There most definitely is (Vietnamese iced coffee is similar or identical, depending on who makes it). In Thailand, the drink is called kah-feh dahm yen, and the locals prefer it very sweet.

You can often find Thai iced coffee at Thai restaurants in the U.S. Or, make your own: It’s very easy. Prep time is just 10 minutes after the coffee is made. You also need chilling time.

The recipe uses strong, bitter coffee—such as espresso, French roast, or Italian roast—which acts as a counterpoint to the rich cream and the sweetened condensed milk.

You can even use leftover coffee. While coffee purists may shudder at the thought, the sweetened condensed milk masks any minute note they might detect. You can also use strong instant coffee.

National Iced Coffee Day is May 25th.

And, you can turn it into a dessert.

Here’s how to make Thai iced coffee:
 
 
RECIPE: THAI ICED COFFEE

Ingredients Per Serving

 
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*The coffee can be any room temperature. If it’s room temperature or chilled, your Thai iced coffee will be ready to drink all the sooner.
 
†You can use both; we also like a dash of nutmeg. You can add or substitute ¼ teaspoon of almond, anise, vanilla or other extract.
 
_________________

Preparation

1. POUR coffee into a mixing container (we use a repurposed glass orange juice bottle).

2. ADD 4-6 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk and optional spices; stir well until dissolved. Refrigerate for one hour or longer to chill.

3. ADD a few ice cubes to two tall glasses and fill with the cold coffee mixture. Top off with the cream. As the cream sinks, it makes an attractive swirl.

After you make the first batch, taste it and adjust the recipe. Add more sweetened condensed milk if you want a sweeter drink, or more cream if you want a richer drink or if the coffee is too strong.
 
Dessert Variation

Add a scoop of coffee or vanilla ice cream; garnish with whipped cream and toasted coconut flakes.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

National Hot Dog Day is July 23rd, so think about inviting your friends (or your kids’ friends) to participate in Pillsbury’s most creative edible craft project: dough dogs.

Take a hot dog and some Pillsbury Crescent dough and create a sculpture of your dog. Check Pillsbury.com for the rules, and to enjoy the clever dough dogs created by Pillsbury: basset hound, bulldog, dachshund, dalmatian, pekinese, poodle and shar-pei.

If you want to enter your creation in the contest, upload a picture of your creation to Instagram, Twitter or Pillsbury’s Facebook page, by July 29th. Facebook fans will vote on four finalists, selected by the Pillsbury judges.

So put your best paw forward, and have fun making hot dog hounds. Yes, you can eat them. In fact, this could become a regular family activity: edible art.

Zucchini bread started to appear in the 1960s, as hippies looked for healthier foods. But the concept dates back to the Middle Ages, when European chefs began to develop sweet vegetable puddings. Carrot pudding was first; sweet potato pudding and pie followed in the Renaissance. The different types of squash offered still more options. Carrot pudding, a side dish, evolved into the carrot cake dessert in the 20th century.

Zucchini became popular in American home gardens during and after World War II. If you’ve grown zucchini, you know that you can’t find enough ways to use it up. But zucchini lasagna and zucchini bread are two of the happy outcomes.

Zucchini bread was catapulted to prominence by James Beard, who published a recipe for it in 1973. Homemakers found it easy to make, healthier than cake, easily portable for snacks and travel, and freezer friendly. The water content of zucchini also added natural moisture to the cake.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CAKE AND BREAD

The difference between a recipe called “cake” and one called “bread” is that a bread is:

Zucchini bread with a light glaze. Photo courtesy Betty Crocker.

 
CARL GOH’S ZUCCHINI BREAD

Carl Goh was a food writer and friend of James Beard. This recipe appeared in Beard On Bread*. It has less sugar than some contemporary recipes, and for an even healthier bread, you can substitute 1 cup of whole-wheat flour for one of the cups of white flour.

Ingredients For 2 Loaves

1. BEAT the eggs until light and foamy. Add the sugar, oil, zucchini, and vanilla and mix lightly but well.

2. COMBINE the flour, salt, soda, baking powder and cinnamon and add to the egg-zucchini mixture. Stir until well blended; add nuts.

3. POUR into two 9 X 5 X 3-inch loaf pans. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 1 hour. Cool on a rack.

 
*Beard on Bread, James Beard, Alfred A. Knopf:New York 1973, p. 169.

†You can leave on the nutritious skin; it will create green flecks in the bread.

FIND MORE OF OUR FAVORITE CAKE RECIPES.

Is this the seventh day of the heat wave? We’ve lost count. But we’re glad to have this recipe created by Debi Mazar & Gabriele Corcos, hosts of the Cooking Channel show, Extra Virgin.

They whipped up a coffee-themed ice pop using Lavazza, Italy’s beloved coffee brand. They used the Lavazza Qualità Rossa variety, made with African beans that have a natural chocolate aroma—perfect for a mocha popsicle. If you like strong coffee, you can use espresso.

Then, instead of after-dinner coffee, you can enjoy your coffee and your dessert in on a stick.

Debi and Gabriele also follow our own favorite practice of freezing leftover coffee in ice cube trays. “In summer we never toss whatever coffee is left in our pot,” says Debi. “Rather, we keep filling ice cube trays with it to make ‘espresso iced cubes!’ Add two or three cubes to a half glass of cold milk on a hot summer morning to get going.”

Cool down with a homemade mocha ice pop. Photo courtesy Lavazza.

CREAMY MOCHA ICE POPS RECIPE

Preparation time 15 minutes, refrigerator/freezer time 6 hours.

Ingredients For 10 Popsicles

 
Plus

Preparation

1. MIX together sugar, coffee and water in a saucepan mix; bring to a boil. Let simmer for 4 minutes, stirring continuously. Filter using cheesecloth or a clean kitchen towel.

2. MIX the chocolate and hot coffee syrup in a bowl; stir until completely melted. Let cool; then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before proceeding to next step.

3. MIX together heavy cream and 2 tablespoons of sugar in a medium bowl. Using a hand mixer, whip lightly to soft peaks. Add the cream to the cold coffee syrup and mix gently so the cream does not loose volume. Pour the mixture into the ice pop molds and place in the freezer for at least 4 hours.

Use your favorite juices and other beverages (coffee, tea, kefir, smoothies) or fresh fruit purées to make the ice pops of your dreams. For gourmet touch, add fresh herbs like basil or rosemary. Like heat? Add chipotle, jalapeño or hot sauce. Check out these recipes:

 
ICE POP VS. POPSICLE

Popsicle© is the trademarked brand of the Unilever Company, which also owns Good Humor and other brands. Legally, everything else must be called something generic, such as ice pop. (Here’s the history of the Popsicle and Creamsicle.)

While the Unilever legal team can’t spend all day chasing down every recipe called “Popsicle,” no one else can sell a product called Popsicle. They’ll have to invent their own name, as Popsicle inventor Frank Epperson did, way back in 1923.
  

Pesto Parmesan Potato Stacks, a fun side dish from PotatoGoodness.com, simply tosses thinly sliced potato rounds in a bowl with Parmesan and pesto. You stack them in a muffin tin, bake and voilà! The Parmesan melts into the potatoes: Delicious!

Kids can help with the stacking and they’ll love peeling apart the layers while eating the delicious results. Alternatively, you can vary the flavors, layering the potatoes with everything from garlic and olive oil to mozzarella and marinara (see recipes below).

Prep time 5 minutes, cook time 25 minutes.

RECIPE: PESTO PARMESAN POTATO STACKS

Ingredients For 6 Servings

Stack and bake for a fun side dish. Photo courtesy PotatoGoodness.com.

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT oven to 400°F; spray muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Peel the potatoes if desired, and thinly slice them by hand or with a mandolin or food processor fitted with slicer blade, discarding rounded ends.

2 PLACE the potatoes in mixing bowl; add remaining ingredients and mix well with a spoon, separating the potato slices so that all are evenly coated with the mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. STACK slices in the prepared muffin tin until they reach the top of the cup, beginning with smaller potato pieces at the bottom. Scrape the bowl to remove all remaining cheese mixture and spoon over potatoes.

4. BAKE for 25 minutes or until potatoes are tender when pierced with a sharp knife.

Ingredients

 
Follow the preparation instructions above.

ITALIAN POTATO STACKS

Ingredients

 
Follow the preparation instructions above.
 
ABOUT YUKON GOLD POTATOES

Yukon Golds are “gourmet potatoes” that have become a favorite of chefs for their delicious, buttery-rich flavor. They get their name from their golden skin and yellow flesh.

The variety was developed at the Ontario Agriculture College at the University of Guelph, Canada, in the 1960s. That’s not exactly near the Yukon territory (which is on the other side of the country, abutting Alaska), but the developers did strike gold!