Coffee BBQ Sauce. Photo: ineedcoffee/coffeehero, Flickr
Read on after the jump for ideas to help put coffee on your plate.
Some of our favorite celebrity chefs have done it: Emeril's coffee-bourbon BBQ sauce is a savory way to add a little punch to the dinner table, and Martha Stewart has used instant coffee along with molasses and cocoa to deepen the hue of rich black bread. There are also a host of different recipes for hearty coffee chili, marinades, an Oprah-endorsed coffee-chipotle mole, and, of course, delicious treats and buzzed baked goods.
I also like dipping into my stock of vintage recipes for ideas, including one for a coffee-marshmallow sponge dessert that I found in a 1975 PTA fundraiser cookbook. To make this dessert, melt one pound of marshmallows in a double boiler until very smooth, then stir in 1/2 cup of freshly-brewed coffee. Remove from the heat and let cool completely. Fold in one pint of whipped heavy cream until everything is well mixed. Meanwhile, line the sides and bottom of a springform pan with lady fingers, then pour a layer of the coffee cream over the cookie foundation. Alternate layers of coffee cream and lady fingers until the filling is used up. Cover with another 1/2 cup of fresh whipped cream and refrigerate for several hours, until very soft. Serve with -- what else -- coffee!
Do you have a favorite recipe that utilizes coffee? Let us know in the comments.
Erin Meister trains baristas for North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee and sporadically maintains the blog Meet the Press Pot from her home in New York City. This is part of a series for the caffeine-addicted.
3-02-2010 @12:21PM Greg said... Back in the 90s, all the coffee books on the bookstore shelves padded themselves with chapters and chapters devoted to coffee "recipes" and cooking with coffee. First of all, if you need a recipe, it's not coffee anymore. As for cooking with coffee, it seems pretty soon to have already run out of material on coffee.
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3-02-2010 @1:59PM m00se said... I pretty much put a little coffee or instant espresso powder into any chocolate baked dessert that I make. I put 2 TB of strong coffee into salted dark chocolate chip cookies over the weekend. They turned out very well.
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3-02-2010 @10:12PM Sue said... I would love to know where I can find the instant expresso powder. Also if you know a good brand. thank you!! sue
3-03-2010 @9:01AM LinC said... Instant espresso can be found in up-scale grocery stores in the coffee section. Look for a little jar. I just bought Megla d'Oro based on a rating in Cook's Illustrated magazine.
You can also use regular instant coffee but be sure to crush the crystals with a spoon to make a finer powder.