Affogato

What the heck is Affogato you say?

The Italians have given us so many good pasta dishes, sauces, risottos, lasagna and of course their tiramisu; BUT have you tried their Affogato. Affogato literally means drowned and what is being drowned in? Well  an Affogato is ice cream, either vanilla, coffee, or chocolate, and it’s drowned in hot espresso or a very strong coffee. (All recipes call for hot espresso but I think next time I will use room temperature espresso so it doesn’t melt the ice cream so quickly.)

We spent New Year’s eve with friends and she made an Affogato for dessert. It was delicious and reminded me of one I had at a restaurant in Austin years ago. This particular recipe I’m using chocolate shavings and chopped hazelnuts and a splash of kahlula. I put the ice cream in a brandy type glass and I have some little  egg cups I will put the hot espresso in and then some tiny pitchers with handle that I will put the kahlula — a little interactive dessert that’s easy, fun and of course delicious.

In my younger married life (and that was half a century ago – wow) I use to drizzle creme de menthe over ice cream and thought it was pretty fancy. I’ve done kahula over ice cream many times but I really love the combination all the ingredients in this recipe and having our guests make their own.  I hope you will try this easy dessert. As long as you have ice cream in your freezer you will be prepared to make an Affogato for any last minute dessert.

Wouldn’t this be a yummy dessert to make for your special Valentine this month?

BLAST FROM THE PAST: Another wonder dessert drink I made after bringing back about 6# of dates from Israel is my Amaretto Date Shake. It’s delicious.

I poured the kahlua up in these tiny little pitchers I picked up at an Asian market years ago. 

Roast the hazel nuts in the oven or microwave or even a dry skillet until then start to spell nutty and roasted; then coarsely chop.

Make your espresso or use espresso powder or even a very strong cup of coffee will do.

So for this interactive dessert I put the ice cream in the glasses and let the guest pour their own Kahlua, espresso and top it off with some chocolate shavings.

First add the Kahlua then pour the espresso. I added the nuts to the ice cream when I made up the ice cream balls that I made earlier in the day.

When you add the espresso it will start to melt the ice cream. I may try this the next time with either room temperature espresso or cold espresso. Traditionally it is suppose to be hot but I’d rather eat my dessert with a spoon than drink it.

Delicious!