Coffee-Related Movie Scene of the Week

Coffee-Related Movie Scene of the Week

Malcolm McDowell samples a vigorous robusta

Morning Muffin Recipe

Not exactly what we have here at the Unicorn, but close enough to satisfy your cravings for our most popular muffin.  This is for those days when you guys buy us out by 10am!  This comes from a lovely blog called Roost.  Check out the original entry here.

Morning Glory Muffins

• 1/2 cup seedless raisins
• 1/3 cup walnut halves
• 2 cups all purpose flour (I used 1 cup AP and 1 cup whole wheat)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (I only used 1/4 cup)
• 2 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 medium carrot, grated
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated
• 3/4 cup chopped pineapple
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 6 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
• 1 TBSP freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350F. Oil or butter your 12 cup muffin tin.

Place raisins in a small bowl and cover with hot tap water. Let sit for 10 minute while raisins plump, then strain and squeeze out excess liquid with your hands. Set aside.

Place walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool, then chop coarsely and set aside.

Sift four, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. Mix gently with a wooden spoon and set aside.

In a separate medium bowl, combine raisins, walnuts, carrot, apple, pineapple, eggs, canola oil, melted butter, lemon juice, vanilla extract and coconut; mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

Add the dry ingredients and continue stirring just until all the dry ingredients are moistened. It’s important not to over mix. Scoop batter into oiled muffin tin, filling the cups to the top.

Bake on the center rack of the oven for 40-45 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes, then slide a fork down the sides of each muffin and gently lift it from the pan.

Makes One Dozen.

Cosimo de Medici III’s idea of Hot Chocolate

This is a recipe for one of the last scions of the great Medici family’s recipe for drinking chocolate that was all the rage in European courts at the tail-end of the 17th century.  It comes from a great blog called Lostpastremembered, which features lots of old-timey recipes.  Explore your culinary history!  It’s fascinating (and sometimes delicious… sometimes.)

Perhaps we could make a lazy-man’s version of this at the Unicorn by infusing our ghiradelli hot chocolate with some delicious Metropolis Jasmine Green Tea…. Anyway, enjoy and be sure to check out the original entry which includes some neat pictures and a video of chocolate being made in historic Williamsburg.

LOSTPASTREMEMBERED ORIGINAL ENTRY:

COSIMO DE MEDICI’S DIVINE JASMINE CHOCOLATE

Did you ever see a fairytale of a film called Chocolat ? In it, the luminous Juliette Binoche plays a mysterious woman who owns a chocolate shop.

Its confections have deliciously magical properties and can awaken desire, unlock hidden yearnings, or instill courage depending on the needs of the customer. I cannot promise such outcomes with this Jasmine Chocolate, nor can I promise Johnny Depp will come swaggering through your door but I can tell you:

Jasmine chocolate did not spring from a romantic icon like Binoche. It started with a rather porcine Cosimo III de’ Medici (1642-1723), who became Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1670. He was a weak ruler with at least one strength: an unwavering determination to put to an end to Spain’s supremacy in making chocolate.

Indeed, the Spaniards managed to turn the New World’s bitter potion into a delicious sweet drink. Not to be outdone, the Grand Duke told his court scientists to develop new and more exciting recipes in his food laboratories.

It was there that Francesco Redi, a scientist, poet, physician and apothecary to Cosimo created this renowned jasmine chocolate drink.

“Cosimo turned his love for chocolate into a political tool. As Redi wrote in his letter, he counterposed to the Spanish perfection Florence’s exquisite gentleness,”

Offered only to very important guests, the jasmine chocolate soon became the most sought-after drink at the European courts but the recipe remained a state secret until the Medici dynasty ended with the death of Cosimo’s son Gian Gastone (a glutton who rarely left his filthy bed-a sad ending to a great dynasty).

At that time, chocolate was taken almost boiling and sipped very slowly from small bowl-like cups called “chicchere.” Not one, but two napkins had to be used in the drinking ritual.

It took 12 days for the Grand Duke to make jasmine chocolate. “It wasn’t an infusion, neither was it water flavored with jasmine. Making jasmine chocolate wasn’t a simple preparation of food, it was an operation of botanical-gastronomical engineering,” said Danielo Vestri, a chocolate maker who has reproduced the Medici recipe.

Layers of fresh jasmine flowers and chocolate were put one over the other. The process had to be repeated every 24 hours for 12 days. In this way, the jasmine petals provided the cocoa dough with a flavor never tasted before (not unlike the classic enfleurage method of capturing scent with odorless fat, straining and replacing the flowers in the fat till the perfect strength of enfleurage pomade is attained).

“It is simply delicious. And it is easy to digest: the cocoa dough was melted in water, not in milk. The Medici did not only influence the arts, but also chocolate. People at my shop go crazy for jasmine chocolate,” Vestri said.

My version of the Medici chocolate formula uses fabled ambergris (which I wrote about here) and Jasmine Absolute (absolute being a highly concentrated plant extract) from Mandy Aftel at Aftelier Perfumes. She uses organic and wild-crafted sources and what she comes up with captures the heart and soul of jasmine in a bottle… the tiniest drop of which perfumes the cup. If you want to be adventurous you could also try her amazing Rose Absolute (which puts rosewater to shame) in your chocolate. It took her years to find the perfect rose and she did… from a small grower around Istanbul. Although she makes perfumes she also has an incredible selection of Chef Absolutes and Essential oils that can add clear new notes to your food and has written about using them in food in a book called Aroma: The Magic of Essential Oils in Foods and Fragrance.

Jasmine chocolate

6 ounces water, boiling

1 oz 100% chocolate, shaved (around a ¼ c)

1 ½ t sugar or honey

¼ tsp vanilla

1 slight drop of jasmine absolute

Green pea size piece of ambergris

To the boiling water add the shaved chocolate and stir till incorporated. Mash the ambergris into the sugar/honey and add to the chocolate. Stir to blend. If you have a cappuccino maker give it a minute with the steamer, then store, covered on the counter overnight. It will have developed a velvet texture that you may want to drink room temperature. If not, give it another go with the steamer or heat in a double boiler gently and whisk into a foam. Add one tiny drop of jasmine to the chocolate. Take care to gather up the ambergris that can deposit waxy specks that can cling to cups and pan as you pour the chocolate into two small espresso cups or one large.

Or you could…

Make the above recipe. Add 4T heavy cream and 4T Armagnac or Cognac plus an extra 1 t of sugar or honey. Serve in cups or stemmed glasses.

For those of you with jasmine curling around your veranda and a supply of cocoa beans, here’s the original recipe:

Cosimo de Medici Chocolate

10 librae of roasted cocoa, cleaned and coarsely minced (1 libra = 12 oz.)

fresh jasmine petals

8 librae white sugar

3 ounces vanilla flowers
6 ounces cinnamon

2 scruples (7.76 grams) ambergris

Put layers of cocoa and jasmine flowers in a box, one layer over the other. Let it rest for 24 hours, then change the jasmine flowers with fresh ones. Repeat 12 times. Add the other ingredients and combine them on a warmed marble surface until the chocolate dough forms.

Haiti Relief Bucks

Hello all!

In one weekend you guys raised $319.00 that was sent to Doctors Without Borders to help with relief efforts in Haiti.  Nice Job and thank you so so much.

You Awesome and Generous Custies!

Do you know in one afternoon we have already raised about $50 to be sent over to Haitian relief efforts!  And Brenden is going to donate his soup-salary this week, too–soup that I’m sure will be even more delicious, now that it is steeped full of do-goodery.  Keep it coming you wonderful folks; $300 is still pretty far away!

Help Us Raise Money for Haitian Relief

Hello Custies and pals,

Yesterday there was a massive earthquake in Haiti and the Unicorn wants to raise funds for emergency relief.   Our goal is to raise $300 to send to Doctors Without Borders by Monday, January 18th, so any donations you can give will be very helpful.  You can either leave a donation at the cafe or you can go online and donate at Doctors Without Borders .  If you like, you can also donate to the American Red Cross online or as an automatic $10 donation that will show up on your phone bill by texting HAITI to  90999.  Either way, please think about giving some speedy financial support to our hemisphere’s poorest country as they are facing this terrible event.

totes adorbs!

the unicorn is totally slow while the kidlets are out of town!  come visit and claim a table!!

BREAKING NEWS!!

Important breaking news:

I got a SNUGGIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (delivered to the Unicorn)

woo hoo!

trivia champs!

ANNOUNCING VICTORY!!!

A team of Unicorns won pub trivia on Tuesday night, December 08, at Tommy Nevin’s!  Congratulations to us!  yahoo!