–Keith
- Methods modified from Serious Eats, (Also Serious Eats), and The Pioneer Woman
Ingredients
- Whole Milk (or any milk, it’s not that big of a deal)
Directions
- With Frothing Wand: 1. Immerse the wand in the milk and blend for about 20 seconds.
- With No Wand 1. In microwavable cup that has a lid, pour milk in and with lid on shake vigorously for 30 seconds.
- With Machine to Steam Milk 1. Follow the directions for that machine.
2. Microwave milk for 20 seconds.
3. Immerse the wand again and blend for about 20 seconds until foam forms and holds with barely any large bubbles.
2. Remove Lid and microwave milk for 20 seconds.
3. Place lid back on, and shake for 30 seconds.
- If the milk bubbles start to grow and merge, the milk is not warm enough and will not hold the froth. Put milk into microwave and nuke it on high for 10 seconds and repeat the forthing step until bubbles hold and no froth grows.
- Both listed methods have you froth the milk before heating: it seems to help the milk heat evenly when it’s slightly aerated to begin with. It can be skipped but when I skip it I find myself reheating and reforthing a bit more frequently.
- Add a drop of vanilla once the froth is stable and doesn’t need to be heated further, and mix that in with your frothing technique of choice. For the first few sips it’ll be noticed, but much thereafter the flavor of the coffee will overpower it.
Recently (albeit decreasingly recently) we got a new coffee maker. I drink too much coffee for a keurig to be a reasonable machine, and the coffee pot we had needed to be replaced. So we went shopping for a coffee machine, and I discovered that there is no coffee pot that is worth it’s price tag. So we got up-sold, and purchased an expensive coffee maker. Because if I was going to pay more than $10, I wanted bells and whistles.
And among the bells and whistles we got was an attached milk frothing wand.
I usually take my coffee black so this is new territory for me. But I paid for it, so I decided I’d figure out how to use it and make the best froth I could for the days I feel like being fancy. The froth took a bit to figure out, and while Serious Eats has an excellent page on the physics (or chemistry? or biophysics? Whatever you’d call an explanation of the protein structure at play in milk froth), their guide was aimed at folks with an espresso machine. That’s where The Pioneer Woman stepped up, providing an explanation of 8 different ways to froth milk. Between the two, I’ve adapted it for my setup with a frothing wand, and noted the approach that gives me the best and most consistent foam. I don’t think I’d ever use a cup to shake the milk into foam, but I thought it’d be useful to at least add it on the off chance the concept is useful sometime in the future.
While I’m adamant that no coffee machine ought to be priced so high and that all coffee machines are not worth their price, I do love the pot we ended up with. I’m as close to saying ‘worth it’ as I’ll ever get I think.
Twelfth Dimension Kitchen 