Esponjado de Café, a refreshing coffee from Colombia

Among the desserts that can be made with coffee, a traditional recipe from Colombia promises a light and cool mousse with a strong and refreshing taste!

There are not many sweets borrowing their basic flavor from coffee, some of which are extremely popular and classy, such as Tiramisu, while others are variations of other sweet favorites such as Cheesecake Espresso. From South America comes a simple but very delicious dessert with coffee, Esponjado de Café!

Esponjado is a traditional and especially popular dessert in Colombia and is usually served at the closure of a dinner, especially in festive occasions. It is nothing more than a mousse with a particularly creamy texture that is frozen and is prepared with egg whites, cream, milk and is flavored with fruit most of the time. An interesting version of Esponjado is Esponjado de Café!

Esponjado de Café is particularly refreshing, combining the mousse's light texture with the strong taste of coffee. Perhaps the fact that instant coffee is used in making a traditional dessert to host some, but the explanation should be sought in the Colombian coffee culture. Although Colombia is among the five countries with the largest coffee production in the world and Colombian coffees are famous for their flavor, until recently almost all Colombian coffee was destined for export. The Colombian coffee culture had grown around  instant coffee, which was hotly sold in the streets by the name 'tinto', ie ink - a name indicative of its low quality. In this way, the Esponjado de Cafe is traditionally prepared with instant coffee, not dark and cheap like the Colombian tinto, but with a quality instant coffee of our choice.

What do you need for an Esponjado de Café?

• 3 tablespoons of instant coffee
• 400 ml of evaporated milk
• 5 tablespoons of water
• 1 tablespoon of powdered gelatin
• 1 cup of cream
• ¼ cup sugar
• three egg whites

How is Esponjado de Café prepared? 

• Heat the water and divide it into two bowls, putting two tablespoons in one and three in another. In the first bowl, dissolve the instant coffee and the other dissolve the gelatin.
• In a blender, mix the coffee with milk and beat for two minutes. Add the dissolved gelatin and beat for another minute.
• Beat the cream for 2-3 minutes and add it to the coffee mix.
• Beat the egg whites and sugar in the meringue
• With gentle moves, add the egg-sugar mixture to the other mixture.
• Divide the sweet into 6-8 glasses or bowls (depending on size) and cool in the refrigerator for at least 5-6 hours
• Serve with whipped cream and 2-3 coffee beans

Tips for a delicious Esponjado de Cafe

• You can use any instant coffee you want, with the same result. With the proportions of the recipe, it is difficult to use another coffee, such as an espresso or a filter, as the flavor will be weaker.
• The recipe is simple, but it takes care of both the dissolution of gelatin and the meringue strike and the final mixing of the materials. An error in one of these three stages will result in a sweet with textural problems.
• Esponjado De Cafe is not suitable for children because it contains caffeine. By replacing coffee with instant chocolate, we can make the Esponjado Chocolate respectively, delicious and perfectly suited to any age.
• You can serve it, except coffee beans, with instant coffee powder or a little bit of cocoa.

With some simple ingredients and a little bit of familiarity with pastry, we can make a traditional Latin American dessert that will ideally close any summer dinner - whatever the tastes of our associates, Esponjado de Café will steal impressions.