Coffee-Infused Butter

Last month, I was at a pre-bachelorette party luncheon for my soon to be sister-in-law when suddenly the conversation turned to kitchen experimentation.  Namely, one of the other bridesmaids had heard about coffee-infused butter.

That got my gears spinning.

How to infuse butter with coffee?

My mind immediately went to cold brew coffee.  With cold brew coffee, coffee grounds are placed in room temperature water overnight, then strained out.

So I wondered, could the same processed be used with heavy cream, with the end goal of making homemade, coffee infused butter?

Well, there was nothing to do but try!   I stirred the grounds into the cream and refrigerated it overnight. 

The next step was fraught with difficulty.  Heavy cream is very thick.  And heavy cream mixed with coffee grounds has a bad attitude and doesn’t want to strain out.  At All.

I quickly discovered that my cheese cloth was too loose of a weave and let coffee grounds through.  Paper towels weren’t sturdy enough for all the squeezing involved, and the mixture was too thick to go through a fine mesh strainer.

I eventually did my best with the cheese cloth, then strained and strained and strained again through a fat skimmer until the grounds were removed from the cream. 

In the future, I would recommend using (new) nylon pantyhose or something else with a similar tight weave for straining.

Despite all the difficultly, I finally arrived at the beating stage and I was sweating again.  What if the fat molecules in the cream had bound to the coffee grounds and this was an exercise in futility?

Again, all I could do was try.   And success!

I needed up with a beautiful coffee-infused butter with a bonus of coffee-infused buttermilk!

I used my butter on my very sweet homemade rhubarb muffins to balance out the bitterness of the coffee.  I would also love to beat some honey or powdered sugar into this butter for a coffee-infused sweet butter, but since I had other plans for the bulk of this batch (recipe coming soon!!), I left this batch as is.

Coffee-Infused Butter

2 cups heavy cream

6 tbsp dark roast coffee, coarsely ground

Mix together the cream and coffee grounds.  Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight to steep.

Strain the coffee ground out of the cream (if cheese cloth weave is too loose, try nylon).

Place the coffee infused cream into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.  Whisk on high until butter clumps together, leaving the buttermilk behind.

Squeeze the remaining buttermilk from the butter. 

Place the butter in a bowl of ice water and knead gently to remove excess buttermilk.

Use the butter for an extra caffeine kick to your morning muffin and save the buttermilk for some coffee-infused pancakes!  Or try beating some powdered sugar and honey into the butter (try this recipe!)

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Coffee-Infused Butter

by Amy's Cooking Adventures August-10-2017

Coffee-Infused Butter is the perfect addition to your breakfast routine!

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 6 tablespoons ground coffee

Instructions

Mix together the cream and coffee grounds. Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight to steep. Strain the coffee ground out of the cream (if cheese cloth weave is too loose, try nylon).Place the coffee infused cream into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high until butter clumps together, leaving the buttermilk behind.Squeeze the remaining buttermilk from the butter. Place the butter in a bowl of ice water and knead gently to remove excess buttermilk. Use the butter for an extra caffeine kick to your morning muffin and save the buttermilk for some coffee-infused pancakes! Or try beating some powdered sugar and honey into the butter (try this recipe!)

Details

Prep time: 12 hour Cook time: Total time: 12 hour Yield: about 1/2 cup