Best Affogato Recipe with Salted Brownie Garnish

This affogato recipe is not only bursting with complementary sweet, bitter flavors but it only requires 2 ingredients!

• Use organic vanilla bean ice cream for this affogato dessert recipe to turn out best.
• The espresso quality doesn’t make THAT big of a difference.
• Prepare garnishes ahead of time to quickly sprinkle and top once the espresso has been prepared.
• To make the salted brownies, follow this brownie recipe and add sea salt to the top immediately after baking.

An affogato is an Italian dessert consisting of vanilla ice cream that is then covered by freshly prepared espresso. Enjoy it for breakfast or as an after-dinner dessert.

Though it seems basic in theory, there are a few things to know before going about it, which you’ll find detailed here. Read on for the best affogato making secrets.

View the 3-Minute Video Tutorial Below:

Prepare your garnishes first and foremost.

Before getting into the actual affogato making, you’ll want to prepare your garnishes for this recipe if using. That would be the salted brownies and the chocolate you will be using to shave later on.

For the chocolate, I recommend a high-end chocolate such as Godiva. I used their new Salted Caramel Milk Chocolate, and it’s incredible. The salted brownie recipe is described in the next step.

Make this brownie recipe as normal, but add sea salt to the top right after you take them out of the oven.

For the brownies, you can use my small-batch brownie recipe found here. The only thing you’ll do different is to add about 1 teaspoon of sea salt to the top of the brownies right after they have finished baking. Adding the salt when they brownies are still warm will help to adhere the salt to the brownies.

I also advise gently pressing the salt into the brownies with your hands to ensure that the salt stays on sufficiently.

The quality of the espresso doesn’t have to be top-tier for an affogato.

When you make an affogato, it’s not quintessential that your espresso taste amazing with a beautiful crema and just the right ratio between coffee and water. The reason being that you’re going to be pouring it over vanilla ice cream, which will take over much of the flavor of this dessert.

With that said, you don’t have to worry if your espresso wasn’t pulled just right. It’s okay if it’s a little watery or even dare I say a little burnt. You’ll still get the bitter flavors of the espresso to come through but the ice cream will hide any espresso imperfections.

If you don’t have an espresso machine to make espresso, you can use an Aeropress, moka pot, and some coffee machines offer the option to make a concentrated cup of coffee — all of these options are fine for this recipe.

But the vanilla bean ice cream does.

The vanilla bean ice cream, on the other hand, does need to taste good…REALLY good. Since an affogato is mostly ice cream, it needs to be high-quality ice cream. It will make or break your final result.

Also, go for vanilla BEAN ice cream instead of plain vanilla. It really adds to the flavor and actually tastes more vanilla-like (if that’s possible!).

Some of my vanilla bean ice cream recommendations are Jeni’s Honey Vanilla Bean and Coolhaus’ Best of Both Worlds Vanilla. If you live near a Salt & Straw location, definitely go and pick yourself up a pint of Double Fold Vanilla. It’s amazing.

Pour the espresso over the scooped ice cream as soon as you can after it’s been pulled.

Immediately after your espresso has been pulled (or however you prepared it), have your ice cream in a glass ready to go so you can quickly pour it over the top. Fresh espresso is the best espresso.

You don’t want to make the espresso first and let it sit. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a dead espresso — lacking in flavor and body.

Garnish the finished product with chocolate shavings and a one-inch square of the prepared salted brownies.

After you’ve poured the espresso over the ice cream, quickly shave the chocolate over the top of the glass using a vegetable peeler. I used a cheese grater, and it worked really well too!

For the brownie garnish, cut a small 1-inch square. Slit it through the middle — not all the way through — just enough to hang it on the rim of the glass.

Best Affogato Recipe with Salted Brownie Garnish