Recipes from the Collection of Mark and Danielle Hughes
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How to roast your own coffee beansAssociated Press Roasting green coffee beans is no more complicated than making popcorn, and it takes roughly the same amount of time. Most beans - which are actually seeds taken from the berries of coffee plants - cost less than $5 a pound. After exposure to high heat for just a couple of minutes, green coffee beans turn yellow and give off a grassy bouquet. A few of minutes after that, they begin to expand, turn light brown and an aroma similar to toasted bread fills the air. Once the beans begin to crackle - a stage in the process referred to as "first crack" - personal preference will dictate when they are "done." A few minutes later a more subtle "second crack" begins. Beans roasted much beyond this point will be quite dark, if not burned. Keeping beans in motion is critical to achieving an even roast. Home-roasting appliances do this automatically; the stovetop technique requires constant stirring. One word of caution: some roasting methods produce more smoke than others, so it may be necessary to open a window or even work outdoors. Many enthusiasts wait a few hours or even overnight before grinding freshly roasted beans. This allows carbon dioxide to be released and enhances flavor. Freshly roasted beans should be kept in an airtight glass container. One of the simplest and least expensive electric roasters on the market is the Fresh Roast Plus 8, which retails for $72.50 and takes up no more room than a small drip coffee maker. Fresh Roast inventor Tim Skaling of Park City, Utah, said he has sold more than 50,000 of the machines since 1998, almost entirely online. More sophisticated and expensive home roasters are also available, including the Hearthware i-Roast 2, which costs $179 and can roast 5 ounces of beans at a time, or twice as many as the Fresh Roast. The $495 Gene Cafe Drum can handle 8 ounces at a time and its temperature setting can be adjusted mid-roast. While properly stored green beans will remain fresh for a year or longer, experts say roasted beans tend to become stale after 10 days to two weeks, resulting in coffee that tastes sour. Ground coffee goes stale even faster. "The roasted beans are very fragile," said Kenneth Davids, author of the book "Home Coffee Roasting: Romance and Revival," and publisher of the Internet newsletter The Coffee Review. "You can't treat them like a bottle of wine." |