Coffee Smoothie

serves 4

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1 cup strongly brewed coffee,  cooled

1 cup milk, cold (whole, 2 percent or skim, whatever you fancy)

2 heaping tablespoons instant vanilla pudding

1-3 teaspoons of sugar, depending on how sweet you like your coffee

2 cups of small ice cubes (feel free to add more to further thicken the smoothie)

Add all of the ingredients to the blender and blend until no ice chunks remain.  It’s not rocket science.

Bonus!

Coffee Smoothie Boosters

The Coffee Smoothie Base is all sorts of yummy on it’s own, but why not add a little something extra?

You could add:

Half a frozen banana (this will thicken the smoothie up even further)

2 Tablespoons of chocolate syrup

a dash of ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon instant coffee (for super coffee flavor)

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

whipped cream on top

Creamed Plantain Soup w/Citrus Black Bean Salsa & Chorizo
Serves 4-6

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Takes about 1 ½- 2 hours
1 small onion or half a large, diced fine
1 carrot, scrubbed, trimmed, diced small
2 slender ribs of celery or 1 fat one, scrubbed, trimmed, diced small
2 cloves garlic, crushed, peeled, sliced
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp dried oregano
Healthy pinch or two of dried chili flakes, your taste depending
A few tablespoons grapeseed, canola or preferred vegetable oil
2 large green plantains, peeled and sliced in 1”

pieces

Zest of 1 orange & juice to taste
Sea salt & pepper
5 cups Vegetable stock
1 can coconut milk
A few tablespoons of aged rum, Bacardi Anejo or Select, or equivalent

How to make it:
-heat a stock pot or large soup pot over medium flame until you can feel heat with your palm open above the surface about 1-2”

-add a few tablespoons of cooking oil and tip pan to coat
-add the onions, celery & carrots, stir well, spread evenly over the bottom of the pan
-leave it alone for about 2-3 minutes, stir & spread across bottom evenly about every 30 seconds
-stir this way for about 5-10 minutes until vegetables are tender, add the plantains, stir to coat & increase heat slightly
-reduce heat to medium once you get a little sizzle, stir and distribute evenly, sauté 5 minutes
-add garlic, dried spices & citrus zest, stir well & toast about 30 seconds, season with salt & pepper to taste
-add vegetable stock to cover and bring to a light boil. Reduce heat to maintain an active simmer, stir occasionally, while simmering, be sure to stir carefully and scrape the bottom of the pan: green plantains are very starchy, a lot of those starches will settle in the bottom & try to burn
-simmer 45 minutes to an hour until plantain pieces slide easily from a paring knife inserted to the center (if you are making the black bean salsa, now is a good time to start)
-turn off heat & cool about 15 minutes, stir in coconut milk, rum and orange juice
-in a heavy duty blender, blend the soup in batches, do not fill the work bowl over half way, remove the inner plastic piece from the lid and cover with a folded kitchen towel to make room for steam build up
-puree until smooth, you may need to add water or vegetable stock to loosen
-put pureed soup into a cleaned soup pot & gently bring back to a simmer before serving, check for seasoning and texture, green plantain can get a little gummy, so add water as needed to loosen
-serve hot, garnished with black bean salsa, fried chorizo, or simply a few leaves of cilantro

Note: if serving with black beans & chorizo, you will want to prepare your salsa & chorizo while the soup simmers. For chorizo, simply sauté a couple links with cooking oil over medium heat & break up with the back of a spoon, don’

t be afraid to let it get crispy. Each bowl of soup can be garnished with a as much or as little beans & chorizo as suits your fancy

Warm Citrus Black Bean Salsa
Takes about 20 minutes
For plantain soup garnish:
1 ½ cups cooked black beans or a small can, rinsed
½ small yellow onion, fine dice
1 small carrot, fine dice
1 clove garlic, very fine dice
Cooking oil
Zest of one small orange
Small handful of cilantro leaves, chopped coarsely
Sea salt & fresh cracked pepper
Olive oil to finish

How to make it:
-heat a medium skillet over medium heat, add a couple tablespoons of cooking oil
-add the onion and stir, sauté until tender & translucent, about 5 minutes, add carrot, sauté to tender, about another 5 minutes
-add garlic, stir about 30 seconds, add beans & stir to coat, season to taste with salt & pepper
-stir in citrus zest, stir about 30 seconds
-remove from heat & stir in cilantro
-drizzle some olive oil to finish

Tres Leche Cafe Rumbano

makes a lot of cocktails

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Bottle of bacardi 8 yr (or other aged rum)
Generous amounts of cinnamon bark (2 cups?)
Infuse for at least 3 days. A week would be money.
Make coffee. Use equal parts coffee and raw cane sugar. 2 cups of each to make a sweet coffee syrup.
Warm 1 cup of cocunt milk, 1 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup half and half on the stove until slightly simmering. Add to the infused rum and coffee syrup mixture. Let sit covered in an airtight container overnight on the counter. Pass through a fine mesh strainer. Served shaken and straight up with a drizzle of coconut milk and a dusting of cinnamon.

Tres Leches Cake

makes 18 cubes of cake

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For the Cake:

1 1/2 cups plus 1 Tablespoon of all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup plus 1 teaspoon granulated sugar

5 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

For the Glaze:

1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

3/4 cup half and half

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 cinnamon stick

1 cardamom pod

3 Tablespoons aged rum

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil and flour a 13 by 9-inch metal pan and set aside.

Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium speed until fluffy, approximately 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and with the mixer still running, gradually add the sugar over 1 minute. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl, if necessary. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix to thoroughly combine.  It’s a lot of eggs and the mixture will appear soupy.  Add the vanilla and almond extract and mix to combine. Add the flour mixture to the batter in 3 batches and mix just until combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly. This will appear to be a very small amount of batter. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cake is lightly golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the cake pan to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Slice the edges off the entire cake and portion into 18 cubes of cake.  Poke the top of each slice with a skewer or fork. Allow the cake to cool completely and then prepare the glaze.

Whisk together the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, half and half, coconut milk, cinnamon and cardamom in a saucepan over medium heat.  Allow to just warm, cover and place in the fridge for 2 hours.  Stir in the rum.  Arrange the tres leches cake in a dish with 1-inch sides.  Pour the milks over the cake slowly.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.  Most people like to leave the cakes to soak overnight…. but I don’t like overly soggy cake and find that four hours is juuuust fine.

Serve with slightly sweetened whipped cream.

Chocolate Espresso Sandwich Cookies

Don’t have espresso powder?  Feel free to skip it, and just make these cookies without.  You’ll have what looks like homemade Oreos!

adapted from The Essence of Chocolate

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makes about 3 dozen sandwich cookies

For the Filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped

heaping 1/4 teaspoon  instant espresso powder

For the Cookies:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cup plus 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon instant espresso powder

15 Tablespoons (7 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, but into 3/4-inch cubes, at room temperature

For the Filling:

In a small saucepan, bring the cream to boil over medium heat.  Remove from the heat and add the white chocolate and espresso powder.  Make sure all the chocolate is covered by the cream.  Let stand for 1 minute, then whisk the white chocolate until completely melted.

Transfer the filling to a small bowl and let stand until room temperature.  You’ll need the filling thicker to assemble the cookies, so cover the filling and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or an hour, until a thick consistency is reached.  If the filling hardens too much, it can be rewarmed in the microwave for a few seconds.

For the Cookies:

Position the racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder and mix on low speed.  With the mixer running, add the butter a few pieces at a time.  The mixture will have a sandy texture at first and then will begin to form peddle-size pieces.  As soon as the dough starts to come together, stop the mixer.

Form and roll the dough straight from the mixer.  The dough becomes hard to work with if chilled.

Transfer the dough to a board and use the heel of your hand or a pastry scraper to shape the dough into a block about 5 by 7 inches.  Cut the block into two pieces.

One at a time, roll each block of dough between two pieces of lightly floured parchment paper until about 1/8-inch thick.  Using a cookie cutter, cut into 2 inch rounds.  Place 1/2 to 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet.  You can form and roll the dough scraps once after the first roll.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through the baking.  Remove from the oven and cool on the sheets for 2 to 5 minutes.  Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

To Assemble the Cookies:

Place half of the cookies upside down on a work surface.  Whip the filling lightly with a whisk to loosen it.  It will lighten in color and fluff up.  Don’t overwhip or the filling may begin to separate.

Transfer the filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch plain tip.  I just scooped my filling out by the scant teaspoonful.  Pipe or dollop one teaspoon of filling  in the center of each upside down cookie.  Gently, using your fingers, press the cookies together until the filling comes just to the edges.

The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Brownie Bottom Ice Cream Cupcakes

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You’ll need:

24 foil cupcake liners

Brownie Batter

1/2 gallon of your favorite ice cream flavor.  I chose Coffee Ice Cream

An ice cream scooper, small spoon, and warm water

A freezer

Chocolate Ganache

Whipped Cream

Here’s the Step by Step Situation:

First make the brownie batter.  Line two cupcake pans with the foil cupcake liners.  Into each cupcake liner, scoop 1 Tablespoon of brownie batter.  Bake at 350 degrees F for about 6-8 minutes until the brownie is cooked through.

Let the brownies cool in the cupcake pans to room temperature.  Once cool, place in the freezer (still in the cupcake pans) for 30 minutes.  When you place the cupcake pans in the freezer, remove the ice  cream you’re using and place in the refrigerator to soften.

When ready to assemble the cupcakes, remove the cupcake pans with foil lined brownie cups from the freezer.  Remove the ice cream from the fridge.  Run the ice cream scooper under hot water and working quickly, portion a small scoop of ice cream into each foil lined cup, while still in the cupcake pan.  The cupcake pan will help the Ice Cream Cupcake hold its shape.  You may need to rinse the scooper under hot water in between scoops for easy portioning.  Quickly smooth the scoops of ice cream with the back of a small spoon also rinsed in warm water and return the ice cream cupcakes quickly to the freezer.

Let the newly formed Ice Cream Cupcakes refreeze for 45 minutes to an hour.  In this time you can make the chocolate ganache and whipped cream.  Let the ganache come to just around room temperature, and let the whip cream rest in the fridge until serving time.

Once the cupcakes are refrozen and nice and firm, remove from the freezer and top with a teaspoon of chocolate ganache.  Smooth over the cupcake.  Return once again to the freezer.

To serve, remove the cupcakes from the freezer about 5 minutes before you’d life to serve them.  Finish with a dollop of whipped cream and serve.  Carefully peel the foil from the cupcake and enjoy… with napkins.  Yum!

Fudgy Brownie Bottoms

Bon Appetit October 1991

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• 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 2 large eggs plus one egg yolk
• 1 1/8 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two cupcake pans with foil cupcake liners. Combine first 3 ingredients in small bowl. Stir butter and chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water, creating a double boiler.  Heat until melted and smooth. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Stir in warm chocolate mixture, then dry ingredients.  Scoop 1 Tablespoon of batter into each foil liner. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 6 to 8 minutes. Cool to room temperature, then place in the freezer for 30 minutes before scooping the ice cream on top.

Chocolate Ganache

3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (I used chocolate chunks)

1/4 cup heavy cream

Put chocolate chips in a small bowl.  Bring cream to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan.  Pour cream evenly over chocolate.  Let stand for one minute to soften, then stir until smooth.  If frosting is too loose to spread, let it sit at room temperature for 10 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, frosting will continue to thicken as it stands.  Scoop by the teaspoon full onto the ice cream cupcakes.  Spread and refreeze until ready to serve.

Sweetened Whipped Cream

3/4 cup heavy cream

2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

dash of vanilla extract

Whip heavy cream for 3 minutes.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract and continue to whip until thick whipped cream forms.  Dollop onto Ice Cream Cupcakes just before serving.

Mocha Rum Cake

adapted from Gourmet, January 1994

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cocoa powder for dusting
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup dark rum
1 1/3 cups strong brewed coffee
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, beaten lightly
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
confectioners’ sugar for dusting

lightly sweetened whipped cream

Preheat oven to 300°F. Butter a 4 1/2-inch-deep (12-cup) Kugelhupf or bundt pan and dust with cocoa powder, knocking out excess.

In a bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Remove chocolate from heat and stir in rum, coffee, and granulated sugar. With an electric mixer beat in flour, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down side, and beat in eggs and vanilla until batter is combined well.  The batter may seem very loose.  That’s perfect!  Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake cake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, about 1 hour and 50 minutes. Let cake cool completely in pan on a rack and turn it out onto rack. Cake may be made 3 days in advance and kept wrapped well and chilled.

Dust cake with confectioners’ sugar and serve with whipped cream.

I made a simple rum glaze with 2 cups powdered sugar and 2-3 Tablespoons of rum.

Coffee Cupcakes

by ChockyLit at Cupcake Bakeshop

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3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cup sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

2 cups plus 1 Tablespoon all- purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon dark roast coffee grounds

1/2 cup strong brewed, dark roast coffee

1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon milk

1 Tablespoon Coffee Liquor or milk if non alcoholic

1.  Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.

2.  Add sugar.  Beat on medium high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

3.  Add eggs one at a time, beat until incorporated.

4.  Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and coffee grounds in a bowl.

5.  Measure out coffee, milk and liquor together.

6.  Add about a fourth of the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.

7.  Add about a third of the milk coffee mixture and beat to combine.

8.  Repeat above, altering flour and coffee, ending with the flour mixture.

9.  Scoop into cupcake papers about two thirds to three quarters full.  These cupcakes well shrink a bit once they are cooled.

10.  Bake 20-25 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.

Note:  Be careful when adding the coffee/milk mixture to the batter.  If you add it too quickly, the batter will look curdled.  Add it slowly and you’ll be just fine!

Butter Whipped Baileys Chocolate Ganache

9 ounces bitter sweet chocolate, chopped

scant 1 cup heavy cream

2 Tablespoon  Bailys Irish Cream

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar.

1.  Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl.

2.  In a sauce pan, over medium heat, warm the cream.  Stir often.  Take the cream off the burner just as it begins to boil.

3.  Pour the cream over the chocolate.  Whisk until all of the chocolate is melted and smooth.

4.  Add Baileys Irish Cream to ganache and refrigerate to cool and harder a bit.  Depending on your fridge, it could take 20-30 minutes.

5.  In a mixer beat the butter until softened, about 30 seconds.

6.  Beat in the powdered sugar and salt.

7.  When ganache has cooled and hardened a bit, gradually beat into the butter/sugar mixture.  Beat until incorporated and smooth.

8.  Refrigerate to harden if a firmer consistency is desired.

9.  Scoop or spread ganache of cooled cupcakes.

10.  Eat as many as you can, with milk.