Beyond the Mug: Cooking and Baking with Coffee

There is a moment at the bottom of the pot, the last inch you never quite get to, that feels like a small waste. Here is a happier thought. That coffee does not have to be drunk to be useful. Some of the best things coffee does, it does in the kitchen, where it stops being a beverage and becomes one of the most versatile ingredients on your shelf.

What coffee does to food

Coffee brings three things to a dish. It brings bitterness, the good kind, the kind that balances sweetness and keeps a dessert from cloying. It brings deep, roasted, almost smoky notes that make savory food taste richer and more complex. And it brings acidity, a brightness that can lift a heavy sauce or cut through fat. Think of it less as a flavor you are adding and more as a seasoning that makes everything around it taste more like itself.

On the sweet side

The sweet applications are the famous ones, and for good reason. Coffee and chocolate are old friends. A spoonful of espresso in a brownie batter or a chocolate cake does not make it taste of coffee. It makes the chocolate taste more like chocolate, deeper and darker. Tiramisu, of course, is the great monument to coffee as dessert, ladyfingers soaked in strong espresso and layered with sweet mascarpone. Coffee also loves cream, so an affogato, a scoop of vanilla gelato drowned in a shot of hot espresso, may be the simplest luxurious dessert in the world.

On the savory side

This is where coffee surprises people. Ground coffee, mixed with salt, brown sugar, and spices, makes a superb rub for red meat, its bitterness forming a dark crust and its roasted notes echoing the char of the grill. A shot of strong coffee stirred into a pot of chili or a slow-braised beef adds a savory depth that no one at the table will be able to name. Even a pan sauce can be finished with a splash of coffee, deglazed and reduced, for a bittersweet richness closer to dark chocolate than to your morning cup.

Two to try this week

A five-minute affogato.  Put a scoop of good vanilla ice cream in a small cup or glass. Brew a short, strong shot of coffee. Pour it over the ice cream at the table and eat immediately, while it is half melted and half frozen. That is the whole recipe. It is also, quietly, one of the most elegant things you can serve after dinner.

A simple coffee rub.  Mix two tablespoons of finely ground coffee with two tablespoons of brown sugar, one tablespoon of salt, and a teaspoon each of smoked paprika and black pepper. Rub it over steak, pork, or even a thick portobello mushroom an hour before cooking. The sugar and coffee build a dark, savory crust that tastes like it took far more effort than it did.

We are readers first, but readers get hungry, and coffee has a way of turning up in the best meals as well as the best afternoons. Once you start thinking of it as an ingredient, you will find it everywhere, quietly making things taste better.

A darker roast is your best friend for cooking, all those deep, roasted notes ready to go to work. Find one worth cooking with, and drinking, at thebookersbrew.com.