The BEST (Tastes Like Haagen Dazs Coffee Ice Cream) Coffee Frosting

1. Heat milk over medium-low heat.
2. Whisk egg yolks with the cornstarch and the 1/3 cup of granulated sugar in a medium bowl. It will be really thick, but whisk as best you can to get it combined.
3. Once the milk is lightly bubbling just at the edges of the pot, take it off the heat and drizzle 1/2 cup of the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture, whisking vigorously to prevent cooking the eggs as you go. You may wish you had 3 hands at this point.
4. Once it’s nice and smooth, add in the rest (1 cup) of the hot milk into the egg mixture and whisk until smooth. Then, transfer the whole mixture into the pot again.
5. Heat the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens to the thickness of brownie batter.
6. Take off the heat and add in the vanilla extract and mix to combine.
7. Pour this “custard” into a container and let cool. Once cool, you can put it in the fridge (for up to a few days) until you are ready to make the deliciousness of this coffee frosting.

8. Whenever you are ready to make the frosting (and your custard is definitely not warm anymore – you can use it room temperature or cold for the frosting recipe), use your handy-dandy stand mixer with the paddle attachment and cream your butter with the powdered sugar. (You really want a stand mixer…there is going to be a lot of beating to come). The amount of sugar is really to taste, and don’t worry, you can add more later if you want. I usually start with 1/3 cup at this stage.
9. Once the butter is creamed and light and fluffy, add in the magic ingredient…3/4 cup of the custard.
10. Then, once the custard is fully incorporated, add in the Starbucks Via instant coffee (I use the medium roast). I really think these work the best, but I suppose any instant coffee would work. I usually put in nearly 2 packets of the coffee.
11. Continue to beat on medium until all the granules of instant coffee are gone (usually takes several minutes, but I have never had this frosting “separate” on me, so I walk away and come back to check).
12. Stick your finger (or be clean and use a spoon) in and taste. Mmmmmm….tweak the flavors as needed. More coffee? More sugar? You can add more of either, but you can’t take away, so start where you feel safe and then tweak at this stage as needed.

This frosting holds its shape beautifully, and it actually tastes delicious cold, too. It’s firm cold, but the flavor seems more like the ice cream. I use it on chocolate cupcakes, and it is literally a taste of delicious heaven. Remember, flavors will be stronger and more sweet the warmer the frosting is. You can taste the smoothness that the custard adds. It’s worth the hassle of all this custard making… MAKE THIS FROSTING!!!

*** About the “servings” listed above… I once made this frosting stretch to cover over 36 cupcakes, but that was giving just enough of a swirl of frosting to barely cover the tops of the cupcakes. So, depending on how thick you lay it on (and how much you eat before), it will cover between 24-36 cupcakes, I’d say.