Affogato

Guys, I seriously need your undivided attention because I’ve got something here that you are going to go bonkers over.

I’ve found the next best thing to a frappuccino, maybe even better.  I’m obsessed with it.  Seriously… obsessed.

Have you ever heard of an affogato?  It’s an Italian coffee based beverage where you take a scoop of ice cream or gelato and you top it with a hot shot of espresso.  What the what?!  I’d never heard of it until just the other day and knew that I had to make it immediately.

Is it a dessert?  Is it a drink?  Yes and yes.  It starts out as a lovely glass of ice cream with some espresso drizzled over the top.  As the hot espresso melts the ice cream,  it turns into a creamy coffee beverage.  It’s one of the best things on earth and you only need two ingredients to make it happen.  Two!

Unfortunately, even though it’s not technically an ingredient, you do also need an espresso maker.  I blame Turks & Caicos.   When we vacationed there last November, our room came with complimentary use of a Nespresso machine and all the pods we could drink.  We may have gotten a liiiiittle addicted to the stuff.  Every morning, before leaving for the beach, we’d leave a note to our room service asking for extra espresso pods.  About a month after returning home, we bought our own Nespresso maker.

You may be able to get away with using very strong coffee instead of a shot of espresso. You’d only need about 2 ounces of it.  I’ve not tried it so I don’t know if it’s a good alternative.  If you try the strong coffee option let me know how you make it and how the affogato turns out.

Affogato… affogato… Yup, it’s not only delicious but it’s fun to say.  🙂

Do you know how hard it is to take pictures of affogato?  Melty ice cream, hot espresso.  I’ll give you a hint, what you see is round 2.  Ice cream gets on everything, I had to brew espresso into a measuring cup, and it was of course melting as I was hurrying to take pictures.  It was a total pain.  I was slightly annoyed that I had to take more pics, but then I realized that I got to enjoy two of them.  Sweet!

Believe me, I’ll be making an obscene number of these affogatos this summer!  Perhaps next time I’ll add some whipped cream and chocolate syrup or shavings on top.  Or maybe even use chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla to make a mocha version.  Oooooh!

 

Rating:

 

Here are some other cool coffee treats.

Mocha Smoothie

Baileys Iced Coffee

Coffee Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars