The worldwide-loved Café au lait ("Cafe au leiy") means "milk coffee" in French. This drink is easy to make but hard to master. Café au lait is known for its strong coffee flavor and smooth finish, so this drink is perfect for morning, afternoon or evening.
Step
Method 1 of 1: Making a Classic Café au Lait
Step 1. Choose the right coffee beans
We recommend that you choose strong, full-flavored coffee beans to get the best brew. Coffees with fruit flavors, like many coffee beans from Central America, often lose their flavor when mixed with milk. While the light coffee beans are not strong enough to give the desired coffee taste. Choose coffee beans from Sumatra, Java, or Brazil. Or you can choose dark coffee beans with a great taste.
You can also use espresso beans which are then mixed like traditional coffee
Step 2. Mix one cup of coffee with extra strength
To avoid coffee that is not very strong, which occurs when milk is added, we recommend that you prepare a strong coffee. Some people suggest using espresso, but a cup of espresso and hot milk is actually a latte, not café au lait.
- If you use a coffee maker, use twice as many beans or half as little water for a strong coffee.
- If you're using a French press, or a press pot, make sure you add an additional 2-3 tablespoons of coffee and let it sit in hot water for at least 4 minutes.
Step 3. Heat 1 cup of milk
Scalding is a culinary term for heating milk. Be careful not to foam the milk, just heat it up. Place the milk in a small saucepan and slowly heat it over low heat until it starts to boil and is hot to the touch. Don't let this milk foam. You can also use a steaming wand on an espresso machine, which can heat the milk without burning it.
- Use proprietary whole milk to get the best authentic café au lait.
- Even if a café au lait doesn't have foam in it, all milk drinks should have a little foam because the air bubbles make the taste even better. Take an egg beater to whisk the milk for 10-15 seconds before removing it from the stove for the best tasting drink.
Step 4.
Pour hot milk and coffee into the cup at the same time.
It's a good idea to have milk and coffee in the same ratio and avoid stirring to reduce the amount of foam present. To make things easier, try transferring the warm milk to a heat-resistant measuring cup before pouring it into the cup.
- While the ratios don't have to be the same, café au lait should be half milk and half coffee. Add more milk or less milk for a weaker or stronger coffee drink.
- If you have trouble pouring both at the same time, pour the milk first, then pour the coffee into the milk.
Immediately serve cafe au lait. If you want to emphasize the French side of this drink, it's best to serve the coffee in a small bowl, as the French do. To give it a little Italian touch, serve it in a tall glass, which usually has a handle (though most Italians use espresso instead of coffee).
You can add sugar, as most French people add 1-2 packets of sugar
Variation
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Understand the different types of café au lait. The term "coffee milk" is so ambiguous, there are various kinds of café au lait around the world. The most obvious difference is the European and American versions of the café au lait. Europeans always heat milk with espresso machines, while Americans heat milk in a pot to make this drink.
Make a Cafe Au Lait Step 6 - Latte made of 2-3 shots of espresso and hot milk, not coffee.
- Cappuccino the same as a latte, but most milk is made foamy, not just heated.
- Macchiato is a shot of espresso mix with the addition of frothy milk on top.
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Add a little frothy milk on top of the café au lait. While it's best if a café au lait doesn't have as much foam, a thin layer of this topping is often used to make this dish pretty and add a little bit of sweetness to it. If any milk remains, beat 1-2 teaspoons of sugar until it starts to foam, then pour it over your coffee.
Make a Cafe Au Lait Step 7 -
Add a little chocolate to the café au lait. Add 1/4 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder (for each cup of coffee you make) to the milk before whisking. You also get a drink combination of mocha and café au lait which is suitable to be enjoyed at night or during brunch (breakfast before noon).
Make a Cafe Au Lait Step 8 Replace cocoa powder with 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or the vanilla itself. Take the vanilla seeds from this vanilla and put it in the milk, then heat the milk with sugar for 5-10 minutes on low heat
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Use chicory and coffee in a 1:1 ratio to make New Orleans Café au Lait. This drink is best known for Louisiana's Café au Monde, and is a distinct version of the classic French drink. You can buy pre-blended chicory/coffee or mix it yourself to your liking.
Make a Cafe Au Lait Step 9 If possible, serve this drink with a sweet beignet (fried French snack) to disguise the bitterness of the chicory
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Cool the coffee and milk, then mix in a blender with ice cubes to get es café au lait. Technically, this is not a café au lait because the milk is not hot. However, this drink is perfect for a hot day. If desired, add sugar.
Make a Cafe Au Lait Step 10
Tips
You can play around with the mix ratios to get the coffee flavor you want. While it's best to start with a 1/2 milk to 1/2 coffee ratio, there's no rule that says you can't change this ratio
- https://muddydogcoffee.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/how-to-make-an-authentic-french-cafe-au-lait/
- https://www.thekitchn.com/good-question-how-to-make-the-42252
- https://www.thekitchn.com/good-question-how-to-make-the-42252
- https://www.cafedumonde.com/coffee/coffee-demonstration
- https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/chocolate-cafe-au-lait-recipe.html
- https://ifood.tv/french/cafe-au-lait/about
- https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-caf-au-la-92987
- https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/recipes/a1220/vanilla-cafe-au-lait-3329/
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https://ifood.tv/french/cafe-au-lait/about
