Iced coffee is our favourite type of drink during summertime, but latte surely belongs to winter and fall. Who doesn’t love to sit on a chilly day, indulging on a hot, frothy latte (or even cappuccino)? However, know that your latte cravings shouldn’t just be a coffee shop treat. You can also make a pretty lovely latte at home, even if you don’t have an espresso machine or a milk frother – we promise that your homemade latte will have a beautiful cap of foam, too.
Let us share our recipe as to how we do it at home, whether it’s for sipping in the morning or for a visiting friend.
First Things First…
Before we proceed, let us tell you some significant difference between a latte, cappuccino, macchiato and café au lait. That’s because a lot of you might be thinking that it’s all just coffee at the end of the day. Well, there are significant differences:
- Latte is typically made with steamed milk, espresso and milk foam.
- Cappuccino is somewhat similar to a latte, but cappuccino consists of more foamy milk to steamed milk.
- Macchiato does not contain much-steamed milk, but it sure does have espresso and a little bit of milk foam.
- Café au lait just has warm steamed milk with coffee (sometimes espresso), but no foam.
It’s all about the ratio of the milk, milk foam and espresso for which the name of them changes. However, feel free to call it anything you like in the privacy of your kitchen.
Let’s get started…
Without further ado, we’ll now jump into how you can possibly make the perfect latte at the ease of your kitchen.
Ingredients:
- Espresso or strongly brewed coffee
- 2 per cent non-fat milk
- Cocoa powder for garnishing in the end
Equipment:
- Jar with a lid
- Spoon
- Wide coffee cup
Instructions:
- Before you go onto making anything, the first thing that you need to do is prepare your espresso or a strongly brewed coffee. Any strongly brewed coffee or espresso from a home espresso machine would do. Or you can even use a capsule machine to brew your coffee. Make sure not to dilute it with water. Generally, baristas use about 1/3 cup of espresso, but it all depends on how strong you want your latte to be.
- Remember the jar with a lid we listed in the equipment section, now is when it comes to playing its role. Pour milk into it and full it no more than half. Tighten the lid and shake the jar as much as you can to froth the milk. You will see that the volume has doubled roughly in just about 30 to 60 seconds.
- Now you need to microwave the milk. Take off the lid and put it in your microwave for a good 30 seconds. Don’t be scared to see that the foam rises to the top of the milk.
- Next, pour this warm milk into the espresso for the coffee to shallow up. Possibly, use a large spoon and hold back the milk foam. Pour much of the warm milk into the espresso, and that’s it.
- Lastly, don’t forget to add the foam. That’s the beauty of a latte. Spoon the milk foam on top of your latte. Garnish it with some sprinkles of cocoa powder or even nutmeg on top of the foam. Sip, sip!
Notes
If you are looking forward to adding some flavour to your latte, you could easily add some sugar syrup with the warm milk. However, do so before adding the foam. Some other ideas for flavouring your latte could be to add a teaspoon of almond or vanilla extract. Maple syrup is a great idea, too!