TODAY:
MILK FOAMING
Now we are getting to the foaming of the milk.
Before I show how to prepare fine-pored milk foam, which you can also use for latte art,
I want to tell you some general facts on milk and milk quality.
Most of the beverages that are consumed in coffee shops contain milk,
such as cappuccino, flat white or latte macchiato.
This is why the quality of the milk you use is really important.
I recommend you to try different types of milk in order to find the one which meets your taste.
If the milk tastes fresh and sweet it will be a good basis for the next steps.
By the way, for foaming the milk the fat content isn’t really important, but the protein content is.
The protein has an influence on the foaming and as low fat and whole fat milk contain more or less the same protein content,
you can do the foaming with low fat milk as good as with whole fat milk.
As fat is a flavour carrier, the taste of a cappuccino with whole fat milk is usually more intensive, which I personally prefer.
Next, the temperature is an important factor when it comes to foaming the milk.
If milk is heated over 70 degree Celsius the enzymes change in a way that they finally burn.
This results in a burnt flavour, which will stay even after cooling down.
Finally the milk won’t taste good anymore, because it looses its nice sweet and fresh flavour.
Therefore you could use a thermometer while foaming the milk in order to control that 70 degree Celsius is never exceeded.
Otherwise, your hand is a good thermometer as well.
While foaming the milk you could put your hand on side of the pot and as soon as it gets too hot, you stop the process.
That is when you know that you have achieved your target temperature.
Additionally it is important that both the pot and the milk are cold before starting the foaming process.
The colder the utensils are, the longer the phase of foaming will last, which finally makes the whole process easier.
Generally you differ between two kinds of milk foam:
Firstly, coarse-pored foam, which you might know from Italian ice cream parlours, where they typically put some cocoa powder on top.
In this case the milk consists of a phase of hot milk and a phase of foam on top.
Secondly, there is fine-pored milk foam, which can be poured out through a suitable spout in order to create latte art.
Fine-pored milk foam consists of one phase only, which means that there is foam from the bottom to the top
instead of having hot milk on the bottom and foam on top, which would not be usable to do latte art.
Instead the coarse-pored foam can be used to prepare latte macchiato, where the two phases of milk are wanted.
The fine-pored foam on the other hand is used for cappuccino, flat white or coffee latte.
So far, so good…now I will start by pouring in the milk, whereby It is important to pay attention to the filling level:
The point where the spout begins is optimal to use as a reference filling level.
If I fill in less, the foaming will be hard work, which is why different sizes of pots exist.
The smallest one is for preparing a single beverage, the middle size is for two beverages
and if you want to prepare even more at a time, bigger pots also exist.
Now I finally pour in the milk…as a next step I will show you the technique of foaming milk.
Generally, I am holding the pot in one hand – mostly in my left one – so my right hand is free
for opening the nozzle, for checking the temperature while foaming and finally for closing the nozzle again.
Before starting the process you should open the nozzle
in order to get rid of the condensation water, which could afflict with the machine in the end.
As you can see, the ending part of the nozzle is put 1-2 cm under the milk's surface
Now I am opening the milk nozzle and then move the pot downwards rather slowly.
You finally hear this scratching noise…
As soon as my hand on the pot is getting warm I put the nozzle deeper into the milk and let it roll.
Now it is getting hot, so I close the nozzle and the whole process of foaming is finished already.
Next, clean the nozzle!
After that I can tap the pot onto the table once in order to destroy the lasting bubbles, which have been formed on top of the foam.
Then I can move the pot a bit on the table, so the milk stays in one phase
and it doesn’t get separated into the two phases of hot milk and foam.
After 30 seconds the separation into the two phases begins,
which is why you should use the foam for creating latte art shortly after ending the process of foaming the milk.
This is also why I first prepare the espresso and then foam the milk,
so I can immediately afterwards use the foam for preparing my beverage.
