Affogato with Almond Biscotti

Last month we had some of our pals over for a Gangster-themed Film Night. As we were to be watching Goodfellas, Bailey and I came up with an Italian menu for us to munch on while watching the movie, including pizza, lasagne and tiramisu cupcakes. For our main dessert, I decided I wanted to have a bash at making Affogato - a pud I'd been wanting to make for ages!

I had first heard of Affogato - embarrassingly enough - while playing Cooking Mama on my Nintendo DS. It sounded so yummy - vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso! Divine... And to go alongside it, I thought I could whip up a batch of yummy Almond Biscotti for a bit of crunch.

I decided I wanted to do everything completely from scratch - ice cream and all. I had never made Almond Biscotti and it sounded quite difficult and I'm no expert at ice cream either but it all turned out OK in the end!

For the ice cream, I got my mitts on a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe I'd seen in the Slimming World magazine. Considering it was a diet ice cream it was very simple to make and turned out really yummy and vanilla-tastic. It was perhaps a little on the icy side but I think that's something the use of a proper ice cream churner could remedy.

I loved the crunchy, nutty biscotti which actually turned out to be mega quick and easy to make - I'll definitely be making those no-fuss bad boys again!

The end result I was quite pleased with. It was sort of more like an iced coffee than a dessert, so maybe it would be better as a post-dessert drink, but whatever, it was a really fun way to end a meal. We all actually had a cheeky shot of amaretto in ours which made it nice and sweet. Next time I think I will go a bit easier on the coffee - I'm not sure how much you're supposed to put in but I think I made ours a bit too liquid.

The best thing about making Affogato with Almond Biscotti was that all the actual making was done the day before and all the day all we had to do was brew a nice strong pot of coffee which is great if you've got a lot of food prep to do on the day.

Recipe (serves 6):

For the ice cream:
397g low fat custard
8 tbsp Splenda
2 pots of Vanilla Mullerlight yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg whites

Mix the Splenda, custard, yogurt and vanilla extract together in a large mixing bowl. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff. Fold the eggs into the custard mixture.

Put the mixture in a freezer-proof container and freeze. I froze mine overnight. In the morning, take the mixture out of the freezer.

Blend the mixture up to get rid of all the ice crystals.

Freeze for another few hours until time to serve. Beat with a fork every 40 minutes until the mixture is firm enough to scoop. Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before serving.

For the Almond Biscotti:
90g almonds
1 tsp baking powder
250g plain flour
45g sugar
10g Splenda
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Roughly chop up the almonds and place in an oven tray. Lightly toast them in the oven for around 10 minutes or until fragrant.

Turn the oven down to 150 degrees C. Line an oven tray with baking paper. In a ramekin, beat the eggs, vanilla and almond extracts together. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, Splenda, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the eggs and extracts from the ramekin to form a dough.

Add the nuts to the dough and mix well.

Roll the dough into a wide log shape before transferring to the baking sheet.

Place in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until firm.

Remove from the oven.

Transfer to a wire cooling tray and allow to cool for around 10 minutes.

Put the log on a chopping board and cut into 16 slices.

Arrange the slices back on the baking sheet and bake for another 20 minutes - 10 minutes on each side. Store in an airtight container until ready to use.

For the Affogato:
Boil the kettle and make a pot of strong filter coffee, preferably Italian. Put scoops of ice cream in the dishes you are serving the dessert in and adorn with Almond Biscotti.

Pour a shot of coffee over the ice cream and serve immediately. Shot of amaretto optional but tasty!