{Recipe} Affogato

Affogato

Affogato means drowned in Italian. Sounds ominous, but tastes delicious. It’s basically ice-cream and espresso and what could be better on a hot summer night? When I was little, there was a similar treat in Russia called café glacé – which despite its french name was just coffee and ice cream. I was too young to have coffee but I always liked the idea. 

On my recent vacation, we had a short stop in LA and after our first dinner there we went for a walk. We found a small gelato shop and on their wall they had this special: ice cream with a shot of espresso.  I had to have it!!! It was the best end to a nice evening. After I got back home to Toronto, I found a litre of cream in my fridge left by mom who stayed in our house with the cats while we were away. I knew the cream was destined for homemade ice cream. And homemade ice cream was destined for Affogato.

Vanilla Ice Cream

Vanilla Ice Cream, Philadelphia-Style

adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Heavy cream – 3 cups or 2 cups heavy cream + 1 cup whole milk OR 3 cups half-and-half cream (see comment below)
Sugar – 3/4 cup
Pinch of salt
Vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise – 1
Vanilla extract – 3/4 teaspoon

• Pour 1 cup of cream into a saucepan, add sugar and salt.
• Scrape seeds from the vanilla bean into the saucepan and add the vanilla pod to the pot. 
• Warm over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. 
• Remove from heat and add remaining 2 cups of cream and vanilla exact. Mix. 
• Chill the mixture in the fridge. 
• When ready to churn, remove vanilla bean (you can rinse it, dry it and put into sugar to make vanilla sugar).  
• Freeze the mix in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. 

Comments
I used 3 cups half-and-half cream, so ice cream was not really creamy. It was delicious, but due to relatively low fat content it was not as creamy as regular ice cream.

Ice Cream and Affogato