French Roast Coffee Muffins (Made with Mochi Flour)

Keeping to my promise of making more desserts this year, I’m posting another dessert recipe! I really fell in love with sweet rice flour this year ever since I learned how to make mochi donuts. Sweet rice flour adds a slightly sweet flavor and a chewy texture to my donuts. It’s absolutely amazing. I knew I wanted to make more desserts with this ingredient, so I made muffins with mochi flour this time! Specifically, mochi French roast coffee muffins. 🙂

Why I love Cafe Du Monde coffee

The coffee I chose to use for this recipe is from Cafe Du Monde. This place is probably one of the most famous – if not THE most famous – beignet joint in all of the US. I have never been, but I hear the line to get in this place is legendary. They say the clutch order is beignets with coffee. I have never had their beignets but I know their coffee quite well. My parents love this brand of coffee as do many Vietnamese people in the US because it is the closest in flavor to the coffee in Vietnam. Coffee is yet another thing that the Vietnamese got from the French. Vietnamese coffee is a mixture of fresh brewed French roast and condensed milk.

Ingredients

1. Half and half – Half-and-half is half whole milk and half heavy cream. This combination makes for a thicker muffin dough.
2. Coffee – As I mentioned above, the best brand to use is Cafe Du Monde coffee. Any type of coffee should work for this recipe however. I would recommend you use your favorite kind!
3. Sweet rice flour – I would highly recommend Mochiko rice flour. I’ve used it for every mochi recipe, and it is literally the best. Bob’s Red Mill also sells sweet rice flour.
4. Baking Powder – This ingredient helps the muffins rise.
5. Butter – Make sure to use unsalted butter for this recipe.
6. Vanilla extract – This ingredient adds flavor to the muffin dough.
7. Sugar – I used white sugar for this recipe, but raw sugar is a healthier alternative.
8. Eggs – Any type of large egg should work for this recipe.

Making French roast coffee muffins (made with mochi flour)

Here’s how you make these muffins! Make sure to read the recipe notes in the next section because there is important information on how to get that yummy roasted coffee flavor into these muffins.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Prepare your muffin pan by greasing it with Pam, butter, or vegetable oil.
3. Heat up the half and half in a small sauce pan for about a minute until it is warm. Remove from the heat and add in your coffee. Let the coffee steep for 10 minutes.
4. While the coffee is steeping, mix together the sweet rice flour and baking powder. Set aside.
5. In another bowl, mix together the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs. Set aside.
6. After the coffee steeps for 10 minutes, use a coffee filter or a paper towel to filter the liquid into a liquid measuring cup. Make sure you have 1 1/2 cup of coffee milk left over. Add the coffee milk to your wet ingredients from step 5. Whisk together.
7. Add your dry ingredients from step 4 into your wet ingredients. Make sure to sift the dry ingredients  into your wet ingredients to avoid clumping. Mix with a spatula until well combined.
8. Use a large cookie scoop to divide the batter evenly between your muffin molds.
9. Sprinkle some black sesame seeds over the top (optional).
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
11. Let muffins cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe Notes

1. Use a coffee filter to strain the coffee and half-and-half mixture. After testing the recipe a few times, I found the most efficient way to flavor the half and half with the coffee  is to steep the coffee in the half and half. Then pour the mixture through a coffee filter to separate the coffee grounds from the liquid.
2. Measure your coffee milk after steeping. You only need 1 1/2 cup of half and half for the muffin batter, but I wrote 1 3/4 a cup in the recipe to account for the loss of some liquid in the straining process. That’s why I recommend pouring your coffee into a liquid measuring cup after filtering your coffee milk.
3. Alternative methods to strain your coffee. Instead of using a coffee filter to strain your coffee, you can also use paper towels, a cheese cloth, or a drip coffee filter (see above picture). I tested my first batch with a drip coffee filter, but it took way too long. I used a paper towel in my second test and it was more efficient.
4. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. When you add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, I would highly recommend sifting the dry ingredients. The flour has a tendency to clump.

Did you make these French Roast Coffee Muffins (Made with Mochi Flour)?

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