An Icy Italian Dessert: Café Granita
This Italian dessert combines two marvellous Italian taste sensations: coffee and granita! Pizza may be my favourite food of all time but when it comes to beverages and desserts, there are not many things that can hold a candle to a good cup of coffee and an icy delight.
Instead of using fruit for this granita, make a quantity of espresso or very, very strong plunger coffee, add sugar, allow to cool and then freeze. Once crystals start to form stir through with a fork and keep freezing. Continue to occasionally scratch the forming ice with a fork until it is no longer liquid but a container of dark brown ice shards. This will take around 3 hours. I like to serve it with a drizzle of cream on top, which sets over the ice. Other people like this Italian dessert with a fluffy swirl of whipped cream.
Quantities: Around 570ml very strong coffee and 110g sugar dissolved into it.
Coffee granita with whipped cream. Image by bloggyboulga, Flickr.
Affogato: A creamy Italian dessert with caffeine!
Another absolutely classic Italian dessert and certainly the easiest to make is Affogato. Perfect for those not so fond of a big cake post dinner but partial to a strong espresso, this is one I make most often when I want a sweet treat that is both sophisticated and fun! The name means ‘drowned’ because this simple Italian dessert consists of a ball of vanilla ice-cream with a shot or two of espresso coffee poured over it. The sweetness of the ice-cream means you don’t need sugar but this Italian dessert certainly benefits from using excellent coffee and good quality, creamy vanilla ice-cream. Serve with a small spoon and thin biscotti if you have them on hand!
Ice-cream drowned in Italian coffee: Yum! Image by Karen_Neoh, Flickr.
