Creativity with Coffee

Alrighty then, my latte maker broke last month! This is an emergency of epic proportions...or so I thought.

I love to have a peppermint patty latte once a day. It started a year and a half ago. sigh. I just love them. I feel happy and relaxed. It's part of my routine. I sit down and drink my latte or drive around errands or perk my little heart up with a smile.

sigh...no latte maker. It gets pricey to buy them out, you know.

Today I remembered my Swedish grandmother making coffee on the stove. How hard could it be? Combine that with my assistant's observation that you could make hot, frothy milk with a whisk on the stove.

Duh.

So I pulled out a cookbook that must be 60 years old or more and looked up how to make old-fashioned coffee :-D I inherited that cookbook. Some things are mighty precious and yet have no monetary value.

It didn't look to hard. The recipes were varied and had a demitasse version. Why not? Um, I don't have an old-fashioned stove-top coffee maker. I also don't have cheesecloth to strain out the grounds. But daunted- me? No way.

I love George Bernard Shaw's quote, "You see things and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were and say,
"Why not?"

LOL, it applies to lattes too. Want to know how?

Peppermint Patty Latte (the old-fashioned way with a minor twist):

3 Tablespoons ground coffee
1/2 Cup water
1 Cup skim milk
1 Tablespoon chocolate syrup (I use Hershey's sugar-free)
1 ounce peppermint syrup (I use Torani's sugar-free)

Put grounds and water in a small heavy sauce pan, stir, cover and heat to boil.
As soon as it does, lift the lid and stir.
Add a couple of drops of cold water to settle the grounds.
Recover and lower the flame to very, very low. (You don't want it to boil away the aroma and flavor in the steam.)
Cook for 5 minutes.
Turn off the heat.

Now comes the fun part.

Take a paper towel and make a well in the center of it while covering a large mug. Pour the coffee into the paper towel slowly. Set pan down for use in a moment. I keep hold of the paper towel in my other hand so it won't fall into the cup and lose the grounds. (I felt like a kid experimenting in the kitchen.)

Lift the paper towel with the grounds inside and let the coffee drain through.

Set grounds aside to toss or use in your garden. Take another paper towel and wipe out the remaining grounds (really, most of them stayed in the pan if you poured slowly) into the garbage or mulch.

Rinse pan and set on stove.

Now pour one cup of skim milk into the pan.
Turn on flame.
Whisk while bringing to just a simmer. You'll love the cappuccino style foam you'll get with a whisk.
Once heated through and foamy, pour into coffee.

Add 1 tablespoon of dark chocolate syrup and 1 ounce of the peppermint syrup.

Whisk.

Drink up:-)

Such a fun, silly way to make a peppermint patty latte! But it worked really well. It'll get me by until the Mukka maker arrives.
I bought a European stove top latte maker online last week. I can't wait to try it too.

If you are on Weight Watchers, this is a 2 point beverage.

And now I'm ever so relaxed while I write this post :-D

George, I'm so glad you dream "Why not?"

Happy Sunday and tell me how you have been creative lately?

Angie
PS Visit me over at God uses broken vessels too