Cafecito Crunch - Recipe

I have loved café Cubano or cafecitos from the moment I tried one on Calle Ocho in Miami. These tiny, super strong shots of espresso coffee that have an over the top sweetness, just made everything better, especially 7 A.M. breakfast meetings. I decided to make this into a candy, essentially an espresso brittle.

You can also use it as an ice cream topping or crush it up and sprinkle it over a nice dark chocolate brownie or cake.

Ingredients

6 ounces of granulated sugar

4 ounces of sugar cane dark molasses

2 ounces of water

¼ teaspoon of salt

4 ounces of espresso roast coffee beans

1 tablespoon of butter

Preparation

Place the beans in a freezer bag and use a meat tenderizing mallet or rolling pin to crush them. It I fine to leave some whole. Set the beans aside.

Grease a cookie sheet with butter.

Combine the sugar, water, molasses and salt in a sauce pan. Over medium heat, dissolve the sugar and molasses, continually stirring the mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until it reaches 375 degree on a candy thermometer. Stir in the crushed espresso beans until evenly distributed.

Spread thinly over the cookie sheet. When it is sufficiently cooled break it into large chunk.