One of the upsides to having some of my favorite television shows coming to their season's end is that I now spend even more of my discretionary time reading. With many more months to go before Homeland, House of Cards, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and The Affair return, I have completely immersed myself in newly purchased books as well as ones sitting on my library shelf, patiently waiting to be read. Of all of life's simplest of joys, reading a hard covered edition of a book is one of them. While patience is not high on my list of virtues, I would gladly wait a day or two for a book to be delivered from Amazon Prime before downloading a book on a reader or any other device. Yes, I am admittedly and proudly old school when it comes to book reading. Something almost unexplainably magical happens each time I open a hard covered book. My unwillingness to give up this book format may be because I feel a greater connection to the words, to the emotions, or to the characters in the book or it might just be because it feels as if I am holding a piece of priceless art in my hands. Whatever the reason or reasons, I genuinely hope that, in this sometimes unpredictable world we live in, hard covered books will remain a constant well beyond my lifetime.
If you were ever looking for an easy, simple to assemble dessert to completely impress and WOW your friends and family, make these Kahlua Affogato Sundaes. Seriously, you will be more exhausted from listening to everyone's rave reviews than from the effort and energy that you put into assembling them.
I may have shared with you in a prior blog post that one of my most favorite flavors of ice cream is vanilla. This is due in large part to overindulging in continually tasting the richer ice creams served at the Baskin Robbins I worked at during college. Because sometimes it was slow and well, what else were we supposed to do? After living out east for several years, my repertoire of ice creams expanded to include coffee, chocolate espresso and coconut. While a vanilla ice cream, or the more traditional gelato, works incredibly well in these Kahlua Affogato Sundaes, feel free to combine ice cream flavors that compliment one another as well as the coffee/espresso and liqueur of your choosing.
The addition of freshly lightly sweetened whipped cream along with a garnish of maraschino cherries (or chocolate covered espresso beans) is what makes these Affogato Sundaes a slightly more over the top dessert. You don't like making whipped cream, well, simply omit it. Although a cup of heavy cream whipped together with one tablespoon of confectionary sugar until light peaks form is the proverbial icing on the cake.
Possibly one of the biggest decisions to be made when assembling these Kahlua Affogato Sundaes is deciding which glass or dish to serve them in. Whichever glass or dish you choose, it should be a clear one so everyone can visually see the beauty of this dessert. Because it can be partly eaten with a spoon or sipped, consider choosing a short-stemmed martini glass or other beautiful drinking glass. Drinking a dessert from a bowl may not so bad when no one is around to witness it (we have all done this), but around a dinner table drinking from a bowl may be something even your most laid back, not a pretentious bone in their body friends might give pause.
Any number of liqueurs would work well. In addition to Kahlua, Bailey's Irish Cream, or Tia Maria would be equally delicious and subtle enough to still allow the flavor of the coffee or espresso to come through.
If you are not going to go the sundae route with these affogatos, finish them off with the maraschino cherries or chocolate covered espresso beans. If you are really looking to splurge on this dessert, consider the Luxardo Maraschino cherries from Italy as they are not anything like their neon red American versions. But making these Kahlua Affogato Sundaes without them is not a deal breaker. Instead top with some chocolate covered espresso beans or allow the dollops of freshly sweetened whipped cream to be the finishing touch.
An affogato is a timeless, classic dessert. One destined to be hopelessly, deeply loved by your family and friends. If you are looking to keep it classic, make it only with gelato and espresso. But either way you decide to serve it, you can't go wrong.
Kahlua Affogato Sundaes (ever so slight adaptation to Ina Garten's Affogato Sundaes recipe)
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 pints of high quality vanilla ice cream or gelato (or use a combination of vanilla and coffee flavors), slightly softened
8 Tablespoons of Kahlua (or Bailey's Irish Cream or Tia Maria)
8 Tablepooons freshly brewed strong coffee or espresso
Freshly whipped sweetened whipped cream
Chocolate covered espresso beans and/or maraschino cherries (recommend
Directions
1. Place 2 to 3 generous scoops of slightly softened ice cream in serving glasses or dishes.
3. Spoon 2 Tablespoons of Kahlua (or liqueur of your choice) over the ice cream.
4. Spoon 2-3 Tablespoons of the strong coffee of espresso over the ice cream. Note: I used 2 Tablespoons
5. Dollop with some freshly whipped lightly sweetened whipped cream.
6. Garnish with chocolate covered espresso beans and/or maraschino cherries. (highly recommend Luxardo Maraschino cherries)
7. Serve immediately.
Notes: (1) Make scoops of slightly softened ice cream, place on a tray and return to the freezer until ready to assemble, (2) Serve Affogato Sundaes in martini glasses as when fully melted makes for a delicious drink ending to the dessert, and (3) Splurge on the best ice cream. On the east coast my splurge would be Bliss ice cream (freshly handpacked), but here in the midwest my go to is Ben and Jerry's vanilla or Graeter's vanilla.
Early morning along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (2016)