The drowned ice cream is a quick and delicious summer dessert, a different way to serve ice cream at the end of a meal, which can be made with homemade ice cream, artisanal ice cream or even packaged ice cream from a tub. Just a few simple ingredients – generally always available in our pantry – and you can bring to the table a tasty and inviting dessert without going crazy with complicated preparations.
In this article, I will show you many ideas for preparing drowned ice cream – with chocolate, coffee, liquor, caramel – and I’ll also give you some tips for the best pairings, ways to garnish your drowned ice cream, and the most suitable way to present it at the table.
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 1 person
- Cooking methods: No cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Summer
Ingredients for the drowned ice cream
If you are celiac, make sure the following ingredients are labeled gluten-free: ice cream, cocoa, liquor (unless it is a distilled product with no added flavors or other substances).
- 3 tablespoons ice cream
- 50 ml coffee (espresso, bitter)
- to taste whipped cream (for garnish)
- 1 wafer (for garnish)
- 3 tablespoons ice cream
- 70 ml water
- 60 g sugar
- 25 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 drops vanilla flavor
- to taste whipped cream (for garnish)
- 1 wafer (for garnish)
- 3 tablespoons ice cream
- 50 ml liquor (vodka, limoncello, grappa…)
- to taste whipped cream (for garnish)
- 1 wafer (for garnish)
- 3 tablespoons ice cream
- 50 g sugar
- 40 g water
- to taste whipped cream (for garnish)
- 1 wafer (for garnish)
Tools
- 1 Ice cream scoop
- 1 Glass for ice cream
- 1 Teaspoon with long handle
Recipes, pairings, and tips for serving drowned ice cream
The coffee drowned ice cream is the most classic and also the simplest to prepare. You will only need a cup of espresso coffee, to be prepared a few minutes in advance so that it is hot but not boiling, otherwise it will melt the ice cream too much.
The ice cream flavors that best match to be drowned in coffee are creams: chocolate, cream, vanilla, stracciatella, coffee itself, hazelnut.
Alternate the scoops inside the glass, then pour in the warm bitter coffee and decorate with a dollop of whipped cream and some wafers. Serve the coffee drowned ice cream immediately.
To prepare the chocolate drowned ice cream, you first need to prepare the chocolate topping following this recipe. It is a thick sauce that does not harden when in contact with the ice cream, unlike what melted dark chocolate would do. You should prepare it a little in advance because it needs to cool down, or it will melt the ice cream. If there is some left, you can keep it in the fridge for a few days.
Alternate the scoops inside a ice cream bowl and pour in some chocolate topping at room temperature. Decorate with a dollop of whipped cream and some wafers and serve immediately.
Another way to prepare a great drowned ice cream is to use a liquor or distilled spirit: vodka, grappa, whiskey, limoncello, coffee liquor, anise liquor, cointreau… there are many possibilities depending on your tastes.
The liquor drowned ice cream can be prepared with many different flavors: vodka or grappa, for example, pair well with both fruit flavors – melon, strawberry, mango – and classic creams. If you use limoncello, prefer fruit flavors or fior di latte, while whiskey and coffee liquor pair better with creams.
Alternate the scoops of ice cream in the glass, then drown it with a shot of your chosen liquor. Decorate with a dollop of whipped cream and wafers.
As with the chocolate one, to prepare the caramel drowned ice cream you need to plan about an hour in advance to make the caramel topping, a sauce that does not harden when it cools or comes in contact with ice cream.
Find the caramel topping recipe here. You can make plenty because it keeps for a month or more at room temperature. Do not refrigerate it or it will become excessively hard.
As for flavors, caramel pairs well with all creams, particularly those with an egg base (e.g., zabaione). Place the scoops of ice cream in the glass, drizzle with about 50 ml of caramel, and garnish with whipped cream and wafers.
Tips and Variants
Aside from whipped cream and wafers, you can garnish drowned ice cream with hazelnut grains, chocolate curls, sugar sprinkles, small meringues…
How to Serve Drowned Ice Cream
The best way to serve the various drowned ice creams is to use a cup or an ice cream glass that extends in height, so that when you pour the liquid it distributes well over all the ice cream. To enjoy it, it will be better to use a long-handled teaspoon, possibly accompanied by a straw.
