Whipped Espresso Cream

This rich whipped espresso cream is just sweet enough to qualify as dessert with a good hit of bitter coffee. It’s the perfect after dinner pick me up! 

I grew up drinking café au lait, my grandmother’s bitter dark roast coffee warmed with milk and sugar in her little enamel pot. If I close my eyes, I can still smell her warm kitchen, redolent of fried chicken, roux and onions, with a hint of mothballs that seemed to linger year-round. It was probably my favorite place on earth. 

My grandmother gave me a love of coffee that has lasted my whole life. The aroma as coffee brews is the best smell to wake up to! In fact, even as a child, my favorite ice cream flavor was coffee. That’s why I love this easy dessert. 

Whipped Espresso Cream

This makes four servings. It takes just minutes to make and can be eaten right away or chilled in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons instant espresso powder, plus more to sprinkle on top

1/3 cup or 41g powdered sugar

1/4 cup or 60ml hot water

1 1/4 cups or 300ml whipping cream

Pinch cream of tartar

Optional for decoration (and eating!): Chocolate-covered espresso beans

Method

In a small bowl, dissolve the espresso powder and sugar in the hot water, stirring well until it is completely liquid. 

Chill in the refrigerator or freezer until cold. 

Whisk the whipping cream with the cream of tartar until you have medium hard peaks. As you can see, I use my stand mixer for this step but you can use electric beaters. 

Add a couple of good spoons of the whipped cream to the coffee mixture and fold to combine. 

Add the coffee/cream mixture to the cream bowl.

Fold gently till it’s almost homogeneous. A few little streaks of espresso are fine. 

Spoon the whipped espresso cream in four pretty glasses or ramekins. Sprinkle some more espresso powder on top.

Add a few chocolate-covered espresso beans, if desired.  

Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 5th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2025, brought to you by the letter E. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the E recipes below:

• A Messy Kitchen: Eggs Benedict for One or Two 
• Blogghetti: Easy Easter Egg Sugar Cookies 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Egg Jalfrezi 
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Espresso Martinis 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Avocado Egg Salad Cups 
• Culinary Cam: A Dozen Eggs - Stuffed, Scotch, Curried, and More 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Pork and Cabbage Egg Rolls 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Escargot a la Bourguignon
• Food Lust People Love: Whipped Espresso Cream 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Cajun Deviled Eggs Garnished with Pickled Okra 
• Palatable Pastime: Emerald Isle Pub Spread

Here are my posts for the 2025 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Roasted Asparagus Soup

B: Blistered Sugar Snap Peas

C. Jersey Royal Chicken Chorizo Traybake 

D. Small Batch Dried Apricot Jam 

E. Whipped Espresso Cream – this post!

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Double Apricot Jam Muffins #MuffinMonday

These are called double apricot jam muffins because they have jam in the batter and a filling of jam as well. Full of flavor, with a tender crumb!

If you were reading this space last week, you know that I made a single jar of apricot jam from dried apricots. I was very pleased with how it turned out, using it as a glaze for my cheater pain aux raisin so I decided it would be a good idea to employ it in muffins as well. 

I brought some over to my neighbor and she was delighted, as were we. The muffins are sweet but not too sweet and the little spoon of jam in the middle is a nice surprise.

Double Apricot Jam Muffins

This recipe makes about 8 muffins when using silicone muffins cups. Your output may vary if your muffin cups are larger or smaller. No buttermilk? Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar to your measuring cup then pour in the milk up to the 1/2 cup or 120ml line.  

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups or 156g flour

1/4 cup or 50g sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup or 120ml buttermilk

1 egg

1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil

1/2 cup or 140g apricot jam, divided

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your muffin pan by greasing it with oil or butter or lining it with paper muffin cups. Or use silicone liners. Mine came from Crate & Barrel and were a gift from my daughter. I love them! 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

In a smaller mixing bowl whisk the egg, buttermilk, oil and half of the apricot jam together. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl. Fold to combine. Do not over mix.

Put about 1 1/2 -2 tablespoons or a scoop of the batter in each muffin cup. 

Divide the reserved apricot jam between the muffins. 

Top with the remaining batter, divided between the muffins. 

Bake the muffins in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden and a wooden skewer comes out clean. 

Remove from the pan or silicone liners after they’ve cooled a few minutes and put them on a wire rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container. 

Enjoy!

It's the last Monday in this short month of February so it's time for Muffin Monday! Check out the lovely muffins my blogger friends are sharing.

• Banana Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins from Jolene’s Recipe Journal
• Double Apricot Jam Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Ginger Lime Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Small Batch Sourdough Muffins studded with Chocolate Caramel from A Day in the Life on the Farm

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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Cinnamon Heart Imperial Liqueur

Only two ingredients and time are required for this deliciously spicy sweet Cinnamon Heart Imperial Liqueur. It’s the perfect sipping drink for cinnamon lovers.

This week for Sunday FunDay, I am hosting and since everyone’s favorite holiday of the year is February 15th, Valentine’s Candy Discount Day, I proposed that we share recipes using leftover and/or discounted V Day candy.

I’m not a big candy eater so I did wait for 50 percent off to purchase these cinnamon heart imperials expressly to make this liqueur. I had in mind something in the schnapps family and that’s exactly how this turned out. 

It would be lovely après-ski for those of you so lucky as to do that but it would be equally as welcome snuggled up on a couch at home. No fireplace? Plenty of fire videos to watch on YouTube, complete with roar and crackle. We have a couple of favorites we put on our television during the Christmas holidays. Such fun! 

Cinnamon Heart Imperial Liqueur

While you don’t have to use the most expensive vodka, I do recommend you choose one that is decent, not the cheapest rotgut on the shelf. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup or 115g cinnamon heart candies

1 1/2 cups or 360ml decent vodka

Method

Add the candy to a quart jar. Pour in the vodka and put the lid on. 

Give it a good shake then it let sit for a couple days.  

A couple of times of day pick up the jar and swish the mixture around helping it to dissolve. On day two, I had just a small clump left which I dislodged with a knife.

 

By the next day, it was gone. 

Once the candy is completely dissolved, the final step is to strain it to get rid of any sediment and the cloudy white stuff on the top. 

I pry a double-ply paper towel into its two parts and use a single-ply. If you have paper coffee filters, those would work too or several layers of cheesecloth. 

As you can see, there was some sediment so this is a worthwhile step! 

Store the liqueur in a clean jar. Serve neat or over ice. It’s also really good in hot chocolate!

Cheers! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and as I mentioned above, today we are sharing recipes made with leftover or discounted Valentine’s Day candy. Check out the links below. 

• A Sweet-Cuterie Platter + Cupid's Blend Cookies from Culinary Cam
• Cinnamon Heart Imperial Liqueur from Food Lust People Love
• Double Chocolate Caramel Stuffed Cookies from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Leftover Chocolate Cake Shake from Sneha's Recipe
• Peppermint Patty Brownie Bites from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• VORP from A Day in the Life on the Farm

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Small Batch Dried Apricot Jam

No fresh apricots, no problem! This easy recipe for dried apricot jam is made, of course, with sweet soft dried apricots and it’s delicious! 

A common ingredient in pastry glaze in classic French patisserie and fruit tarts, apricot jam or preserves are readily available in French grocery stores but they aren’t as easy to find in other places. In the Channel Islands, where we spend half the year, it’s just an hour’s boat ride from France. So shops there sell it too. 

In Norfolk, England, where some dear friends live, apricot preserves are hard to come by so I’ve been known to carry jars to them in my suitcase when we visit. 

If you saw my post from yesterday where I shared cheater pain aux raisins using puff pastry, you also read that I couldn’t find apricot jam here in Houston! Well, to be fair, I only went to one store and decided on the spot to buy dried apricots and make my own, rather than traipsing all over town looking. I’m sure elsewhere in Houston I could find it but I was too lazy to try.

If you too find yourself short of apricot jam and shopping motivation, here's the recipe.

Dried Apricot Jam

The recipe makes a not-quite-full jam jar (Bonne Maman, 13 oz or 370g capacity) of jam, perfect for making glaze or spreading on toast. 

Ingredients 

6 oz or 170g dried apricots 

1/2 cup or 100g sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Pinch fine sea salt

Method

In a heatproof bowl, pour boiling water to just cover the apricots and leave to soak overnight or for at least six hours.

I left mine overnight. 

Mince the apricots in a food processor with their soaking water.

Add the apricots to a pan along with the sugar, lemon juice and salt.

Heat gently till sugar has dissolved then boil steadily (it should be bubbling) till it reaches a good jammy thickness. 

Keep an eye on the pot and stir often. 

I used a thermometer and mine never reached the ideal jam set temperature of 222°f or 106°C but it got quite thick and actually started to catch and darken a little so I deemed it done. 

Spoon into a sterilized jar. I put a metal spoon in mine to keep the glass from breaking when the hot jam is added. I don't really understand the thermodynamics but it seems to work. Screw lid on tight and turn the jar over. 

Leave to cool. The lid should form a suction and pop in when it has cooled and you turn it back over. 

If it does not, store it in the refrigerator. 

Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 4th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2025, brought to you by the letter D. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the D recipes below:

• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Double Dark Chocolate Waffles
• Blogghetti: Dragon Fruit Smoothie Bowl 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Dutch Macaroni 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Date Salad, Ottolenghi Style 
• A Messy Kitchen: Sugarplum Date Balls 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Chicken with Dates
• Palatable Pastime: Balkan Lamb and Rice Casserole (Djuvec) 
• Magical Ingredients: Dill Pickle Dip 
• Food Lust People Love:Small Batch Dried Apricot Jam 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Dal Sultani 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Sun-Dried Tomato Dip with Italian Seasoning

Here are my posts for the 2025 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Roasted Asparagus Soup

B: Blistered Sugar Snap Peas

C. Jersey Royal Chicken Chorizo Traybake 

D. Small Batch Dried Apricot Jam – this post!

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Cheater Pain aux Raisins #BreadBakers

Use ready-made puff pastry instead of the traditional laminated yeast dough to make these cheater pain aux raisins. They are more-ish and delicious! 

I’d have called these easy but I did have to make the pastry cream filling and even the apricot jam for the glaze since my local supermarket didn't have any. If you can somehow buy both of those, these would be a cinch! If you do need to make the pastry cream, I have a quick and easy recipe you can follow. Link in the ingredients list below. 

Years ago, back when our girls were young, we were living in Paris and there were many days when we needed a pre- or post-nap outing to break up the day. We'd walk down to the boulangerie on the far corner of our block. Then on to the nearby park to eat our snacks. As I mentioned before in my rosemary orange boule post, our younger daughter always chose a pain aux raisins for her treat. Nowadays she doesn't want raisins in things! Go figure.

Cheater Pain aux Raisins

For the puff pastry, I used the one from Trader Joe’s (18 oz, sadly seasonal but I alway buy extra to store in my freezer) because it is made with butter rather than shortening but if you can’t find that, the Pepperidge Farm (17 oz) brand would work too. Both brands come in a box with two sheets. 

Ingredients for 8

For pain aux raisins:

2 sheets puff pastry (see note above)

1 cup or 265g crème pâtissière aka vanilla pastry cream (This recipe.) 

½ cup or 70g golden raisins

For the egg wash:

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

For the glaze: 

¼ cup or 70g apricot jam (store-bought or homemade)

1 tablespoon water

Method

Soak the raisins for 5 minutes in warm water. Drain and pat dry with paper towels. This also gives you an opportunity to pull off any small stems if you see them. Those tiny bugs on the right? My stem bits. 

Lay one sheet of puff pastry on a cutting board and spread half of the pastry cream evenly on the pastry sheet. Top the pastry with half of the golden raisins. 

Lay the other piece on pastry on top. Spread the rest of the pastry cream on top and sprinkle on the rest of the raisins. 

Roll the two pieces of pastry up together, forming a big log. 

Cover the log snuggly in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. 

During the chilling time, preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare a large baking pan by lining it with baking parchment or a silicone liner.

Use a sharp knife, unflavored dental floss or some fine fishing line to cut the log into eight even rolls. I used fishing line! Slide it under (you may have to lift the log) to the place you want to cut. Bring both ends up and put one piece under the other like you are starting to tie a shoe. Pull the ends and voilá, a clean cut. 

Transfer the pain aux raisins to your prepared pan and secure the ends with toothpicks. In retrospect, I should have stuck mine in deeper! 

 

Whisk the egg with the milk and brush each roll well with the mixture.

Bake the pastries until the pain aux raisins are golden brown in color, about 30-32 minutes, depending on your oven. If your oven doesn’t heat evenly, turn the pan around halfway through the baking time. 

Right before the pastries come out of the oven, microwave the apricot jam and water for 30 seconds in a small bowl to make a chunky glaze. Mix well.

When the pain aux raisins come out of the oven, brush them with the apricot glaze.

Allow them to slightly cool before eating. The bottoms are lovely and crunchy. I should have take a photo of them! 

The outsides of mine were much flakier than the middles but since I used all butter puff pastry, they were still rich and delicious. Perfect, in fact, with a cup of coffee in the morning or hot tea in the afternoon. 

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s Bread Baker time! This month our theme is French breads! Many thanks to our host, Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out the links below. 

• The Wimpy Vegetarian: Black Olive and Herb Fougasse
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Brioche 
• Food Lust People Love: Cheater Pain aux Raisins
• Karen's Kitchen Stories: La Couronne Lyonaise 
• Culinary Cam: Pain au Chocolat
• A Messy Kitchen: Pain Brié 
• Zesty South Indian Kitchen: Pain de campagne 
• Sneha's Recipe : Sourdough French Bread

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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