November 24th
2005
Compared to the plethora of wonderfully designed food magazines available in other countries, Germany unfortunately can't quite keep up. The number of locally on-hand magazines is definitely manageable, including periodicals such as ELLE bistro, Der Feinschmecker and of course essen & trinken. On the other hand it doesn't necessarily imply that they are of lesser quality; just happens that I ran across a recipe in the last edition of essen & trinken that, in light of O.'s liking for tasty espresso, asked for replication.
The making is pretty straight forward, however, next time I'd adjust the ratio between water and espresso in favor of the espresso. Just enough to give it more punch. The quality of the coffee I believe is key, blends that include any or a larger portion of Robusta beans may have a bitter/acidic influence on the taste and you would likely have to compensate with a bit more sugar. Try to go with Arabica coffee beans (single harvest are best) and have your favorite coffee shop grind them for you just when you need them, or as an alternative buy a few double espresso shots...
For the espresso jello, soak the gelatin sheets in cold water for 10 minutes. Add water and brown sugar to a pot and bring to a boil. Remove when sugar is dissolved, then add the espresso and the well squeezed gelatin.
Choose a pan with proper proportions: for instance if you'd like to make larger cubes it may have to be a smaller one, with higher rims. The one I used was 16x16cm (6x6inch). Foil-line the pan; once firm, you can lift the foil right out and cut the jello cleanly. Chill for at least 6 hours, or better over night.
For the coconut sauce, first heat up heavy cream and coconut milk. In a seperate bowl, combine egg yolk and sugar and beat until the mass becomes creamy and pale in color. Now slowly add the warm milk to the mix, while stirring until well blended. Return the mass back to the pot and constantly turn and stir at medium heat (it should not boil!) until the mix has further thickened.
Strain the sauce through a sieve and serve with the espresso cubes.
Note: While O. dove head first into the coconut sauce/espresso jello combination, I preferred a scoop of vanilla ice cream to go with them - reminded me of Caffè Affogato (espresso on vanilla ice).
Cubed Coffee (serves 4-6)
Recipe source: essen & trinken, adapted
Required time: prep. 15 min., chilling: a min. of 6h, better over night
.
Ingredients for the espresso jello:
120ml espresso (high quality with low acidity, e.g. Cherry Plantation A)
8 sheets of gelatine
450ml water
60g brown sugar
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Ingredients for the coconut sauce:
125 ml heavy cream
125 ml coconut milk
3 egg yolk
40 g sugar
I love the way your photos turn out. I tried the jellos with milk once, but prefer vanilla ice cream as well. Not a great fan of coconut, though its a big part of food culture here in SE asia. =)
This looks intriging. I'll have to try it. Your pictures are very lovely.
xoxo
Fanny
hi, your exquisite photographs never fail to take my breath away! sounds divine with ice cream...
These coffee jellies look perfect for a summer's day. Going to try it sometime soon :)
hey. there's this southeast asian dessert which kind of looks and sort of tastes like this. its a two-layer jelly with the bottom being mainly a plain dark palm sugar jelly and the top being a jelly made from coconut milk and palm sugar. its really nice, especially chilled.
Wow. your photos are excellent!
As Pille wrote above, the idea for this recipe is "fascinating." I'm not coffee drinker but this entices me to try it. And I'd definitely have it with the vanilla ice cream. Most definitely! ;-)
Paz
We have a dessert here called "coffee jelly" that is made the same way. I like to use "kanten" or agar-agar instead of gelatin, though. Love your site!!
Great recepie. I have a questions for Kat though, ... How much agar-agar would you substitute?
Hey, cute little cubes!
Just replying to what nurul said, my parents are from Indonesia and one of my favourite Asian dessert/drinks is what you're talking about Nurul! :) In our language (Indonesian and Chinese), we call it cincau, but mum and dad always refer to it as "Grass Jelly". I just asked them what exactly it is, and dad says it comes from a plant. You can actually buy it at Asian Grocery stores, same for the palm sugar.
Oh gosh this looks so wonderful! I can't wait to try. What a great little intermezzo this would be! And the pictures are gorgeous...
Yum! I grew up on Coffee Jello, in Massachusetts. No one outside of New England seems to have heard of it! (OR of coffee ice cream, either!) We served it with milk or whipped cream. MMMM!
Espresso Jello Shots - Cubed Coffee
Delicious:Days has posted a recipe for “Cubed Coffee” — essentially little gelatin cubes made with coffee, with a coconut sauce.
Looks tasty, and probably better for you than your average jello shot…
...
Can anyone tell me how to substitute gelatin packets for sheets? Thanks. . .
[...] ffeine Blog
Cubed coffee recipe
December 12th, 2005
Cubed coffee recipe.
posted by Klintron at 5:47 pm
& f [...]
Vanessa,
Sorry I didn't answer you sooner, 4g of agar-agar for 1 cup of water. Depending on your coffee jello recipe, you can play with the amount of agar-agar. You can put less, but don't go over the 4 to 1, agar-agar can sometimes affect the intestines if used in large amounts.
Kat
A wonderful recipie.
Great! Delicious!
This looks incredible! What a nice idea for a dessert, thanks for sharing!
Intrigued! Will have to try it out. Thanks for sharing!
Gina
If substituting agar for gelatin what is the ratio?
[...] Das wunderschöne foodblog delicious:days besprach im November 2005 “cubed coffee”. Muss ausprobiert werden! [...]
[...] genius. http://www.deliciousdays.com/archives/2005/11/24/cubed-coffee/ [...]
[...] I was listening to local radio talk show host Michael Graham last night. He was talking with callers about their ultimate Christmas treat. There was a fellow who called in to say that his fave goodie is coffee jello. I was intrigued… So I looked it up and found this zhuzhed-up version. [...]
[...] del.icio.us  Digg it  Furl  Netscape  RawSugar  reddit  Wink  Yahoo MyWeb   Entertaining this weekend? Why not jolt up your guests with espresso jello. Get thefairly easy to make recipe from Delicious:Days. (c) delicious days [...]
I love your photos!
Just tried these and they are DELICIOUS. Not quite the same, but the jello shot recipes at best-recipes.info gave me the idea of adding a bit of alcohol to the mix. Any suggestions?
Chris, How about Kahlua? I'm sure it blends nicely with the coffee flavor!
i tried your coffee recipe and i really loved it.Thanks for the recipe.
I've never got into vodka jellies, or jellies in general. But I like my coffee and espresso jello could just be the thing to introduce me gently to the world of jellies in general. I'll give this one a go! Thanks for a fascinating recipe idea!