French Laundry “Coffee” (no Donuts)

Okay, here it is – the first cup of coffee I’ve ever made here in my apartment.  No coffee maker required, just the French Laundry cookbook.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, this is my re-creation of the famed Thomas Keller “Coffee and Donuts”… well, the “Coffee” part, anyway, because I’m nowhere near ambitious enough to make my own yeasted donuts and deep fry them.  (Deep frying is one of those things that I think should be left to the professionals – dangerous since I tend to be accident-prone, messy, and resulting in far too much used oil to dispose of. But I digress.)

I’ve had the French Laundry cookbook on my bookshelf for years, but I’ve never cooked anything from it until now.  Making the “Coffee” proved surprisingly straightforward; the hardest part was finding good quality coffee extract (Amazon to the rescue!).  And while the recipe calls for a vanilla bean, I substituted vanilla extract.

The coffee semifreddo has a base of egg yolks and sugar, beaten until light-colored and airy and then mixed with the coffee extract and vanilla.  After that, it’s just a matter of folding in whipped cream and whipped egg whites before spooning carefully into cups.  I had two pretty demitasse cups, which seemed perfect for this dish, but the rest of the mixture had to go into small glasses before heading to the freezer overnight.

For a perfect French Laundry presentation, the last step is topping the “Coffee” with steamed milk.  I headed across the street to Starbucks, where I probably confused the barista by asking for “a small cup of steamed milk.”

Finally, time to eat.  The semifreddo is essentially a frozen mousse, a cold cloud of intense coffee flavor, with none of the heaviness of ice cream.  It’s velvety soft even straight from the freezer, and the warm foam provides a welcome contrast – in temperature, definitely, but also because it’s so mildly milky in comparison to the sweet semifreddo.  (Next time, I think I’ll decrease the sugar just a tad.)

Even without donuts, I’m counting this “Coffee” as a great success.