Cooking with Coffee: Sweet Applications

As pastry chefs know, coffee is more than just a stimulating beverage. It's a popular and versatile flavor in everything from ice cream to custards to cakes. Coffee can be the showcase flavor in a frosting or panna cotta or add a subtle, complexing note to chocolate desserts. Mocha (chocolate-plus-coffee) is a menu word that sells.



Stephen Durfee, baking and pastry instructor at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone and former French Laundry pastry chef, uses coffee in several creative ways. Over the years, he has refined some "do's and don'ts" for maximizing coffee's potential in the pastry kitchen. Some ideas from Durfee:

• Add ground coffee to the streusel for a coffee cake.
• Sprinkle ground coffee, nuts and salt on the outside of chocolate-covered toffee.
• Make coffee candies with a strong coffee syrup. Pulverize for garnishing desserts.
• Partner coffee with its natural complements: nuts, chocolate, coconut, cream, caramel.
• Pair coffee with complementary fruits: orange, persimmons, pineapple, raisins.
• Use a coffee syrup in tiramisu.
• Add espresso to a chocolate mousse.
• Make a coffee granita topped with whipped cream.
• Serve an affogato: vanilla or chocolate ice cream with a shot of espresso.
• Add espresso to ganache or warm chocolate sauce.
• Roast coffee beans with sugar until caramelized, deglaze with milk, strain and use for a custard.
• Make coffee ice cream ("my favorite," says Durfee) by steeping ground coffee in hot milk/cream mixture to desired strength, then straining.
• Add ground coffee to meringues.
• Make chocolate-covered coffee beans. Serve with espresso, or add to biscotti or chocolate-chip cookies.
• Brush layers of génoise with coffee syrup; frost with chocolate, mocha or caramel.

"Don't make the coffee flavor too strong," says Durfee. "Use it as a seasoning, like cinnamon. Subtlety is okay."

Recipe links:
Molten Coffee Truffle Cakes with Vanilla Coffee Crème Anglaise
Mango and Chai Yogurt With Candied Ginger Oat Crisps
Mocha Meringues With Almonds
Mini Banana Nut Muffins With Mocha Cream
Savory Cheddar Bacon Scallion Scones
Red Velvet Coffee Chocolate Cake
Lemon Bars