COFFEE LOVE WITH CURRYS
As we enter September, we’re entering what most people call Autumn or Fall, but what I like to refer to as “Coffee Season”… Or even more specifically, “Pumpkin Latte Season”.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love coffee in any form, but lattes are special. They are the snuggly, milky warm, stay at home in front of the fire with big warm wooly socks on and play board games member of the coffee family. I adore them.
I’m sure that there is a very complicated recipe for the specialist pumpkin lattes, but again, I have three boys and usually only one hand…and so I cheat. Each year when we visit the pumpkin patch with the boys, I buy myself a little tub of pumpkin spice. I add quite a large sprinkle to my latte powder (I’m no barista, it’s just me and the kettle) and then when I’ve mixed the drink, I sprinkle some on top too. It’s blissful.
My in-laws have a very fancy coffee machine…and so does our family photographer. I’m secretly coveting a machine (not so secretly now) and I dream of the day that making coffee does not involve boiling our crazed kettle without lid which likes to pick and choose when it switches off at boiling point, then precariously pour our Hampshire water through a cup filter I had from Whittards years ago to protect us from limescale. Limescale means a seriously crunchy drink if unfiltered. One day, I tell myself. One day I will awake in the mornings and wander into my beautiful kitchen, where I will not stand on a piece of Lego and want to cry casually select a delicious rich coffee to percolate for myself. One day.
Our pumpkin patch sadly doesn’t open until October, and so until the time comes that I can welcome my homemade pumpkin spice lattes into our home again, I’ve found a new coffee fix. A really naughty one…. The chocolate frappe. (I can’t find the acute accent on my keyboard). I had completely forgotten about these from my high school days when I used to arrive home from school and fix myself one in the free shaker we’d been sent in the post. They were so indulgent and so good…even though back then I pretty much hated coffee, the chocolate taste won out. They taste even better now….and they are so easy to make!
So, to make a pretty frappe you will need your blender, ice cubes, instant coffee, granulated sugar, milk…and if you’re naughty like me, whipped cream and chocolate for the top. Just add everything together in your blender (minus the whipped cream and chocolate…although I have added chocolate powder into the mix before), and serve with your cream! So easy, so fast, and so good.
In fact, they’re so good that this one is calling my name…
