Homemade frappuccino

I LOVE Starbucks frappuccinos.  I love my coffee sweet and creamy, and on a hot day there's nothing like a caramel frappuccino (I like them all, but caramel is my favorite).  The only thing I don't love is the price - at 4 something a pop, this isn't a treat that I can enjoy too frequently (and I'm sure my hips are thankful for that!).  So I've been on the lookout for a homemade recipe to satisfy my cravings in between Starbucks visits.  There's a lot of recipes out there that claim to be "just like" Starbucks frappuccinos or Tim Horton's iced cappuccinos, but after testing some of them, I wasn't finding any that I was in love with.  So after a bit of experimenting, I've come up with my own recipe.  I won't claim that it's "just like" anything that you'd buy in a store (because I'm sure somebody would disagree), but it tastes good to me.  I resisted the urge to use Emmett's whole milk and made it with skim milk instead, to keep the calorie count a bit lower.  Next time I think I'm going to make it with decaf coffee, because I've let Annika try a few sips and she's quite a fan as well.  I guess she's got her mother's good taste. ;)

Homemade frappuccino

Ingredients

7-8 coffee ice cubes
1/2 cup skim milk
1 Tbsp chocolate syrup, or caramel syrup, or just a little bit of sugar (or sugar alternative) if you don't like it too sweet

Brew a pot of strong coffee (or make instant coffee) and pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze.  (I apologize for the fact that this recipe takes a day to prep, but I've found that freezing the coffee into cubes, instead of using coffee and regular ice cubes, keeps it from getting too watered down).  Once coffee is frozen, put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.  Enjoy!  Makes 1 serving (about 1.5 cups).






I didn't have any chocolate or caramel syrup on hand, so I used this recipe to make my own chocolate syrup.  I found it in an old 'compilation' cookbook in my cupboard (Cookbook!  Who uses those anymore?!?).  It was submitted by someone named Jasmine.

Homemade chocolate sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1  1/2 tsp vanilla

In a saucepan, stir together cocoa and sugar.  Add water and stir while bringing the mixture to a boil.  Allow to boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, then turn to minimum heat.   Add the vanilla and continue to stir occasionally for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Can be used over ice cream or with milk to make chocolate milk (or to make frappuccinos!).

The recipe didn't say how to store the sauce, so I put it in the fridge.  It got pretty hard, so I had to microwave it for a few seconds to soften it up before using it.  



I also found a recipe for making homemade caramel sauce, but I haven't been brave enough to try it yet.  The recipe says it's not that hard, but somehow I just see myself ending up with a sticky, burnt mess.  I think I'll just buy some at the store for now! 

Enjoy your yummy summer drink!  Let me know if you try it out, and how you think it compares to the bought versions.