Summer in Athens is still holding strong. What with everyone returning from the islands to the office and the schools opening up soon, September came with a mini heatwave. Personally, I am very much in summer mode and the only thing I can think off is ice-cream: dark chocolate and espresso sorbet.

Head straight to the recipe .

I am not sure if I’ve ever told you, but I am a coffee person. I frequent the coffee shops to get it freshly ground and often just to take in the aroma that lingers in the air. Every time I open the sealed box, there is this feeling of euphoria filling every nook and cranny of my small Athenian kitchen. I breathe it in as I scoop it in the coffee maker. Every sip is tiny drops of happiness and a great boost of energy as it gives me this pick me up in the morning, late morning, even late in the afternoon.

I normally have an espresso shot out of a traditional moka pot. Instant coffee never really did the trick for me, not that it doesn’t wake me up but my stomach rebels to it. There is also the Greek or Turkish coffee, whichever you prefer to call it. I love its smell but the tiny grains of the residue somehow caught up with me. Have you ever tried the Arab version? They sometimes roast and grind a bit of cardamom along with the coffee beans. It’s a very popular middle eastern coffee mix and it lifts up the beverage a little more.

Now, what’s best than coffee? Chocolate of course. Even if you don’t give a toss about coffee I’m pretty sure you will join in for this. I love dark chocolate and every tablet is in great danger when I make dessert, small chocolate squares get depleted as temptation is far too great for me. I behaved myself this time. The target was dark chocolate sorbet with a bit of cardamom.

I never really aimed for this flavour to be honest, it’s one of these great recipes you come up with on a lazy afternoon. I was making a simple chocolate sorbet to pair with some of my reserves of orange spoon sweet. Nope, it never happened. The coffee I was sipping found its way to the mix and so did the cardamom pods.

For ices, I do have an ice-cream maker at hand. I make them quite often during the long Greek summer. You mix it all and off it goes in the ice-cream maker, no fuss. If you don’t have one at hand however, don’t stress, just let the mixture come to room temperature, put it in the freezer and revisit it with a fork every couple of hours to break the crystals. Let’s go make it.

Print Recipe

Dark Chocolate & Espresso Sorbet

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Modern European

Ingredients

• 250 ml water
• 100 gr sugar
• 100 gr dark chocolate at least 65%
• ½ espresso shot
• 30 gr cocoa powder 2 tbspns
• 3-4 cardamom pods

Instructions

• Start by making your espresso shot.
• Add the water, sugar, cardamom pods and cocoa powder in a pot and heat it up until the sugar dissolves, just before your mixture riches boiling point. Stir well and remove from the hob.
• In a separate bowl, break your dark chocolate in smaller pieces and add in the espresso shot (step 1) and the mixture you just removed from the hob (step 2). Mix very well until the chocolate pieces are completely dissolved.
• Pass it threw a thin sieve to make sure any cardamom pods have been removed and let aside to cool down.
• You are ready to enter ice-cream maker territory, pass the cold mixture into the ice-cream maker and follow their instructions.

Notes

Best made with an ice-cream maker

I hope you enjoy this chocolate espresso sorbet as much as I did! I’ve made it plenty of times already and it’s been a great hit with friends. Do you have favourite ice-cream flavours?

from Athens with love, 

Eugenia

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