Please check out our newest Brewsletter – Volume 41 – End of Summer 2010

Also, please go to the Brewsletters Page on our website to download and read previous Brewsletters. They contain lots of useful information!

Enjoy and thanks again from all of us at UMG!

It’s kind of like my own little cupcake heaven.

If you would like to play too, give us a call. All their ingredients can be drop shipped to you. Let us know if you would like to experiment with any bakery, pastry, beverage, gelato or ice cream applications. I promise you. It is a lot of fun.

Here’s the basic cupcake recipe that I have been using for my experiments (makes a dozen):

1/2 cup butter (room temp)

2/3 cup granulated white  sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (also try subbing sifted cake flour)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup milk

Be sure to add your favorite flavoring ingredient (See below inspiration).

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease 12 muffin cups.

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and vanilla, beat until well blended.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

With mixer on low speed, alternately add flour mixture and milk. Mix thoroughly.

Evenly fill cups and bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.

For Orange Cream Cupcakes:

Add 2 tablespoons of Amoretti’s Blood Orange compound and the zest from 1 orange.

Top with Cream Cheese frosting! (See recipe below)

For Blackberry-St. Germain Cupcakes:

Add 2 tablespoons  Amoretti Blackberry compund, 1 teaspoon Amoretti Elderberry Blossom extract, and 1 teaspoon Amoretti Champagne extract.

Top with Berry Buttercream (See recipe below).

For Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes:

Add 2 tablespoons Amoretti Strawberry compound.

Top with Champagne buttercream!(See recipe below).

Cream Cheese Frosting:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese,  1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar,  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

Berry buttercream:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons Amoretti Blackberry compund, 3-4 tablespoons of milk

optional: 1/2 cup of fresh blackberries and/or raspberries whipped into frosting. Yummmm.

1. Beat butter until creamy, scrape bowl.
2. Add 2 cups of sifted powdered sugar, one tablespoon of milk and blackberry compound, beat until combined.
3. Add more powdered sugar (One cup at a time) along with milk (one tablespoon at a time) as needed to get to whatever consistency/sweetness you wish to achieve.

***Champagne buttercream: Sub 2 teaspoons Amoretti Champagne extract for blackberry compound.

For one 5 liter batch of the Ricotta gelato you will need:

750 grams Fabbri Ricotta base

1500 grams milk

175 grams sugar

200 grams fresh ricotta

Directions:

Add ricotta powder and sugar into milk, mix well. If using a cold process machine, heat milk so that the powders dissolve completely.

Once powders are mixed well, add in fresh ricotta and again mix thoroughly.

According to your machine,  hot process your mix or move directly onto freezing.

When extracting the gelato from your batch freezer, stop half way through and layer in the fruit/berry variegate of your choice.  Finish extracting the second half of the gelato, then layer your remaining variegate on top in an aesthetically pleasing fashion.

Proceed to serve this tasty treat to the delight of all!

We had a blast at Coffee Fest Minneapolis this year and want to say “Thank You” to everyone that stopped by our booth and chatted with us.

Our Flamenco coffees were very well-received by all and we are glad that we waited until to this show to unveil our newest dark blend, Minnesota Mudd! The Rancilio Lever machine pulled some amazing Matador espresso shots to anyone that needed that extra caffeine.

The Barista Fria Smoothies and Frappes (with the awesome ice shaving machine) definitely caught a lot of people’s attention. Per usual, we were the only ones with Italian Gelato and Sorbetto that we made fresh for the show! Also starring in our booth were the new flavors from Cappuccine being blended on a Vita-Mix blender (Cafe Mocha Chip & Mint Chip Cookies and Creme) and the new flavor from Big Train being blended on a BlendTec blender (No Sugar Added Vanilla Smoothie).

It is customers like all of you that took part in the show that make our jobs as great as they are. We will continue to work as hard as possible to serve you as a leader in the cafe industry. At Upper Midwest Gourmet we pride ourselves on being more than just a  distributor and a roastery, but a business that makes sure your busines is successful.

Here are some pictures from the festival:

If you have interest in these products or working with us, please Contact Us. Thanks again,

• Barista Fria (from the makers of Island Oasis): the newest smoothie/frappe option to hit the market! Complete with awesome equipment placement options.

• Sugarcane Plates: 6″ & 9″ round plates (perfect for any food, hot or cold, and completely biodegradable/compostable!)

• International Paper “National Parks” Ecotainer: 12oz, 16oz, and 20oz hot cups and lids. Proceeds support our National Parks.

(For pricing or additional product information, please Contact Us. Thank you.)

Please check out our newest Brewsletter – Volume 40 – Spring 2010

Also, please go to the Brewsletters Page on our website to download and read previous Brewsletters. They contain lots of useful information!

Enjoy and thanks again from all of us at UMG!

Now, don’t those look delicious? You agree, you say? Well here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups ripe banana, mashed (2-3 bananas)

2 large eggs

1/3 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup Fabbri Nocciola E Cacao delipaste (Nutella flavor)

Directions:  Preheat oven at 350 degrees

1) Combine softened butter and granulated and brown sugars in large bowl.

2) Mix in mashed bananas

3) Sift in 1 cup of flour along with salt and baking powder. Mix thoroughly.

4) Now mix in wet ingredients including: eggs, yogurt and vanilla

5) Mix in another cup of flour. Combine thoroughly.

6) Finally, add delipaste.  Mix thoroughly, giving the entire muffin a chocolate color and flavor.

7) Add mix into greased muffin pan or pan liners.  Sprinkle on slivered almonds for extra pizzazz.

Bake for 18-22 min. or until toothpick comes out clean.

Yield: 12 muffins

Many of you may be familiar with our Italian product line Fabbri, which produces a variety of gelato and pastry ingredients. The most common application for these products, specifically with the delipaste, is to flavor gelato. Well, this weekend I went home with a few samples of the Pistachio Fine delipaste, some rose extract oil and a mind set on experimentation. I love baking and I really don’t do it often enough, yet I have all of these exotic and delicious ingredients at my fingertips. Well, I decided enough is enough. It’s time to start taking advantage of the Fabbri products and commence experimental baking.

On Friday, I found a recipe for Pistachio cupcakes and Rose Petal buttercream online. I tweaked the recipe in order to accommodate my flavoring ingredients and improvised on quantities a bit. I’m a true believer in “to taste” baking, at least with flavoring ingredients. This recipe is a chiffon-style cake and can be labor-intensive and/or tricky, but never fear. The end result is delicious and well worth the effort.
So here it is: 
Pistachio Cupcakes
36 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven
*2-3/4 cups cake flour sifted
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
**1/2 -3/4 cup grape seed oil (or vegetable oil)
8 egg yolks (approximately 6 ounces)
1/2 cup water
4-6 ounces pistachio delipaste
10 egg whites (approximately 10 ounces)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter

* Sift flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into a bowl.
* Separately, combine oil, egg yolks, water, and pistachio delipaste. Stir to combine. I ended up adding the delipaste to taste (close to ½ cup when all was said and done). Pistachio is a very delicate flavor, so don’t be afraid to go a little crazy.
* On a low setting, start to beat the dry mixture and slowly add the wet. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat until pistachio cream is incorporated. Mixture will be very sticky, but only for now. No worries.
* In a separate bowl, whip egg whites on medium-high speed until foamy. With the mixer on medium speed, add cream of tarter. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form.
* Scoop a cupful of the stiff egg whites into the batter and stir to combine. This should lighten up the batter.
* Transfer the remaining egg whites to the batter and gently fold until there are no more streaks of egg white.
* Scoop into cupcake cups and bake at 350 F for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
*Tip: Cake flour is a must for chiffon. All-purpose won’t give you the same delicate texture.
**Note from the baker: When all was said and done, these cupcakes turned out a bit dry. Next time around I will add more oil. Hence the 1/2 cup-3/4 cup.

Rose Petal Buttercream Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons Rose oil extract, 3-4 tablespoons of milk
1. Beat butter until creamy, scrape bowl.
2. Add 2 cups of sifted powdered sugar, one tablespoon of milk and rose oil, beat until combined.
3. Add more powdered sugar (One cup at a time) along with milk (one tablespoon at a time) as needed to get to whatever consistency/sweetness you wish to achieve.

Assemble
1. Frost cooled cupcakes lightly with buttercream.
2. For pistachio garnish, grind up pistachios in a small food processor. Take up some of the ground nuts into your hand and press the edges of the frosted cupcake into the mixture.
3. Otherwise top with edible rose bud or edible rose petal.

Original recipe: http://cupcakeblog.com

Ah yes, the show season is soon to be upon us. For starters, Upper Midwest Gourmet will be showing off our duds again this year in Milwaukee Wisconsin at the Wisconsin Restaurant Associations annual Expo to be held at the Airline Center in downtown Milwaukee on March 8th trough the 10th (Mon-Wed). Go to www.wirestaurant.org/expo/ for more details on this show and to register. As in the past years, UMG has a boat load of FREE PASSES for Wednesday the 10th, the last day of the show. Please contact us direct at 612-728-7208 or contact Kevin direct at 612-250-8277 or Kevin@umgcoffee.com and we will mail you the tickets. You will need to register them once you have the ticket code. This can be done the day of the show at the door. This year we will be highlighting our new line of Ce Organic and Fair Trade, all natural flavoring syrups, our new International Paper Insulated Hold & Go Hot cups, Angela Marie’s Mega Marshmallow Munchies crisp rice bars, Pacific Foods Organic Simply coffee & tea ready to drink products, Deep River all natural chips and snacks, and our new Flamenco Organic Coffee Direct coffees. We will also have a new espresso machine on hand for your review, use and sampling of our espressos.

This is one of those shows that our staff ALWAYS looks forward to because of the amount of you that take the time to visit with us there and the many new customers we are lucky enough to meet each year. Of the many food & coffee shows that we show at, this has always been the best run and most fun to attend so I encourage you to try to make it if you can, you will not be disappointed!

Coffee Fest Minneapolis, MN, June 04 – 06, 2010

We are very excited to announce that the folks at Coffee Fest have scheduled one of their 2010 show right here in Minneapolis this year in June. Coffee Fest is still one of the better coffee focused shows in the industry so we expect nothing less at this show. We among many other local, regional and international companies will be showing. This Upper Midwest region of the country is finally getting the recognition we have so rightfully earned in the coffee world so this show should be full of useful information for any café owner in this market. As more details come in, we will continue to pass them on to you so please stay tuned or go directly to www.coffeefest.com for more details and to register for this show.

We always love to see our customers at every show we attend so please do come and say hello at one or both of these shows. Upper Midwest Gourmet will also be announcing our annual picnic/open house very soon so please stay tuned for that date to be made.

We thank you all for your continued support and patronage. We are nothing without our great customers and we are driven by your support to continue to improve our services and offerings to you!

See you at the shows!

All of us at Upper Midwest Gourmet would like to wish you, your family, your friends, and your staff a very Happy and Healthy New Year in 2010! We truly believe that your success creates our success and we promise to continue to support and serve you as much as possible!

Please always know that we are just a phone call or email away. UMG has been on the cutting edge of the coffee shop and cafe industry for almost 20 years! We have seen the latest and greatest fads come and go, but there are a few constants that will always remain the same. Coffee drinks and blended beverages are your bread and butter because  of their great profit margins. I agree with my previous statement, but I’ve learned that to be truly successful offering retail sales and food is a must.

One constant that makes any businesss successful is a self-motivated staff with ambitious goals along with a desire to always work hard no matter if it is within their job description or not. This is something amazing that I witness everyday working at UMG, but also something that is very obvious in many of the most succesful cafes that we work with. Striving to always be better is something that rarely breeds anything, but success.

Our guarantee to you, our customers, in this new year and decade is that we will continue to strive to always be better. In fact, we will be taking a coffee origin trip to Dominican Republic to meet our Flamenco Direct Relationship coffee friends and their families in February. This will give us a better understanding of all aspects of coffee production, but will more importantly build a stronger relationship with people we care about, just like our customers. We want you to know that there may be other companies that sell similar type products, but you will never find a company with more personal dedication to their customers than us.

We aren’t just a Midwest distributor of coffee shop products or just a Fair Trade Organic coffee roastery in Minnesota or just a gelato equipment and ingredient company. We are so much more than all of those titles and all we want is a chance to prove that to you this year!

Please Contact Us if you have any questions about what we can do for you.

Thanks for your support!