SEMIFREDDO DI CHRISTMAS PUDDING

Having decided I wanted to make a sort of cold Christmas pudding to take to yesterday's New Year lunch at Gina's, I started looking through my recipe books.  I'd made "Christmas Pudding Ice Cream" before but I really wanted something a bit lighter and more suited to Italian palates.  Most Sicilians do not like dried fruit but I thought they could hardly object to cranberries as they had probably never tasted them before!  In the end, I decided  to stick to my tried and trusted semifreddo formula and invented this recipe.  Everyone pronounced the result a success!

Semifreddo di Christmas Pudding

Dried cranberries and a little chopped, candied peel - about 175 gr / 6 oz fruit altogether
6 glacé cherries, cut into quarters
6 tablesp liqueur of your choice - I used Fichi d'India [prickly pear] liqueur as it is what I had but other suggestions are Mandarinetto, Kirsch or Maraschino.
175 gr / 6 oz Digestive biscuits
3 eggs, separated
110 gr / 4 oz caster sugar
500 ml / 16.9 US fl ounces whipping or double cream [panna da montare if you are in Italy]
50 gr / 2 oz very finely chopped chocolate

On the evening before you are going to make the semifreddo and two days before you want to serve it, marinate all the fruits overnight in the liqueur.  The next day, line a large pudding dish with clingfilm, leaving plenty of overlap as you will be able to use this to pull the semifreddo out when it has set.  Then put the biscuits in a freezer bag, clip it at one end and bash the biscuits into crumbs with a rolling pin.

Now beat the egg yolks with the sugar in a small basin. Next, whip the cream to stiff peaks and do the same with the eggs, in separate bowls.  Now mix the egg yolks and sugar, egg whites and whipped cream together with a metal spoon.  Add the fruits, liqueur, chocolate and most of the biscuit crumbs. [You only need to keep back enough to sprinkle over the top, which will become the base.]  Spoon the mixture into the prepared basin, smooth the top with a palette knife and sprinkle over the remaining biscuit crumbs.  

Fold the overlapping clingfilm across the top and wrap the whole basin in foil.  Put it in the freezer for 8 hours or overnight. You should be able to turn the semifreddo out easily, just by pulling it out with the overlapping film, then being brave and inverting it onto a plate quickly.  Decorate the top as you wish and cut into slices to serve.

Enjoy!