Latte Trouble - By Cleo Coyle Page 0,89
focus on instead. Remember that.”
I nodded. Then I quickly moved across the room and hugged my Tucker tight.
RECIPES & TIPS FROM THE VILLAGE BLEND
The Village Blend’s
Caramel-Chocolate Latte
Cover bottom of mug with Clare’s homemade caramel-chocolate syrup. Add a shot of espresso. Fill the rest of the mug with steamed milk. Stir the liquid, lifting from the bottom to bring up the syrup. Top with sweetened whipped cream and a chocolate-covered coffee bean.
Clare’s Foolproof Homemade
Caramel-Chocolate Syrup
This syrup is out of this world! Try it warm over ice cream or use it for dipping strawberries or biscotti. Delicious! This recipe will yield about 2 cups of syrup, but it can easily be doubled or tripled for a big batch.
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup light Karo syrup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 oz milk chocolate or 1 cup of milk chocolate chips
4 tablespoons (½ stick) salted butter
Combine cream, Karo syrup, sugars, and salt in a non-stick or Teflon saucepan. Stir over medium heat until smooth. Bring to a rolling boil and maintain for 8-10 minutes. Continue to stir intermittently—do not let burn. In a separate saucepan, melt butter and chocolate together, stir until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture into the saucepan with the caramel syrup and stir over heat until smooth. If there are still lumps, remove sauce from non-stick pan and whisk in a bowl until completely smooth. Serve warm. Store in refrigerator. Tip #1: best bet for storing syrup is a sturdy plastic squeeze bottle. Syrup will become thicker as it cools. To reheat syrup, place the squeeze bottle in a warm water bath or reheat in a microwave. Tip #2: use a good quality milk chocolate, such as Ghirardelli. You can also experiment with your own taste preferences, substituting semi-sweet, Mexican, or dark chocolate for the milk chocolate. Have fun!
Café Brulée
Not for the faint of heart. Brew a strong pot of a darkly roasted coffee. Mix seven parts hot coffee with one part cognac in a large, steamed or heated wine glass after its rim has been dipped first into freshly squeezed lemon juice, then rolled in confectioners sugar. Immediately before serving, carefully set the beverage ablaze—and keep a fire extinguisher handy just in case!
Clare’s Basic Biscotti
Italians use the term biscotti to refer to any type of cookie. In today’s coffeehouse culture, biscotti is used to describe a long, dry, hard twice-baked cookie designed for dunking into wine or coffee. The name biscotti is derived from bis, meaning “en-core” in Italian, and cotto, meaning “baked” or “cooked.”
There are many basic biscotti recipes. Some use oil instead of butter, some use no butter at all. This particular recipe produces a more tender biscotti, which is generally preferred by the American palate. To create a harder biscotti out of this recipe, reduce the butter by ½ cup (or ½ stick) and increase the flour by ½ cup.
Yields: 2 dozen
1-½ c butter (1-½ sticks)
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
Parchment paper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. With an electric mixer, cream butter, add eggs, sugar, and vanilla and mix well. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until soft dough forms. Place dough on lightly floured surface and knead slightly, then divide dough into two even pieces. Roll each piece into a cylinder about 10 inches long and 2 inches wide. Place these 2 logs of dough onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper—the bottoms of the logs can flatten when you place them on the baking sheet. They don’t need to stay round. Make sure the 2 logs are well separated. Bake in the 350-degree oven for 35 minutes. Let the logs cool for about 10 minutes, then carefully slice them on a diagonal angle. (Because this recipe is for a slightly softer biscotti, the dough may be a bit crumbly. The best way to slice is with a very sharp knife, straight down. No sawing.) Each log should yield about 12 cookies sliced approximately ¾ inches wide. Turn the cookies onto their sides, and place on a baking sheet. Put them back in the 350-degree oven for 8 minutes on one side, then turn over and bake another 8 minutes on the other side. Let cool. Store in an airtight container.
The above is a very basic biscotti recipe. Different variations can come from this recipe by adding such things as nuts, dried fruits, and various extracts. Have fun experimenting! Here are some possibilities:
Almond Biscotti: In above recipe, change 1 tablespoon of vanilla to 2 teaspoons vanilla and 2 teaspoons almond extract. And mix 1 cup of chopped, toasted almonds into the dough. (To toast raw almonds, spread on baking sheet and place in 350-degree oven for about 12 minutes.)
Anise Biscotti: In above recipe, change 1 tablespoon of vanilla to 2 teaspoons vanilla and 2 teaspoons anise extract. (Optional) Mix 12 cup of anise seeds into the dough.
Pistachio Biscotti: In above recipe add to the dry ingredients ½ cup of toasted pistachios that have been ground to a powder. After dough forms, add 1 cup of whole, toasted pistachios. (To toast raw pistachios, spread on baking sheet and place in 350-degree oven for about 12 minutes.)
Ricciardelli
Simply marvelous! These sweet, delicate almond cookies have been popular for centuries. During the Renaissance, ricciarelli were served at the most lavish banquets in Italy and France. They are still a popular addition to dessert and cookie trays at festive gatherings. In Tuscany, they are a popular Christmas cookie and have been called “Tuscan Macaroons.”
Yield: about 36 cookies
This is a quick and easy version of the traditional recipe—creating a tender, chewy cookie you’ll flip over!
1 cup whole, raw almonds
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup powdered sugar
1/8 cup honey (mild, such as clover)
2 egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cup all-purpose flour
Powdered sugar (for dusting)
Parchment paper
Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. First prepare your almonds. Blanche whole, raw almonds by dropping into boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain the almonds and rinse under cold water. Spread on a paper towel. When dry, squeeze each almond between your fingers so that the clean almond pops out of its dark skin. Repeat until all the almonds are skinned, then dry the almonds with a paper towel. Spread these blanched almonds in a single layer in a baking pan. Bake about 20 to 30 minutes—stir a few times throughout the baking process. Let cool. Place these almonds into a food processor. Grind them into a powder. Add the granulated and powdered sugars, then add the honey, egg whites, and vanilla; process these ingredients until they are well mixed. Add flour. If you do not have a food processer, use a blender to grind the nuts, then transfer to a bowl and use a hand mixer to mix in the other ingredients. A soft dough will form. If too soft, add a bit more flour—but do not create a stiff dough. Dough should be soft without being runny. Sprinkle a large cutting board generously with powdered sugar. Drop rounded teaspoons of dough into powdered sugar. Roll each piece of dough into a small ball. Drop ball onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten into a circle with back of spoon and, if you like, shape into the traditional diamond shape. Dust unbaked cookies with powdered sugar (use a sieve or sifter for even dusting). Bake until cookies are set but not brown, about 10 to 15 minutes. Dust again with powdered sugar as soon as they come out of the oven. When completely cool, store in an airtight container.
The Village Blend’s
Guide to Roasting Terms
LIGHT
Cinnamon
Half city
MEDIUM
Full city
American
Regular
Breakfast
DARK
Continental
New Orleans
Vienna
DARKEST
French
Italian
Espresso
Don’t Miss the Next
Coffeehouse Mystery
MURDER MOST FROTHY
For many Greenwich Village residents, summer in the city means weekends in the Hamptons. With a coffeehouse to run, Clare Cosi has never spent much time at the fabled collection of exclusive seaside towns. Then her new friend David Mintzer makes an offer Clare can’t refuse—train the barista staff at his new Hamptons restaurant and enjoy sun, sand, and surf at his fabulous mansion. Clare accepts, packs up her daughter, Joy, her well-connected former mother-in-law, Madame, and the Village Blend’s recipes for frothy iced coffee drinks, and heads for ocean breezes. After she arrives, however, more than the coffee gets iced. At the end of David’s fabulous July Fourth bash, a body is found, shot through the head, and Clare immediately begins to scrutinize possible suspects. What she uncovers are so many long brewing resentments among the volatile blend of new money wannabes, old guard blue bloods, summering Hollywood celebrities, and aggressive, stressed-out Manhattan weekenders that she quickly realizes the real question isn’t why the first victim was shot, but when the next one will be.