Affogato Corretto

If you love coffee and adore ice-cream then this dessert, which translates from Italian as ‘drowned and corrected’, will be a magnificent and refreshing crescendo to any dinner party. Of course dinner parties aren’t a prerequisite for indulgent desserts….

What is an Affogato Corretto

The traditional Affoagato Corretto is made with an Italian alcohol called Grappa, which is a grape based brandy. The Affogao means drowned and Corretto means corrected when adding the liquor. The creamy sweetness and espresso bitterness become intertwined, especially as the espresso is hot and when poured over starts to dissolve the ice-cream. The liquor can be Brandy, Sambuca or even Cognac but we prefer our Coffea Coffee Liqueur as this unites the coffee and sweetness in a perfect yet short romance.

I refer to our comments on our Coffea Martini recipe regarding the importance of getting the espresso shot right. It’s such an important component and as there are only 3 ingredients, there’s nowhere to hide. In brief and from experience the best Espresso is made using an Espresso machine that brews a small amount of finely ground coffee under immense pressure for a short period of time. This is partly due to the strength of Espresso as there is potentially four times more caffeine in 30ml than regular coffee. Not to mention the prized crema these Espresso machines produce. Unfortunately though not everyone has access to such Espresso coffee machines. So it might be worth popping over to your favourite coffee shop and buying a few shots before hand. 

Recipe

• 1 or 2 scoops of the best vanilla ice-cream you can find
• 1 x fresh shot of espresso
• 1 x shot of warmed Coffea Coffee Liqueur
• Optional - serve with a Biscotti on the side

Tools

• Desert bowl - Select your desert bowl and we’d suggest rummaging out those old glass sundae bowls from the back of the cupboards as this is the theatrical platform they’ve been waiting for.

• Ice-cream scoop - An ice-cream scoop is a particularly important utensil too. Invest in one that has liquid in the handle as these are designed to transfer the heat from your hand to the scoop so it releases the ice-cream cleanly.

• Jigger - Bartending tool/dual ended cup for measuring spirits that is normally dual ended (50ml/25ml)

Method

You won’t be able to make this in advance as the Espresso will need to be hot and Coffea Coffee Liqueur warmed through. This is because you want the coffee to be melting the ice-cream when poured, creating puddles of creamy alcoholic coffee yumminess. That’s not a problem though as it’s a very simple dessert to make.

Combine the Espresso and Coffea Coffee Liqueur and warm through. Run the scoop across the surface of the the ice-cream and by doing so you’ll create a perfectly symmetric ice-cream ball and gently release into the bowl. Slowly pour the warmed coffee mixture all over the ice-cream and serve with a crunchy Biscotti on the side, which doubles up as an edible spoon.

Origin of an Affogato

There’s a question mark to when, where, why, who is accredited to the Affogato Corretto invention. A little mystery isn’t a bad thing especially when it tastes so good.