Coconut Latte for Mel

Coconut Latte for Mel

After finding out that coconut sugar has no coconut flavour at all, Mel was so disappointed that I decided to make this one for her: The real thing with coconut milk.

(I was a bit disappointed, too, because for all the hype about coconut sugar I don't find it *that* special, and I still don't quite believe in the low glycemic index thing. It's sucrose, after all.)

The weather today is ugly, no sun half an hour after sunrise and barely any light that you could speak of.

Not perfect for a photo shooting, but perfect for having a warm and comfy latte.

This is an ode to friendship which crosses time and space and a big ocean, hold together by the moon and coffee and dark chocolate :) Many other things, too, but coffee and dark chocolate are what is of interest in a coffee shop.

So instead of going for a wet run this morning, I threw coffee, very dark chocolate, coconut sugar and coconut milk into my cauldron and poured the result into the mug from Virginia. Mel and the mug have deserved something better than a coconut latte which doesn't taste of coconut!

Sorry for the poor photo - I didn't have coffee before shooting (it was in the mug, couldn't drink it before shooting) and I wasn't quite ready for fumbling around with the light a lot.

But now that I have tried the latte, I'm happy: It tastes of coconut, and it tastes good!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut milk (neither light nor thick; mine has 60% coconut)
• 3/4 cup strongly brewed coffee
• 1 tiny piece of very dark chocolate (mine had 90% cocoa - see the tiny piece on top of the small piece in the picture? That's the amount I used. Feel free to use more or omit. I just used it as a flavour enhancer)
• 1-2 teaspoons coconut sugar or raw cane sugar (or to taste)

Preparation:

• Brew coffee and pour into mug with chocolate and sugar, stir well.
• Add heated coconut milk.

Enjoy!

Have you ever tried coconut milk in your coffee?

Dairy-free Coconut Sugar Spice Latte

Dairy-free Coconut-Sugar Spice Latte

This latte was not a planned recipe; I just threw the ingredients together and then realized that the early morning sun was too perfect to be true - and too perfect not to be used for a photo.

So I went out and took a photo of my beautiful mug - a present from my even more beautiful friend Mel from Virginia - without even knowing if the liquid in it would be worth the shot.

It was. I'm not going to say that this is the best latte that ever saw the morning dew, but I definitely liked it and I'm definitely sure that it's worth to share.

Since I ran into a box of coconut sugar about two weeks ago, I have started to experiment with it. Not because I'm totally convinced that it really is better than any other sugar which is 80% sucrose, but because I really like the light caramel flavour of it.

If you want to read my musings about coconut sugar, you can do so on my German blog (I think Google might translate it).

If not, go ahead and try Dairy-free Coconut Sugar Spice Latte:

Ingredients:

• ½ cup almond or soy milk
• ¾ cup strong black coffee
• ½ stick cinnamon
• 1 clove
• 1/8 teaspoon ground mace (or nutmeg)
• 2 teaspoons coconut sugar (or more, to taste) (if you don't have coconut sugar, use dark cane sugar or caramel syrup to taste)

Preparation:

• Heat milk with cinnamon, clove and mace or nutmeg.
• Stir coconut sugar into coffee.
• Remove cinnamon stick and clove from milk and either froth or steam milk, if it's a kind of milk that can be frothed or steamed, or just combine coffee and hot milk.

Enjoy!

Have you tried coconut sugar yet?

Healthy Dairy-free Blueberry Mocha

Healthy Dairy-free Blueberry Mocha

Another one of my beloved berry mochas!

Who doesn't like blueberries, and who doesn't know how healthy they are? No need to talk about antioxidants here.

Even though I'm all for using raw, fresh syrups, I didn't succeed in making a really good raw blueberry syrup for mocha. It's good for other purposes, but not the best for mocha.

So I cheated a bit and heated the blueberries just to a boil and then removed them from the heat, mashed them, added honey and pressed them through a sieve.

Of course you can mix them in a blender and then press the mush through a sieve, add syrup and go ahead. I just wasn't totally content with the consistency of that - not for mocha, which I don't make for health reasons in the first place. I just try to make something decadent healthier than your average store bought mocha.

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon (or more to taste) agave, maple or brown rice syrup or honey
• 1 teaspoon + 1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons + 1 teaspoon syrup or honey (or to taste)
• Vanilla, to taste
• 1-2 espresso shots or 1/8-1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
• 1/3 cup steamed or just hot non dairy milk

Preparation:

• In a small pan, heat blueberries and water until just boiling. Immediately remove from heat, mash the berries, add 1 teaspoon syrup or honey (or to taste; you can also add some stevia, if you like).
• Let cool.
• In a mug, mix 1 teaspoon cocoa powder and 2 teaspoons syrup or honey (or to taste).
• Add 3-4 tablespoons of the blueberry syrup, mix well, add vanilla to taste.
• Mix remaining 1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder with remaining teaspoon syrup or honey in a small vial.
• Brew coffee and heat and/or steam milk.
• Combine brewed coffee and syrups in the mug, mix well, add hot or steamed milk and top with remaining blueberry and chocolate syrup.
• Enjoy!

What's your favourite way to have blueberries?

Healthy Dairy Free Strawberry Mocha

Healthy Dairy Free Strawberry Mocha

Every spring, I'm on a roll with fresh fruit, which means that I try to put fesh berries and every other fruit which I can get my hands on into everything I prepare.

I still wonder why anybody would want coffee to taste of anything else than coffee, and the only explanation I can find is that it is the combination of flavours which makes it desirable to add syrups or other stuff to your coffee.

As much as I love plain black, unsweetened coffee, I can't keep off of fancy lattes and mochas.

One of my favourites is fresh strawberry mocha.

Like raspberries, strawberries don't have to be boiled to get syrup from them.

They are soft enough to press them through a sieve.

Just make sure you have ripe, aromatic berries, and you'll be rewarded with a mocha that bursts with flavour.

I prefer making my syrups with runny honey, but of course you can use any syrup you like. If you want to save calories from sugar, you can use less syrup or honey with the fruit puree and add some stevia to taste.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium strawberries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder, divided
• 3 1/2 teaspoons honey or agave syrup or brown rice syrup (more or less, adjust to your taste and maybe add some stevia, if desired)
• 2 Espresso shots or 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
• 1/3 cup steamed milk of choice (or just hot milk, if using plant milk that cannot be steamed or frothed)
• Vanilla

Preparation:

• Chop the strawberries and press through a sieve.
• Reserve about 1 teaspoon of the strawberry puree and put the rest of it into a mug.
• Add 1 teaspoon cocoa powder and 2 teaspoons honey or syrup to the mug (or less, if using stevia to taste). Mix well until combined.
• Combine reserved strawberry puree with 1/2 teaspoon honey or syrup (adjust sweetness to taste), and 1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder with one teaspoon honey or syrup (or to taste).
• Heat milk with vanilla to taste (I use to scrape out 1 inch of a vanilla bean).
• Brew coffee and add to mug, stir to combine with the strawberry-chocolate syrup.
• Add steamed milk and top with chocolate and strawberry syrup.

Enjoy!

What do you prefer, hot mocha or cold frappuccino?

Healthy Vegan Raspberry Mocha

Healthy Vegan Raspberry Mocha

If you are at least a little like me, you love fruit, coffee and chocolate. And you don't love artificial flavouring.

I know, I know, there are such things like syrups claiming to be naturally flavoured. But let's face it, if a product label says "natural flavour" this does not necessarily mean that the flavour comes from the product of which it tastes.

It just says it is made from some natural base, like, say, wood shavings. Natural raspberry flavour is natural because the wood from which it is made is a natural product.

Of course the labels don't say how exactly they make the wood give away raspberry flavour.

Maybe these "natural flavourings" do no harm at all. I don't know it, and most probably nobody really knows.

But I don't think our body is happy to be fooled with a flavour without getting the real thing.

Flavour is associated with the nutrients a fruit contains, and if we are fond of raspberry flavour, it's for good reason: Raspberries are low in sugar and starches but full of dietary fibre, vitamin C, manganese and lots of phytochemicals like anthocyanic pigments, ellagic acid, quercetin, gallic acid, cyanidins and other stuff that makes them extremely valuable for keeping us healthy. Preventing cancer and other nasty things.

So why not use the real thing to make a decadent treat?

Yeah, it's easier to just squeeze chocolate and raspberry syrup from a bottle into my cup, fill in some coffee and steamed milk and voilà.

But honestly, we do spend such a lot of time doing unimportant things, why not sacrifice a bit of our time to pamper ourselves with something decadent that actually is healthy? We only save all this time with ready made products for investing it later into illness. Bad deal.

You can actually have all the benefits of your raspberries without boiling them to death in order to get syrup.

Just make fresh raspberry-chocolate syrup my way:

• 1/4 cup fresh or thawed frozen raspberries (makes about 1 1/2 tablespoons puree)
• 1/2 tablespoon organic cocoa powder
• agave syrup or brown rice syrup to taste

Pass the raspberries through a sieve into a small bowl. Add cocoa powder and syrup, until it suits your taste. Voilà. Raspberry-chocolate goodness. All natural.

If you like it really sweet but don't want all the sugar (natural syrups are still sugar), you can also add some powdered erythritol or stevia, if you like it.

It won't stay raw when you add hot coffee and steamed milk, but at least it's not boiled to death, and I'm quite sure that some of the nutrients will survive.

For topping:

• 1/8 cup raspberries, passed through a sieve
• 1 teaspoon agave or brown rice syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon organic cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon agave or brown rice syrup

Combine raspberry mash and syrup and cocoa powder and syrup separately and reserve for topping.

Other ingredients for your mocha:

• 1/3 cup brewed coffee or 2 espresso shots
• 1/2 cup soy milk or other non-dairy milk that can be frothed (if it can't be frothed, don't mind; it doesn't look as pretty, but still tastes great!)

Fill your chocolate-raspberry syrup into a mug, add hot brewed coffee, stir well, add frothed or steamed or just hot milk and top with raspberry and chocolate syrup.

The little black sprinkles are vanilla which I added to the soy milk.

Messy, huh?

You will realize that my photos don't look as artistic as the usual pictures you see from flavoured mochas of famous coffee shops. Of course I could pipe whipped cream on top of my mocha. I could whip coconut cream, and it would look pretty and still be all natural and even vegan.

But in the first place, I don't want additional cream on top of my mocha, and secondly - I prefer to invest my time into making healthy syrup, not into styling my drink like a diva.

The mocha in the Love-mug has been made with rice milk which can't be frothed at all. Looks boring, but tastes great.

The mocha in the yellow mug has been made with soy milk which could be frothed moderately well. There are brands which can be frothed even better than cow's milk, but not this one. I don't mind. It tastes great.

What's you favourite mocha?

Dairy-free Honey Mocaccino

Honey-Mocaccino

Baby, it's cold outside.

Must be the Ice Saints.

Usually my morning follows the pattern "getting up, going for a run, doing some yoga, taking a shower, ingesting a protein shake".

Today I got up, went for a run, did some yoga, showered, shivered and decided that I totally didn't want a cold shake.

I didn't want hot oatmeal or miso soup either because I wasn't really hungry. I just wanted something hot, sweet and comforting. Something chocolate and coffee.

A girl needs her espresso shot, right?

Yeah, I know, protein and micronutrients and all, but sometimes you have to get back to some stupid excuse like hormones, throw your nutritional wisdom overboard and have something decadent.

Which does not necessarily mean unhealthy.

I won't say that any kind of mocaccino could be the healthiest thing in the world, but you always can limit the damage.

Being a lazy person who likes shortcuts, I hate standing at the stove and stirring a mixture of sugar, water and cocoa powder forever, only to get some chocolate syrup.

Wasting an hour to create something totally unhealthy?

Nope.

Okay, regular simple chocolate syrup is just ten minutes.

But why bother when you can have it more quickly and even healthier?

My secret to chocolate syrup is honey. Organic runny honey and organic cocoa powder.

Sure, honey has a flavour of its own, but the combination of honey and cocoa is special.

If you want some quick neutral chocolate syrup, stir together agave syrup and cocoa powder.

But do give honey a try, if you're not vegan.

I definitely made a mess this morning.

And I definitely had my chocolate fix for the day.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup soy milk (or other milk that can be steamed or frothed)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (I use real vanilla, but you can use vanilla essence, too)
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons clear honey
• 2 espresso shots or 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
• optional: 1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder with 1 teaspoon honey

Preparation:

• Combine milk, vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon honey in a small pot over gentle heat.
• In a large cup or mug, stir together 1 teaspoon cocoa powder and 2 teaspoons honey; at first it will seem as if it wouldn't come together, but keep kneading and stirring with your spoon, until you have this:

• If you want to make a mess, be decadent and indulge in more chocolate like I did, stir together the other 1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon honey in a small vial.
• Slightly increase heat for the milk so it gets from warm to hot.
• Brew your coffee and pour over chocolate syrup.
• Froth milk.
• Pour milk over coffee.

• Make a mess and top with more syrup. Remember, we're not talking art, but chocolate.

What's your favourite way to have cappuccino?

Healthy White Chocolate Latte

Healthy White Chocolate Latte

You just met my mid-morning snack.

Right on my desk, a spot of white light on a rainy, gray day.

White chocolate usually is one of those things nobody really needs. Nothing but fat, sugar, milk and flavouring.

I'm not convinced by the dairy free white chocolate either, because I think it's sickeningly sweet.

What's the point in stuffing my mouth with something that is just fatty and so sweet that you can't detect any other flavour?

Getting in as many calories as possible, maybe.

But that doesn't make sense to me, somehow, if those calories don't even really taste good.

White chocolate basically is sweetened cocoa butter. The fat of the cocoa bean minus the brown stuff.

And as fat is a carrier for flavourings, the cocoa butter has a lot of the chocolate flavour in it.

So why not use the real thing to indulge in some guilt-free creamy white mocha goodness?

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used organic soy because it gets so wonderfully frothy)
• 1/2 ounce cocoa butter, food grade
• 1/2 tablespoon erythritol or xylitol
• 1/2 tablespoon agave syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon arrowroot starch or cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon non-dairy milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla or scrape out 1/2 vanilla bean
• 1 espresso shot (or 1 1/2 - 2 fluid ounces other coffee)

Preparation:

• On low heat, gently heat milk, chopped cocoa butter, sweeteners and vanilla until cocoa butter melts.
• In a small cup combine 1 teaspoon milk and 1/2 teaspoon starch.
• Increase heat and slowly bring milk and cocoa butter mixture to a boil.
• Meanwhile, prepare the espresso shot or coffee.
• As soon as milk mixture boils, remove from the stove, whisk in the dissolved starch and pour into a blender.
• Blend on high until you get a creamy, frothy mix.
• Pour into tall latte glass or a large coffee mug.
• Slowly let the hot coffee run down the side of the glass.

Enjoy!

Turkish Coffee

Turkish Mokka

May I introduce my Romanian grandmother.

And this is her demitasse cup for Turkish Mokka.

I never met her, because she passed away when I was 2 years old, and there are only two material things she left me: this Mokka demitasse cup, and another, bigger cup which will make appearance at another occasion.

What she really left me, are a lot of genes, which make me love drinking Turkish Mokka and eating Mediterranean and Romanian dishes.

If you visit someone in Romania, you'll be greeted with a cup of Mokka and some dulceaţă, which means "something sweet". My dad told me this used to be either sesame halva or just a teaspoon of jam.

My dad's memories were of the first half of the 20th century; when I stayed with an old lady in Bucarest in 1993, though, she still served her visitors Mokka with a teaspoon full of jam on the side.

I have no idea if this tradition lives on with the young people, but I still love the memory, and I still enjoy making Turkish Mokka the way my dad taught me to do it.

Normally, it is made in a small pot called "ibric".

You can get it in oriental stores, and at least mine was much less expensive than my DH's sophisticated espresso machine.

My parents didn't own such a thing, back in the 1970s and 1980s, and they just used a small sauce pan.

Turkish coffee is a method of brewing, not a kind of coffee, as you will read in wikipedia.

I won't repeat these excellent instructions - you can follow them step by step to get your own fantastic Turkish coffee.

I have been making Turkish coffee for many, many years now, but funnily, when I wanted to make the shots for this post, either my coffee or the photo didn't turn out as well as I intended.

So, instead of wasting more time with brewing, shooting, brewing, shooting, I'll go ahead and serve you a cup with some awesome almond crescent cookies which I made gluten free (see my review of the recipe).
Meanwhile, I also make them with erythritol instead of sugar.

Oh, and did I mention that you can have sweet Turkish coffee without sugar? I make mine with xylitol, and it tastes just as good as with plain old white sugar!

Healthy Pumpkin Pie Latte

Healthy Pumpkin Pie Latte

As I said, I love sitting in a coffee shop, sipping some nice plain cappuccino or latte. But would I be willing to pay an insane amount of money for an insane amount of empty calories?

Nope.

I don't actually know why anybody should want coffee to taste like pumpkin pie in the first place. But I like it, and as my father-in-law used to say: You may eat everything, but you need not know everything.

No need to know why I like coffee which tastes like pumpkin pie. I like it, period.

So, would I be willing to spend, say, ten minutes to have a wonderful, unexplicable thing like healthy pumpkin pie latte?

Yup.

But would it really be yummy, being healthy and all?

Well, why would I spend time making something healthy that is as yummy as cod liver oil before the invention of capsules?

You guess it. I wouldn't.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 tablespoons pumpkin puree (not pie filling!)
• 1/2 cup almond milk (or other milk)
• 1-2 teaspoons maple syrup, to taste
• 1 espresso shot or 1 espresso cup of strong coffee
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/3 cup almond, soy or rice cream (or any kind of milk or cream that can be steamed)
• one dash cinnamon

Preparation:

• Slowly bring pumpkin puree, milk, maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice to a boil, remove from heat.
• Make espresso or coffee.
• Pour pumpkin-milk mix into blender and blend on high for some seconds, until creamy.
• Pour pumpkin milk into a latte glass or large mug.
• Add coffee, letting it run down the side of the glass or mug.
• Steam cream or milk and pour on top.
• With a long spoon, carefully stir, until you get this:

You can even skip the coffee. I did it once, accidentally, and it tasted great!

Dairy free Café au lait

Dairy free Café au lait

My first and favourite invention in the field of dairy free coffee beverages was dairy free café au lait.

In fact it was the reason why I started creating other latte clones at all.

My dad was Romanian and had the French habit of having a large bol of café au lait for breakfast.

I'm more the tea with bread-and-cheese or eggs-and-bacon breakfast type, but later in the day I love having some café au lait, too.

When I stayed in France or in Italy, though, of course I had it for breakfast, dipping some white bread into it.

Going cow's milk free, I tried goat's milk, but honestly, as much as I love goat's cheese, café au lait au chèvre ... come on.

I love cappuccino or latte macchiato with soy milk, but not café au lait.

Rice milk has its uses, but not in café au lait.

Nor has almond milk.

I don't mind things tasting different from the real thing, generally, but not café au lait.

Am I being picky?

Yes, when it comes to café au lait...

A girl should have her principles.

And then one day, I was desperate for a quick sweet coffee fix. Without even thinking much, I just combined one teaspoon of smooth white cashew butter, half a teaspoon of honey and one teaspoon of instant espresso. I blended them together to form a smooth paste, poured hot water over and stirred with a small whisk, until I had something that remarkably resembled ... café au lait.

Many of the afore mentioned variations do that, too, without tasting it.

But this one - caught me cold.

The first sip exploded on my tongue. Café au lait.

The real thing.

I still don't know why on earth the combination of smooth white cashew butter and honey makes coffee taste like real café au lait, but it does.

I've also made it with brewed coffee. Just blend together as much cashew butter and honey as suits your taste, pour freshly brewed coffee over it, and - voilà.

Feel like sitting in the famous Parisien Parisian Café de Flore, minus the ridiculous price for one cup of coffee and milk. Of course there you pay for breathing the air that Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo Picasso breathed, but, hey. Your everyday coffee can taste great without meeting Karl Lagerfeld, right?