10 Ways To Include Coffee As An Ingredient In Recipes

Do you love coffee as much as we do? The unique bold taste of coffee is a heaven’s touch on a sleepy morning. But there are many more exciting ways for you to use your beloved energizer rather than in a mug!

We are so excited to show you our latest expeditions in the world of coffee foods. They are easy to make and cooking with coffee will make your already mouthwatering dishes a thousand times better. Here are 10 amazing ways that you can make food with coffee.

Coffee Rubs

Spice up your morning breakfast with a dash of coffee on your vegan bacon strips! Bet you never expected to see cooking with coffee and vegan bacon in the same sentence. But you can! And it makes a world of difference.

Glazing your seitan strips with coffee adds a new layer of taste that will leave your taste buds mesmerized. Not only will you be expanding your palette, but you’ll also be getting a second boost of energy on a Monday morning.

The smoky flavor of seitan is intensified by the bitterness of the coffee. Adding maple syrup to the mixture balances out the strength of the food with coffee because of its sugary aftertaste.

Seitan bacon is just one possibility. You can add coffee to various other vegan meat rubs as well. If you are on grill duty this weekend, a coffee-infused rub will leave your guests wanting seconds every time! Cooking with coffee is also applicable to tempeh roasts, marinated tempeh with a coffee rub smells and tastes divine.

Use it in cocktails

Alcohol and coffee go famously together. The world-famous Irish Coffee is one great example. But it’s not limited to just hot cocktails, there are cold ones as well. Adding a shot of coffee to a spicy drink will give it that extra kick that we all love. 

Coffee goes well with a wide range of alcohols. We wholeheartedly endorse dark spirits when cooking with coffee. Rum, whiskey, and brandy are all excellent choices for recipes with coffee. If dark spirits aren’t your thing, then we recommend going with something lighter. Flavored butterscotch and amaretto are two of our favorites. The sugar tones soften the strength of the drink giving it a sublime taste!

A great cocktail needs a great-tasting coffee. Yes, any brand of coffee will do the job, but when it comes to something as exquisite as a cocktail, you need to be a bit specific. Recipes with coffee grounds require high-quality roast beans.

Instead of using the trusty drip machine that we use for our wakeup coffee, consider using other brewing methods when it comes to cocktails. When it comes to cooking with coffee, for the best flavor, we recommend the french press or a drip cone.

Also Read - 26 Different Types Of Coffee Drinks

Makes amazing butter

That’s right! Coffee butter tastes amazing! And guess what? You can make it yourself at home, today. Recipes with coffee grounds are everywhere, and they are extremely simple. Imagine spreading delicious coffee-flavored butter on your morning toast. Divine!

Making coffee butter is very easy. The ingredients are vegan heavy cream, coffee grounds, and salt. That’s right, just three basic ingredients that you can find in any supermarket or may even already be in your pantry.

Recipes with coffee can be found everywhere but we’ll explain it in brief for assurance. Mix the coffee and vegan heavy cream, and refrigerate the mixture overnight. Strain the fat and discard the sediment. Add salt and sugar, and mix till it turns into butter. Wring the newly made butter through a cheesecloth to remove excess liquid.

The coffee oils are absorbed by the butter whereas a large portion of the bitter taste is lost through the wringing process. This is because the chemicals responsible for the bitterness are water-soluble. This balances out the bitterness making it perfect for treats of every kind.

Jelly!

Coffee flavored jelly? That’s right! Use it to top your favorite desserts, toasts, and whatnot. Make your favorite foods sparkle with the delicious aromatic essence of coffee. It’s easy to make and is perfect for us coffee lovers. This dandy treat is very popular in Japan. The jiggly jelly is even eaten with a topping.

However, when making jelly, the strength of the coffee drops significantly. We believe it’s important to use flavourful, aromatic coffees! A strong, quality brew will significantly increase the taste of your coffee-flavored jelly.

The ingredients for this tasty vegan delight are just coffee, dutch gel, lime, and sugar. Complete recipes with coffee can be found all around, but we can assure you that they are all equally easy to make. Just remember to store your jelly in tightly sealed jars. With proper storage, they can last for well over 8 months.

Also Read - 5 Coffee Ice Cream Recipe

Coffee For Black Spice?

Adding a little seasoning to your favorite foods and blackening is a wonderful way to give your snack a tasty edge. Adding a little bit of coffee to the mix is a game changer! This blackening recipe is great for all sorts of grills. It works great on seitan and other vegan meats.

Cooking with coffee enhances the flavors. The added bitterness of the spice mix will elevate the smoky flavor that we all love. If you are someone that adores the aroma of wood, we’ve got some great news. Smoking food with coffee intensifies the aroma of the smoke. So, go get your favorite wood and start grilling.

What’s the best choice of wood for you? You can never go wrong but we recommend apple and maple wood when blending coffee with your favorite marinade!

Marinade

A good marinade has depth. The different levels of flavor that a marinade has within its mixture is its main selling point. Now, what if there was a way to give your boring old marinade a rich twist? Well, we have some good news for you. A dash of coffee will add a subtle yet enchanting twist of flavors to your food.

If you have doubts about where and what to use this marinade on, let me clear it with one simple answer. Everything! This rich marinade will work on all kinds of vegan meats. Surprise your guests with a savory tempeh dish. They’ll never guess what your secret ingredient is!

For the best effect, we recommend you brew a strong cup of coffee. The strength of the coffee diminishes a lot when cooking with coffee. Therefore it is important to make it as strong as possible.

Gravy

Coffee and gravy? Sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it? This classic gravy is from the southern states of America. Cooking with coffee was pioneered through the red-eye gravy. If you have some leftover coffee from your breakfast jug give the red-eye gravy a try.

Red-eye gravy has a wonderful rich salty taste. Even though traditional red-eye gravy is made using ham and its greasy fat, we use portobello mushrooms instead. Portobello mushrooms, fennel seeds, and dried thyme give this vegan-friendly recipe a rich umami taste.

Pair the wonderful red-eye gravy with a share of homemade, traditional buttermilk biscuits and you’ve got yourself a real treat! If you want to go the extra mile, use vegan buttermilk when prepping the biscuits.

Baking

Baking and coffee are a match made in heaven. No one can resist the taste of a yummy coffee cake topped with nuts of every kind. Personally, the bitter tastes give coffee foods an exotic touch. The heavy aroma of coffee that embraces your senses when biting in gives you the tingles.

From muffins and cakes and even through to bread, the possibilities are endless. Coffee can act as both the main attraction and as a flavor enhancer. While coffee cakes are just delicious on their own, a chocolate cake with coffee icing just tastes divine. Recipes with coffee grounds just taste so much better! Especially when it comes to chocolate.

What about dark bread? The roasted notes of the coffee do wonders in dark bread. They even work better in treats like gingerbread. A dash of coffee gives the musky sweet spices an earthly mojo.

Coffee Desserts

Feeling a bit empty at tea time? Make yourself a delicious coffee dessert. Tiramisu is a popular Italian dessert that’s loved worldwide. The cocoa and coffee combination has left second cravings amongst coffee lovers for decades!

Tiramisu isn’t the only dessert you can make, espresso mousse, coffee cookies, coffee pies; the list goes on. Do they sound a bit demanding? We have heard rumors of a cold pie that is made using leftover coffee brew! Give a little snoop around the internet for recipes with coffee and try it out.

Check Out - How To Make Affogate Coffee Dessert At Home?

Dressings

Coffee on a salad dressing! That’s right, it’s called the coffee balsamic vinaigrette. It’s definitely a step up from your regular salad dressing. Having guests over? Give their tastebuds a hearty surprise.

There are many recipes with coffee grounds, however, they all should have one key feature. Balance! What separates a good vinaigrette from a great vinaigrette is balance. No flavor should overpower the other. When cooking with coffee it is easy to miscalculate. Therefore always be careful with the dashes you add to foods with coffee.

We highly recommend pairing with strong greens for this particular dressing. The bold taste of the dressing pairs with the flavors of kale and arugula. If you want to give it a chef's touch, add a sprinkle of crushed walnuts or pecans.

Coffee Liqueur

It’s the weekend! You’ve had your morning dose of the regular espresso coffee brew all week. Are you desperately in need of a change? Give your tired self a wake-up call with a shot of coffee liqueur on a Saturday morning!

Coffee liqueur is known as Kahlua or tia mara in the market. You’ve probably seen a bottle or two of this strange drink when you were out wine shopping. While store brought Kahlua is great, why not make it at home yourself? Recipes with coffee are all around and it's surprisingly easy to make.

For a bottle of homemade coffee liqueur, the common ingredients are as follows: coffee grounds, a bottle of rum or vodka, sugar, split vanilla beans, water, and sugar. It’s that easy. Once you mix the ingredients and simmer them down, let them sit in a glass jar for 10 days. After sitting, strain the contents into a new bottle and enjoy!

It makes wonderful cocktails and is just as great on its own!

That's not all...

What we have summed up above are the more popular uses for coffee. When it comes to cooking with coffee, the list is massive! Coffee works miracles both inside and outside the kitchen. You can even make candles with your leftover coffee grounds. With coffee wholesale options available, you can explore a wide range of coffee varieties and flavors to elevate your culinary creations. Additionally, a coffee subscription ensures that you never run out of this versatile ingredient, allowing you to experiment with new recipes and flavors.