Coffee Ice Cream and Affogato al Caffe

"Coffee, men and chocolate-some things need to be rich". And rich indeed is this ice cream, the mixture a provocative infusion of fresh coffee beans,whole milk,cream and egg yolks. The ice cream has a much richer,fresher coffee flavor than one made with espresso powder which I find that I don't use all of before it stales.

The recipe comes from The Perfect Scoop by Dave Lebovitz, a great book on ice creams, granitas, sorbets and accompaniments given to me by Laura of eatdrinklive for winning HHDD#13 and whom I promised that there would be a future post with a recipe from The Perfect Scoop.

While not a quick ice cream to make, certain steps can be done ahead and then the mixture can be refrigerated until very cold before processing in an ice cream machine. There are many models of ice cream makers available at very reasonable prices.

After I made the coffee ice cream, I found that Elise from Simply Recipes had made the same recipe from The Perfect Scoop and had included all the steps taken in making the ice cream. Have a look at her post-it's well done.

Coffee Ice Cream

















Rather than just serve the coffee ice cream as is, I took the process a step further and made a Affogato al Caffe, "drowned in coffee" in Italian. To make this decadent dessert, place several scoops of the coffee ice cream in a cup and pour a shot of espresso over. Garnish with grated chocolate. Any chocolate or coffee liqueur would also be good poured over when you add the espresso.

Affogato al Caffe

















Coffee Ice Cream-From The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 cups whole coffee beans
Pinch of salt
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon finely ground coffee

Warm the milk, sugar, whole coffee beans, salt and 1/4 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan. Once the mixture is warm, cover, remove from the heat and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.

Rewarm the coffee-infused milk mixture. Pour the remaining 1 cup cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm coffee mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Press on the coffee beans in the strainer to extract as much of the coffee flavor as possible, then discard the beans. Mix in the vanilla and the finely ground coffee and stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Makes about 1 quart.