I absolutely love an affogato as a desert! If you have excellent ingredients to start of with, then this is a quick mid-week desert that screams of luxury but takes just minutes to assemble.

A traditional affogato has but two ingredients: ice cream and espresso coffee, but here I have added two others: black cherries (morello cherries in syrup to be precise) and dark chocolate (Green and Blacks’ Mayan Gold as I think the bitter and spicy chocolate orange is a nice counter contrast to the sweet syrupy cherries). Mmm Mmm Mmmmmm!

Ingredients (this is for one generous serving):
Two (two and half…OK maybe three) scoops of a good quality Vanilla Ice Cream (at opposite ends of the price spectrum I highly rate either Green and Black White Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream or, maybe surprisingly, Aldi Ireland stock a really good Bourbon Vanilla Ice Cream by Killeigh Farm!)
A single expresso measure of freshly made intense coffee (for example here, I am using a strength 10 Nespresso single shot. Whatever you use, please do not use instant granules and the like. If you are not lucky enough to have a fantastic coffee maker then Nescafe Azera make a nice Americano instant which I would suggest good for using – just make sure you make it adequately strong, and don’t make it with boiling water else the ice cream will melt away to nothing before you have had a chance to get it into your mouth!)
A sprinkling of black / morello cherries in syrup (you can pick a good quality jar of these up from a good Italian deli and they will keep for ages in the fridge once opened).
Shavings of dark chocolate (min 70% but go for 85% if you can handle it).
Method:
Make a shot of espresso – one for each serving.
Into a nice small bowl or a cappucino cup, spoon in the ice cream and the cherries along with some of the syrup.
Pour the espresso over the ice cream.
Shave / grate over the dark chocolate.
Serve and eat immediately with a smug look on your face.
And…Enjoy!