As regular readers will know, I love ice cream but when it comes to making heat-busting dishes at home, I would much rather make a semifreddo than an ice cream. A few days ago, inspired by some of the unusual gelati I've tasted at the Caffè Sicilia in Noto and having, for the first time, found candied [not crystallised] ginger here, I decided to see if I could concoct a semifreddo based on this ingredient. Here's what I did:
Ingredients
200 gr candied ginger
6 savoiardi [lady's finger] biscuits
500 ml double or whipping cream [panna da montare if you are in Italy]
50 gr caster sugar
Grated zest of 1 orange
a few drops of cannella [cinnamon] liqueur or orange liqueur
10 twists of cinnamon from a mill or a teasp powdered cinnamon, plus extra to decorate
Method
Line a 2lb loaf tin - preferably an elongated, rather than a deep one - with cling-film [plastic wrap] making sure there is an overlap.Then chop the 200 gr candied ginger as small as you can. The easiest way is to use a kitchen scissors.
Next, put the savoiardi in a freezer bag, clip the top of the bag and bash the biscuits into crumbs with a rolling pin. [I like this bit!]
Now whip the cream up to the soft peak stage with a hand mixer and add the caster sugar. Mix it well with a metal spoon.
Add the savoiardi crumbs and chopped candied ginger to the cream mixture with the grated orange zest, liqueur and milled or powdered cinnamon and mix it all together.
Spoon it all into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a palette knife.
Bring the overlapping clingfilm in to partly cover the edges and cover the whole tin with more cling-film. Then wrap it in foil. Put in the freezer for at least 8 hours.
Turn the semifreddo out onto a long plate - it should come out easily - and decorate. Slice to serve.
Note: If you are in the UK, you could use drained, preserved stem ginger for this recipe.
4 comments:
Gosh, this sounds absolutely heavenly and I think I could easily devour the entire thing in one evening.
Looks very good. I made an ice cream bombe on Sunday with chocolate ice cream in the middle and raspberry sorbet around the outside. I forgot to line the bowl with cling film but my dear husband managed to extract it from the bowl intact, having placed it in hot water for a few minutes.
I would much rather make a semifreddo than an ice cream.
Your icecream is delish.
Thanks, Carmen. I was rather pleased with it, I must say. Thanks, WW. I do so miss raspberries. Well done, hubby! Thank you kindly, dear James.
Post a Comment