Creole Café au Lait

Creole coffee with milk (café au lait) is a favorite in New Orleans and Louisiana; any self-respecting Creole restaurant has to include this on its menu. It's flavorful and rich tasting, due to the slow brewing method, using a French drip press. 

Then, the resulting coffee brew is mixed with a bit of steamed milk, and sweetened with dark molasses sugar. 
A good cup of Creole café au lait is not difficult to make, but it requires patience to do everything right. If you hurry and just mix regular coffee brew with any milk so you can throw it together faster, it simply won't taste the same.
Traditionally, Café au Lait was served together with Calas (New Orleans Creole rice fritters) or Beignets (the rice doughnut which evolved from the simpler cala). Try them together for the most authentic and yummy experience (apart from visiting a Creole restaurant in New Orleans, of course).
Recipe sources: NolaCulinary and Cooks.com.


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Four years ago: Risotto de quinua y pimientos amarillos (Quinoa risotto with yellow peppers) (Chilean and Bolivian).
Five years ago: Leek, potato and bacon soup (British).
Six years ago: Halloumi and chickpea salad with mint and oranges.
Seven years ago: Bell pepper sticks with refried bean dip.
Eight years ago: Tikka Masala chicken cous cous (British-Indian) and Czech poppy seed cakes (kolaches).




Ingredients (serves 5-6):

• 2 cups of black coffee made with French press drip 
• (for extra authenticity points, buy ground coffee from New Orleans)
• 3 cups of whole fat milk
• 10 teaspoons of molasses sugar (2 per serving)

Make the coffee using a traditional French press drip. Of course, if you want to go extra authentic, get some coffee actually produced in New Orleans, but any French brand will do. 

When the coffee is almost done, prepare the milk. Steam the milk just until it reaches evaporation point and add the freshly brewed coffee to it. Do not over mix. Pour it gently into serving cups.

Add 2 teaspoons of dark molasses sugar to each serving and mix well. Serve warm, preferably with a Creole coffee sweet, like calas or beignets. It's done, dig in! :)