Coffee Warm Ups

During the Physical Space show, I gave people the opportunity to write about their relationship to specific types of edible materials. One of them was coffee. I got some great responses from participants, from the good to the bad: “Thank you lord”, “smells good, tastes aight”, “poop”. They also had an opportunity to ingest the substance, as I made cookies laced with the grounds.

It is an interesting substance for me, as I love the way it smells…hate the way it tastes. Well, that’s not true. I just don’t like black coffee in liquid form. I know I will make the die-hards cringe when I say this, but I think it is just the essence I like, as I love coffee flavored candy, espresso soaked lady fingers and coffee ice cream. This is probably why the cookies I made for the Physical Space show are a perfect use of the stuff in my opinion.

Coffee also has an interesting ability, for those who love it or hate it to create lasting memories, whether it is of the actual drink or to the whole ritual surrounding it. More coffee responses included things like “study time” or “mornin’!” as well as the more in depth relationship of “early morning wake ups and long bow watches at the boat house” and “I realize that I miss my country, France so much”. Who knew such a ubiquitous substance could elicit such bittersweet responses.

The cookies I shared with participants at the Physical Space Show are called Coffee Warm Ups, so called from an aural mistake by my husband (“no I said walnuts, not warm ups…”). They are made from a combination of two different memories: one on coffee, one on walnuts. Both of these memories were collected prior to the show at Mildred's Lane. This recipe was used in the first food memory dinner there and is much like a shortbread cookie. It was created out of common sense (coffee and walnuts would make a wonderful combination in a dessert) and a fair amount of research. It is an adaptation of a recipe by Alice Medrich.

Coffee Warm Ups

2 cups flour

1 cup walnuts

¾ cups sugar

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp coffee, ground

1 ¾ sticks butter, softened

1 tbsp + 1 tsp apple cider

1 ½ tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°

In a large food processor*, mix the flour, walnuts, sugar and salt. Pulse till combined. Add in coffee and butter and pulse till crumbly. Add apple juice and vanilla and pulse till it starts to form a dough ball. Remove from food processor and place on a well-floured surface. Kneed dough a few times till it sticks together better. It still will be crumbly. Place on a piece of waxed paper and roll into a log about 1 ½- 2” in diameter. Refrigerate for at least 2 hrs. Cut into ¼ slices and place on baking sheet about 1” apart. Bake for about 12-15 min. Makes about 4-6 doz.

*Yes, you can do this with out a food processor. You can chop and mix by hand. The ingredients will just be less finely ground and mixed unless you have righteous knife skills and buff arms