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Café liégeois

Name: Café liégeois
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 200 ml whipping cream; 1 piece vanilla pod; 1 tbsp icing sugar; 4 piece scoops of vanilla ice cream; 4 piece scoops of mocha (coffee) ice cream; 2 piece strong espressos, hot; 1 tbsp peket or another grain jenever, a splash (optional); a few chocolate coffee beans, grated

café liégeois / Luikse koffie

A glass of vanilla and mocha ice cream with hot espresso poured over, crowned with vanilla whipped cream and grated chocolate coffee beans, with an optional drop of Liège peket. A coffee dessert renamed in Paris in August 1914 in honour of Liège's resistance. Jeroen Meus's version from Dagelijkse kost.

Editorial illustration of the documented recipe; not a photograph of a kitchen-tested result.

Servings: 4
Preparation: 15 min
Cooking: 5 min
Resting: 30 min
Total: 50 min
Difficulty: Easy

Equipment

Espresso machine or moka pot
Bowl and balloon whisk
Four tall glasses; ice-cream scoop

Servings4

Ingredients

Vanilla cream
200 mlwhipping cream
1 vanilla pod
1 tbspicing sugar
The glasses
4 scoops of vanilla ice cream
4 scoops of mocha (coffee) ice cream
2 strong espressos, hot
1 tbsppeket or another grain jenever, a splash (optional)Meus says 'a splash'; the measure is our estimate.
a few chocolate coffee beans, grated

Shopping list

Method

Split the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with the tip of a sharp knife.
Add the seeds and the icing sugar to the cream and whisk until it is as thick as yoghurt. Chill it in the fridge.
Why Lightly whipped, the cream floats on the coffee and melts slowly into it rather than sitting stiff on top.
Timer · 30 min30:00
Put one scoop of vanilla and one of mocha ice cream in each glass. Drip a little peket over them if you like, and pour on the hot espresso.
Why The hot coffee melts the outside of the ice cream into a cold, sweet coffee cream at the bottom of the glass.
Finish with a spoonful of vanilla cream and grated chocolate coffee beans, and serve at once with a long spoon.

To drink & serve with

Meus serves it with home-made langues de chat (kattentongen) striped with chocolate.
Gaufre de Liège
Editorial suggestion: or with a Liège waffle.

Substitutions

Peket (no alcohol) → Leave it out; the classic Paris café liégeois has none.
Mocha ice cream → Two scoops of vanilla, or coffee granita.
The 1938 iced version → The Liège tourist office prints the Larousse gastronomique recipe: sweet strong coffee mixed with cold vanilla milk and crème fraîche, churned until half-frozen, served in cups under whipped cream.

Common mistakes

Whipping the cream stiff: it should be soft enough to sink a little into the coffee.
Weak coffee: the ice cream drowns it. Use proper espresso.

Storage & reheating

Assemble just before serving. The vanilla cream keeps a day, covered, in the fridge.

Safety

Contains milk. The optional peket is alcoholic: leave it out for children. Ice cream may contain egg; check the label.

Allergens

Milk

Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

Dietary

vegetarian

A Viennese coffee renamed for Liège

In August 1914 the German army crossed into Belgium on its way to France and was held up for twelve days by the forts of Liège. France gave the city the Légion d'honneur on 7 August, and Paris renamed things in its honour: on 15 August the rue de Berlin and its metro station became Liège. According to the Liège tourist office and the history magazine Herodote.net, Paris cafés also renamed the café viennois, whose name now evoked an enemy capital, as café liégeois.

The tourist office adds that no 'café viennois' ever existed in Vienna and that there is no single historical recipe: some serve a hot sweet coffee under whipped cream, others an iced one. Its brochure prints the iced version of the 1938 Larousse gastronomique and the city now awards a label, Véritable Café liégeois, to cafés that make it with quality ingredients.

[1][2]

Hot coffee over cold ice cream

The modern café liégeois is assembled in the glass: vanilla and mocha ice cream, hot espresso poured over, soft vanilla cream on top. Jeroen Meus whips the cream only to the thickness of yoghurt, adds a few drops of peket, the grain spirit of Liège, and grates chocolate coffee beans over the top. The older recipe the tourist office prints is a half-frozen coffee cream churned in a sorbetière, which it links to Escoffier's café glacé of 1907; pouring cold coffee over ice cream was the cafés' short cut.

[3][1]

How it connects

Place

origin Liège In preparation

Style

made with Genever

Recipe

pairs with Gaufre de Liège