If you're just using your espresso machine to make coffee, you might be missing out. Social media is packed with suggestions for crafty hacks and alternative ways to use its steam wand, from the practical to the bizarre, so I put five of them to the test to find out how well they actually work.
Some ideas suggested online are clearly non-starters (like somehow using an espresso machine to steam wallpaper), while others just sound a bit gross. I'm sure you can make gravy with it, as suggested by a posted on Reddit, but the thought of failing to clean it thoroughly enough and making a slightly meaty-tasting latte turns my stomach. I decided to try five options that sounded both feasible and useful, and rated each one out of 10 based on its effectiveness.
1. Making hot chocolate
Your coffee maker's steam wand can make delicious, creamy hot chocolate. Just fill the milk pitcher as usual, then stir in a spoonful of drinking chocolate powder. Tilt the pitcher towards you, insert the steam wand just under the surface of the milk, and start the steam to begin incorporating air. After a few seconds, lower the wand into the milk to create a whirlpool effect, which will heat it while mixing the chocolate in thoroughly.
This worked perfectly in my tests, and unlike some of the other hacks here, it's a good alternative to using a pan, particularly if you're only preparing hot chocolate for one person. I found that cleaning chocolate off the steam wand takes a bit more work than wiping away milk residue, but that's the only drawback.
You might also want to give the wand a thorough cleaning more frequently if you're using it for chocolate. Unscrew it and let it soak in warm, soapy water to loosen any dried residue, then rinse thoroughly before reattaching,
Score: 9/10
2. Warming cups
A cold cup will sap the heat from your freshly brewed coffee, so it's always a good idea to warm up your preferred drinking vessel before using it. Give the inside a quick blast of hot steam before you begin brewing and it'll be the ideal temperature.
It's pretty much impossible to go wrong here. Just make sure you have a clean towel on hand to wipe the moisture out of the cup and it'll be ready to go. If your coffee maker doesn't have a hotplate on top specifically for warming cups, it's a great solution.
Score: 10/10
3. Poaching eggs
There are two possible ways to cook eggs with a steam wand: poaching and scrambling. Personally I think poaching makes a lot more sense;. Crack an egg into a small dish, then fill your milk pitcher to the bottom of the spout with water, and add a little white vinegar (to help the egg set faster). Use your coffee maker's steam wand to create a whirlpool and heat the water, then drop the egg into the center. Provided the water is hot enough, the white should cook and the yolk should be left nicely runny.
Does it work? Well yes – but you have to be careful. Unless you have four hands you'll need to take your pitcher away from the steam to drop in your egg, then reinsert the wand. When I did so, the egg white immediately foamed up, creating a meringue-like froth. I pushed the wand down further to avoid incorporating any more air, and managed to burst the yolk.
I wouldn't call it a failure though. Although I certainly wouldn't serve the frothy results to anyone else, the egg was indeed cooked, and the yolk was still somehow mostly intact. Most surprisingly of all, the steam wand wasn't an absolute nightmare to clean afterwards (possibly helped by the vinegar in the water). Would I try it again? Perhaps, to see if I could do it better and for the sake of novelty, but I won't be ditching my saucepan any time soon.
Score: 5/10
4. Cleaning jewelry
Jewellers sometimes use high-pressure jets of steam to clean fine jewelry including gold and diamonds. Hold the piece of jewelry securely using tweezers or tongs, then use short jets of steam to dislodge dirt.
You should never use steam on semi-precious stones though, as some (such as amber and turquoise) are porous and can be cracked or made permanently dull by steam. Plated jewelry can also be damaged.
I chickened out of this particular hack. Although steam should theoretically be safe for my engagement ring, I didn't want to take a chance. If, like me, you don't like the idea of steaming your most precious possessions, it's safer to use a dish of warm water and a small, soft-bristled brush, or take them to a jeweller for professional cleaning.
Score: N/A
5. Melting chocolate
Some coffee fans suggest using your espresso machine's steam wand to melt chocolate for baking. The idea is not to touch the chocolate with the wand, but hold a dish containing a few pieces just above the jet of steam to warm it gently.
To give this hack the best chance of working, I used chocolate chips (their larger surface area means they should melt more easily than the same amount of chocolate as a block) and a metal ladle (to conduct heat better than a ceramic dish).
The results were unimpressive, and the chocolate had only just begun to melt at the bottom of the ladle when the pressure ran out. Holding the ladle next to the steam was also a bit awkward, and you have to take care not to let the steam make contact with the chocolate. Getting moisture in melting chocolate makes it liable to seize (ie turn thick and lumpy). Once that's happened you can try to rescue the chocolate by transferring it to a pan and gently heating it with cream to make a ganache, but it'll never be the same again – and you'll wish you'd used a stove in the first place.
A microwave is even easier. Just put your chocolate in a dish and heat it in bursts of a few seconds at a time.
Rating: 1/10
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