I don’t care for coffee. But I will tolerate most anything when it’s covered in chocolate. Also, I have friends and family who like coffee. All of these were good enough reasons for me to make chocolate covered coffee beans for Christmas gifts this year.
I started with dark roasted Harar coffee beans from Ethiopia. Okay, even though I don’t love the way coffee tastes, I do love how it smells. Yum.
Then, I melted some milk chocolate in a double boiler. You could use dark, too. Once it was melted, I stirred the roasted coffee beans into it. I slowly combined the beans and chocolate with a spatula until the beans were coated.
Then, I spread the beans onto waxed paper. Except I’m too cheap to buy waxed paper. So I reused cereal bags (cut open, rinse off, lay on counter). I sprinkled sugar on the beans (I would have used powdered sugar because I think that would have been neat, but we didn’t have any.) and let them cool.
Once the chocolate covered beans were cooled, I put them into glass mason jars. And ate just a few along the way.
And then? Christmas gifts. Ready.
Oh, if you’re a friend or relative of mine who loves coffee, please don’t read this post. It might spoil Christmas. Thanks.
(Do you want some (more) Pangeo coffee beans? This coming Monday is the final roast before Christmas. Order here and don’t forget: Between now and Christmas, the code MckMama3 at checkout gets you $3 off per bag!)
Hmmm… thinking I need to open my last bag of Harrar, melt some dark chocolate, and make me a batch o’these! NUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE my Harrar! So does my sister in law who was the lucky recipient of 2 bags.
Trying to decide if I should try another roast next time or stick with what I love already!
BTW, yes, it was me that sent you the text(s) on Saturday!
Its probably good I didn’t reach you, it ended up be a very crazy weekend!
Miss you! lo
What roast are you using? I am asking due to my forever trying to make the perfect chocolate covered coffee beans.
I have never used a milk chocolate. What brand did you use and what % of cocoa? Did the milk chocolate get/stay hard emough to package and ship?
I use dark chocolate, and add tiny amounts of butter and heavy whipping cream (very little of each–I’m talking drops) to create a smooth shiny finish to the beans. Lay them individually on wax pr parchment paper an place in the freezer to dry/harden. They can be dusted with cocoa powdered, but I like them shiny.
Thank you for sharing your coffee bean making.
i’ve added olive oil to the chocolate to make it shiny too, it works really well. never tried butter & cream!
What a fantastic idea! Thanks! You’ve been Pinned!
i wanted to share this with you and fellow readers, since you are trying to be conscientious about your coffee….
http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2011/09/here-let-me-ruin-halloween-for-you.html
One Word: YUM!
Nice place for the disclaimer!
This has nothing to do with chocolate covered coffee beans but I was wondering where you got Nuggey’s Angry Birds hat. I have a 4 year old who would LOVE one!
First I make Black bean and corn salsa…I wake up to find a picture of it on your blog the next day, now I just bought chocolate covered expresso beans yesterday and I wake up to find THIS? CREEPY….are you following me?!?!? Ha!
Now being that I am not knowledgeable about coffe because I dont eat anything coffee flavored or drink anything with coffee in it I am wondering…. this is a super Christmas idea but do you grind them up to make coffee or eat these. I feels so dumb but I just dont know. Can you help me here?
patti from indiana
Patti, you eat them as a snack, like a candy. But with more restraint since they are coffee beans. Having a huge handful of them may affect your sleep that night…
Yummy! I love coffee anything.
Amy
So-do you eat these or grind them and brew them. Either way they sound wonderful, but thought I should make sure…
Eat like a candy but in moderation so you can still sleep at night!
Yeah, I was gonna say… You can make powdered sugar in a coffee grinder or food processor. And… You can also make your own baking powder–baking powder can actually go bad & not work because it’s a chemical reaction w/ the wet ingredients. If the baking powder has already done it’s chemical thing in your cabinet due to humidity, it won’t help your baked goods rise! So I make it fresh everytime w/ cream of tartar, baking soda & corn starch (I have to look up the correct proportions everytime)
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I’m not sure where I got the idea to make powdered sugar but when I don’t have an ingredient I always find an alternate on the Internet or my Super Baby Food book by Ruth Yaron is a FANTASTIC reference for cooking!
so sometimes when you ship things they get exposed to pretty hi temperatures, even in the winter, and beautiful chocolate covers Christmas gifts get melted together in one big goopy mess… keep that in mind. experience is a harsh teacher!
ummm that would be “high temperatures”…..
Great idea. Actually from the looks of the jar, that will be a gift also. Old Mason jars are worth a pretty penny and that one appears old from the shape of the bottom. They are pretty easy to look up online to see what year they were produced.
Love the idea, thanks for sharing!
My husband just asked, “What am I looking at here? A jar full of rocks?” I laughed and told him what they really were
He then added that the rocks would have been healthier to digest.
Note: He just ate a piece of apple caramel cheesecake and a glass of eggnog so he’s really one to talk!
Must try
*HUGE INHALED GASP!*
This is genius. My mom LOVES coffee, this would make an awesome DIY gift for her!
And my mom reads your blog.
Which means she’s probably already seen this.
SNAP.
Hah!!!
For future reference- you can whip some granulated white sugar up in a blender for some DIY powdered sugar when you need some in a pinch
Wow!!!!!! No idea. Where were you on Sunday!?!?
Really? I knew that you could grind granulated sugar into super-fine sugar in a pinch, but not into powdered sugar. Good to know!