Molten Hazelnut Affogato using Seattle's Best Coffee for the #RedCupShowdown

Molten Hazelnut Affogato #RedCupShowdown

Since my husband's side of the family is Italian, I constantly use this for inspiration in my kitchen. I try to find  the most authentic recipes whenever possible. My favorite Italian recipes above all those are the desserts.  Dessert is something my husband and I enjoy by ourselves after we have eaten dinner with the family. Sometimes we will watch a old movie, snuggle and eat our dessert. It's very romantic. That's one thing Italians do very well isn't it? Romance.It's perfect inspiration for the #RedCupShowdown with Seattle's Best coffee. I had such fun coming up with ideas. I settled on Affogato.

Seattle's Best array of coffee choices.

Affogato means "to drown" in Italian. Traditionally a scoop of ice cream or gelato drowned in coffee. Affogato al Cafe.  Affogato can be anything you want including ratios and ingredients. It really gives room to play. Hazelnut, espresso, chocolate..all traditional flavors of Italian desserts. On my trip to Walmart (follow my shopping trip in pictures here on Google+) it was very hard to find hazelnuts as they weren't in season. Every other type of nut in every kind of flavor except for the one on my list lol. That was okay as I found Nutella readily stocked in the coffee aisle.  When I got down to the coffee section at once I was greeted by that wonderful aroma of coffee. Then wow...so many different coffees from so many different flavors. Luckily I only had to choose from Seattle's Best. Even so there was a lot to choose from. Different levels of coffee flavor such vanilla, cinnamon, mocha, and hazelnut. 

I love Green & Black's 85% Dark Chocolate.

But then I saw it...Organic and Fair Trade Level 4. I literally said out loud, "I love you Seattle's Best!" Everyone in the aisle turned to look at me including my husband. Organic and Fair Trade is my thing. It's important to me. I try to buy organic and fair trade as much as possible. Get this. The organic and fair trade coffee was the same price as all the others. How cool is that? I'm used to paying more for organic let alone fair trade. Then I picked up the last three bars of Green and Black's Organic 85% Dark Chocolate. I was indeed a very lucky girl because then I found chocolate covered espresso beans. After that I picked up some vanilla bean ice cream, coffee filters, straws, and a dessert cup. I was ready man! I was ready to show you all how easy it is to create this recipe....even without a coffee maker. Now I do have a coffee maker but I packed it up recently because my stepson is going to college for Computer Science at Binghamton University. I can just imagine the late nights he's going to have. So we gave it to him with the intention of getting a new one. Now that I'm in between coffeemakers I decided to use some American ingenuity.

Preparing molten coffee.

Take a thick walled cup that can handled heat. Triple up your coffee filters and bend them over the edge while pushing down the bottom into the cup. Add 4 oz. of chopped of chocolate in the bottom of the cup. Add 2 tbs of coffee on the top of filters.

Seattle's Best Organic & Fair Trade Coffee combining with Green & Blacks 85% Dark Chocolate!

Slowly pour boiling water into coffee grounds. Don't worry the coffee fliters won't fall in. Once filled up to the top stir chocolate into the coffee. Now you have delicious molten coffee.

Molten coffee..mmmmmm.

Set aside. Add 5 scoops of vanilla bean ice cream. Pour melted Nutella over the ice cream. Add molten coffee to all sides of the ice cream.

Making chocolate curls with Green & Black 85% Dark Chocolate.

To make chocolate curls warm the chocolate with your hands. Use the vegetable peeler on the side of the chocolate. Sprinkle the chocolate curls over the ice cream. Add the chocolate covered espresso beans. Add two straws and voila...Molten Hazelnut Affogato to enjoy with your lovee.

Now it's your turn! Come up with your own drink using Seattle's Best Coffee drink. If yours is one of the most imaginative you could win a trip to New York City to compete for $10,000 (& having your drink featured in Seattle's Best Cafes) hosted by Celebrity Chef Jeff Mauro!

 To enter visit this app on Seattle's Best Facebook page. Click on the enter now button. It will then take you to this page:

Click on the Go To App button. It will bring you to the Submit Your Drink Recipe page.

Upload the picture of your unique drink (5MB max. JPEG only.) Name it and share your inspiration in the boxes. Next share your the ingredients, measurements, and instructions.

Click the enter button. It will take you to the confirmation page. That's it! You're done! Let me know if you do enter as I would love to see what creative drink you came up with. Feel free to share it on The Cupcake Bandit's Facebook page so I can show everyone else your creation.

Check out Seattle's Best on their Website, Twitter, and Facbook. Again don't forget to enter your own amazing drink recipe!

Disclosure: “I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Seattle’s Best Coffee #CBias #SocialFabric” I'm not participating in the Seattle's Best #RedCupShowdown.