Coffee custard transforms plain ice cream into sundae with a kick

Affogato means drowned, and it's a distressing thing to witness after dinner. Innocent vanilla ice cream, cowering in a cup, is doused with scalding espresso. Way too "Game of Thrones."

The Italian dessert is supposed to serve up contrast: hot and cold, sweet and bitter, vanilla and espresso. But the hot shot melts the cold scoop, yielding lukewarm coffee soup.

I called in rewrite. In this version, the ice cream keeps its cool in a chilled glass. It's lavished with coffee custard and finished with a swirl of whipped cream.

Maybe the dish veers toward all-American sundae. But it makes for a very happy ending.