imbb 15, pt. 1: caffe gigi

this edition of imbb is hosted by the lovely elise, the theme: has my blog jelled? and yes, yes, quite honestly i believe it has. several times over.

one of my absolute favourite things is coffee jelly (gelatin), which i generally just have with icy milk coffee, but lately the days have been intensely...toasty, so i decided to pair up the jelly with granita, to make my coffee cooler oh-so-breezy. as the granita melts, it mixes in to the whipped cream to form a slushy, jelly creamy treat. it's simple--all you really need is coffee, unflavoured gelatin, sugar and cream. however, the addition of cardamom in the granita and orange zest in the whipped cream will take this to another level, and the traditionally autumn spicing straight into summer with you.

caffe gigi (why gigi? because g+g=gg)

coffee gelatin

2 cups freshly brewed coffee (for cardamom coffee, brew with a few crushed cardamom pods mixed in with the ground coffee beans)
1 packet of unflavoured gelatin
sugar to taste

sprinkle the gelatin into a small amount of water and let it sit for several minutes. add the gelatin to coffee and sugar in a pan over low heat, and stir until completely dissolved, at least two minutes. pour into a shallow container, and refrigerate until firm. cut into small cubes.

coffee granita

freeze 2 cups of freshly brewed coffee (you can add sugar, but i think with the sweetened jelly and whipped cream it's unneccessary) in a ziplocky type bag, and break up the freezing crystals every once in awhile, a la monkey. if you are too lazy for this method, wait until it's completely frozen and then bash it with a mallet until desired consistency has been met. i say smaller than hail, bigger than snowflakes.

assembly: fill a glass halfway with the jelly cubes, then top with a heaping amount of granita. add whipped cream sweetened with a bit of sugar and zinged with a bit of orange zest and serve immediately because i am very amused by recipes that want you to serve things immediately.



thank you elise! for hosting imbb this time around, and for having the round-up available in record time!