Coffee perks up sweets, savory dishes
Espresso powder adds depth paired with chocolate, chiles
A chocolate espresso glaze coats shortbread cookies flavored with espresso. Predictably,
In our family, coffee and sweet treats go together like chocolate and peanut butter. Of course, we all enjoy coffee without sweets, but rarely the other way around. We criticize fancy restaurants that bring dessert but don’t offer coffee until afterward.
Hot coffee proves the perfect beverage to counter sweet flavors and lubricate cakey textures and flakycrusted pies. It soothes the chill of frosty ice cream concoctions and cuts the sweetness of candy bars.
To bring the taste of coffee into your cooking, espresso powder deserves a place in the pantry. I add a little to nearly every chocolate dessert I make — not necessarily to add coffee flavor, but to enrich the chocolatey-ness. Iced coffee and banana smoothies likewise benefit from the coffee boost. It’s useful in savory applications too. For example, a spoonful in a pot of chili somehow deepens the chile pepper flavor. Mole sauces like the dark bitterness as does a pot of rich beef stew.
Serviceable Italian brands of espresso powder can be found in most large supermarkets. My favorite espresso powder can be ordered online from thespicehouse.com. It has a rich, velvety, deeply coffee flavor. You can use instant coffee powders instead, but choose a dark roast.
My sister makes a quadruple batch of buttery shortbread logs, dunked in dark chocolate and pecans, for the holidays. To my mind, adding some coffee flavor notes makes them the perfect everyday cookie to enjoy with a cup of joe.
When you love coffee, it often makes sense to put some of those dark flavors into the main course. Espresso with chili powder combines two dark, bitter flavors into a sum that tastes better than the parts. Coffee goes into the rub for these lamb chops, in the form of espresso powdered mixed into ground chile, sesame seeds, dried onion and spices. Prep: 6 3 Nutrition information per serving: Ancho espresso rub Prep: Chill: Bake: Makes: Dough: cup all-purpose flour cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature cup sifted powdered sugar to 3 tablespoons espresso powder, to taste teaspoon vanilla Pinch salt Glaze: cup semisweet chocolate chips teaspoon espresso powder
Put all dough ingredients into the large bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on low speed until a smooth dough forms. Gather into a ball; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight. Bake until the bottoms are barely golden, 10 to 13 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.
Dinner at Home