Lattes are a coffee house staple. While they may seem intimidating to make at home, the actual recipe is really simple. I usually make them with my Jura Giga 5, which is a simple 1-touch process. But I often use a foaming wand and warm milk to make them by hand. At its simplest, a latte is steamed milk, espresso, and foamed milk. To make it your own, you can customize the amount of milk and espresso, add flavors, or even become an amateur latte artist. Here is what I consider the perfect latte recipe.
Disclaimer: Links in this post are Amazon affiliate links, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
Beans for the Perfect Latte Recipe
Arguably the most important aspect of the latte is what coffee beans you use. You can use regular coffee or espresso beans. Espresso beans are simply regular coffee beans that have been roasted longer and darker. Espresso is usually ground a little finer than coffee. But if you don’t have espresso beans, coffee will work just fine.
Milk
Whole milk provides the best foam, but you can use 2%, skim, almond milk, or oat milk if you prefer. To steam milk, simply heat it up!
For the foam, I recommend a hand foaming wand. They are inexpensive and readily available. I use one I purchased from Amazon, click here for the link to the foaming wand. For an even easier heating and foaming process, you can use a milk foamer. I have this one from Nespresso, here is a link to Amazon.
(I do note, I recognize that as I write this post that I really do have a lot of coffee making accessories.)
Assemble your Latte
1) Brew your coffee. A traditional latte uses 1-2 oz of espresso. But you can adjust based on your preferences.
2) While the coffee is brewing, steam your milk. You can heat it in a saucepan on the stove or even in the microwave. Either way, the milk should be warm but not boiling. This may take some trial and error to get the right temperature, especially is using your microwave.
When the milk is warm, pour some into a glass and use your frothing wand to make the foam with the remaining milk.
3) Pour the steamed (not foamed) milk into a glass.
4) Pour in your espresso.
5) Add your foamed milk on top.
Viola! You’ve made a latte.
If you are using a Jura, here are my default settings for the perfect latte recipe:
- 1.5 oz of espresso
- 25 seconds of steamed milk (for some reason, Jura measures milk in second instead of ounces)
- 12 seconds of milk foam
- Coffee strength ⅗ (using espresso beans)
- 1 extra shot espresso
Feel free to add in flavored creamer (like pumpkin spice), syrup or extract for an extra special treat.
Disclaimer: Links in this post are Amazon affiliate links, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
Recommended Reading on Levenshire Chronicles
Meal Prep for Beginners Part 1
Leave a Reply