party countdown day 4: semifreddo.

 

 se·mi·fred·do's

(Italian: "half cold") is a class of semi-frozen desserts, typically ice-cream cakes, semi-frozen custards, and certain fruit tarts. It has the texture of frozen mousse because it is usually produced by uniting two equal parts of ice cream and whipped cream. ...

i have been having semifreddo on the brain lately. as i skim through my many homemade cookbooks (more on those later - big project i'm working on) i occasionally come across it. made this way or that way it always grabs my eye and makes my tongue tingle. i have been putting it off and putting it off. as i mentioned before i am some what pulling out all the culinary stops - to the husbands dismay - for our fiesta and decided to try my hand, once and for all, at this tasty treat.

once again i became conflicted. which direction should i go in? play it safe and do a plain base model round one? jazz it up with brownie bits, caramel sauce and chocolate? hit it with beautiful vanilla bean and some berries? there are just too many choices! eventually i cleared my mind from the madness and thought of what the plan for this dessert was. a sister for my chocolate chocolate cake which has ganache filling. okay so no chocolate in the freddo. is plain boring? i, myself, think that there is nothing better than vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce (or mint chocolate chip) so with the ganache already in the cake i think plain would be the winning combination. what about something just a little special in there - like a vanilla bean!! yes.

boo - no vanilla bean found at the usual suspect and being in the land-of-no-culinary-taste i wasn't about to waste my time driving around when i knew i would never find one. okay okay so now we are going with creamy yummy plain semifreddo. how easy was this to make! i ended up going with the donna hay version as the martha version does not temper the eggs and there is nothing scarier than raw egg whites and raw chicken (no, there is not chicken in there - i was just making my point) now back to this point - quite easy! with my hand mixer in hand and my stand mixer on stand by, we made it through, got a little fancy with some tester small ones adding dolce de leche in the bottom of the cups, got the big one in the freezer and another check mark is on the party to-do's! now that is a good thing.

basic semifreddo adapted from donnahay.com 3 eggs  2 egg yolks, extra  1 teaspoon vanilla extract  1 cup caster (superfine) sugar 2 cups heavy (35%)cream Place the eggs, extra yolks, vanilla and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Place over a saucepan of simmering water and, using a hand-held electric mixer, beat for 6–8 minutes or until thick and pale. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Whisk the cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold through the egg mixture until well combined. Pour into a 2 litre-capacity metal tin and freeze for 6 hours or overnight. Makes 2 litres. You could create your own flavour with this base by folding a range of fruit, spices or syrups through the mixture. Think chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, brownie bits, puréed mango or whole berries such as raspberries or blueberries. ~ donna hay.