It may be the last month of summer but boy, it sure is making a statement that it is still very much summer down under. With temperature soaring to a high of 32C degrees today, beaches and pools are packed. Anything anyone will do to beat off the heat. Makes you crave for something refreshing like cold beverages to cool you down or frozen treats like ice cream. One treat I love making for hot days like today is that Italian dessert, semifreddo.
Semifreddo is semi-frozen dessert like ice cream cakes. I love making them for many good reasons. Very easy to prepare. You can experiment with lots of flavour combination. You don’t need an ice cream maker or churner to make one. Sounds easy enough, right? It is creamy in texture but I like spicing it up a bit with nuts (pistachio in this particular recipe) and crumbled meringues for that crunch experience. Usually, semifreddo is made with equal parts of ice cream and whipped cream. I used a basic ice cream recipe for this, folded through some mango puree, nuts and meringue and then swirled through the mixture some raspberry puree. By the way, I used store bought meringues for this recipe. Of course, you can make your own meringues from the egg whites, which you will not be using for the ice cream mixture, if you have the time to do so or just feeling really adventurous.
Ingredients:
- 2 large mangoes, peeled,flesh cut from stones
- 1 cup fresh raspberries
- 1 cup chopped pistachios
- 10-12 pieces meringue
- 3 eggs
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 600 ml thickened cream
Method:
- Place mangoes in food processor and puree until smooth. Wash processor. Puree raspberries. Keep in the fridge until required.
- Place eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Place bowl over a pan of simmering water. Be careful that the bowl base does not touch the water.
- Using electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar for about 5 minutes, or until mixture is very pale, thick and has increased in volume. Remove bowl from pan.
- In a large bowl, whip cream until firm peaks form. Fold through egg mixture until evenly combined.
- Fold through mango puree, then nuts and meringue. Transfer mixture into a loaf tin.
- Pour raspberry puree on top of mixture. With the knife’s pointed tip, swirl puree through mixture.
- Freeze overnight or until firm. Remove from freezer about 10 minutes before serving.