Thursday 17 July 2014

Coffee and Chocolate Semifreddo

I've never really felt the need to make ice cream at home. We eat relatively little, unless there's a really hot summer, and even then, our simple tastes have always been met by what's available in the supermarkets. This has meant that I've never bought an ice cream maker, which takes me into a perpetual loop, because if I do see a recipe I like the look of, I haven't got a machine to churn it in. As a final reason for not making it (and I think that's enough excuses) - there's hardly ever enough room in the freezer to put a large bowl, if I want to beat an ice cream mix by hand during the freezing process.

However, I don't like to pass up the monthly We Should Cocoa challenge (rules here, on Chocolate Log Blog), and this month Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary has set us the challenge of making either ice cream or toppings for ice cream, using chocolate in some form. So I managed to clear a little space in the freezer and decided to look for recipes which didn't need churning or beating while freezing. I was delighted to find this recipe, on the BBC Good Food site, for a semifreddo which is frozen in a loaf tin and doesn't set really hard, so it can be served straight from the freezer. As the cream and egg whites in the recipe are beaten separately, there is a lot of air in the mixture which is what prevents it setting too solidly. The only change I made to the recipe was to use 100g of plain chocolate instead of a Toblerone bar.

I had already made a chocolate fudge sauce (175g plain chocolate, and 30g butter were melted together, then 2 tablespoons of golden syrup and 3 tablespoons of milk were beaten in). I was going to serve this warm with the dessert, but knew that it would also set solidly on anything cold. I intended to drizzle this artistically over the block of ice cream but a combination of too large a hole in my piping bag, and panic because the semifreddo was melting quite quickly meant I ended up with rough squiggles instead. I did manage to scatter some chocolate coffee beans on top before the chocolate set.

The family were very impressed with the texture of this semifreddo - it was very light and melt-in-the-mouth soft - and I had been careful to chop the chocolate really finely so that there were no large hard lumps to crunch down on. The basic recipe could easily be adapted for other flavours, but it should be noted that the recipe does contain raw eggs so may not be suitable for everyone.

8 comments:

Alicia Foodycat said...

I do love a no-churn ice cream!

Kate@whatkatebaked said...

Having only just ventured into the world of home ice cream making recently I too have been really surprised at the number of great, easy recipes available that certainly do not require a huge great unwieldy ice cream maker! Hurrah!

Snowy said...

This sounds just right for this weather, and no-churn is always a bonus. Looks delicious.

Choclette said...

Well it looks quite splendid Suelle. I've not made semi-freddo, but do regularly make no churn ice-cream for the very reasons you've described. Thank you for joining in with this WSC this month, despite your misgivings.

Anne said...

I have attempted this months challenge and the results are hiding in the freezer but I am not sure was overly successful. Yours looks far nicer Sue! Love the idea of your mocha flavourings

Phil in the Kitchen said...

I think that sounds perfect for a hot summer - and this summer isn't bad so far. I really enjoy making ice creams of various kinds at home but finding space in the freezer is always a problem. I must try harder.

Elizabeth said...

I don't have an ice cream machine any more as it exploded in the freezer (twice - the replacement did too!). I'm all for no churn now! Thank you for sharing with We Should Cocoa!

Rebecca said...

Looks delicious! I recently tried semifreddo myself for the first time. It is a great way to make a frozen dessert without an ice cream maker.