How The Pioneer Woman Makes Cafe-Worthy Lattes From Home

Ree Drummond has made a living by sharing her amazing cooking skills, along with her tips and tricks, with a world of adoring fans who are happy to live vicariously through the Pioneer Woman and her Oklahoma kitchen. The celebrity chef who has shown us how to make some of her most popular recipes is full of wisdom, especially when it comes to coffee. That's right, Drummond is a fan of the brew. She wrote on her blog, "Good or bad, right or wrong, I wouldn't want to live in a world without coffee. I start each morning with iced coffee, and it's the best way to start the day."

We love coffee, too, but running to Starbucks every morning to get our favorite latte can add up. The Motley Fool cites a 2018 Acorn study that says, over the course of the calendar year, coffee-drinking Americans will shell out roughly $1,100 on coffee or approximately $92 a month. That's a lot of dollar bills. That's why you might be excited to learn that Drummond had a guest writer share a trick on her Pioneer Woman blog that can not only turn your at-home coffee into cafe-worthy lattes but may help you save money in the long run.

What we love about this trick that was shared on Ree Drummond's blog is it is a gadget-free option that you can ask the kids to help with and do a little science with them in the process. Erica Kastner who is a blogger at Buttered Side Up shared on The Pioneer Woman that you can use a plain, old mason jar with a lid to shake-up your milk to get it all foamy and frothy. According to the directions, you are going to need to heat your milk to a balmy 140 and 155 degrees Fahrenheit before you pour it into your jar and shake it like a Polaroid picture. Per the Specialty Coffee Association, milk foams up because of the proteins, and when you shake it, you are trapping all those air bubbles to create that delicate froth. 

The writer cautions that anything hotter and your milk isn't going to foam up properly, but heating the milk brings out some of its natural sugars, making it sweet to the taste. The author does lament that the only downside to this method is if you enjoy recreating Van Gogh's Starry Night with pour art, foam from a mason jar is not your best bet. But, otherwise, this method can definitely create a cafe-worthy latte without the price tag.