On a throughly warm and sometimes sticky summer day, there's nothing wrong with craving a shake.
With Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes (W.W.Norton, June 2012) by Adam Ried, treat yourself to 100 thick and creamy shakes you can make at home.
It's mid-afternoon so let's start with an espresso flavored one.
Frozen Affogato Shake with Espresso Granita
Affogato is an Italian stroke of genius—a quick, elegant dessert made by pouring a shot of hot espresso
over a scoop of cold vanilla gelato. The espresso melts some of the gelato, creating a bittersweet, creamy sauce.
I borrowed that idea for this shake, but instead of using the hot espresso, I froze it into an icy granita
with which I topped the Ballistic Vanilla Shake found on page 40. You get the classic affogato flavor
dynamic—intense coffee playing against smooth, mellow vanilla, and the granita even adds a bit of crunch to the shake.
Granita couldn’t be simpler to make. As the sweetened espresso freezes, use a dinner fork to break up
the ice crystals into a loose, coffee snow. Don’t substitute regular brewed coffee for the espresso; you really need that concentrated coffee flavor to counter the rich vanilla shake.
By the way, espresso granita is fabulous as a cap not just for a vanilla shake but also for either of the
basic chocolate shakes (pages 42 and 44), and for the Coffee-Hazelnut (page 95), Bananas Foster (page
111), Spiced Pumpkin (page 150), Pain d’Épices (page 165), and Malted Caramel (page 175) shakes.
MAKES ABOUT 3 and 1/2 CUPS | 28 OUNCES | 850 MILLILITERS
8 shots freshly pulled espresso (about 1 cup/8 ounces/250 milliliters), at room temperature
5 tablespoons sugar (about 2 1/2 ounces/60 grams)
1/2 cup cold whole or lowfat milk (about 4 ounces/125 milliliters)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
8 medium scoops French vanilla ice cream (about 1 quart/ 24 ounces/680 grams), softened until just melty at the edges
For the espresso granita: Stir the espresso and sugar in a shallow container to dissolve the sugar completely. Cover and freeze until softly frozen (not solid), 2½ to 3 hours. Remove from the freezer and gently run a dinner fork through the frozen mass to break it down into loose, icy crystals. Cover the container and return it to the freezer. Freeze until firm, checking and raking the granita with the fork every hour or two to keep the crystals loose and fine, at least 7 hours.
For the shake: Place the milk, vanilla extract, and ice cream in a blender and pulse several times to begin breaking it up. With the blender motor off, use a flexible spatula to mash the mixture down onto the blender blades. Continue pulsing, stopping, and mashing until the mixture is well blended, thick, and moves easily in the blender jar, roughly 30 to 90 seconds. Pour into a chilled glass or glasses, top each with about ½ cup (about 2½ ounces/70 grams) espresso granita, and serve at once.
(* Reprinted from Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes: 100 Thick and Creamy Shakes You Can Make At Home by Adam Ried. Copyright © 2009 by Adam Ried. Photographs copyright © 2009 by Andre Baranowski. With the permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.”)
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