coffee Archives - The Midnight Baker

Mom’s Sunday (Leftover Coffee) Pot Roast

Judith Hannemann — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 23:02:15 +0000

Mom never let anything go to waste even leftover coffee and this Sunday pot roast is a perfect example.

Sunday Dinner

Above all, Sunday dinners are when families gather.

I grew up in a very diverse neighborhood that included folks of Italian, Irish and Jewish descent. Each family has their own traditions, of course, but they all seemed to gather together for a Sunday meal.

Pot roast was popular with each of these ethnic groups, differing only with seasonings and cooking methods. My mom made pot roast a number of ways and I have to admit that several of them were not on my favorites list. This one, however, is one I’ve always enjoyed.

Since my mother grew up in the UK during the Great Depression and also came from a large family, food was at times scarce and you never wasted anything even coffee. That was a caveat that stayed with my mother until the day she died.

Yes, Coffee!

Neither my mom nor dad were big coffee drinkers. My mother drank more of it than my father which I always found curious since she was British and my dad was American.

Nonetheless, sometimes the pot she’d make often had leftover coffee. Being that she was into not wasting food, the leftover coffee would find a way into other stuff she’d make–mainly in baking where she’d use it in place of water in chocolate concoctions turning them into mocha concoctions.

One time it found it’s way into the braising liquid for this pot roast. It worked and was delicious so it became one of her main pot roast recipes.

Cut Of Beef

Mom used chuck for the majority of her pot roast recipes, but this one she’d insist on eye of round. Eye of round is lean and doesn’t add much fat to the resulting gravy. It also slices well with very little, if any, waste.

I recently felt like eating this so I had eye of round on the grocery list to be delivered. To be honest, I’d prefer to select my own meat but during this stay-at-home directive, it’s delivery or pick up since I really don’t want to chance going to the store.

Anyway, the shopper who did my order probably made a mistake and picked up top round instead since the recap didn’t state that it was substituted. So I worked with what I had so trust me when I say any cut will do, but if you can, make it eye of round.

The Recipe

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Mom’s Sunday Pot Roast

The awesome gravy has a secret ingredient

Prep Time15

Cook Time2 30

Course: beef, Main, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: easy pot roast recipes, pot roast recipe using coffee, using leftover coffee

Servings: 6

Calories: 367kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 tbs canola oil
3 lb eye round roast
1 garlic clove minced
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried rosemary crushed
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 medium onion chopped
1 tsp beef bouillon granules
1 cup brewed coffee
3/4 cup water

Gravy:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cold wate

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

In a Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat; brown roast on all sides. Remove from pan. Mix garlic and seasonings; sprinkle over roast.
Add onion to same pan; cook and stir over medium heat until tender; stir in bouillon, coffee and 3/4 cup water.
Add roast; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, until meat is tender, about 2-1/2 hours.
Remove roast from pan, reserving cooking juices. Tent with foil; let stand 10 minutes before slicing.
Mix flour and cold water until smooth; stir into cooking juices. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until thickened, 1-2 minutes. Serve with roast.

Nutrition

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Espresso Milk Shake

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 00:00:56 +0000

Why go to that expensive coffee shop when you can make this espresso milk shake at home?

Be Your Own Barista

Here’s one of those delicacies that you’d pay through the nose for at one of those fancy coffee shops.

I’m glad to say it’s easily made at home and from things you may already have on hand.

I got a little fancy with these because I wanted to see how good it would look, hence the nice hurricane glasses and the crumbs around the rim.

Now, if you serve this to guests for dessert, fancy it up just like these. On the other hand, if you are alone and slouching on the couch and want one, then go simple!

Chocolate Syrup Or Ganache

Chocolate syrup will work just fine in these espresso shakes if you’re pressed for time or just can’t wait to have one.

I thought a nice dark chocolate ganache would be lovely. The reason is once the chilled mixture goes in the glass, the ganache will solidify. Then it’s like a rich chocolate bar. It necessitates using a spoon to eat, but is that difficult? No way!

Simple Ingredients

If you don’t have espresso–brewed or instant–regular old coffee can stand in for that. It’s also a great way to use up any coffee you have left over.

Milk or cream is usually on hand in most folks’ homes too. Same goes for chocolate chips.

About the only things you may have to buy specially for this is ice cream and marshmallow fluff. At least they’re not items I usually have. As I didn’t want any ice cream left over, I bought it in pint containers. Don’t get me wrong, I like ice cream but I tend to forget that it’s in the freezer.

A word about fancy here–if you really want to put on the dog with guests, coat some coffee beans with chocolate and sprinkle a few on top of the whipped topping on top of the shake!

The Recipe

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Espresso Milk Shake

Why go to that expensive coffee shop when you can make this espresso milk shake at home?

Prep Time10

Total Time10

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: espresso, frozen drinks, milk shake

Servings: 2

Calories: 768kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

Shake

4 cups vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup marshmallow cream
1/2 cup room temp espresso OR strong coffee
1/4 cup milk OR light cream
1/4 cup chocolate syrup OR thin ganache (see NOTES)

Garnish

Whipped topping
Coarse graham cracker crumbs

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Rub about a teaspoon of marshmallow cream on the rim of a
glass. Dip the glass rim in the graham cracker crumbs.Repeat with other glasses
Drizzle the chocolate syrup or ganache down the sides of each glass; set aside.
Place all shake ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Distribute evenly to all glasses.
Top with whipped topping.

Notes

How many glasses you get depend on the size of the glass. I got enough to fill 2 large hurricane glasses that were approximately 12-16 oz each.

Ganache— Microwave 1/2 cup of chocolate chips with 3 tablespoons of heavy cream for 30 seconds. Stir until smooth. If it’s not of drizzling consistency, add a little more cream and stir thoroughly. In these, I used ganache made with 70% cacao chocolate.

Nutrition

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Sopapilla Crescents

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Sopapilla Rolls

A new twist on a timeless and dessert sweet. Easy too.

I hadn’t thought of this dessert for ages. Then a friend posted about it on her Facebook page saying how much she enjoyed it and whenever a co-worker made it, how it would vanish into thin air immediately.

Another mutual friend saw the recipe and made it up, but didn’t think much of it as it was written. She said it was too buttery and way too sweet. When I’d looked at the recipe the other friend had posted, it had ridiculous amounts of sugar in addition to cinnamon sugar topping, and, 1/4 cup of melted butter? An 8 ounce package of cream cheese? Seriously?

Easy to assemble

She also said it was a pain to assemble since the crescent dough kept breaking at the perforations no matter how she tried to close the seams.

I got an idea to make this just as filled crescents and reduce the fat and sugar and also use up some toasted almonds I’d had hanging around from various desserts I’ve done for the blog. If you have leftover apples, berries, etc., that can neatly substitute for the toasted almonds I used, or use both! Regardless of the fact that I reduced butter and sugar, the result is still plenty of fat and calories so a few more AIN’T GONNA MATTER LOL.

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Sopapilla Crescents

A new twist on a timeless and dessert sweet. Easy too.

Prep Time15

Cook Time30

Total Time45

Course: Breakfast, desserts

Cuisine: Mexican, sopapilla crescents

Keyword: crescent

Servings: 8

Calories: 236kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 tube crescent roll dough
6 oz softened cream cheese low fat can be subbed
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp toasted sliced almonds
2 tbsp butter melted
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or grease the bottom of either an 8 x 8-inch or 9 x 9-inch pan.
Beat the softened cream cheese with the 2 tbs sugar until very smooth.
Unroll the crescent dough and separate into 8 individual triangles. Divide the cream cheese mixture evenly among the 8 triangles and spread the mixture over the entire triangle. Sprinkle with the toasted almonds reserving about 1 tbs for topping. Roll up each triangle as for a crescent roll.
Place 4 rolls evenly down one side of the pan, place the other 4 rolls evenly down the other side of the pan. (the placement should look like 2 columns of a newspaper)
Melt the butter in the microwave. Mix the 1 tbs sugar with the cinnamon.
Brush the tops of each crescent roll with the butter. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar and remaining toasted almonds.
Bake 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from pan and cool. May be eaten warm or chilled.
Serves 8

Nutrition

Sopapilla Rolls

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Coffee Pecan Muffins

Judith Hannemann — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 05:04:00 +0000

Coffee Pecan Muffins

What a great muffin for a morning breakfast!

Brown sugar, pecans and strong coffee (you can use espresso too) flavor these energy-filled muffins. Topped with more pecans and demerara sugar for added yum factor. Demerara sugar can be found in the baking aisle of larger supermarkets, but if your store does not carry it, try a health-food store or “Sugar in the Raw” may be substituted–the large grain. As a last resort, large crystal sugar may be used, but some flavor will be sacrificed.

This was originally a European recipe from Silvana Franco, so I’ve left it metric weights. If you have a digital kitchen scale, no problem–set it to grams. If you don’t have one, here is a site that gives standard conversions. However, I cannot vouch for the results as sometimes there is no exact conversion and I don’t recommend it, so caveat emptor if you do! I actually find weighing is faster and more accurate on all recipes, and I’d like to see it implemented in the US.

This will produce an old-fashioned type muffin, meaning it will be denser than the “store bought” we have lately gotten used to eating–the ones that are essentially cake. It’s texture is much like a steamed banana bread. And like old-fashioned muffins, they should be eaten the same day and they are not overly sweet.

Coffee Pecan Muffins

300 g flour
150 g light brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
85 g pecans coarsely chopped
1 tsp vanilla
50 g butter, melted
225 ml milk
4 tbs very strong coffee or espresso
1 egg
2 tbs Demerara sugar (for topping)
extra coarsely chopped pecans for topping

Preheat oven to 400 F/200 C

Line a 12-cup muffin tin with parchment or paper liners.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, light brown sugar, pecans and baking powder.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, melted butter. Stir in the vanilla, milk and coffee.

Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix, being careful not to over-mix.

Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Remove to rack to cool.

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Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 17:46:00 +0000

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Yes, another
biscotti recipe! This one isn’t as simple as the last entry, but it’s
well worth the time invested in making them because they are just…in a
word…WONDERFUL.

I adapted this recipe from one I found from Joy of Baking.

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

1 cup hazelnuts
4 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tbs instant coffee
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/3 cup cocoa (not Dutch process)
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat
oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place
hazelnuts on the prepared sheet and toast for 15 minutes. Remove nuts
to a clean dishtowel placing nuts on one half of the towel, then folding
the other half of the towel over the nuts so they “steam.” Let nuts
steam 5 minutes, then gently rub the nuts to remove the skins (hint–this
will be messy so try to keep the skins on the towel). Place de-skinned
nuts on a cutting board and coarsely chop them. Set aside.

Place brown sugar and coarsely chopped chocolate in a food processor and process until chocolate is finely processed.

In a medium bowl, combine the cocoa, flour, salt, instant coffee and the baking soda. Use a whisk to combine them well.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment.

With
electric mixer, in a large bowl, beat eggs and vanilla for about one
minute. Add the flour mixture, beat for about one minute then add the
hazelnuts. Beat again until well combined. The dough will be very
stiff. Use a GOOD stand mixer.

Flour
your hands and divide the dough in half. On a lightly-floured surface,
roll one half of the dough into a log 10-inches long and 2-inches
wide. Place on prepared sheet. Repeat with second half of dough placing logs about 3 inches apart.

Bake
at 300 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until tops of biscotti are almost
firm. Remove from oven and cool on sheet 10 minutes. When cooled take a
sharp knife and cut in 3/4-inch slices on a slight diagonal. Turn
biscotti on one side, place back in the oven and toast for 15 minutes.
Turn the biscotti and toast for an additional 15 minutes. Remove to
rack to cool completely.

Mine
are glazed with a white chocolate drizzle and a dark chocolate
drizzel. To make the white chocolate drizzle, take 3/4 cup white baking
morsels and microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes. Stir until completely
smooth. You may have to microwave an additional 30 seconds. Drizzle
over tops of biscotti.

To
make the dark chocolate glaze, microwave 3/4 cup of semi-sweet morsels
with a scant 1 tbs of shortening for 1 minute. Stir. An additional 30
seconds may be required depending on the wattage of your oven. Drizzle
over tops of biscotti.

Let glazes set and serve with strong coffee. Makes about 24 biscotti.

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