Ingredients:

• 3 cups of plain flour
• 1 cup of wholemeal flour
• 1 sachet of dry active yeast 7g
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil (extra virgin)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 and 1/2 cups of warm water

Part I

1. Sift both flour into a large bowl. Add yeast and stir for 2 minutes.
2. Add cups of warm water and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Stir in with a spoon for 2 minutes.
3. Add a teaspoon of salt then start mixing dough with your hands inside the bowl for 2 minutes.
4. Remove dough from bowl and knead on a table for around 5 minutes.
5. Lightly spray a large bowl with olive oil and place dough into the bowl. Move dough around to ensure it is covered by the oil. Seal with cling wrap and a tea towel on top.
6. Set aside for 2 hours.

Part II

1. Remove dough from bowl and place on table.
2. Cut the dough into three even pieces.
3. Leave one dough on the table to work with and the rest aside into the bowl and covered.
4. Knead dough gently for 1 minute.
5. Flatten dough and spread out its edges to increase it’s size.
6. You can roll the dough using a rolling pin. Start at the center and work outward in all direction.
7. Once the dough is light and flat, place onto baking dish or tray.
8. Top with ingredients of your choice.
9. Place into oven at 210º Celsius for about 9-10 minutes

• Coffee Baristas, do you ever find yourself tipping out half a litre of milk because it didn’t froth the way you expected?
• Pizza makers, do you ever re-arrange the pepperonis or the olives on a pizza because they weren’t evenly distributed?
• Office gentlemen, Do you ever knot a neck tie 2 or 3 times until you get the right length?

These are some of the things I often do when things don’t turn out the way I would like them to. I know it sounds excessive but I’m just fussy. I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I take great pleasure in seeing things come out great. There’s nothing like eating an almost perfect pizza, drinking great coffee and knowing your tie is precise on length. Stupid things like this make me happy on a daily basis. I don’t get upset when something comes out average but I pursue and immensely enjoy excellence. You have to be willing to pay for it most the time too.

Below, a list of the basic equipment needed.
1. An espresso Machine
2. A grinder
3. Milk Pitcher (jug)
4. Thermometer (for milk)
5. Cups
6. Portafilter
7. Coffee beans
8. Water (filtered water preferred)
9. Milk (full cream gets best resutls)

PART I

Here we prepare the espresso, which is the essence and base for any coffee drink whether it’s machiatto, cappucino, flat white or cafe latte. Some espresso machines have a hot water spout. This can be used to pre-heat the cups before brewing the espresso to ensure that you get a hot drink without having to over-heat or even burn the milk. As you will see in Part II, I prefer to remove the milk around ten degrees under the norm for cafes as I think you get more sweetness, the only setback is that the end drink will be cooler than expected.

Turn on the espresso machine to warm up and pre-heat the cups by filling them with pre-boiled water.

Pre heat cups with boiling water

Grind the coffee directly into the basket of the portafilter.

Tamp the coffee grinds to create a flat surface.

Using the coffee tamp

Top up with more ground coffee.

Tamp again and ensure  the rim of the basket is clean and free of excess coffee grounds.

Ready for the machine

Position the portafilter into the grouphead and slide to the right of the arrow indicator.

Ensure the portafilter is locked in correctly

Empty the water-filled cups and place under the coffee spouts.

Cups ready for the brewing process

Now turn the machine on and watch attentively as the coffee is extracted to see whether it was a hit or a miss result.

First few seconds of extraction

Resistance in the pour and visible crema is a good sign.

When magic happens

Stop the extraction once you have about 30mL of coffee in the cups.

About a shot of coffee is enough only the crema is visible

Place cups on warming plate located on top of the machine.

Resting the cups on the warming plate

Empty out brewed coffee remains into the waste container.

Empty out coffee remains

PART II

Now we look at frothing the milk to get a silky/velvety consistent texture ideal for cappucinos and lattes. This is the most difficult part of espresso coffee making and it took months if not years for me to learn. Practise is the best and only way to master this step so be patient while you are learning.

Add fresh milk to the pitcher until the beak.

Fresh milk and thermometer in the pitcher

Now flush the steam wand into the collector drain before hand to remove any possible build up from before. This also prepares the wand for the next step by ensuring the pressure and heat are at their highest right before frothing.

Flushing the steam wand

Hold the milk pitcher at a slight angle away from the wand. Only just immerse the wand tip into the milk, about 1cm or 1/2 and inch.

Good firm hands are needed

Turn on the steam wand, bubbles may form in the first 10 seconds. Nothing to worry about as they will soon get smoothed out.

Bubbles form at the start due to the pressure of the steam

Keep the angle and the wand tip submerged in the milk at all times. Bubbles are now slowly disappearing.

The milk expands slightly as it froths

Turn off the steam wand once the temperature reaches 50°. By the time the wand turns off completely it will reach 55°

At 55°, the milk is still sweet and frothed consistently

Once you place the milk pitcher aside, immediately wipe down the wand with a moist cloth and flush into the tray once again. It’s important to keep the steam wand clean at all times.

Always wipe down the wand right after use

Now you will free pour the milk into the cup of coffee, piercing through the layer of crema and mixing both liquids together as the level rises.

One motion free pour without any interruptions

It’s good to see that the top layer of the finished cappucino has both brown and white colours visible as this indicates that the milk has mixed well with the crema, providing a consistent taste and texture throughout the beverage.

Consistent aPART Ind well frothed milk on these coffees

I’m no master of latte art but it’s good to constantly practise.

The finished product

And that’s how I prepare espresso coffee at home. Please comment or add suggestions.

-RB

Traditional Margherita pizza

Once upon a time I thought that the more toppings a pizza had, the better it was. I still enjoy most of the toppings that go in a supreme pizza but now I’d rather have a good simple pizza than an all-you-can-eat meal on an average quality dough.

I used to pack a pizza with mushrooms, capsicum, tomato, ham, salami, cheese, tomato pizza sauce, onion, olives, and pineapple (if available). Since then I’ve learned that in Italy (Naples specifically), authentic pizzas can only have dough, tomato sauce, cheese and basil leaves.

I think many of us in the Western countries have been side-tracked about what’s important in a pizza. I think it’s the dough. The Naples regulations require the dough to be cooked in a woodfire oven for 60-90 seconds. While the toppings are very important also, the make-or-brake aspect of the pizza is definitely in the dough. Many consumers of average grade pizzas will probably make the mistake of thinking that more toppings equals more value for money and that quantity of ingredients adds to the taste.

A similar thing happens to Italy’s espresso style coffee. While we should be more concerned with the espresso shot, we get distracted by all the things we can disguise the taste of the espresso with. The short black, ristretto, double ristretto is the essence of what coffee is however, we add milk to this, sugar, and some people go as far as creating a peppermint mocha (heaven knows what goes into that).

In summary, we should go back to basics with cooking and hot beverages. Find out where they came from, how they evolved and try to capture the integrity with which these meals first came into creation. If there’s no appreciation for the food’s history, preparation and original authenticity then how can you really enjoy it?

home made flat white made by me

Starbucks entered the Australian market in July 2000. At its peak, it had a total of 81 stores nation wide. Now it’s stores have been reduced to just 23 and out of the 4 outlets in Canberra, there is not one store left for the Canberra population.

I have read John Simmon’s book: My Sister’s a Barista: How they made Starbucks a home away from home and from reading it, you get the impression that Starbucks could do no wrong; their business model is almost flawless and can only grow from strength to strength.

The book was published in 2005 and a lot has happened since then. There is no doubt that Starbucks is an incredible story of innovation, niche markets and successful chain operations.

Something happened in Australia though. I didn’t quite work out. If McDonalds, KFC, Subway, Dominos are anything to go by then it couldn’t have failed. Somehow it did. Enough talk, here is what I think happened.

Starbucks arrived in America at a great time. The 90s was a decade of fast growth for globalisation. The American coffee industry at the time was in need of improvement in quality and product. When you watch repeats of the TV show: Friends, what you would mostly see is that black stuff in a glass container being poured into coffee cups. What is that? McDonalds in Australia used to sell coffee that way about 10 years ago. If you watch enough American movies and television shows it seems as though espresso machines have been boycotted and electronic filter drips are the only machines offered to consumers.

In summary:

• America drank crap coffee, not even espresso.
• Starbucks came and sold espresso.
• Americans realised espresso tasted about 100% better than drip coffee.
• Starbucks started opening heaps of stores.
• Americans noticed that Starbucks was everywhere so they decided it was good (if a store is everywhere it has to be good).
• Starbucks was a success.
• Starbucks were aware of what McDonalds and Coke did to conquer the world so they started devising their own plan which basically consisted of: opening stores all over the world.
• Starbucks comes to Australia in the year 2000.

Unbeatable combination. Quality assurance and consistency in all the stores, arabica coffee beans ground on demand, espresso coffee competing with drip filter coffee for around the same price. What could go wrong?

Here’s how Australia was (and is) different to America when it comes to coffee. Australia had a culture and appreciation for coffee for many decades before Starbucks appeared. While Australia is heavily influenced by English culture, people still enjoy and consume coffee as much as tea. The European immigration (particulalry the Italian) was responsible for Australians experiencing European cuisine and customs. In other words, we had espresso machines in operation here, long before international chain stores started opening.

Australians like strong coffee, whether it’s a long black, macchiatto, short black or flat white. They all contain a shot of strong tasting coffee and small quantities pack a strong punch – well at least till 11am.

Starbucks came into the Australian coffee industry without customising their product for Aussie market, same menu, same size (apparently they’re even bigger in US), same price. Two things alarmed me when comparing Starbucks to independent cafe equivalents.

1. The sizes of the cups at starbucks look like they’ve all been supersized
2. The coffee is way weak in taste.

I attributed observation number 2 to being linked with number 1 – larger cups means more milk, meaning weaker taste. The staff at Starbucks once corrected me saying that as the sizes increase, so does the amount of coffee that goes into the cup so the taste should be consistent.

The smallest size cup at Starbucks is called “TALL”. It takes a long time to drink (similar to what schooner drinkers go through when ordering a pint at an Irish pub). The quick coffee break turns into a mini marathon/drinking competition.

I was disappointed with Starbucks coffee early on. The quality wasn’t good, the service wasn’t as comforting as local cafes and the price didn’t justify the product. Australians soon realised that Starbucks was similar to McDonalds (of the 90s) – fast food, average quality.

People started going back to their independent coffee outlets for their energy charge. Places where the staff knew what you drank and could estimate what time you’d get there every day to place an order. Places where the espresso operators would practise in their free time to enter in national barista competitions.

I think Starbucks would have been a bit surprised to see its stores do it hard here. Many people abroad think we’d have the same culture and therefore characteristics as American consumers. Gloria Jeans have set up a similar styled operation to Starbucks here and it seems they have been more successful. I actually don’t mind their coffee, it’s somewhat consistent and they use a high percentage of rainforest alliance beans. Their coffee sizes are parallel to the Australian standards. Maybe they understood the market a bit better.

I put it down to quality, price, branding and perception. Starbucks prices weren’t too bad, although you did feel like you were paying top dollar for medium level quality and experience. Perhaps one day Starbucks comes back better and stronger to address the Australian coffee market. I’m just glad that coffees in Australia have improved greatly from what they were 9 years ago. Even McDonalds trains baristas nowadays. Donut King have a special royal bean – and pretty great coffee for a chain store.

Not wanting to be too hard on Starbucks, it serves a lesson for all international coroporations to never underestimate a foreign market.