before you need it. Cold coffee needs to be slightly stronger because the ice chips have a tendency to dilute the flavor. Most flavored coffee blends are weak, and even making it strong with extra scoops does not help; instead, add an extra scoop of your favorite blend of regular coffee to correct this.
Immediately after it's finished brewing, pour it into two separate cups; this is for your blender's sake. Add in the 1/8 Cup of Sugar (or more...) between the two and only a LITTLE Coffee Creamer. The Creamer added will be to your taste, but trust me when I say you only need it to take the very edge off the black. Later on, the powdered sugar will take care of the rest.
Step 2: Thaw and blend your frozen coffee.
There are two ways you can do the thawing process - take it out of the freezer and let it sit on the counter for about half an hour to forty-five minutes OR use your microwave at half power. Either way works well enough; the coffee actually thaws very quickly. Dump one cup at a time into the blender and blend thoroughly until you have achieved the proper consistency.
Step 3: Season to taste.
It's probably prudent to taste the drink at this time; see how much powdered sugar you need and just add bits at a time. Also at this time, add in the Pumpkin Spice - again, to taste. This should, along with flavoring the drink, allow for you to see whether everything has been evenly blended throughout.
Step 4: Pour & serve.
Into your favorite glasses or mugs, pour out your completed frozen coffee treat. Top with whipped cream and a light sprinkling of pumkin spice, and enjoy with a straw!
The problems I continually ran into when making it with cold liquid coffee & ice were two: 1) It was difficult to get all the ice to blend without a really good blender 2) Achieving the proper ice consistency was a struggle without the coffee flavor becoming increasingly diluted. By freezing the coffee and blending it, both of these issues were solved, and it was a much faster process.
Obviously, the sweetening agents & creamer can be mixed up. Personally, I don't like the powdered sugar as much as regular sugar, but Ter prefers it, and it does solve the creamer issue. - Too much creamer, even the normal amount you use in an average cup of coffee, kills the coffee flavor once frozen. - If you want to make a mocha or caramel version, adding the chocolate syrup/caramel while blending works just as well as it does in the store, but it does sweeten your drink.
Aside from the cost benefits here of saving LOTS of money by doing it yourself, I'm pretty sure the calories are far less than what you get at your local Starbucks or Seattle's Best. ;)
