The Gelato Affogato al Caffè

The Gelato is an all time favourite dessert, and it's now enjoyed all year round. The old days are gone, when you had to wait until summer to have an ice cream! For this reason, we want to tell you about a super simple and easy recipe, ready in three fast steps!

It is the kind of self-indulgent excuse that  italians have developed to keep eating gelato even in the cold winter, even at Christmas! It is called "Affogato", and even if the word in italian may sounds nice and sweet, it actually means "drowned". The recipe explains it all: it is made actually drowning the gelato into a lot of coffee. Coffe and Gelato. Come on, isn't it great? Throungh this match of flavours, your ice cream will gradually melts, becoming partly cold and partly frozen, making your mouth go flippin' crazy! 

This is a very simple, almost basical, obvious invention, we know. But, as all the simplest thing in the world, it's simply genial. The taste is very refined, elegant and aromatic, if possible the coffee enrich the taste of the gelato even more! Do you remember how the contrast bitter-sweet works? Well, the bitterness of the coffee boasts the sweetness of the ice cream! We do not have any information about who may have invented it and when/where, what we know is that this kind of delicious hybrid is gaining momentum every single day. Probably, as the best culinary invention, it will become a classic throughout Western World in a matter of a few years.

The Affogato has even triumphed at the Gelato World Cup!

For instance, it's striking that in the event that took place in Rimini, Nothern Italy, from 5th to 7th of September 2014, the "World Gelato Tour" at the Sigep fair (international fair of gelateria, pastry and baking) and organized with the Università del Gelato Carpigiani, the world's best gelato prize was given to...an affogato! The full name is "Mandorla Affogato", or almond affogato, created by the Aussie bros John and Sam Crowl. More details on the ingredients? Sirs and madames, hold on to your hats! Vanilla from Madagascar, Variegato with caramelized and toasted almonds, Kenya coffee, with salted caramel sauce.
We'll breing you here a stripped down and more simple and accessible version of this delicious dessert, but we're sure you'll enjoy it almost as we do, and we do enjoy it a lot!
In three simple steps:

Ingredients:

- Ice cream (smooth tastes, like vanilla, stracciatella or so)
- coffee (good coffee, not too watery. The ideal would be an espresso or moka coffee)
- Bayleis cream whiskey or similar
- In alternative, you can use hot chocolate or masala chai tea instead of coffee.

Preparation:

- Prepare a good coffee, a discrete amount of it. You can use your Moka coffee pot, the taste of the coffee is quintessential, it must be not just good, but "buono buono!", otherwise the Affogato will result too watery. Here for instance we tell you about doing a great coffee at home with the Moka! Most important is never put sugar in your coffee, you want it to be bitter as hell!

- Take a gelato, possibly a vanilla, almond, fiordilatte or stracciatella one. Remember to avoid strong ice cream tastes: it is an italian recipe, and we know how italian dishes permit just one "primadonna", that is only one main taste. And in the Affogato, the main taste is the coffee. If you don't dig the coffee, you can surely use hot chocolate instead, or even tea, we like it with chai tea.

- Take a cup of a glass, and put the ice cream in it (remeber that the gelato goes first, otherwise the ice cream will sadly float above the coffee), then add some whiskey cream like Bayleis and then add the coffee still hot and...the magic! Yuo'll see how the ice cream and the coffee will melts in a match made in food heaven! A warm cream, a cold gelato and a hot coffee...what more can you ask for?

We hope you liked the recipe, have a nice week!

ToM