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Did you know that you can make an authentic Italian cappuccino with a French press? In less than 60 seconds, you can have steamy, luscious foam for a homemade cappuccino. 

How do I know this? I’ve never mentioned this on The Rose Table before but in my free time I love to watch beauty videos on YouTube and one of my favorite channels to watch is Italian beauty vlogger Angela Van Rose, who lives in Milan. Last winter she posted the loveliest vlog taking us viewers around Milan and she showed us how to make an authentic Italian cappuccino at home and my mind was blown. She used a French press to foam the coffee in less than a minute and I made a mental note to try it someday. Well that day finally came.

This is so easy to do. I cannot believe I never tried this before. My mom and I wanted a coffee break out at the lake house. We don’t have an espresso maker so we used two French presses for this cappuccino, one to make strong coffee and one to make the foam. (You could, of course, do this foam hack with drip coffee as well.) I was shocked at how quickly the milk doubled in size. It took about 30 seconds.

We made enough coffee to fill the mugs about half full, then filled the rest of each mug with milk and foam from the second French press. According to Angela, a proper Italian cappuccino should be 1/3 coffee, 1/3 milk, and 1/3 foam. It was so delicious, I didn’t even need sugar and normally, I’m a spoonful of sugar kind of gal. I will be doing this coffee hack again and again. 

Directions:
Serves two
Coffee, filling half of each mug
1 cup milk

  1. Make espresso or French press coffee. To make coffee with a French press, add four scoops of coffee to the bottom of a French press. Heat two mugfuls of water until boiling. Pour water directly over the coffee grounds. Wait 30 seconds then put on the lid. Steep for three minutes then gently press the plunger down. 
  2. While coffee is brewing, heat milk on the stove until steaming but not boiling. Pour heated milk into a clean French press (not the one you’ve used to make coffee), put the lid on, and quickly move the plunger up and down to froth the milk. It should take less than a minute to double in volume. Tap the press on the counter a couple of times to break up any large bubbles.
  3. Fill two mugs halfway full with coffee then divide the milk and foam evenly between the two mugs and enjoy.

Katie Rose-Watson is the author of the beautifully illustrated cookbook The Rose Table and the cooking and entertaining blog, www.therosetable.com. Her imaginative Disney Dinners have been featured on several national news media outlets.

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