Coffee Sponge

Well, the rolls were good; but let's get back to the desserts. Beyond being a sucker for pretty packaging and/or nice names (see the Charlotte Russe entry), I also like things that catch my imagination. Let's take the Coffee Sponge for our case study. Now, a sponge, I'm familiar with. In the kitchen, it's sometimes a cleaning implement. Or it could be a starter culture for more involved bread recipes. With a bit more thinking, there's also a sponge cake. Perhaps this will be like that? Outside the kitchen, it's a sea critter or an insult. And I'm sure there are a other few usages I'm forgetting.

Start with coffee.

Since this is a blog about food, let's go back to the culinary possibilities of the word "sponge." I came across this in a dinner menu and its placement indicates it's likely a  dessert. Coffee sponge cake? Looking at the ingredients, likely not. Well, since I have no idea what this'll be (a coffee meringue?), let's try it.

Egg whites in stiff peaks.

Coffee Sponge:
(adapted from Fannie Farmer's What to have for Dinner, 1905 edition)

2 tablespoons granulated gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
2 cups strong coffee
1 cup sugar
whites 3 eggs

1. Soak gelatin in cold water in large bowl.
2. Add  hot coffee, stir until gelatin is dissolved.
3. Then add sugar, stir until sugar dissolves.
4. Set bowl with coffee mixture in larger pan of ice water and cool slightly
5. While coffee mixture is cooling, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
6. Beat coffee mixture until peaks almost form. (N.B. recipe as originally written says to beat until stiff. But after 10 minutes or so with my electric hand mixer, I got bored and gave up.)
7. Add whites of eggs and continue beating until soft peaks form.
8. Place bowl in fridge to chill. (Technically it belongs in a pudding mold, but I don't have one, so I'm making this part up.)
9. Once thoroughly chilled and set up. Scoop out of bowl and serve with cream (or milk, if you prefer).

Whipping the coffee, gelatin, sugar mixture.

Results: One of these days, I'm going to remember that the recipes in this book make enough for, oh I don't know, perhaps eight or a round dozen. I ended up having to change bowls while beating the coffee-sugar-gelatin because my medium sized mixing bowl was looking a bit small for the volume. (Besides the poor coffee maker was getting splattered with sweet coffee froth, which it surely didn't deserve.) So I tossed the ice water in the larger bowl and used that.

Once the egg whites are added, the recipe as originally written says to beat until the "mixture will hold its shape." But I only got it to soft peaks and as it didn't seem to be going further, I stopped beating and put it in the fridge. I'm not sure how long it takes to set but mine was done after 5 hours.

I made a coffee sponge!

Taste-wise, it's a sweet, frothy concoction with a bit of coffee flavor with a - well, the best description I have is - a sponge-like texture. I tried a bite before putting it in the fridge and was punished with a cloyingly sweet coffee flavored froth. I'm glad the texture improved as the gelatin set. But it was still very sweet. I had some whipping cream in the fridge so I poured a bit around my scoops and found that really helped cut back the sweetness.

Oh, if you want to follow the recipe as originally written, you are supposed to unmold it after it sets and serve with (yet more) sugar and thin cream.