With espresso and latte machines costing upwards of $500, I decided to try and make my own Starbucks style Vanilla Latte at home. This methods works pretty well and is much less expensive. All you need is hot milk, coffee, vanilla extract and a bit of sugar. The recipe assumes a 16oz. mug (2 cups).
- Start a double-strong batch of coffee. You only need about 3/4 of a cup.
- While the coffee is brewing, heat 1-1/4 cups of milk until it is almost boiling. (I put mine in the microwave for 3 minutes.)
- Depending on what equipmentyou have available, do the appropriate step to froth your milk:
- If you have a milk frother, use it to froth the milk for about a minute.
- If you have a blender, it will also do a good job frothing the milk. *
- Otherwise, use an egg beater or a whisk to stir some air into the milk.
- Pour coffee into the mug first, then pour the milk in, layering the foam on top.
- Add vanilla extract and sugar to taste.
- It’s as easy as that. Enjoy!
*Note: If you use instant coffee or want to make a Chai latte with the powered mix, you can use a full mug of hot milk and just put the instant coffee or Chai mix into the blender with it for similarly spectacular results.
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Have you tried using a regular whisk to froth the milk, or would that be too large to work effectively?
I tried with a big whisk and it wasn’t as frothy as I would’ve liked for it to be. Besides that, awesome recipe!
I’ll give it a try and let you know how it compares.
I’ll try this to see how it compares to the $19 espresso machine I bought at WalMart.
OK, I am back. Seems to work OK. I am using real espresso from the machine, and adding the milk to the coffee rather than blending the mix, but the blender method does seem to make the milk more frothy than the traditional steam method.
@Keacher – The whisk worked pretty well. It didn’t froth quite as much, but it got the job done.@Lone Wolf – Thanks for doing a side-by-side, I’m happy to hear that this recipe does a decent job.
this is awesome! i have tried for years to make ‘road-lattes’ from gas station fixin’s but could never get the foam just right (sometimes not at all considering sometimes i used powdered creamer and hot water for ‘milk’). finally i decided to keep a shaker-cup handy and that worked really well. maybe this would work for your method in case you are without a blender or electricity.
wow this worked really well !!!
I decided to try and make my own Starbucks style Vanilla Latte at home.
i’m 13 and have been trying for ages to make a nice coffee just because i like making them.i’m gonna try this tonight
I tried the blender idea, and it worked great! I just heated 1% milk on the stove and then put in the blender at a low speed for about a minute. The foam held up very well!
i was also surprised how well the blender worked. I used soy milk instead of regular. Just don’t pulse the blender unless it has a really tight seal. I got soy milk all over the kitchen!
Looks definitely delicious. I will give you a feedback once I’ve tried this latte.
Nice one homes
You can get a whisk/frother at Ikea for $2. worth it! Also, you can make your own vanilla syrup – boil 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of water until the sugar dissolves, then add 1 Tbsp of vanilla extract.
how do you store this?
Delicious! Great recipe, very specific!
this is a good idea!! I wonder if you added just a little bit of vanilla creamer would it be even better. It has been like years but just wanted to get this out there lol!!:)
How much sugar and extract did you put?