Magic Coffee

This is an ode to coffee. I'm having an affair. I love tea, I do, but sometimes I need that extra little kick, that richness in flavor that only coffee can subside. Especially now that my days are longer with school and all, coffee can do things that tea can't even dream of... most namely: keep me awake during night class, oy vey!

The key to great coffee is great beans. You really must use beans you love! If you can, try to grind it just before using. But, being that most of us are lazy (ahem, me) and we don't always have the time to grind our coffee fresh, I recommend grinding in small batches, which is what I do. It's easier to find the time to pre-grind for a week than to grind every day and to be honest, I can't taste much of a difference (shhhhh - don't tell)!

This coffee is cold brewed and has a bit of cinnamon and brown sugar added, which makes it incredibly warm and comforting. The cold brew method is super easy even though it sounds complicated. Just throw everything into a container, let it meld overnight, then the next morning, strain all the grinds out and enjoy! It really is magic.

I got these new measuring spoons from Chef Toys. Aren't they gorgeously minimalistic? I had a variety of measuring spoons in my house ranging from plastic, to Hello Kitty themed, to horrific. I decided to throw them all out and stick to these. I think I made a good choice.

Coffee grinds:

The finished product ready to be enjoyed:

Pour over ice:

Add milk (vanilla soy was my choice) and enjoy!

An assembly line of sorts:

Magic Coffee

Yields:

Original recipe here.

2/3 cups coarsely ground coffee

3 cups water

1 tsp. cinnamon

3 tbsn. dark brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla (optional)

Put all of the ingredients in a quart jar and stir. Cover and refrigerate over night. Before serving, pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve and then pour back into whatever container you'd like to store it in. For each drink, fill a tall glass halfway with ice. Pour in the coffee until 3/4 full and add milk/ half and half/ cream to taste.

Here's a peek into my morning life: 

Just got the Macrina Bakery cookbook, so far it's love.

A Perfectly Caffeinated Cupcake.

Coffee & Donuts. A classic combination. Made maybe a little less classic in this rendition: the cupcake version! Do you know why I love baking cupcakes? Because they are so incredibly versatile. I can make almost any flavor and decorate it in any way I want; it's a place where I can let my imagination run wild (and boy does it tend to stray away from me sometimes). I made these for my dad's company picnic and I thought they would cater to their taste buds well. 

These babies were everything I expected them to be. While mixing the batter, the smell of the coffee batter was just ridiculously yummy. They didn't rise much so I suggest filling them pretty well up. The cake was moist and definitely coffee flavored. Just the smell coming from them was enough to wake you to your senses. Now the frosting? Delicious, especially when paired with the cupcake and donut hole. It's decadence on decadence but I thought it would be a fun idea for a room full of work-oriented people. 

Coffee & Donut Cupcakes

Yields: 12 cupcakes

Original recipe from justJENN, which can be found here. 

Printable Recipe

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar 

2 large eggs

1 1/3 cup flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 cup strong brewed coffee

1/8 cup milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

12 plain donut holes (for decoration)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake pan with liners and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, incorporating well after each. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, combine the milk and coffee and set aside. Alternately add the flour and coffee mixture into the butter mixture in two batches until well combined. Pour into the prepared pans about 3/4 full and bake for about 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. 

Creamy, coffee-infused batter:

Donut holes waiting to be glazed and glamorized:

Yayy for sprinkles on donuts:

Coffee Frosting

Printable Recipe

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

2 1/2 tbsn.  brewed coffee

1 tbsn. milk (as needed)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, coffee and vanilla until well combined. Add the milk, a little at at time until the right consistency is reached. Beat for another 2 - 3 minutes until smooth. Spread the frosting on the top of the cooled cupcakes, then place a donut hole on top, drizzle some frosting on the donut hole, sprinkle with jimmies and enjoy!

These fully deserved a complete photoshoot:

Banana Bread with Walnut Coffee Crumble

The bananas at my house are regularly thrown into the garbage. We buy them, we forget about them, they start to turn a hideous brown color, then we remember their presence and quickly discard them into the trash. It makes me sad to waste so much food all of the time so I decided that it was time to make a change... and that change came in the form of Banana bread! 

Banana bread is by far the best way to use up uneaten and overripe bananas. It makes the perfect breakfast with a nice cup of coffee and is great because the bananas keep the bread so moist. I even burned mine a little and it tasted as if nothing had gone awry at all - that's the beauty of it all. And P.S., another way to save your bananas from the dumps is to freeze them. If you know you won't be eating them, just slice them and put them in your freezer for quick smoothies!

Banana Bread with Walnut Coffee Crumble

Yields: 1 loaf, serves 8 - 10

modified from Over the Hill and On a Roll

For the cake:

3 - 4 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork

1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 extra yolk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups of flour

For the crumble:

1/2 cup walnuts, plus extra

2 tbsn. brown sugar

2 tbsn. flour

2 tbsn. cold butter

1 tsp. instant coffee

1/4 tsp cinnamon

powdered sugar for decoration

Preheat your oven to 350 F. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy. Next, add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the mashed bananas, then the baking soda, salt, and flour. Only mix until combined, if you over mix the bread will be tough. Pour into a greased 9x5 loaf pan.

In a food processor, mix 1/2 cup of walnuts, brown sugar, flour, cold butter, and instant coffee. Pulse until the mixture starts to come together and form little pea-sized crumbles. Top the batter with the crumble, then sprinkle on the cinnamon. If desired, you can add some roughly chopped walnuts for extra crunch. Bake until a inserted toothpick comes out clean or until nice and golden brown, about 50 - 60 minutes. Once done, let cool completely, slice and enjoy with a nice cup of hot coffee!

P.S. Try Laura's fantastic version done with pecans, you can find it here.