The Rolls Royce of the semifreddos!
ingredients for a rectangular cake tin of 28X7X6 cm diameter (cost about 17 € with organic products)
for the almond croccante
- 185 g almonds
- 45 g sugar
- 10 g honey
- 28 g water
- 1 pinch salt
for the semifreddo
- 450 g liquid cream (32-53% fat), well chilled
- 105 g egg whites, at room temperature
- 135 g sugar
- 90 g flower honey
- 72 g water
- 75 g candied orange peels cut in small dice
for the apricot coulis
- 300 g fresh ripe apricots
- 80 g sugar (or more, according to taste and the original sweetness of the apricots)
- 120 g water
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (from about half lemon)
- a handful of rose geranium (or mint) leaves
- a few lemon peels
Croccante is an Italian crunchy candied delicacy made with equal parts of nuts (most commonly almonds or hazelnuts) and caramelized sugar, formed in the shape of a bar. It is traditionally offered during Christmas time, but it is also very commonly used in semifreddos, after being chopped or processed and turned into crumbs.
Semifreddos with caramelized nuts are, in my opinion the prime category of semifreddos. This airy base makes an interesting contrast with the crunchy texture of the caramelized nuts.
When I am preparing nut croccante to incorporate them into my semifreddo preparations, I prefer to make them much lighter in terms of sugar, as the semifreddo base, is already sweet enough. In this case I made an almond croccante using only add 30% of sugar mixed with a little honey.
Finally, I like to serve my croccante semifreddos with a fruit coulis, in order to add freshness and to balance the fats of the dessert. In this recipe, I used an apricot coulis.
So. let’s make our semifreddo.
First of all, we make the almond croccante. We blanch the almonds for a minute in boiling water in order to easily remove their skin. Then we place them in a 170 o C preheated oven for 7-8 minutes, just to warm them and we keep them warm.
Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed saucepan we prepare a syrup with the water, sugar and honey and we cook it until it reaches 121o C. We add the almonds with a pinch of salt, stirring them constantly, until they are covered by an amber colored thin layer of caramel.
We lay the caramelized almonds on a baking tray covered with parchment, or a silicon mat and we let them cool completely, then we coarsely chop half of them and we place the rest of them in a food processor to turn them into crumbles (this way we give complex textures to our semifreddo).
To make the semifreddo base, we begin by the Italian meringue.
We prepare a syrup by bringing water, sugar and honey into boil. At the same time we whip the egg whites and when the syrup reaches 121 o C, we start pouring it over the egg whites, without stopping to whip. We continue whipping, until the meringue cools and turns into a stiff and glossy mousse.
We, also, beat the chilled liquid cream, until we turn it to a soft whipped cream. For best results be sure that you have also chilled well the bowl and whisks of the mixer. We then fold the whipped cream into the meringue.
Finally we add the caramelized almonds and the candied peels and we gently mix them to evenly distribute them inside the preparation.
We cover the bottom and sides of a rectangular tin with cling film and we pour inside it the semifreddo mixture.
We wrap very well with cling film and we freeze for at least four hours. We keep in the freezer, until serving time.
Finally, we prepare the apricot coulis.
We wash, we halve and we pit the apricots. We place them in a ceramic bowl with the sugar, the lemon peels and the herb leaves, chopped, we stir to distribute the sugar, we cover with cling film and we let the fruit macerate for a couple of hours in the fridge.
Then we transfer the content of the bowl in a saucepan, we add the water and a few lemon drops and we cook at medium heat , until the apricots melt and the syrup thickens (15 minutes should be enough). If we like our coulis to be a homogenized liquid sauce, we beat it with an immersion blender. I prefer an uneven result, so I keep it as it is. We transfer the coulis into a bowl, we cover it with cling film and we keep it in the fridge until serving time.
Before serving, we remove the semifreddo from the freezer, we unmold it over a serving dish, we drizzle it generously with the apricot coulis and we serve.
