韓系霜蓋咖啡 Frothy Dalgona Coffee

從上到下、左到右說明：快速攪拌約三、五分鐘後，材料變成光澤的「濕性發泡」；一杓杓放上牛奶上，再攪拌均勻成香濃的拿鐵 (After whisking about 5 minutes, the ingredients became glossy and formed a "soft peak." Stirring the coffee froth into a mug of milk, a creamy latte was now completed.)

昨天偶然在臉書上，看到朋友分享韓系霜蓋咖啡 (Frothy Dalgona Coffee) 的製作影片。

材料只要三種，非常簡單：即溶咖啡、糖、水（影片中的示範）。我便決定今天早上也要來做一杯，試看看到底多好喝。

於是，看了身邊有的材料，我選了：

1. 無糖即溶咖啡粉 (10g *2包)
2. 蔗糖 (目測看咖啡粉約 1:1)
3. 紅茶 (目測約10ml吧)

全部倒入鍋中，拿了中型打蛋器，快速、均勻地攪打，讓空氣和糖份充分混和。經過了三、五分鐘後，簡單的三樣材料，因為化學作用，形成了咖啡霜。

學過西點烘焙的我，了解其中的成因：

1. 糖分的化學鍵，讓糖份具有「吸水保濕性」，容易與材料中的水分結合。
2. 咖啡霜蓋中的原料的水份，經過快速攪打後，與糖份充分結合。
3. 攪打過程中混入的空氣，因為糖份，而讓微小氣泡中的結構得以保存。

因此，只要糖份放越多，糖份便會與更多水分結合，保存尚未成為氣泡的水分子結構，所以需要花更多時間打發，但是打發後，成品會越光滑。

如果打越久，或打發動作越大，氣泡融入地會越多/越大，口感會偏向乾性發泡的立體感，比較難消泡，也比較難產生「溶於口」的滑順。

這不但是咖啡霜蓋產生的原理，也是西點中最常用的技巧，舉例如下：蛋白打發 (天使蛋糕)、鮮奶油打發 (乾性發泡用於裝飾鮮奶油蛋糕)、全蛋黃打發 (手指蛋糕)、全蛋打發 (海綿蛋糕)。

只要掌握這個原則，把咖啡粉換成奶粉，或是把水分換成紅茶、牛奶，應該能無礙地製作出紅茶霜、奶霜！

但是因為咖啡霜非常美味，會令人忘記它富含咖啡因成分...... 飲用時不要加太多啊，不然會像我今早一樣，喝太多而頭暈 XD (後來我狂喝水，稀釋身體中的咖啡因)

明天就試試看韓系霜蓋咖啡，並分享你的成果吧 :D
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I came across the Buzzfeed video of making frothy dalgona coffee on Facebook from friend. It was surprisingly easy, and it takes only three ingredients and 3-5 minutes.

I decided to make it my own this morning, with the ingredients I could find in my kitchen:

1. Instant coffee powder (10g*2 pakcs)
2. Crane sugar (about 1:1 with the coffee powder)
3. Black tea (about 10ml)

I poured all of them into a stainless bowl, and whisk it rapidly with a medium-size whisk. The key was to incorporate all the ingredients well, and mix in the air by constantly stirring. 

After about 3-5 minutes, a glossy soft-peak foam was formed. I spooned it on top of my milk, making it a good cup of energy booster in the morning. It was so delicious that made me forget it was rich in caffeine. 

This process shares the chemical similarity of baking in pastry:

1. Sugar has the capacity to absorb and preserve humidity easily.
2. Stirring the sugar well with the water enables it to retain the structure of the water
3. Whisking constantly incorporates more air into the mixture, enabling the sugar to contain the structure of tiny air bubbles. 

Therefore, the more the sugar, the more it absorbs the still water, the longer it takes to form a peak. But once it is whipped well, the peak will be more glossy.

Also the longer you whisk, or the bigger the whisking motion is, the bigger the air bubbles. The harder the peaks become. It leads to a harder texture of the froth, and of course, the froth will last longer. It might cause the froth less alike to "melting in your mouth."

This principle is essential in pastry. For example: whisking the egg white in making angel cake, whipping cream to hard-peak to decorate cakes, whisking egg yolks well to make sponge fingers, and lastly, whisking whole eggs well to bake a proper sponge cake.

As long as this principle is applied, I think one can easily substitute instant coffee powder with milk powder, or water with tea or milk, to make any cup of frothy drink.  

But be careful! It will be so delighted that you will drink too much. I had too much of my froth this morning, and it gave me migraine...!! (Welp, I drank a lot of water to pee it away XD) 

Try it soon and share your frothy dalgona coffee with us!