18 Nov Italian Affogato {Ice Cream + Espresso}

The smooth and creamy texture of Häagen-Dazs Coffee Ice Cream topped with warm espresso makes for the easiest and most delicious 2 ingredient dessert-an Italian Affogoto-you’ll have this holiday season.

Thank you to Blog Brulee sponsor Nestle for making this year’s event possible. This post is a part of that sponsorship. All opinions are my own.

Growing up in the Midwest in the 80’s didn’t exactly lend itself to a lot of fine dining or exceptional dessert experiences. Don’t get me wrong—the intentions of restaurant and store owners were always solid—but the delivery was somewhat lackluster at times. No big deal, though—my family had no idea what we were missing.

Until…. the arrival of the 1^st Häagen-Dazs ice cream store.

My three siblings and I knew we hit the ice cream jackpot that Saturday morning at 7:30AM when Uncle Bob rang the doorbell with 8 different flavors of Häagen-Dazs pints in hand.

We all have that kind of uncle, right? The one who: 

• ding dong ditched a dog on our front door and then went out of town.
•  let us tweens ride unsupervised on dirt bikes in the school yard—without helmets.
•  kept Fudge Striped cookies near the stationary bike in his exercise room—in case he got hungry.
• LOVES  bleu cheese salad dressing and eats  it every. single. day.
• grilled chicken livers-poolside-for us girls for breakfast and expected us to eat them.

Uncle Bob loves food and the arrival of the Häagen-Dazs store made him giddy with excitement So giddy, in fact, that he couldn’t wait to share those 8 pints with my family and I and rang the doorbell at 7:30 that Saturday morning. And we all shared in his excitement as we grabbed a handful of spoons and started our tasting.

Truth be told, it was my first foray into flavored ice creams. It was then and there that I gave my heart  to Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream. It was truly the best ice cream I’d ever tasted—the velvety and creamy texture was something I hadn’t experienced in my short life, but I knew something about it was different. Today, I know that the something “different” is a commitment to quality through ingredients, flavor and texture profiles and the taste experience.

Since the beginning, five of the Häagen-Dazs flavors still  only have 5 ingredients: cream, milk, sugar and egg yolks in addition to the very best ingredient to bring those flavors to life. Can you guess the five? Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coffee and green tea.

It was many years after my first Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream experience that I had my first taste of the well-known Italian dessert Affogato. Now, it’s a craving that pops up 2-3 times a year. It’s a simple fix, really, with only 2 ingredients.  

Lucky for all of us-Uncle Bob included- that Häagen-Dazs products are widely available and never in short supply.

Affogato   {Ice cream + Espresso}

For the ice cream:  Häagen-Dazs vanilla, chocolate or coffee (or a combination)

For the espresso: warmed espresso is preferred, but strong coffee works perfectly.

Optional: dark chocolate shavings