Espresso Parfait with Chocolate Caramel Sauce Recipe

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure for details.

Hi Bold Bakers!

WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE: Espresso Parfait with Chocolate Caramel Sauce is a lush, creamy, restaurant-level dessert you can easily make at home without an ice cream mixer or special equipment. It needs six hours in the freezer, so it’s a perfect make-ahead dessert for a party.

A richly-flavored espresso custard mixture is frozen and cut into slices, giving you an irresistible chilled treat. Pour my decadent deep dark Chocolate Carmel sauce over the Espresso Parfait, and you have a dessert that’s sophisticated enough to transport you to Paris but is as sweetly satisfying as a childhood ice cream sundae.

Table of Contents

• What is Espresso Parfait With Chocolate Caramel Sauce?
• Tools You Need 
• Key Ingredients for Espresso Parfait with Chocolate Caramel Sauce and Why
• How to Make Espresso Parfait with Chocolate Caramel Sauce
• Can I Make Espresso Parfait With Chocolate Caramel Sauce in Advance?
• How to Store Espresso Parfait With Chocolate Caramel Sauce
• FAQs
• Gemma’s Pro Chef Tips
• More Frozen Dessert Recipes

What is Espresso Parfait With Chocolate Caramel Sauce?

Espresso Parfait with Chocolate Caramel Sauce is an espresso coffee dessert topped with a bittersweet chocolate caramel sauce.

American parfaits, such as my Breakfast Parfait, usually combine layers of yogurt or ice cream, fruit, and other toppings. Comparatively, a French parfait is a custard-based mixture of egg yolks, cream, sugar, and flavorings that is frozen in a loaf pan and served in slices.

Both Parfait and Semifreddo are no-churn frozen desserts. Parfait is a custard mixture with egg yolks,  while Semifreddo is a meringue mixture with only the whites.

Tools You Need for Espresso Parfait with Chocolate Caramel Sauce

• Loaf pan
• Clingfilm (plastic wrap)
• Mixing bowl
• Saucepan
• Sieve or strainer
• Stand mixer or electric mixer
• Spatula
• Whisk

Key Ingredients for Espresso Parfait With Chocolate Caramel and Why

Egg yolks

• Using only the yolks gives the Espresso Parfait its velvety richness.
• Beating the egg yolks well incorporates air to add volume, which is key to theEspresso Parfait’s mouse-like texture.

Granulated sugar (aka regular sugar or caster sugar)

• In the Espresso Parfait, the sugar is heated with the water, espresso powder, and vanilla to make a syrup that’s whisked into the eggs.
• In the Chocolate Caramel Sauce, sugar and water are simmered for a longer time in order to get caramelized. Check out my How to Make Caramel for detailed pro tips.

Espresso powder

• Espresso powder not only enriches the parfait but also balances with sugar and cream yielding a mellow coffee flavor.

Heavy whipping cream

• Heavy whipping cream or heavy cream is just natural FRESH CREAM skimmed from milk, with a fat content of around 36% to be able to whip up well.
• Regular or light cream will not work in this recipe due to a low fat content.
• Heavy cream aerates the parfait and enriches the sauce.

Bittersweet chocolate

• Bittersweet chocolate (63 – 72 % cocoa solids)  is darker and more profound than semisweet chocolate with the perfect balance of bitter and sweet.
• Check out my Ultimate Guide to Chocolate to know more about when and how to use different types of chocolate.

Salt

Salt adds an essential briny note to the Chocolate Caramel Sauce, keeping the sauce from being overly sweet.

How to Make Espresso Parfait with Chocolate Caramel Sauce

Preliminary steps

• Line a loaf pan with clingfilm.
• Put egg yolks in a bowl, and place it on a towel near the stovetop to prevent it from moving while whisking in the hot sugar. Or you can use a stand mixer on low instead of mixing by hand so you don’t have to use both hands during this step.
• Chill an additional bowl that you’ll be using to whip the cream, and be sure to chill the cream, too.

Make the parfait

• Espresso syrup:
  • Bring the sugar, water, espresso powder, and vanilla extract to a simmer over medium heat .
• Custard:
  • Slowly stream in the heated espresso syrup while whisking the egg yolks. This “introducing” method will avoid cooking egg yolks.
  • After throughly combining the yolks and espresso syrup, return the mixture to the pan and cook for a few minutes over low heat until thickened.
  • Strain the mixture through a sieve to remove any bits of egg. Set the custard aside to cool.
• Assemble the Parfait:
  • Beat the cream to stiff peaks, and fold it into the cooled custard.
  • Spoon into the prepared loaf pan and freeze for at least six hours.

Make the chocolate caramel sauce

• Caramel:
  • Make sure to let sugar COMPLETELY dissolve first before bringing it to a simmer. Otherwise, the sugar tends to crystallize.
  • Once the sugar comes to a simmer NO MORE STIRRING. Cook until it reaches a deep amber color.
  • Pour in the heavy cream and salt, CONSTANTLY WHISK until all the cream is incorporated.
• Adding chocolate: 
  • After it has come to a simmer, pour it over the chocolate in the bowl. Let it sit UNDISTURBED for 5 minutes.
  • Whisk the caramel and melted chocolate together.

Can I Make Espresso Parfait With Chocolate Caramel Sauce in Advance?

Yes. The parfait has to freeze for at least six hours, so make it the day before or even a week in advance. The sauce will keep in the fridge for eight weeks.

How to Store Espresso Parfait With Chocolate Caramel Sauce?

You can store leftover parfait for four weeks in the freezer. Cover well in cling wrap to avoid freezer burn.

FAQs

What’s the difference between a parfait and no-churn ice cream?

• Most no-churn ice creams are egg-free and made by whipping cream with condensed milk for a super-quick frozen treat. Try and enjoy my Easiest Homemade Ice Cream Recipe with 50+ Flavors!
• Parfait contains eggs and is a frozen custard with whipped cream folded in, which gives it a more complex flavor and richer texture.

Why does the caramel mixture have to reach DEEP AMBER color before adding cream ?

This also explains why caramel turns grainy after cooling when the mixture didn’t reach DEEP AMBER color before adding cream:

In short, a deep amber color is a telltale sign of sugar melting properly to turn into liquid sugar to form a smooth rather than grainy caramel.

• When sugar only dissolves, these whole sucrose molecules separate from one another. The molecule itself doesn’t come apart. Granulated sugar is still granulated sugar floating in a sugar-water solution. So when it cools, sugar granules are still there and the caramel turns grainy.
• When sugar is heated to a certain point at which sugar resembles a deep amber color, its molecules start to break down. As the heat continues, different types of compounds start producing liquid sugar. So when it cooled , it could reach a softer and stickier liquid-sugar texture.

My caramel crystalized–what happened?

• Caramel crystallized due to uneven heat from a thin-bottomed sauce pan, dramatic temperature change, raising the heat too early, improper stirring, lack of stirring, and lack of cooking time.
• Be sure to read through my article of How To Make Caramel (Troubleshooting Guide & Video) to perfect a Caramel Sauce every time!

Gemma’s Pro-Chef Tips for Espresso Parfait With Chocolate Caramel

• Line the sieve with cheesecloth to get an even finer strain with the custard.
• The best way to test if the cream is at stiff peaks is to remove the beater from the cream. If it holds a peak shape without falling back onto itself, it’s at stiff peaks.
• Under whip rather than over-whip to prevent the cream from separating.
• Use a stainless steel pan, not an aluminum pan, when making caramel. This prevents the caramel from cracking.
• Don’t stir the caramel while it’s cooking, but you can use a pastry brush and a cup of water to push down sugar crystals that accumulate on the sides of the pan.

More Frozen Desserts

• Rich and Creamy Tiramisu Semifreddo
• Fresh and Sweet Lemon Semifreddo
• Homemade Disneyland Dole Whip
• The Easiest Homemade Gelato
• Cookies ‘N Cream Ice Cream Cake

Try These Recipes!

Baked Custard with Roasted Rhubarb and Whiskey

Heavenly Chocolate Crème Caramel

Sweet and Zesty Clementine Trifle With Boozy Amaretto

Mocha Pâté Recipe