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When it comes to food, one thing is for certain – and even the most picky, finicky eaters will agree with this – the Italians have it right! They gave us pizza. And pasta. And hordes of other delicious dishes that make us all go Mamma Mia!
Italian cuisine is well known for the simplicity in its preparation. Something the working population really enjoys when they suddenly have a hankering for some fun food on a Wednesday night. A lot of Italian dishes have no more than four to eight ingredients, and Italian chefs rely more on the quality of these ingredients than on elaborate preparation. Double points, if you ask us.
Take the Affagato for instance – a coffee-based Italian dessert that contains just two ingredients – coffee and ice cream. And even though you just read ice cream, this is one recipe we would recommend keeping away from the kids.
No, this does not involve dumping ice cream and coffee in the blender and whipping up a glass of coffee flavoured milkshake. ‘Affagato’ in Italian means drowning… so, the Affagato involves literally drowning your favourite ice cream in a shot of really really hot coffee. Sounds divine? Trust us, it is. And the best part – it’s really simple to make in your own kitchen.
The trick to getting the Affagato right, is brewing the coffee the way the Italians do – in a Moka Pot, also known as a stove-top coffee maker – to produce a nice full-bodied coffee, rich in aroma. The Moka Pot consists of the base chamber, a filter funnel, the top chamber with a second removable filter, and a rubber gasket that holds everything in place.
To brew coffee in a Moka Pot, fill the base chamber with cold water up to just below the valve. Fill the filter with coffee powder and place it in the base chamber. Keep in mind not to press the coffee down like you would while brewing an espresso, and that the coffee should be ground coarser than your regular espresso grind. Close the Moka Pot and place it on the stove top on a low flame.
Keep the lid of the Moka Pot open so you can keep an eye on the coffee. Once it starts to gurgle and pour into the upper chamber, take it off the heat before it starts to rise and bubble. This way, you’ll only be extracting the best parts of the coffee. Mix the coffee with a spoon, and pour into cups to serve.
To make your Affagato, all you need to do is put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a glass, and pour the coffee you just brewed in your Moka Pot over the ice cream, completely drowning it. Take a look at this video that shows you just how divine an Affagato can be.
The coffee used in the video is Parama – the Flying Squirrel’s finest luxury blend with a strong creamy mouthfeel with bubbles of dark chocolate and caramel flavours. You can find it here and have a freshly roasted and ground batch delivered to your home, real quick! To brew in a Moka Pot, we recommend using grind size 6.
While the classic Affagato is a simple two-ingredient affair, chefs have been experimenting with it to make some truly phenomenal dessert dishes. Chocolate mousse for instance. And leftover Christmas Pudding. Pie, tart, fudgy brownies, or anything you have at hand that you know will go well with ice cream and coffee. Simply place it at the bottom, top with vanilla ice cream, and drown completely with hot Moka Pot coffee for a sinfully delicious dessert.
What are you waiting for? Get experimenting, and get crowned the king/queen of desserts at your next kid-free dinner party. We guarantee you’ll have people licking their silverware clean. Check out the Flying Squirrel Coffee for all your coffee needs, here.
©Kukreja 