The sun came back, the Pacific Northwest skies are blue, and it’s almost too hot for hot coffee. How best to get your jolt?
Here’s today’s suggestion: coffee sundaes. Coffee, with more flavor compounds than red wine, is a vastly undertapped culinary resource outside of the cup. It’s fantastically flavorful in cakes, cookies and artisan ice creams alike.
So why not combine the offerings of Northwest ice creameries with homemade coffee brownies? All you need is a family favorite brownie recipe and a quarter-cup of espresso-ground coffee beans. Add the ground coffee directly to one batch of brownie batter and bake as usual. Unlike alcohol, caffeine won’t bake or cook out, meaning coffee confections can serve as a mid-afternoon snack and wake-up call in one.
Part of the fun of this is experimenting with local coffees to see which flavor profiles taste best to you. If you prefer a light to medium roast, try Sand Point, Idaho’s Evans Brothers’ organic Ethiopia Yirgacheffe or Seattle’s Zoka’s nutty-sweet El Salvador Natamaya single-origin beans. For all you dark roast lovers, get your hands on Sisters, Ore.’s Sisters Coffee Company’s espresso roast or Vancouver’s Blaq Sheep Coffee’s darkest offering, the smokily aromatic Dark French.
Now for a scoop of ice cream on top. If you dare to brave the outrageous yet omnipresent lines outside of Portland’s three Salt & Straw ice cream shops, go for the devilishly delicious Coffee-and-Bourbon ice cream, featuring Stumptown’s earthy Sumatra alongside Burnside Bourbon from Eastside Distillery. Molly Moon’s does a rich Stumptown Coffee ice cream as well, while Bluebird Microcreamery and Brewery (of Seattle) shows off Caffe Vita to the fullest.
Top your sundae with whipped cream, hot fudge sauce, or a few whole coffee beans—or do things affogato-style, by pouring a shot of your favorite espresso or very strong French-pressed coffee over the top and letting the ice cream melt in rivulets over the brownie. Take your bowl out on your front porch or patio, and take in the sun while the ice cream cools you off. However you put it all together, with coffee sundaes you really can’t go wrong.
