Coffee and Cookies

I love coffee. No, I need coffee. I have an intervention-worthy dependence on the stuff. If, for some reason, I die under suspicious circumstances and an autopsy is performed, the medical examiner will find espresso in my veins. But unlike a drug addict floating inches above rock bottom, I actually enjoy my addiction. I’m not going to bother with the, “I can quit anytime I want,” schpiel, because I neither can, nor want, to give up my coffee. I’m not in it for the caffeine; I drink decaf late in the day simply because I love the flavor. The first sip of a perfectly brewed cup of Italian roast does for me what a blanket and a pacifier do for a screaming baby.

That being said, I’ve never really strayed from my small group of favorite brands and roasts. Like my past insistence on drinking only Italian wine, my coffee philosophy has been, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” French or Italian roast, Starbucks or Equal Exchange Fair Trade, sometimes sweetened, sometimes not, sometimes adding cream, sometimes drinking it black, but always grinding my own beans and making it stronger than most humans would find necessary or even palatable; the first thing I do in the morning is start my pot of coffee. I grind my beans and add water to the machine the night before, turn it on in the morning and let it brew while I shower, and then I enjoy a cup or two while I make myself presentable to the corporate world.

I recently discovered via Yelp that Boston’s North End is home to a shop called Polcari's Coffee that sells over a dozen varieties of coffee, roasts its own beans, and is conveniently located next to Mercato del Mare, my fish market (which, by the way, now sells incredible sushi). Walking into the store, I felt like a kid in a candy store - large glass jars and barrels filled with coffee beans lined the back wall of the shop, and the service counter was complete with a gilt old-fashioned scale that looked like it was plucked from the market where Vito Corleone worked in the early scenes of Godfather II. Polcari's also sell teas, spices, grains, legumes, and flours, including the chestnut flour I needed to bake a batch of Chestnut and Raisin cookies (featured in November’s issue of La Cucina Italiana and written below). I chose the Espresso Blend and the House Blend, and then asked for a recommendation, explaining that I favor dark roasts. The store clerk suggested Vienna Roast, and he packaged all of my beans in small bags - quarter pounds of each. I wanted to go home and try them right away, but I decided that brewing espressos and testing them after dark would probably not make for the best night’s sleep, I decided to wait until today to test my new coffees. Polcari’s gets an A+ on customer service - I didn’t feel like they were selling me coffee, I felt like they were giving me presents.

Before getting on the train and heading back to my ’hood, I randomly walked into a small produce market on Parmenter Street after seeing some small pumpkins in the window. I needed a pumpkin to make my biscotti, but being two weeks away from Halloween, the only pumpkins I’ve seen are larger than basketballs and weigh more than I do - hardly a wise purchase when my recipe requires only 1 cup of pumpkin! I picked out my pumpkin and thanked the man in the store for having the only non-Barry Bonds-sized pumpkins in Boston, and then I got distracted - “Ooh! You guys have Italian eggplant?!?” He smiled. I quickly surveyed the rest of the tiny shop - “Oh nice, oil-cured olives!” “Fresh borlotti beans? Wow!” “Ohhh, look at all the peppers!” “Sweet, fresh ravioli!” The way my eyes widened at the sight of his gorgeous produce must have led him to believe I hadn’t eaten for a month, and finally, I said, “Wait a minute, what store is this?” after realizing that I’d walked in without even looking at their sign. “Alba Produce,” he replied. Well, Alba Produce, you’ve got a fan in me. Those shiny amethyst-colored eggplants are going to make a great caponata one of these days.

This morning, I busted out my Moka pot and tried each one of my coffee blends. For those who aren’t coffee fiends like yours truly, a Moka pot is a special kind of coffee pot used for brewing espresso on the stovetop. It produces great results without having to spend $1500 on one of those machines that does everything to your coffee except drink it.

The Vienna roast was very rich and deep flavored, and very straightforward - I couldn’t pick out a “hint” of anything except pure caffienated bliss. Their Espresso roast is my new go-to coffee - rich and deep, with the subtle flavor of bitter dark chocolate, and an earthy flavor that reminded me of the smell of the ground after it rains. The House Blend was very similar to the Espresso roast (makes sense, since the Espresso roast beans make up a portion of the blend), but without the complexity. Earlier I stated that Polcari’s gets an A+ for customer service, but that Espresso roast is so fabulous that they could have called me dumb and ugly, given me the finger, and insulted my cooking and my mother, and I’d still go back to buy the Espresso roast.

Below are two recipes for cookies that pair extremely well with hot coffee, and because I can’t write about coffee without including an “I like my coffee like I like my men“ joke, I‘ve included recipes for my two favorite coffee drinks - tall, hot, and Irish or Italian!

Irish Coffee

1 large cup hot coffee
1 shot espresso
1 oz. Irish whiskey
¼ cup whipped cream (best if you use heavy cream and whip it yourself with a whisk or an immersion blender

Combine the coffee, espresso, and whiskey in your favorite tall coffee mug. Top with whipped cream and serve very hot.


Caffe Corretto

“Corretto” means corrected in Italian - literally, the translation is “corrected coffee.” Your brew is corrected with a shot of liquor, most likely grappa, sambuca, or amaretto. I prefer sambuca.

Follow the above recipe for Irish coffee, substituting sambuc

a for the whiskey and omitting the whipped cream.



Pumpkin Pecan Biscotti

3 ½ c. unbleached all-purpose flour
2 ½ t. baking powder
½ t. salt
¼ cup melted butter
1 ¼ c. sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
1 cup grated raw pumpkin
1 cup toasted and chopped pecans
1 t. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375. Combine the first three ingredients in a mixing bowl; set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat all remaining ingredients with a mixer until well-blended. Stir in the flour mixture until flour is fully incorporated and a moist dough is formed.

Lightly dust a countertop and your hands with flour. Divide the dough in half, shape each half into a log shape (about 11 x 1.5 inches). Place both logs on a cookie sheet lightly greased with butter and flatten them slightly. Bake for 25 minutes. When done, set aside to cool enough to handle.

Once logs are cool, transfer them to a cutting board and slice them crosswise into half-inch thick slides. Return the slices, cut side down, to the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheets from the oven, turn the slices over, and bake for 10 more minutes or until they begin to turn golden-brown.

Let cool, serve dunked in hot coffee.
　

　
Chestnut and Raisin Cookies with Pignoli

9 T. butter, softened
¾ c. sugar
Pinch salt
1 egg
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3 c. chestnut flour
½ c. pignoli
¼ c. raisins

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, and salt, then mix in egg. Next, add the all-porpose flour, chestnut flour, pignoli, and raisins. Mix with your hands until blended.

Lightly flour your hands, then roll the dough into balls about 1 ½ inches in diameter. Place them about an inch apart on a greased baking sheet, and press each into a 2 ½ inch round.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, then rotate pan and bake 8-10 more minutes, or until the edges of the cookies turn golden. Then, transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool, and serve dunked in hot coffee.