Coffee.
Whether you enjoy it as espresso, a latte or cold brew, the versatility of that little brown bean stretches well beyond our morning fuel. Aside from being our favourite hot beverage, coffee is a wonderful multipurpose ingredient suited to everything from salad dressings to beer.
When correctly balanced, that usually bitter little bean can intensify flavours (think coffee infused chocolate), add complexity (like coffee rubbed cheese) and even tenderise meat (more below!).
In the name of spicing up our repertoire, we’ve put together some fun coffee centric recipes that you can enjoyed for breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between!
Image from Fresh April Flour
The Sweet: Compost Cookies
If you’ve ever been to New York, chances are you’ve stepped foot in the world renown “Milk Bar,” which has now expanded to multiple locations across the city and country. Founded by the owner of Momofuku, Milkbar is a sweetshop that creates the most unique and delicious cakes, cake bites, sweet pies and of course, cookies. Perhaps one of the most popular is their “compost cookie,” a hodgepodge of common salty and sweet pantry ingredients, including ground coffee!
To adapt it for Australian pantries, we swap graham crackers with digestive biscuits and butterscotch chips with caramel or white chocolate chips.
Recommended Corner Store Coffee: Either the Letefaho or Tasakina extra dark roast in a coarse cold brew grind. The darker the roast the more brittle the coffee so it will provide a nice crunch while being easier on the teeth.
Image from Sunset
The Savoury: Coffee Meat Rub
Coffee has a fantastic ability to tenderise meat, making it softer while creating a crust that locks in moisture. The earthy and slightly bitter flavours of coffee compliment the richness of beef perfectly but it can be used on other meats too. What’s even better is that coffee rubs hold up in both low and slow cooking as well as hot and fast, making it a super versatile spice mix to have in your pantry.
For a quick fix, simply coat your favourite cut of steak lightly with canola oil before rubbing coffee grounds all over and cooking as you usually would, allowing 5-10 minutes to rest. For a flavour bomb, whip up the below home-made rub using common spices and ground coffee!
Recommended Corner Store Coffee: Letefaho medium’s fruity notes compliment the flavours of the meat perfectly, ground coarse for cold brew for extra texture and crunch.
Image from Preppy Kitchen
The Boozy: Espresso Martini
A shot of coffee makes the espresso martini the perfect pre-drink or post-dinner pick-me-up. It’s also a Melbourne favourite, though you can expect to fork out upwards of $20 to enjoy one out on the town. Given it’s one of the fastest and easiest cocktails to make, there’s no reason you can’t make a perfectly balanced version at home.
This tried and tested recipe requires no link!
Simply fill a cocktail shaker (or jar, nutribullet cup or any wide-mouth vessel with a watertight lid) with a handful of ice cubes, pour in 1 shot each of cold espresso, Kahlua and vodka and shake away. Strain slowly into a glass using a strainer or knife edge to catch the ice cubes, jiggling to capture the extra foam on top. For a rich chocolatey mocha taste add half a shot of cacao liqueur before shaking. Bottoms up!
Recommended Corner Store Coffee: A strong coffee is needed to balance out the alcohol. Use either Letefaho or Tasakina dark roast for chocolately notes that will blend nicely with the Kahlua.
Image by Live Eat Learn
The Breaky: Coffee + Banana Smoothie
The only better way to start your day than a hot cuppa joe, is with a coffee filled breakfast smoothie. They’re healthy, filling, quick to make and most importantly, caffeinated! The foundation of a breakfast smoothie is usually brewed coffee, your choice of milk and a frozen banana but from there you can experiment with ingredients like peanut butter, seeds, honey, cacao, protein powder, oats and vanilla until you get the perfect blend for you.
This Wake Me Up Coffee Smoothie is super simple, filling and a delicious base to experiment with other flavours. Enjoy!
Recommended Corner Store Coffee: With its cinnamon notes, Letefaho coffee is best for a smoothie. For a stronger coffee flavour use dark espresso or stovetop brew; for a more subtle coffee flavour, a plunger or filter type medium brew will do the trick.
Image by Simply Recipes
The Summery: Coffee Ice Cream
While better suited to warm summer days, we’ve been known to enjoy the odd bowl of ice cream over the colder months. And we can certainly get around coffee ice cream year round! This rich and creamy recipe gets its coffee flavour from whole beans steeped in milk, rather than the instant coffee found in many. It’s delicious as is, but to level up, you might want to drizzle in melted dark chocolate as the ice cream churns.
Recommended Corner Store Coffee: You definitely want the bold flavours of Tasakina extra dark. The rich dark chocolate and caramel notes will be enhanced by the sweetness of the ice-cream. We recommend brewing espresso or stovetop.
We hope you enjoy these fun new ways to enjoy your coffee... Now time to stock up via our shop and get experimenting!