even casual readers of bccy know that scaa chief ted lingle holds a high place on my personal coffee retablo.
thus i was so happy that the ever-wonderful chipper of that amazing charity coffeekids -- really, it may be the best-run philanthropic group i know of, period -- sent me a link to this piece about fair-trade coffee that quotes lingle himself.
i will however venture timidly to disagree a tad. lingle says that coffee lovers are reluctant to spend their money on goods related to social causes.
i personally think it's mostly a matter of consumer education and a fear that fair-trade might not really work. then too there is a perceived quality issue: is the current crop of fair-trade coffee truly of the highest specialty quality?
that is, does the coffee itself taste good enough to warrant the extra few cents, besides the social and moral benefits? as always i quote a former scaa prez, steve colten: "quality begets price begets quality."
once these questions are more firmly settled in the average coffee drinker's mind, i venture that much of the resistance could fall away.
in other news, the e.u. goes completely off the deep end when it comes to hygiene in roman coffee bars (scroll down to 5-22-2004). really, is the traditional bowl of sugar cubes a drastic public health threat or do we have a case of bureaucrats looking for something to do?
and finally, as promised -- m. meijer's own authentic dutch currant bread recipe, straight outta the comments and headed for posterity with google. he even includes how to make your own fresh almond paste at the end:
Dutch Krentenbrood with Amandelspijs
300 gm raisins
100 gm currants
50 gm candied (lemon or orange) peel (optional)
500 gm flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 package dried yeast
35 gm baking sugar (fine grind sugar)
2 dl milk (room temperature)
1 egg (beaten)
75 gm melted butter
1 teaspoon lemon, rasped
250 gm almond paste
2 teaspoon coffee creamer or milk
1-2 teaspoon lemon juice
oil for the baking plate
butter and powdered sugar
Wash the raisins and currants, put them 30 minutes in water that they are just covered. Dry them thoroughly with kitchen paper, add the candied peel (optional) and set aside.
Mix the salt with the flour, make a hole and put in the yeast, baking sugar, and lemon rasp. Add the milk, half of the beaten egg and the melted butter. Start from the middle to mix and knead the dough until it gets soft and supple (or until your hands are clean); put the dough in a bowl and let it raise until double in bulk.
[OPTIONAL]
In the meantime, prepare the spijs [click here for recipe for Amandelspijs]: loosen the spijs with a fork, add the coffee creamer or milk, the rest of the egg and lemon juice, mix it thoroughly and roll it into a small "sausage". knead the dough again and add the raisin mixture and mix it again until all the raisins are in the dough. Let it raise again.
Put flour on the working table, roll the dough in a oval shape with a rolling-pin, put the spijs in the middle and fold the dough (in a rectangular shape). and press the sides to have them closed very good. Put the whole bread on a baking-plate, thinly covered with oil, cover the bread again with a towel and let it raise for 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven on 250°C, in the middle, +/- 45 minutes until it is brown and done. Take it directly out from the oven and coat it with melted butter and powdered sugar. When cool, cut it in slices and eat it with butter.
Amandelspijs (almond paste)
130g sweet almonds + 3 bitter almonds (bitter almonds are hard to find in the u.s.a & canada; you may want to buy some bitter almond flavoring from your local italian bakery or scroll down this page to see an interesting substitute using boiled apricot pits! worse comes to worse i suppose you could toss in some amaretto!)
130g sugar
1 egg
lemon peel (rasped)
vanilla (optional)
Blanch the almonds by putting them in boiling water for approximately 2-3 minutes; then take them out and peel them.
Grind them, grind them again together with the lemon rasp, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Roll it in a long "sausage" form.
Keep the "spijs" in a closed jar. After 2 days the spijs can be used, but after 2 weeks it's much better. It takes quite a long time to do, but I think it is worth to do it. Maybe you can try it already earlier, but I think the longer you leave it the better it gets.
posted by fortune | 11:15 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments