The joys of having a cup of hot and frothy cappuccino or latte on a cold, wintry day is not something new to the inhabitants of Melbourne. However, some may wish that they could enjoy the heavenly drink at the comfort of their home instead of having to step out for grabbing one at the local cafe. But is it possible to prepare one at home without a milk frother, an espresso maker and the other necessary equipments? Owners of normal domestic coffee machines in Melbourne can chin up, because the answer is YES. Homemade latte can be really fun to prepare and is decent enough to deliver the taste of its commercial variant that you get at a shop. The only difference is that you would be able to control the proportion of coffee, milk and foam as per your liking.
Here is the recipe for preparing a cup of delicious latte at home:
Ingredients and Equipments Needed:
Strongly brewed coffee or espresso , Milk , Cocoa powder, Maple syrup, Almond and vanilla extract, Cup, Jar with a lid, Spoon & Microwave
Procedure:
At first, prepare a cup of strongly brewed coffee with the brewer you have at home and do not dilute it with water. If you happen to own an espresso machine, then all the more good. It is recommended to begin with around ⅓ cup of the strong coffee or espresso. Now comes the part of frothing the milk. Fill half of the jar with milk and tighten the lid on it. Start shaking the jar as hard as possible for about a minute till the milk becomes frothy and gets doubled in volume.
Remove the lid from the jar and microwave the milk inside it for about half a minute. You will notice that the foam is slowly rising to the surface. The heat emitted by the microwave will stabilize it.
Now slowly pour out the coffee or espresso into the cup. Then pour the desired amount of milk into the coffee and while doing so, hold back the foam using a big spoon. For hiking up the fun, you can have a flavoured or sweetened latte by adding and stirring some maple syrup into the milk. Adding one teaspoonful of almond or vanilla extract might not be a bad idea either.
Finally, top the surface of your latte with as much foam as you want using a spoon. Sprinkle a little bit of nutmeg or cocoa powder for garnishing.
