Semifreddo - like ice cream without needing an ice cream maker!
I have a tiny freezer, like literally the freezer on top of my not very large fridge, not ideal for freezing an ice cream maker, but PERFECT for freezing a semifreddo! A semifreddo is a frozen dessert that is made with whipped up cream and eggs to incorporate the air instead of churning it in an ice cream maker. It’s just as delicious as ice cream and saves you from needing a whole machine, which is a win win in my books! You can flavour your semifreddo with whatever you have on hand, or just leave it plain. I used banana, chocolate and frangelico liqueur but you can use anything! Smashed up berries, any type of liqueur, any type of chocolate, even a little cocoa powder would be good!
Just a scoop of semifreddo!
Semifreddo
Yield: 1 loaf pan (8”x3”) or whatever you got! You can even put it into a larger tupperware container with a lid
You will need a freezer for this one, but no oven required!
3 Eggs
1/3 cup Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
Flavouring: I used 1 Tablespoon of Frangelico (hazelnut) liqueur, one banana, smashed up, and 1/4 cup dark chocolate, melted. Whatever flavour you decide, you will need about 1/4 cup of that, for example, if you want strawberry, smash up 1/4 cup of strawberries (fresh or frozen will work)
Whip up your cream until they form soft peaks, you want the cream to be a bit floppy still. Place in the fridge while you work on the eggs.
Over a pot of lightly simmering water place a bowl with your eggs, sugar, salt and any liqueur if you are adding liqueur. The bowl should not be touching the water, we are just trying to steam the bottom of the bowl.
Now using a whisk, constantly whisk the egg mixture until it becomes light, fluffy and when you rub it between your fingers you don’t feel any grains of sugar. This is cooking our eggs and melting the sugar in so that it’s safe for everyone to eat.
Remove your egg mixture from the hot water.
Next we will take about 1/3 of our whipped cream and gently fold it into the egg mixture. Once it’s almost fully mixed in, add another 1/3 of cream and continue folding, and then add the final 1/3 of cream until all of it has been combined.
If you are doing a single flavour for your semifreddo fold that into your batter now. I did two flavours, so I divided my batter in half, in one bowl I gently folded in 1 smashed banana, and in the other bowl I folded in 1/4 cup melted dark chocolate.
Now grab your loaf pan and line it completely with saran wrap, making sure there are some bits hanging over the sides so you can pull it out after it’s frozen.
Next pour your batter into the lined loaf tin, I alternated layers of banana and chocolate, then swirled them together by running a butterknife throughout it, but you can spoon them in, or layer them with fresh berries or cookies in the middle, this dessert is something that you can slice and plate, so imagine what your slice would look like when you layer it.
Then you pop your semifreddo into the freezer overnight or longer!
Once your semifreddo is nice and hardened you can pop it out of the pan by tugging on the saran wrap that was hanging over, then flip it onto a cutting board and slice. Beautiful! You can also just spoon it into your mouth, no slicing required! Yummmmmmm!