My Favorite Recipes: March 5, 2020

Meet Janelle Harrison, Colfax

 
Janelle Harrison

Janelle Harrison

Janelle Harrison and her husband Travis have made the difficult decision to close Purpose Roasters. The café will officially close its doors for the last time on March 14.

They are selling the roasting portion of the business to their friend Nick Wright who will still roast at a separate location and sell the coffee online. Wright will continue with the Partner Cause Program that has been such a staple of the business. He will maintain the business's online presence where the coffee, voting and more will be made available.

Janelle agreed to an interview to clear up any misunderstanding to the public as to why the business is closing. Janelle has a degenerative spinal disease that progresses more with stress. The couple went over their options and decided to focus on Janelle's health.

"At this point we don't have any choice but to focus on my health and to focus on slowing this disease down," Janelle said.

Purpose Roasters was opened in 2018. While Travis does the roasting for the business, Janelle does pretty much everything else; marketing, social media, graphic design and flavor development.

"It's really fun and creative for me, though, and I love the creative process of developing a recipe from scratch and combining unusual flavors. My favorite days here are the days when I'm doing flavor development," said Janelle.

Janelle loves her work at Purpose Roasters. She has come up with several new and unique flavors that gather their own following, such as the seasonal favorites of orange-cardamom and coconut-orchid. Lemon-vanilla latte is the flavor Janelle feels has one of the largest followings. She enjoys bringing flavors that are unexpected and introducing them to the public.

"People love trying that stuff. They can't get it anywhere else," she said.

She described people's surprise at trying these new flavors and how it would bring people back to see what else is new and give them something to look forward to trying.

"It's really fun and exciting to me to create that experience," she explained.

It is going to be one of the many things Janelle is going to miss about Purpose Roasters.

Janelle was born and raised on a farm in Craigmont, Idaho. Her husband is from St. John. Janelle and her family moved to the area in 2011.

Janelle received her bachelors from Lewis Clark State College, her masters from Gonzaga and her PhD in Organizational Leadership from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.

Janelle is also a professor for the online MBA program through Northwestern University in Kirkland, where she teaches marketing and human resources classes.

Travis, her husband, had a job that caused him to travel a lot. The couple had two boys and decided they wanted to do something as a family. Travis started to roast coffee while still at home and they decided to try it as a business.

"It grew into something much larger than we could have ever anticipated," said Janelle.

She has enjoyed being a part of people's experience as they go through Colfax.

"We've met some amazing people," stated Janelle, "We don't regret a single thing. This has been one of the greatest experiences of our lives."

"I want the public to be able to have a little piece of Purpose, even after we're closed. Purpose means a lot to us, and I think it means a lot to the community too," she said.

Recipes:

"Behind the Scenes" Purpose Energy Bites

"It's something we don't serve here, but our team makes and keeps in the back and we gorge on all

the time."

1 cup of peanut butter

¼ cup of honey or

agave

½ cup of maple syrup

2.5 - 3 cups of oats

1 cup of butterscotch

(or chocolate) chips

2 Tbsp ground flax

seed

2 Tbsp chia seeds

Combine all ingredients and form into golf ball sized balls. Freeze on a cookie sheet until set, and then store in a Ziploc bag in the fridge.

The Mr. E Sandwich

"A Purpose roasters fan favorite, this sandwich is named after our son Easton, who developed

the recipe."

8 oz. cream cheese

2 Tbsp milk

½ tsp. nutmeg

Asiago bagels (or

brioche sprinkled

with Gruyere cheese

on top and grilled)

Thin sliced smoked

ham

Thin sliced white

cheddar cheese

Add first three ingredients to a bowl and use a hand mixer until smooth and well-combined.

Spread nutmeg cream cheese on the bagel, add two slices of ham and a slice of white cheddar.

Place open faced under the broiler on low until melted and toasty. Keep an eye on it to avoid burning!

Purpose Roaster's Original Whipped Salted Caramel

"This was one of our original launch flavors used on our donuts, and in our bonbons."

350 grams of granu-

lated sugar

120 ml (or ½ cup)

water

240 ml (or 1 cup)

heavy whipping

cream

170 grams salted but-

ter, cubed and divided

in half

In medium sauce pan (preferably a light-colored pan), combine the sugar and water. Heat over low heat, stirring with a metal spoon until the sugar has dissolved.

Crank the heat up to medium-high and allow it to come to a boil.

In the meantime, add the heavy cream to a small saucepan and heat over low heat until the mixture reaches the scalding point. Turn off heat.

Cook the sugar syrup until it turns a deep caramel color, being careful not to scorch. It can turn very quickly! Do not scrape the sugar off the sides of the pan or your caramel will crystalize.

Once you are happy with the color of the caramel, take it off the heat and immediately whisk in the hot cream. NOTE: the mixture will start to bubble and hiss like an angry snake but fear not! Keep whisking and it will calm down.

Add half of the butter (87.5 g) one cube at a time, whisking until incorporated. Then plop the bottom of the pan into a cold-water bath (fill your sink with an inch of ice water and dunk the bottom of the pan into it).

Add the remaining butter and whisk until the caramel thickens and cools.

Let sit in the fridge for several hours or overnight.

Once completely cold throughout, whip with a hand mixer to aerate and fluff.

Can be piped or spread as a topping.

 

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