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The Coffee 100 · make it at home

New Orleans café au lait with chicory

10 min · 2 big cups

Café du Monde's order since 1862: dark coffee blended with roasted chicory root, mixed half and half with hot milk, with a plate of beignets under powdered sugar.

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The real one

You need

• 40 g (1/2 cup) dark-roast coffee and chicory blend, ground for drip
• 500 ml (2 cups) water
• 300 ml (1 1/4 cups) whole milk
• Sugar to taste

How to make it

1. Brew (5 min): Brew the coffee and chicory strong in a drip machine, French press (4 minutes) or pour-over. The chicory makes it dark, smooth and slightly bitter.
2. Scald the milk (3 min): Heat the milk to just below a simmer, until steaming and with small bubbles around the edge. Whisk or froth it a little if you like.
3. Pour (30 sec): Pour coffee and hot milk into each cup at the same time, from two jugs, in equal amounts.
4. Serve: With beignets or any fried dough dusted thickly with powdered sugar.

Tips

• Chicory was a stretcher for coffee during shortages; it stayed because New Orleans liked it.
• Over ice, it becomes the city's frozen café au lait; mix in a little condensed milk.
• Can't find the blend? Mix 3 parts dark roast with 1 part roasted chicory granules.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any café's recipe.