Black Forest Cherry Mocha Ice Cream Sundae from Scratch - A Perfect Alternative for the Famous Gâteau

Coffee is our first drink of the day and we've spent quite some time trying to find one we really like. Recently and thanks to my brother-in-law, who is also a big coffee devotee, we found a new one, in bean form. So, I thought I'd put it to the test with an idea I dreamed up as an alternative to the famous gâteau version; a cherry mocha-chocolate sundae which comprises:

• Coffee ice cream
• Coffee with dark chocolate ripple and chocolate chip ice cream
• Coffee and dark chocolate sauce
• Coffee and cocoa truffles ....and
• Cherries
  

A Dip Into Coffee History

The picture of the sundae left, is taken in front of an engraving that hangs in our kitchen, it's of the Jamaica Coffee Tavern circa. 1885. This was one of the first of the very popular London coffee houses and was opened in 1666 after the Great Fire. Coffee taverns in their thousands, sprung up and prospered throughout the country, after the introduction of coffee to Britain from Italy and Turkey in the early 17th century. They provided a venue, where, for the price of a penny entrance fee, people could meet and enjoy local and international gossip. They could also read the current newspapers and journals, take coffee and sandwiches and most unusually for such a hierarchical society, enjoy them on an equal footing, no matter who they were or what they did outside its walls. The only proviso being that the coffee houses usually catered for men, although there is some debate about this, as although coffee houses were sometimes owned by women, they were not socially acceptable for them but that is not to say that women did not frequent them. 

In university towns such as Oxford, the coffee house became an alternative place of information gathering, debate and exchange of ideas and knowledge, in fact they were known as the 'penny universities'. A tavern where the patrons were drinking coffee rather than alcohol, allowed them to continue to read and converse with ease, rather than in the rowdy gin shops of the period. This did not mean however, that heated arguments didn't occur but when they did, patrons were expected to forget and forgive and buy each other a coffee. Many of the houses were involved in trade and shipping and were also the foundation for businesses and institutions, such as Lloyds of London and the London Stock Exchange. Coffee Taverns remained popular but over the centuries and as they became ever more fashionable, they began to take on a more narrow, exclusive membership with individual political affiliation and so evolved into the 'gentlemen's, business and political clubs of today. This coupled with the fact that both the government and the East India Company began to champion tea as the fashionable British drink.

A Foreword About the Recipe and Ingredients

As the basis on which to build my coffee/mocha sundae I'm using my favourite custard-based ice cream recipe from 1865. I add my flavours for this sundae after the third 'breaking of the ice crystal' stage of ice cream making.

I'm adding desiccated coconut and coconut oil to my coffee truffles but that is because I do not have any dried cherries at the moment but I usually do make truffles with all kinds of dried fruits, it gives them a really luscious taste. If however, you do have dried fruits to compliment this sundae then use them instead and replace the coconut oil with more butter.

Brewing Up

I decided reading through my recipe books that a concentration of coffee at 3 to 4 times more than our usual morning brew would be the best to give me a good flavour for both the ice cream, truffles and mocha sauce.

In order to have sufficient to cover all the recipes, I made:
1 cup - ½ a pint - 250 ml of coffee from 2 tablespoons of beans

Mocha Sauce 

This is a very easy but delicious sauce and it is again an old Victorian recipe. I find the modern recipes I've looked at for coffee sauces seem to boil the ingredients together, which I personally don't like. I think coffee and chocolate need to be heated gently both from a taste and a health point of view.

Ingredients

¼cup - 2oz - 50g of dark/plain chocolate
½cup - 3½oz - 100g raw blonde cane sugar
½cup - ¼ of a pint - 125ml of my triple strength coffee

Method

Break up the chocolate.
Add all the ingredients to your pan.
Put the pan on a low heat and stir constantly until the chocolate and the sugar have melted into the coffee.
Remove from heat and stir vigorously to obtain a glossy sauce.

Building On the Rich Vanilla Recipe - Coffee Ice Cream Duo

To one half of a litre of the vanilla ice cream, I added ¼cup - ⅛ of a pint - 65ml of my triple strength cooled coffee and whisked it until it was well mixed.

To the second half I added a handful of chocolate chips and I swirled in three quarters of my cooled mocha sauce.

I now had my two flavours in one box and returned it to the freezer for its final freezing.

N.B. how long it takes for your freezer to achieve this stage will depend on your individual freezer. I left mine for several hours, even over night in the first stage.

The Mocha Coffee Truffles

This is a recipe I sort of made up. Every-time we feel like something sweet to go with a coffee I tend to make a batch of these truffles and I always add coffee but just taken from the cafetière, so at the normal strength. This time however, I wanted the full coffee flavour to predominate, so I used my triple strength brew, I also used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to create the truffles, rather than just making small ball-shaped ones. These truffles take the place of the cake in the Black Forest Sundae.

Ingredients

(makes 10-11)

1 tablespoon of cocoa
2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons of coconut or blonde raw cane sugar
2 dessertspoons of butter
1 dessert spoon of raw coconut oil
2 dessertspoons of warm triple-strength coffee
extra cocoa for dusting
grated plain/dark chocolate for decorating

Method

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and pour the coffee over them. Using a fork, mash the ingredients together until well mixed and leave aside to set.

Prepare a freezer-proof tray by lining it with baking paper.

When the mixture has cooled, dip the cutter in cocoa powder and then taking a small walnut-sized amount of truffle mixture and using the cutter as a mould, press it evenly into the cutter.

Put the cutter down on the baking paper and gently press the mixture out.

Repeat until you have made the amount of shapes you require.

I used the rest of the mix to make some small round traditional-shape truffles.

I then placed the tray inside a freezer bag and put it in the freezer.

Composing A Sundae for Two

I drained my jar of cherries and got ready my large martini glass.

I started with a layer of the Morello cherries, they are quite tart so make a great foil to the rest of the sundae.

I then added 4 small scoops of coffee ice cream, then some mocha sauce and then just a few more cherries before building up a pyramid of Mocha ripple/chocolate chip and Coffee ice cream scoops.

I placed cherries around the perimeter and added some more Mocha sauce and a few of the round truffles.

On the top I placed one heart-shaped truffle dusted with chocolate and threaded through a cocktail stick with a cherry atop. I added another un-dusted heart-shaped truffle to give a contrasting colour and texture. It also was threaded through with a cocktail stick. I then added a round dusted truffle - the rest of the truffles can be served at the same time or left for later!

I really loved making this sundae and I hope you will too.

If you enjoyed this recipe then please feel free to comment and share it with your friends and on social media. Maybe also think about joining this blog and/or if you are interested in organic poultry subscribing to my Youtube channel or even supporting us on Patreon or

It all helps to keep me going!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from an old farmhouse in Normandie,

All the very best,
Sue

©  Sue Cross 2021