Parfait au café

I am totally that girl that loves espresso-flavored sweets. Chocolate-covered espresso beans, coffee-flavored ice cream, mocha cheesecake, and frozen espresso desserts like this parfait au café make me giddy with excitement.

I love how the rich, robust flavor of espresso cuts through the sweetness of a dessert, providing balance and variety in flavor.

Now, most of you might associate a parfait with yogurt and fruit. That kind of parfait is the American kind, where ingredients like yogurt or cream are layered with fruit and/or other toppings.

In France, a parfait is a frozen cream dessert, similar to the Italian semifreddo. A sugar syrup is made and folded into whipped cream, then poured into a tin to be chilled and frozen before serving.

The parfait can be any number of flavors, but since I am a coffee fanatic, it only seemed right to share my favorite rendition of this French dessert.

For this parfait au café, I simply whisked some instant coffee powder into my sugar syrup, then folded chocolate espresso beans into the batter.

It’s a simple dessert to make that doesn’t require very many ingredients, making it a wonderful option to whip up for guests when you’ve got your hands tied.

The bonus is that you can make this dessert ahead of time as well (in fact, it’s advisable to allow time for freezing). I can imagine that we’ll all get a lot of use out of this recipe during the warmer months ahead!

Parfait au cafe

Yield: 6

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

A frozen, coffee-flavored treat studded with chocolate-covered espresso beans. 

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Ingredients

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 75 g
• 1 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream, 125 ml
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup chopped chocolate-covered espresso beans

Instructions

1. Combine the granulated sugar, instant coffee powder, and 100 ml (a little less than 1/2 a cup) water in a medium saucepan over low heat. Heat until the sugar has dissolved.
2. In a medium, heat-proof bowl, beat the egg yolks with an electric mixer until pale in color. Slowly stream in the coffee sugar syrup, whisking as you do.
3. Set the bowl over a small saucepan with simmering water, and stir the mixture until it thickens up a bit and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Cover the bowl with a sheet of plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold.
4. Once the egg mixture has chilled, whisk the heavy whipping cream on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gradually pour the egg mixture into the whipping cream, folding the syrup into the cream as you do. Stir in the chopped espresso beans.
5. Once the two are combined, pour this batter into a 1 lb. loaf pan. Cover the pan with a sheet of plastic wrap, placing the plastic wrap directly on the batter. Freeze until firm and thoroughly chilled - about 4 hours.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6 Serving Size: 6 Servings
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 232