Coffee cortado: recipe and photo

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Coffee cortado is a drink made from coffee and milk taken in equal proportions. This drink is especially popular in Spain, Portugal, Latin America, where it is customary to drink it in the afternoon. But the invention of this drink is attributed to the Italians.

Its special feature is serving in a glass dish with a volume of about 200 ml.

What is a cortado?

The drink is prepared on the basis of espresso, into which hot milk is poured. Cortado coffee recipes may vary, for example, it is made with whipped cream or condensed milk. It is believed that baked milk is used to prepare the original drink.

How to do?

To make cortado coffee at home, you need the following ingredients:

• two teaspoons of freshly ground coffee (finely ground);
• a teaspoon of sugar;
• 100 ml milk;
• 20 ml sour cream;
• 150 g of water.

Cooking cortado:

1. Pour milk into a clay pot, put sour cream into it and put in an oven preheated to 80 ° C for two hours. The mixture should not boil.
2. Wrap a clay pot with milk and place it in heat for three hours. Making baked milk at home is not an easy process, but it turns out much tastier than store-bought.
3. Make espresso from ground coffee and water. You can do this in a Turk or a coffee maker, at your discretion. If it will be boiled in a Turk, you need to bring it to a boil several times, this is the only way you can get a fragrant drink.
4. When the espresso is ready, pour it into a glass, which must first be warmed up well.
5. Shake the baked milk. This is done using a conventional whisk or blender. But it is best if the coffee machine has such a function.
6. When the milk is frothed, put the foam on the surface. This must be done very carefully, avoiding mixing layers. If you follow these recommendations, you get real cortado coffee (photos are presented in the article). It can be seen that it seems to be cut into two layers - dark at the bottom and light at the top.

Tips & Tricks

For those who want to learn how to make a real cortado at home, here are some tips:

• Selection of coffee beans. Grains of Santa Domingo, Tanzania, Kenya varieties are suitable for such a drink. They must be deep roasted and freshly ground. It is not recommended to use ground coffee that has been stored for a long time. It won't make a good cortado. Usually, coffee that has been ground for a long time acquires a rotten smell.
• Cooking is best on an open fire, in a Turk. Bring to the boilit needs three or four times. When the foam rises for the first time, the Turk must be removed from the stove for a few minutes, then returned to the fire. Thanks to this procedure, the coffee will get a deeper taste, it will become richer.
• Cortado coffee gets its characteristic flavor from baked milk. It is with him that the original drink is prepared. Baked milk gives softness and a slightly sweet taste. Whipping baked milk is better by hand, that is, with a whisk, and it must be necessarily warm. If beaten with a mixer, it is easy to beat it, and then it will become dense, with lumps and not suitable for adding to coffee.
• To get a fatter drink, you need to replace milk with cream.
• Some make it with condensed milk, but this is far from a real cortado, and it turns out too sweet.
• Pour the drink into a glass. Pre-heat it, do it with boiling water or steam. Then coffee is poured, sugar is added, mixed, heated milk is poured in, foam is spread on top. It is allowed that it does not reach the edge of the glass, it can only fill it by two thirds. Sugar can also not be added to the glass, but served separately.

Coffee cortado can be prepared in a simpler way, using store-bought baked milk. This will require 50 ml of espresso, 50 ml of milk and a teaspoon of granulated sugar (no more). Freshly prepared espresso with sugar is poured into a heated glass. Separately, the baked milk is slightly heated and beaten with a whisk to get a soft, tender foam. Warm milk thingently pour in a stream into a glass of coffee, put the remaining foam on top. Do not stir the drink.

Other cooking options

It is customary to refer to varieties of cortado a drink made not with baked milk, but with cream. He received the name galliano. It will require 100 ml of Americano or espresso, 100 ml of cream, one and a half teaspoons of Galliano liqueur. Coffee is poured into a glass, cream is whipped with liquor and spread over coffee.

In Mexico, the type of cortado is the drink con leche. It is prepared on the basis of strong Mexican coffee, which will require two servings. First, add a spoonful of sugar to coffee and mix. The same amount of regular milk is heated without boiling. The milk is then gently poured into the sweet coffee, with a cinnamon stick placed on top.

Another drink reminiscent of cortado coffee is piccolo. To make it, you need a little more milk than coffee. The milk is heated and poured into the glass first, followed by the sweetened espresso.

And finally, a variant with condensed milk, which is called coffee bon-bon. To prepare it, pour 50 ml of condensed milk into a heated glass, pour fresh hot espresso on it in a thin stream so that the layers do not mix.

How to serve and drink

In Spain and Latin America, this drink is drunk in the afternoon, even in the late afternoon.

Serve it in thick glassware, usually on a porcelain saucerwith a small spoon and a bag of sugar. Milk must be warm.

In France, cortado coffee is served with cold milk and even chocolate chips, caramel syrup, nuts, cream are added to it.

Conclusion

This drink is not as common as latte, glasse and others. However, in some coffee shops you can find cortado ghee on the menu. Reviews of such establishments indicate that coffee fans do not miss this drink and always note its unusual taste. By the way, it is quite expensive in coffee shops compared to other types.