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When instant coffee is called for in a baking recipe, can regular ground roasted coffee be used? Will the same amount work?

anonymous2
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ron
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    Can you clarify whether the recipe is requesting the instant coffee powder or coffee prepared with instant coffee? There's a big difference between a powder that will dissolve in liquids and a ground coffee beans. – B540Glenn Apr 23 '18 at 20:00
  • Welcome to [coffee.se]. If you're able, please respond to the comments or accept the answer if it meets your needs. For example, some recipes call for coffee powder to be sprinkled on top, or be brewed into coffee liquid first, etc., and the answers will be quite different. Clarifying will help you get a more complete answer and will help us improve the content of the site! – hoc_age Apr 26 '18 at 00:57
  • See also another view on the topic from our sister site [cooking.se]: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/36538/why-do-baking-recipes-call-for-instant-coffee-instead-of-fresh-ground-coffee – hoc_age Apr 26 '18 at 01:01

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Unlikely that you will run into any problems, although chemically they won't behave the same way. Instant coffee completely dissolves while the ground coffee will be in there as solid pieces that soak up some water and add taste. I assume the total amount of coffee used is just too little to affect the composition of the dough very much.

You could however also substitute some of the liquid in the recipe with brewed coffee. I think that's the way I would go with. That way you just have the desired taste without changing the composition and ratios of the recipe.

avocado1
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  • Since we are talking about baking, I think it Depends on where in the recipe it's used. Some recipes will use it as a dusting or garnish, like a finished cake might have chocolate powder sprinkled on the sides and top for appearances. Some recipes also might use it as a flavoring to a cream or something similar. In both cases, no it won't matter at all, and I think that is the majority of baking recipes. Though many will still use it as a mix. – Keith E. Truesdell Apr 28 '18 at 03:45
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If in a cake, instant reins. It will disolve in the batter and color it, whereas many of regular grounds remain whole and the flavor only remains in certain bites.

Sam
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Oy this one slipped through the cracks.

No. You cannot directly substitute ground roasted coffee for instant coffee. You will greatly regret doing so if you try.

Instant coffee starts as regular brewed coffee. Then it is filtered and dehydrated to produce the instant coffee product people enjoy. This method of producing coffee powder leaves only very fine particles of solids in the coffee, which is why instant coffee dissolves in water.

Water solubility is an important consideration for cooking with coffee. This is because roasted coffee beans themselves do not dissolve in water. If you use regular coffee as a substitute for instant coffee in any recipe, you will find that the regular coffee has some big, big flaws that come from this lack of solubility compared to instant coffee when it comes to cooking:

  • Roasted coffee will not dissolve or soften during cooking, leading to a very unpleasant grittiness in your finished product

  • Because instant coffee dissolves in water, it can spread through your overall recipe much better than roasted coffee beans; roasted coffee beans will leave parts of your finished product with a very bitter and unpleasant coffee taste because the flavors they leach can't spread through your recipe

  • Sort of along the same lines as the previous point, the brown, earthy colors that coffee adds to brewed coffee can't spread well from bean to dough; you'll end up with a baked good that looks like a hybrid between a zebra and an albino cheetah died on it

If you desperately need to use regular coffee, there is a way. Brew it first. Then, filter your brew. Substitute 4oz of filtered, brewed coffee for each 0.75 tsp (1g) of instant coffee. Remember if using this substitution to reduce the amount of liquid you use by the same volume of filtered, brewed coffee you use here.

R Mac
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