A lot of times when I’m home (especially during the summer) I’d like some iced coffee. However, I’d never figured out a good way to turn hot coffee (which I shamelessly make the Alton Brown way) into cold coffee quickly. In a pinch, I can always use a coctail shaker, which does the job – but that means I’m watering down the coffee to the tune of 4-6 ice cubes which are usually totally melted by the time shaking’s done.
The solution? I keep the colder-than-ice sleeve to my ice cream maker in the freezer all the time anyway. The sides of it are very conductive and (because that’s their job) good at transferring heat out of the liquid inside the bowl very quickly. So while it’s still in the pot, I stir in sugar and milk, then toss it into the sleeve. Stir for a moment, then let it sit for a minute or three – and viola, chilled, full strength coffee.
The only downside to this process is that the bowl was really not designed to have liquids poured out of it. I had to do it over the sink and it still made a bit of a mess. Other than that, success! Any day you can convert a unitasker into a multitasker is a good day.