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Recipes with strong coffee

4 recipes that use strong coffee, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Koffie verkeerd, takes 6 minutes. It is most often cooked with cocoa powder, milk and plain flour.

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MokkapalatChocolate coffee squares

Mokkapalat ('mocha pieces') are what Finnish parents bake on the big oven tray for a child's birthday, a school bake sale or a summer cottage weekend: soft chocolate sponge squares with a thin, glossy coffee-cocoa icing and a shower of coloured sprinkles. The coffee is gentle and only deepens the chocolate, so children love them, and you can use decaf. They are moist enough to keep three days in a tin and freeze well. Icing the cake while it is hot is the classic mistake; it soaks in and goes dull, so wait until it is just warm. Chef's tip: add the icing liquid a spoonful at a time; it should spread like thick paint and set with a shine.

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KärleksmumsChocolate tray cake

Kärleksmums, 'love bites', is the tray cake of Swedish school cafés, sports clubs and children's birthdays, cut into squares and eaten with milk or coffee. A soft chocolate sponge is spread while still warm with a glossy icing of butter, cocoa, icing sugar and a splash of coffee, then covered in desiccated coconut. Leave out the coffee for children if you prefer and use milk. A common mistake is icing a cake that is too hot, so the icing soaks in and the coconut slides off. Chef's tip: let the cake cool for 10 minutes, so it is warm but not hot, before spreading.

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Koffie verkeerdCoffee with extra milk

Order a koffie verkeerd in any Dutch café or bruin café and you get a tall glass that is mostly steamed milk with a strong shot of coffee poured in, the 'wrong' way round compared with a normal black coffee. It is the Dutch morning cup at home and at work, usually with a speculaas biscuit on the saucer. The common mistake is boiling the milk, which makes it taste cooked and kills the foam; heat it only until it steams and small bubbles form at the edge, about 65 °C. Chef's tip: froth the milk by shaking it in a jar with the lid on before warming it in the microwave, and you get café-style foam without a machine.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

FrustingoFig, nut and cocoa cake

In the Marche, from Ancona down to Ascoli Piceno, frustingo is the dark, dense Christmas cake every family makes its own way, born as a thrifty sweet of dried figs, nuts and stale bread. Chopped figs are soaked and simmered, then mixed with walnuts, almonds, raisins, candied peel, cocoa and coffee, and bound with sapa, the thick cooked grape must of the region. Many recipes also add mistrà, a local aniseed liqueur; this one uses ground anise seed for an alcohol-free cake. It bakes into a fudgy, almost black slab, rich with spice and not too sweet. Chef's tip: let it mature for two days in foil before cutting; it slices cleanly and the flavours come together.

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Goes well with strong coffee