Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Mocha Cookie Crumble Frozen Coffee Shake

I'm not usually much for coffee.  I find it to be bitter.  I drown it away in milk and sugar and artificially flavored creamers, much to Chris's chagrin.  I much prefer my tea.  But, there are times when I need a quick caffeine fix and coffee does the best job.  I primarily choose cold coffees because they are less bitter, and often less coffee than milk is used.  Plenty of sugars are added, and voilá! A coffee drink that I'll consume.

Lately, my caffeine fix of choice was a seasonal drink from Starbucks® called the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino®.  But, when I went to a shop just 2 days ago, they told me it was gone!  Gone!  And they substituted it with some other Frappuccino® that was, unfortunately, a much more coffee flavored one.  And I was so disappointed.

There was a time in my life that I worked for a (smaller) national coffee shop chain and I spent a lot of time reformulating drinks from another (larger) national coffee shop chain.  That, and I'm a blessed (or cursed) supertaster, which allows me to be able to pick apart recipes and makes for a great college frat party trick, though I think I may have outgrown that usefulness.  But, lucky for you, I know how to make a copycat drink!



Mocha Cookie Crumble Frozen Coffee Shake

In a blender, combine:
 - a little over 1 cup of ice cubes
 - 1/2 cup milk
 - 1 TB heavy whipping cream
 - 2 ounces of espresso, or double strength coffee
 - 1/8 cup dark chocolate syrup
 - 1/8 cup vanilla coffee syrup
 - 3 tsp dark chocolate chips

Blend these together for 30-45 seconds, or until the ice is well-blended with no large chunks.  Pour it out into 2 glasses.  Top with a generous swirl of chocolate whipped cream and a few crushed Oreos®.

Now, some additional information:
This is, obviously, not the exact recipe to make a Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino®.  As such, I have not used the name for my recipe.
Big chain coffee shops use xanthan gum to keep their blended drinks from separating.  I find a dash of heavy whipping cream will do the same thing, but it's an unnecessary ingredient if you don't mind a bit of frequent stirring.  You'll also have a slightly more viscous drink than with it.
I know that dark chocolate is all the rage, everywhere, but you know that supertaster thing?  Yeah, I don't like bitter foods, and dark chocolate is bitter.  I used milk chocolate in this and enjoyed it just fine.
Also, I didn't have any whipped cream in the house!

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