The Joy of an Afternoon Affogato

When it’s sweltering outside and you need a simple yet sumptuous treat that highlights coffee and creamy sweetness, the dessert you should absolutely turn to is affogato. There’s no better way of combining your love of coffee and a sweet tooth. It is a joyous afternoon indulgence. Although we believe, the indulgence in affogato can and should be enjoyed anytime you fancy – morning, noon, or night.

Easy to make and delicious

When making affogato, all you really need to remember is to use a great espresso. Make it fresh with your espresso machine or Moka pot. If you have neither of those, an Aeropress may get you close. What you want is a deep, rich coffee to pair with that creamy, sweet ice cream. A strong, freshly roasted bean is needed. We recommend our Timo or Maverick blend. Both have delicious taste notes of chocolate that will give your affogato a well-rounded flavour. Pour this on top of a scoop or two of the best ice cream you can find, and your match made in heaven is done.

Affogato is the simplest of things, a perfect combination. It is so simple, in fact, that no recipe is actually needed. You can make it your own. However, in case you would like a recipe as a guide, here is ours.

Our affogato recipe

Ingredients:

A double shot of espresso (60-70ml/2-2.5oz)
1-2 generous scoops of vanilla ice cream

Method:

Grind your freshly roasted coffee beans. We recommend a fine grind when making espresso or brewing in a Moka pot.
Brew your espresso according to the method you are using.
While your espresso is brewing, prepare one or two scoops of ice cream. Do this at the last minute so it doesn’t become a puddle of cream. Place your scoops into a vessel.

We don’t consider this to be a perfect science but aim for a good ratio of ice cream to espresso. Not too much ice cream to drown out the coffee but not too little so you can’t enjoy the sweet, creaminess of it all.

Once you have your scoops of ice cream ready, pour over your fresh-made espresso while it is still hot and freshly extracted to perfection.
Take a moment to watch it swirl around and inhale the scent. Only briefly though, then help yourself to a spoonful, making sure you have both ice cream and espresso in the same mouthful.

This melting concoction can be left to melt and blend, creating a sweet, smooth beverage. We, however, believe that part of the joy of affogato is the combination of cold and hot together.

Personalise your affogato

Here at Perk, we love experimentation so we highly recommend trying hot espresso with any other flavour of ice cream that might pair well with coffee. Be it a bitter dark chocolate, a trio of caramel, chocolate and vanilla, perhaps even rum and raisin or butter pecan, we encourage you to try your favourite ice cream flavour with espresso on top. Perhaps purists would argue that it would no longer be considered an affogato. But, as affogato simply means “drowned” in Italian, we think any form of ice cream drowned in espresso is a valid form of affogato.

Once you’ve come up with your own perfect combination, please share it with us so we can enjoy the same delight as you.

Share your coffee recipes with us

We would love to try your recipe and share it with the world. Good coffee and food should never remain a secret.

Email your recipes to [email protected] with Subject: Recipe <name of our recipe>. We’d love to try them in our test kitchen and share them, if possible.