Creamy Coffee Pie

Late February and the light is visibly returning, the sun setting after five-thirty for the first time since November, the morning starting to come up while I am drinking my second cup of coffee. The shift is small but cumulative and the dog has begun walking the morning route in real light again instead of headlamp light. February in Vermont is the long stretch month, but the second half of it carries the first credible evidence of spring inside it for those willing to read the small signals. I read them. I have been reading them for seventy years. They have not lied to me yet.

The maple tap inventory began Saturday — the first sugarhouse visit of the year, the buckets unwrapped, the spiles checked, the count taken. I have a hundred and ten taps again this year. Three spiles need replacing. The sugarhouse smelled of the boiled sap of the previous fifty Marches even after eleven months of dormancy, the smell so embedded in the wood that it cannot be removed and need not be. I stood in the dim space for a moment and let it settle around me. The taps will go in around the third week of March, give or take a freeze-thaw cycle, and I will be ready.

Made a beef stew Wednesday with the last of the parsnips from the root cellar — the parsnips having gone through their long sweet rest and come out tasting like the candy of root vegetables. The stew was the kind that fills the house with brown smell for the entire afternoon and I ate it for three nights running, the third bowl as good as the first. There are men who think a stew should be eaten on the night it is made. Those men have not lived alone for four years and have not learned the small economies of the household of one.

Owen came over Saturday afternoon with Patricia, who had baked her late-winter apple cake from the last of Ted's root-cellar apples, the ones at the bottom of the bin that needed to be used. The cake was excellent. Owen ate two pieces and told me about a school project he was working on — a geological survey of the area around Hinesburg, a project he had taken on for an honors program at the middle school and that had him out walking the back roads and the wood trails on weekends with a small notebook and a hammer. He had brought a few of his samples to show me. I admired them in the way the project deserved. He left at five with a small bag of last year's cookies for the road, and Patricia stayed for another half hour for coffee, which has become our small standing arrangement on her late-winter afternoons.

Patricia and I have settled into coffee as our punctuation mark — the thing that signals the afternoon is winding down without quite ending it. After Owen left Saturday with his geological samples and his bag of cookies, I found myself wishing I had something better to offer alongside the pot than what I had on hand. This pie is what I keep in mind for those occasions now: made ahead, cold from the refrigerator, rich without being heavy, and the kind of thing that earns a second cup without anyone asking.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 15 minutes plus 4 hours chilling | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 pre-made 9-inch graham cracker crust
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder or strong instant coffee
2 tablespoons hot water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, cold
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Chocolate shavings or cocoa powder for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Dissolve the coffee. Combine the instant espresso powder with the hot water in a small bowl and stir until fully dissolved. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Beat the cream cheese base. In a large bowl, beat the softened cream cheese with the powdered sugar on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the dissolved coffee mixture and vanilla extract, and beat again until fully incorporated and uniform in color.
Whip the cream. In a separate cold bowl, whip the heavy cream with the granulated sugar until stiff peaks form, about 3—4 minutes. Do not over-whip.
Fold together. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture in two additions, using a rubber spatula and a light hand to keep the filling airy.
Fill and chill. Spoon the filling into the graham cracker crust and smooth the top evenly. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight for best results.
Garnish and serve. Before serving, dust the top lightly with cocoa powder or scatter chocolate shavings over the surface if desired. Slice cold and serve directly from the refrigerator.

Nutrition (per serving)

Creamy Coffee Pie — The Pot Still Warm When Patricia Left