The gourmand coffees

Who doesn’t know coffee? It’s a universal drink, but also historical,  whose preparation methods have evolved over time.

The extraction techniques are usually two types:

1. maceration, characterized by prolonged contact of the coffee powder with water;
2. percolation, in this case the water passes through the coffee and quickly falls into a container.

The oldest techniques belong to the first type, while the more modern ones belong to the second. Espresso, moka, filter coffee and other similar methods belong to it.

In 1840 James R. Napier conceived the Coffee Siphon, composed of two glass elements superimposed separated by a filter; the water, placed in the lower ampoule, is brought to boiling, making its ascent into the upper chamber, where the extraction from the coffee powder takes place. Once the heat is eliminated, the water begins to descend into the lower ampoule while the filter retains the dust.

It’s very popular in Japan, so much so that it is the main specialty served in the Cat’s Eye coffee in the 1981 Japanese manga and anime of the same name.

Cold brew or cold drip is obtained using the Toddy invented by the American Todd Simpson in the 1960s.

What’s (greedy) gourmand coffee? It’s a classic coffee (espresso, mocha or filter coffee) with an element of strong aromatic character, preferably sweet: not for classic coffee lovers!

Among the gourmand coffees there are certainly the Espressino, the Marocchino, the Mocaccino and the Bicerin, however recently the category has been enriched by some new entries.

Most common on the web is the espresso on a dark chocolate bar, it may be also white or milk, depending on your taste.

You can also obtain a hazelnut coffee with a spoonful of hazelnut cream, but also pistachio or custard and even on ice cream: vanilla or chocolate?. However, if you use a mascarpone cream, the correct name (with a cat tongue or other cookie dipped into it) is “decomposed tiramisu”.

Now, just let your imagination run wild ... obviously the taste of the added element will alter the traditional one of coffee.

Some of these recipes can be found in the Italian book Giuseppe Mazzarella, « Il marketing nel bicchiere – L’arte di vendere emozioni » , edited by Morrone Editore.

Italian recipe

Booktrailer

Marocchino

Marocchino, also called vetrino o espressino in Southern Italy, is a coffee drink resulted from Cavour’s bicerin and it’s like a little cappuccino in glass.

It was created in the mid-twentieth century in Alessandria (Italy), in the Bar Carpano; it was inh front of Borsalino, a famous brand of hats. The name Marocchino (Italian for Moroccan) is derived from its colour, as marocchino was a type of light brown leather used in the 1930s to make hair bands.

Let's first look at the original recipe and then the variations needed for a cold version, to be enjoyed in the height of summer.



Ingredients:

2,5 cl of espresso (coffee)

1,5 cl of milk froth (as in cappuccino)

q.s. of unsweeted cocoa powder



Instructions

Prepare the milk froth with the espresso machine. In a small glass (tipically for cold coffee) wet inside with steam, dust with cocoa powder, then top with milk froth and espresso for last, with a second dusting of cocoa on top on customer request.

Another version uses first the espresso then the milk froth.

In some regions of northern Italy, thick hot cocoa or hazelnut cocoa spread is added instead of cocoa powder.

Cold version

Prepare the milk froth with a shaker or a jar shaking vigorously, with or without ice. You can use also a Coffee Plunger (French press) to prepare milk froth.

Wet inside a small glass with steam or a spray bottle, dust with cocoa powder, then top with (cold) milk froth and cold espresso for last, with a second dusting of cocoa on top on customer request.

This recipe is in my(Italian) book « Il marketing nel bicchiere – L’arte di vendere emozioni » (Marketing in the glass), published by Morrone Editore.

Ricetta in italiano (freddo)

N.S.A.

This cocktail was born as a blank modification of the Negroni Sbagliato (Wrong Negroni), hence the name as abbreviation that indicates its characteristic: Negroni Sbagliato Albino (White Wrong Negroni).

It’s lighter because the white bitter is non-alcoholic.



Ingredients:

1/3 (3 cl – 1 oz) of white vermouth bianco

1/3 (3 cl – 1 oz) of white bitter

1/3 (3 cl – 1 oz) of dry sparkling wine or Prosecco

1 slice of lemon



Instructions

Pour vermouth and bitter directly into old-fashioned glass filled with ice, add the dry sparkling wine and stir gently with a stirrer spoon. Garnish with a slice of lemon.



Ricetta in italiano

Cold cappuccino

Why give up the pleasure of a good cappuccino in the height of the summer? Just prepare the cold version ...



Ingredients:

2,5 cl of espresso (coffee)

12,5 cl of milk froth (as in cappuccino)

q.s. of unsweeted cocoa powder



Instructions

Prepare the milk froth with a shaker or a jar shaking vigorously, with or without ice. You can use also a Coffee Plunger (French press) to prepare milk froth making up and down with plunger.

Put a cold espresso (coffee) in a cup, then fill with milk froth, top with a dusting of cocoa on customer request.

This recipe is in my (Italian) book « Il marketing nel bicchiere – L’arte di vendere emozioni » (Marketing in the glass), published by Morrone Editore.

Book trailer (IT)

Video recipe

Ricetta in italiano

Videoricetta

Flaming hearts

Here's a cute idea for Valentine’s Day

Starting from some research on Sardinian burnt cream, whose origins date back to the Catalan cream, it has come to this in a modern reinterpretation through a finger food made from classic voul-au-vent filled with Catalan cream I called flaming hearts.

Ingredients per 12 or 15 finger food:
250 g of puff pastry
500 ml of milk
6 egg yolks
200 g of sugar
50 gr of corn starch
zest of one whole lemon
a cinnamon stick
as enough of brown sugar
as enough of pure alcohol

Preparation

With the help of a cut biscuits, preferably heart-shaped, 6 cm in diameter, cut the puff pastry (you may want to use the ready, as an alternative, you can do following the classical recipe and stretching it thick 5 mm), cut out half of the molds with a cut biscuits smallest (4 cm diameter).

Brush with water the whole edge of the pastry and, with the aid of the same cut biscuits, put on the sheets cut a second time by eliminating the central part and leaving the outer edge.
Let stand in refrigerator for about 30 minutes, prick with a fork inside and bake at 180 ° C for about 20-30 minutes, remove from oven when golden.
Just cold, remove with a Paring knife or other pointed a few layers of dough in the middle to free up space.
Put the milk on the stove with cinnamon and lemon peel. Remove from the heat just before it starts to boil and place in a bowl to cool. In another bowl, whip cream to the egg yolks with the sugar.
When the milk is cold, put a little in a cup (to dissolve the cornstarch) and the remaining pour into a saucepan along with the yolks whipped with sugar, put everything on the stove at low heat, stirring constantly. At the time that the cream will begin to thicken, add, while stirring, a cup of milk with the cornstarch previously dissolved.
Continue to cook and stir over low heat being careful not to boil the cream, after about 15 minutes the cream will begin to turn yellow and thick, this indicates the end of cooking.
To warm the cream, after pour it into the hearts of dough and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.
When ready to serve, pull out of the fridge and sprinkle brown sugar over the cream, being careful not to let him touch the dough. With the help of a dropper, sprinkle brown sugar with pure alcohol, being careful not to go on the puff pastry, burn sugar and serve immediately with the flame on (being careful not to turn it off!).
Once the alcohol burned the flame will go out by herself leaving the caramelized sugar.

Notes
You can replace the Catalan cream with a classic cream or any other cream!

The recipe is in the Italian book « Dolci bicchieri – nuove tendenze in pasticceria » (Sweets glasses - new trends in pastry) of Giuseppe and Maria Mazzarella, published by Morrone.

Version française

Versione italiana

Video in Italian

Hyblean pesto (Hyblean green sauce)

Ingredients:

200 g of almonds of Avola

160 g of extra virgin oil (DOP Monti Iblei)

4 sprigs of nepitella (a local kind of mint)

Preparation

Blend thoroughly in the cutter.

Or use the traditional method of pounding in a mortar with classic pestle.

Note

Avola is a town in southeastern Sicily famous for almonds.