My grandmother was an old Dane and she could flat out cook and bake! Most of her cooking apparently didn't require recipes and if you wanted a recipe sometimes it would take a while to get it. She had to actually prepare the dish and write down the ingredients and processes as she made it. Her recipes were pretty accurate, not like her competitive sister-in-law, Neva, who would intentionally hold back an ingredient or two. The recipes she did have were on folded scrapes of paper and lard stained 3 x 5 cards, the earliest ones in Danish. She spoke English and baked in Danish? They had ingredients like "One 10 cent can of crushed pineapple". Okay, is that the large can, or the small can? There were also little cryptic notes about where she got the recipe and things can potentially go wrong in the process.
This isn't one of Grandma Nellie's recipes. She would have considered Mexi-Mocha Coffee exotic. She and Grandpa thought even pizza and salsa were foreign food, and therefore suspect. Also, she probably would have thought adding all these things to perfectly fine coffee was silly and maybe blasphemy. Lorna's note at the bottom is certainly a Grandma Nellie inspired note though. "for bookclub"!
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 orange peel strips (1-3 inches)
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground allspice
3 c. strong brewed coffee whipped cream
½ c. half-and-half, warmed
Optional garnishes:
cinnamon sticks
orange peel
Place first 5 ingredients in a blender, cover and process until chocolate is finely chopped.
Add coffee; cover and process for 1-2 minutes or until chocolate is melted.
Transfer into a small saucepan and heat through.
Return mixture to blender; add cream.
Return mixture to blender; add cream.
Cover and process until frothy.
Strain, discarding solids; serve.
* This is half of the sugar the original recipe called for. I made it with half of the sugar for book club.
* This is half of the sugar the original recipe called for. I made it with half of the sugar for book club.
9 comments:
Gunnar: I agree with your grandma and will stick with simpler brews like Swedish coffee. Here's my recipe and process:
(1). Put a silver coin in your coffee cup, pour on strong coffee until you can no longer see the coin.
(2). Next pour brännvin into the cup until the coin is just visible again.
(3). Drink while hot and avoid swallowing the coin.
(4). Repeat as required to satisfaction.
Poor woman, I'm certain Grandma never tasted alcohol in her life.
Is brännvin similar to akvavit?
Actually, I was thinking about dropping the first two ingredients and subbing Kahlua.
Brännvin translates into English as "burnt wine". I assume that "burnt" implies the distilling process. Brännvin is generally clear and unfavored (like vodka or white lightenin') while akvavit is always favored with whatever the maker thinks is best. This has led to regional preferences by both commercial brewers and home flavorists who typically start off with a bottle of Vodka or clear spirits and add seeds, dried flowers, spices, black licorice or you name it to their holiday concoctions. Some of these resulting alcohol extractions are quite tasty but others, in my opinion, would probably gag a maggot.
http://oakwoodlife.blogspot.com/2009/10/akvavit.html
http://oakwoodlife.blogspot.com/2009/04/death-and-snekkes.html
http://oakwoodlife.blogspot.com/2009/02/aquavit.html
Right in line with my wife's Danish Taco's
Tusind tak!
PS: if you want the ingredi hollar!
I gotta Taco soup recipe too. ech.
Mange tusen takk anyhoo.
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