I worked out one summer that my Starbucks habit was quietly costing me around $200 a month, and I was not even enjoying it that much by the end. So I went looking for coffee recipes I could make in my own kitchen instead, and this is what 41 of them look like: iced coffee lemonade, a cinnamon dolce latte that costs pennies a cup, cold brew brownies, coffee jelly, flan, macarons and a Vietnamese coffee ice cream made from three ingredients and no cooking at all. Some are drinks and some are desserts, because coffee is far too good to leave in the mug. One of them blends fresh cherries into a mocha, which is how a bag of Washington cherries usually ends up on my counter in July. Perfect for a Saturday morning, a dinner party finish or the week you decide the coffee shop has had enough of your money!
1. Iced Coffee Lemonade
This is a mazagran, a Portuguese drink that is basically coffee lemonade, and it sounds wrong right up until you taste it. Cold brew concentrate, fresh lemon juice and a simple syrup you boil yourself get stirred in a pitcher, then topped with chilled sparkling water and poured over a lot of ice. The batch makes ten cups, so it is a pitcher drink, not a single serve. Rum is listed as optional and the recipe is very relaxed about proportions, so taste as you go.
Get the full tutorial at The Hungry Traveler Blog.
2. Homemade Cinnamon Dolce Latte
The whole trick here is a cinnamon sugar simple syrup, boiled for two minutes with water, sugar and cinnamon until the sugar dissolves. After that you brew coffee at double strength, using twice the grounds for the same water, warm and froth your milk, and build the drink with a tablespoon of syrup per mug. The syrup keeps three to four weeks in the fridge, so make a double batch and your morning drops to about ninety seconds. Coconut sugar works in place of brown.
Get the full tutorial at With Salt and Wit.
3. Coffee Truffles
A tablespoon of instant coffee granules and two of Kahlua go into warm cream, then 250 grams of milk chocolate melts into it to make the ganache. That sets in a lined loaf tin for two to four hours, gets cut into 24 pieces and rolled by hand, then dipped in tempered chocolate and dusted with cocoa. Rolling them between your fingertips is messy and worth it. Budget two hours total, most of which is the fridge doing the work while you do something else.
Get the full tutorial at Recipes Made Easy.
4. Coffee Custard Filled Donuts
Two things make these work. The custard is a proper pastry cream, five egg yolks with half a cup of strong coffee and cornstarch, boiled exactly one minute so it thickens, then strained and chilled with plastic wrap pressed on the surface so no skin forms. The dough carries three quarters of a cup of mashed potato, which is an old bakery trick for a soft, long-keeping donut. Plan three hours and thirteen donuts. The cinnamon sugar coating goes on while they are still warm.
Get the full tutorial at Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt.
5. Iced Vanilla-Flavored Thai Coffee
Four ingredients, five minutes of actual work, six servings. You brew eight cups of coffee strong, half a cup of grounds per eight cups in a French press, and chill it completely. Then stir sweetened condensed milk with half and half and a teaspoon of vanilla, spoon as much as you like into a glass and pour the cold coffee over. The coffee and the cream mixture both live in the fridge between drinks, which makes this the easiest weeknight habit on the list.
Get the full tutorial at Tatyana's Everyday Food.
6. Coffee Jelly
Filipino coffee jelly is the dessert to make when you want something cold that is not ice cream. An ounce of unflavored gelatin blooms in cold water, then three cups of boiling coffee sweetened with half a cup of sugar gets stirred in until no granules remain. It sets in two to three hours, gets cut into one inch cubes and is served under sweetened cream made from condensed milk and table cream. Eight servings. Check your gelatin package, because brands vary on liquid.
Get the full tutorial at Kawaling Pinoy.
7. Layered Coffee Panna Cotta
The layers come from running two pans at once, one vanilla iced coffee and one mocha, each with a quarter cup of heavy cream, two teaspoons of espresso powder and an envelope of gelatin. Melted chocolate goes into the mocha pan only. The tip worth stealing is putting the eight ramekins in the freezer first, because cold cups set each layer faster and keep the line between them sharp. Let the gelatin bloom five to ten minutes before you heat anything.
Get the full tutorial at SugarHero.
8. Chocolate Coffee Cupcake
A whole cup of cold brewed coffee goes into the chocolate batter, which is the part that matters, because coffee does not make chocolate taste like coffee, it makes chocolate taste more like chocolate. The buttercream on top gets only a few drops, just enough to read as coffee rather than compete with it. If you have been dumping leftover cold brew down the sink, this is where it goes instead. Dust the finished tops with cocoa so nobody mistakes them for vanilla.
Get the full tutorial at A Treats Affair.
9. DIY Starbucks Coffee Drink
Five iced Starbucks drinks off one French press, which is what makes this worth the ten minutes. Five and a half tablespoons of coarsely ground coffee and sixteen ounces of hot filtered water brew for four minutes, then you plunge slowly and pour it straight over ice. That is the americano. A quarter cup of milk on top turns it into a latte, and the mocha adds a quarter cup of chocolate syrup and a full cup of milk under whipped cream. The caramel macchiato wants its syrup drizzled inside the glass first, and there is a matcha latte at the end.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
10. Coffee Whipped Cream
A pint of heavy cream and one packet of instant coffee, 3.3 grams, is the entire recipe, and it upgrades a slice of anything in about two minutes. The useful part is the optional eighth of a teaspoon of cream of tartar: skip it if you are spooning the cream onto a drink, add it if you are piping it onto a cake, because it stabilizes the whip so the shape holds instead of slumping by dessert time.
Get the full tutorial at Life's Little Sweets.
11. Frozen Black Forest Mocha Coffee
Eight ounces of coffee, half a cup of milk, half a cup of fresh cherries (about fifteen), three tablespoons of chocolate syrup and a cup of ice, blended. The coffee has to be cold or it melts the ice and you get an iced coffee instead of a frozen one, which is the mistake everyone makes once. Freeze the coffee into cubes ahead and skip the ice entirely for a thicker, stronger drink. Frozen cherries work just as well as fresh.
Get the full tutorial at Three Olives Branch.
12. Vanilla Latte Cupcakes With Coffee Buttercream
This is the shortcut version and it is a good one. Start with a box of yellow cake mix and swap half the liquid it calls for with brewed vanilla coffee, so a cup of water becomes half water and half coffee. Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes. The buttercream is butter, two cups of sifted powdered sugar, vanilla and brewed coffee added a tablespoon at a time until it pipes. Twenty four cupcakes, and a dusting of cinnamon finishes them.
Get the full tutorial at A Few Shortcuts.
13. Espresso Royale Icebox Cake
No oven at all. Heavy cream and a can of condensed milk, both very cold, get whipped to stiff peaks with a tablespoon of instant coffee that you dissolve in warm water and cool first. That gets layered with fourteen graham crackers in a 9 by 6 pan, three layers of cream and three of crackers, then refrigerated overnight so the crackers soften into cake. Freeze it an hour before serving, or six hours if you want it closer to ice cream. Nine servings.
Get the full tutorial at Onion Rings and Things.
14. Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies
An ordinary chocolate chip cookie dough with two to four tablespoons of espresso granules stirred in at the end alongside the chips, which is a range wide enough to let you decide how much coffee you actually want. Bake at 375 for 10 to 12 minutes for 36 cookies. No espresso granules in the cupboard? Dark roast instant coffee is the listed substitute and it works. These are the cookies to keep in the freezer for people who do not love sweet things.
Get the full tutorial at Lemon Tree Dwelling.
15. Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake
Four separate components and worth every one. A crust of 32 processed chocolate sandwich cookies goes up the sides of a 9 inch springform at least three inches. Two cups of a ganache made with coffee liqueur get poured in and frozen thirty minutes until firm, then the filling, three packages of cream cheese with instant espresso, dark rum and a little molasses, bakes on top. A sweetened sour cream layer finishes it. Save the leftover ganache for decorating.
Get the full tutorial at Everyday Annie.
16. Coffee Infused Banana Bread
Half a cup of strong coffee plus another teaspoon and a half of instant coffee goes into a banana bread built on three overripe bananas, a cup of dark brown sugar and ten tablespoons of butter. The step people skip is toasting the walnuts, five minutes in a dry skillet over medium low, stirring so they do not burn, which releases the oils and doubles what they contribute. A 9 by 5 loaf at 350. It is written gluten free and plain flour works.
Get the full tutorial at The Rustic Foodie.
17. Coffee Breakfast Smoothie
Seven pantry ingredients and five minutes: milk of your choice, a frozen banana, chilled coffee, rolled oats, cacao powder and that is most of it. The oats are doing the real work, thickening the whole thing and making it filling enough to count as breakfast rather than a snack you regret at ten. Freeze the banana for texture, and use cold brew or anything else you have as long as it is chilled. No added sugar anywhere in it.
Get the full tutorial at Natalie's Health.
18. Coffee Coquito
Puerto Rican coquito is a coconut eggnog, and this version adds a cup of strongly brewed coffee, chilled, to evaporated milk, condensed milk and a fifteen ounce can of cream of coconut, with two cups of rum and vanilla whisked in. For a stronger coffee note, a tablespoon or two of instant espresso powder goes in at that point. Bottle it with cinnamon sticks, chill at least two hours, and it keeps a week to ten days. Shake hard before pouring.
Get the full tutorial at Always Order Dessert.
19. DIY Coffee Flavored Stirring Spoons
Melt chocolate or caramel in thirty second bursts, stirring between, then another ten to thirty seconds, and stop the moment it is smooth because both seize easily. Dip a wooden spoon to coat it completely, lay it on wax paper and press on peppermint pieces, toffee bits, cinnamon chips or coarse sea salt. They melt into the cup as you stir. Bag them with a ribbon and you have a gift that costs almost nothing and gets used.
Get the full tutorial at Mom Spark.
20. Cappuccino Chocolate Chip Muffins
Two tablespoons of instant coffee powder get stirred into the sour cream and buttermilk rather than the dry ingredients, and the recipe says plainly that it is fine if it does not fully dissolve. Fill the liners right to the very top, not two thirds, and start them at 425 before dropping to 375, which is how you get the bakery dome. You get 14 to 15 muffins with a cup and a quarter of chocolate chips through them. Fold by hand at the end and leave the lumps alone.
Get the full tutorial at Just So Tasty.
21. Coffee Pecan Pound Cake
Four teaspoons of coffee granules dissolved in a single tablespoon of hot water carry the whole loaf, which tells you how little liquid a pound cake will tolerate. A cup of pecans, crushed by hand rather than chopped so the pieces stay uneven, goes through the batter. Bake at 325 in a loaf tin. If the mixture starts to curdle as you add the beaten eggs, spoon in a little of your sifted flour and keep going. That fix works on almost any creamed cake.
Get the full tutorial at Lovefoodies.
22. Coffee Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream
Oil instead of butter in the batter, which is the reason these stay moist for days, plus instant coffee to infuse it and sour cream for tang. A semi sweet ganache gets filled into the centers, and the recipe is explicit that you can leave it out and just frost them if you would rather. Drizzle the tops with caramel and sea salt and you have a caramel macchiato cupcake. Chopped hazelnuts in the batter is the other variation worth doing.
Get the full tutorial at Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt.
23. No Bake Coffee Balls
Two cups of crushed vanilla wafers, powdered sugar, chopped pecans, cocoa, instant coffee crystals and cinnamon, bound with four to five tablespoons of brewed espresso. Add the coffee slowly, using only enough to moisten the crumbs, because too much turns the whole bowl to paste. Roll into inch and a quarter balls, coat in powdered sugar and let them stand about an hour to dry, then roll again. They freeze for three months, which is the real reason to make a double batch.
Get the full tutorial at Sweet T Makes Three.
24. Vietnamese Coffee Ice-Cream
Three ingredients and no cooking: coffee, sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream. The condensed milk is what makes it read as Vietnamese coffee rather than generic coffee ice cream, and the maker is clear that it cannot be swapped for evaporated milk, which is a different product entirely. Authentic Vietnamese coffee is ideal but a dark roast works. This version is churned in a machine on purpose, because the texture comes out smoother than the no churn shortcut.
Get the full tutorial at Taming of the Spoon.
25. Moist Layered Coffee Cake
A proper three layer coffee cake, 25 minutes at 350 in three 8 inch tins, with two shots of espresso or a cup of strong coffee going in warm at the very end, mixed only until combined. Oil rather than butter in the batter keeps it soft. The frosting is a coffee Italian meringue buttercream using 350 grams of cold cubed butter, which is the fussier route but the one that gives you that silky, not sugary, finish. Cool the espresso shot before it goes in.
Get the full tutorial at Baking Ginger.
26. Cold Brew Coffee Brownies
Four tablespoons of cold brew concentrate go into a batter built on eight ounces of chopped semi sweet chocolate melted with half a cup of butter, plus dutch process cocoa. Let that chocolate mixture cool eight to ten minutes before the sugar and eggs go in or you will scramble them. Bake in a 9 inch square at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs. A caramel swirl on top is optional and good. Nine squares.
Get the full tutorial at Plated Cravings.
27. Homemade Vanilla Coffee Syrup
Three quarters of a cup each of water and sugar, brought to a boil and stirred constantly until every grain has gone, then three tablespoons of vanilla extract off the heat. That is it. Three tablespoons sounds reckless and it is exactly right for a syrup this small. Bottle it into something sterilized and keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks. One pump turns a plain cup of drip coffee into the thing you were going to spend five dollars on.
Get the full tutorial at Yummi Haus.
28. No-churn Coffee Brickle Ice Cream
Chilled heavy cream, two cups of it, plus a can of condensed milk and two tablespoons of instant coffee granules beaten to soft peaks, then half a cup of toffee bits folded in gently so you do not knock the air back out. Into a 9 by 5 loaf pan with film pressed onto the surface, and six hours in the freezer. Store it at the very back of the freezer where the temperature holds steady, because it is temperature swings, not time, that turn homemade ice cream grainy.
Get the full tutorial at Onion Rings and Things.
29. Coffee Macarons with Nutella Filling
The espresso goes in with the dry ingredients, a tablespoon of instant granules pulsed into 120 grams of almond flour and 200 grams of powdered sugar, then sifted, reprocessed and sifted again. Do not skip that. Pipe one inch rounds, slam the tray on the counter to knock out the air bubbles, and let them dry 30 to 45 minutes before they go into a 325 oven for 15 to 16 minutes. Nutella straight from the jar is the filling. About 36.
Get the full tutorial at Baking a Moment.
30. Creamy Coffee Flan
Six tablespoons of coarse ground coffee steep in two cups of half and half for ten minutes then get strained out, which gives you real coffee flavor without grit. The caramel is a cup of sugar with a quarter cup of water and two tablespoons of corn syrup, and the rule is do not stir it, swirl the pan, and pull it off the heat the second it turns dark amber. Eight ramekins in a water bath at 350, then eight hours chilling. Worth the day.
Get the full tutorial at The Flavor Bender.
31. Tiramisu Frozen Coffee
Everything that makes tiramisu taste like tiramisu, in a blender. Three quarters of a cup of double strength coffee, chilled, with milk, chocolate syrup, two tablespoons of mascarpone, four ladyfinger cookies, a quarter teaspoon of almond extract, sugar and two cups of ice. The warning in the recipe is the one that matters: hot coffee melts the ice and you get an iced coffee, so give it up to an hour in the freezer first. Makes two twelve ounce drinks in five minutes.
Get the full tutorial at Certified Pastry Aficionado.
32. Chocolate Coffee Bundt Cake with Espresso Glaze
The batter is meant to be thin, so do not add flour trying to thicken it. Into a liberally sprayed bundt pan at 350 for 50 to 55 minutes, then cool exactly 20 minutes on a rack before you flip it, which is the window where it releases cleanly instead of tearing. The frosting is sweetened condensed milk melted with chocolate chips, then vanilla and coffee stirred in and left to thicken. No buttermilk? A tablespoon of white vinegar per cup of milk.
Get the full tutorial at Cookaholic Wife.
33. Toffee Espresso Brownies
A tablespoon and a half of instant espresso powder gets sifted in with the cocoa, sugar and salt, so it disperses evenly instead of leaving bitter pockets. Three quarters of a cup of toffee bits is split, two thirds into the batter and the rest scattered over the top so you get the crackle. An 8 by 8 pan at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes, pulled while they still look slightly puffed and the edges are only just set. Then a full hour to cool, which is the hard part.
Get the full tutorial at Goodie Godmother.
34. Coffee Cream filled Eclairs with Kahlua Chocolate Glaze
Three parts, none of them as hard as an eclair sounds. The filling is a cup of heavy cream with half a cup of confectioners sugar, two teaspoons of instant coffee and vanilla, and the instruction that makes it work is chilling the bowl, the mixture and the beater together for an hour before you whip. Choux shells bake at 400 for 35 to 40 minutes. The glaze carries two ounces of Kahlua, and the maker notes it is also excellent poured over ice cream.
Get the full tutorial at Daily Appetite.
35. Coffee Pecan Tart
The surprise in this one is orange zest in the crust, and if zesting an orange feels like a step too far, three or four drops of orange oil or a quarter teaspoon of orange extract stand in. Egg goes into both crust and filling, in the pastry for richness and structure and in the filling to dissolve the brown sugar so nothing turns gritty. Use pecan halves on top and pieces underneath, which looks deliberate and costs less than halves all the way through.
Get the full tutorial at Pastry Chef Online.
36. Coffee Toffee
Candy thermometer required, and the number is 280 degrees, which takes about thirty minutes of boiling with only occasional stirring. A quarter cup of brewed coffee or espresso goes into the butter and sugars at the start. Spread it, scatter dark chocolate chips over the hot surface and cover with a second upturned baking sheet for a few minutes so the heat melts them for you, then spread. Toasted slivered almonds go under and over. Sixty pieces, two weeks in a tin.
Get the full tutorial at Recipe Girl.
37. Boozy Coffee Milkshake
Four cups of vanilla or coffee ice cream, two cups of ice, a quarter teaspoon of espresso powder and then two to four ounces each of vanilla vodka, Kahlua and coconut rum, which is a range rather than a measurement for a reason. Blend, taste, adjust. Swirl the inside of the glasses with fudge sauce before pouring, because it looks like far more effort than it is. Four servings, ten minutes, and definitely one for after the children are in bed.
Get the full tutorial at Divas Can Cook.
38. Cafe Latte Pudding
Three ingredients, and the whole recipe turns on one temperature. Two cups of cafe latte heat in a saucepan until just before boiling, the heat comes off and a tablespoon and a quarter of sugar dissolves in. Then you let it cool to about 175 degrees before a teaspoon and a half of powdered gelatin goes in and gets mixed well. Pour it into individual bowls and refrigerate until firm. Whipped cream, chocolate covered coffee beans, chocolate sticks and mint on top. Two servings, and five minutes of actual work.
Get the full tutorial at Tastemade.
39. Vietnamese Iced Coffee Cake
Three separate coffee hits in one 8 inch, two layer cake. A coffee fudge made with four and a half teaspoons of cold brew, cocoa and half an ounce of 70 percent chocolate. A cake batter carrying both a tablespoon of instant coffee powder and three quarters of a cup of cold brew, with sour cream and oil for moisture. Then a sweetened condensed milk frosting, six tablespoons of it beaten into butter and four and a half cups of confectioners sugar. A rotating cake stand makes the frosting far easier.
Get the full tutorial at Hummingbird High.
40. Coffee and Coconut Milk Popsicles
A can of full fat coconut milk, six soft medjool dates, a teaspoon of instant coffee or espresso powder, vanilla and a pinch of salt, blended smooth. Tap the blender on the counter afterwards to knock out the big bubbles. Freeze about thirty minutes before you push the sticks in so they stand upright. If your dates are dry, soak them five minutes in hot water first. A tablespoon of vodka keeps the ice crystals down. Six pops, no refined sugar.
Get the full tutorial at Feeding Your Beauty.
41. Chocolate Espresso Whoopie Pies
The cookie half is dark, rich and somewhere between cake and brownie, with espresso powder whisked into the coffee and cocoa. The genuinely useful note is the substitution: no espresso powder in the house means instant coffee, preferably dark roast, ground down with a mortar and pestle or pressed under the back of a spoon until it is a true powder. Granules will not dissolve properly. The filling is a light, fluffy coffee frosting, and they travel well.
Get the full tutorial at Grateful Prayer Thankful Heart.
