Friday, June 22, 2012

Café con Leche

As I mentioned in a previous post, my cousin Brenda is staying with us for a few weeks while she's on her Summer break. Late last night I discovered that she had never had a "real" cappuccino. I was, of course, shocked! She revealed that her experiences with the bean were limited to vending machine coffees.
 As any good, family oriented cousin would do, I promptly took her to the kitchen!! Now keep in mind she had never had "real" coffee. I got out my grinder, my french press, scale, whole beans, whole milk, glass kettle, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and dutch cocoa. We were about to make coffee history, well at least as far as she was concerned.

She watched on as I combined in my kettle the milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. I placed it carefully on the stove over a low heat. She observed me weigh my beans, carefully grinding them to a press pot perfect consistency. I wanted it strong. 45 grams later I added the grounds to my press. She had never seen a french press, so I explained to her how it worked while the milk heated up to a cozy 195 degrees F. 

Now this being my version of a café con leche, using NO water... I gingerly pored the hot milk over the grounds. I gently stirred it and placed on the lid. While I set the timer for 4 minutes we made the foam while we waited for our creamy brew.  A little warm milk left from the kettle was briskly whipped by hand (my frother is broken) into a rich foam. 

Once the timer went off i gently plunged the coffee to reveal a creamy, rich, café con leche! I added a teaspoon of sugar to each of our cups, pured in our fresh brew, topped with foamed milk and a sprinkle of cocoa. The cinnamon and vanilla in the milk added a little depth and complexity that blended well with the rich cocoa on top. 

It was slightly sweet and super creamy! Brenda proclaimed that it was the best coffee drink she had EVER had! I must admit that it was one of my better "batches"! I you have never made coffee with milk instead of water, you must try it! it's a creamy delicious treat! It's even better iced!!

Here's a picture of Brenda taking her first sip of heaven!





Saturday, June 16, 2012

I'm a bad influence!

So my cousin Brenda is staying us for two weeks for her summer break. She's only 15 but I feel the need to introduce her to "real" coffee! Starbucks is good, but I know I can make her a better Frapp! She will never want a store bought coffee drink again!! Essentially, I will spoil her rotten with delicious coffee!! I guess it's not a bad thing until she goes home and demands her father to buy good coffee! lol

I'll post pictures and recipes when we have our "Frapp-Fest"!