Sunday 9 April 2017

Semifreddo alle Mandorle

I ate this dessert at the Hotel Baia di Ulisse in San Leone in Sicily and I was impressed. It tasted great and I knew I wanted to recreate it. But it looked like a muffin on the plate and it was still hard frozen.


I checked Italian recipes and I found some and with the help of Google translater I wrote it down. It said simple, but time was 1 hour. And I can assure you, you will need 1 hour when your are organized, otherwise it will take a bit more time. A lot of bowls, a pan and a blender will get dirty during that preparation. Have an empty dishwasher on hand!
But the all work is worth it, it tastes amazing and was even better then the one I had at the Hotel. My friends were impressed too.

recipe:
3 fresh eggs
250 g powdered sugar
150 g pulverized vanilla sugar
500 g double cream
250 g unpeeled almonds
50 g Nutella
3 drops almond essence  (optional)
a bit of grated Tonka bean  (optional)


In a small bowl soak the almonds for 30 minutes, drain.
In a wide pan melt 1/3 of the powdered sugar and make a medium caramel, add the almonds and coat them well.
Use a silicon mat and spread the coated almonds out to cool.
Use strong blender and chuck in the vanilla sugar and make a powder out of it, fill into a small bowl.
In the same- unwashed- blender, chuck in the almonds and blitz them up until they are like chopped nuts- not to coarse - not to fine!
Put the ground up nuts in a bowl and mix with the Nutella and the almond extract and Tonka bean and let it rest 20 minutes.

Seperate the eggs.
The egg yolk gets beaten with the rest of the powdered sugar until it is 3 times the volume.
The egg whites in a very clean bowl (best wiped with lemon juice- do not forget to wipe the beaters)
until stiff peaks, add the pulverized vanilla sugar and beat again until soft peaks.
Beat the double cream in a 3. bowl until soft peaks.

 

Mix the egg yolk cream with the nuts, it will get a bit stiff.
Loosen it with a 3. of the double cream, then add the rest of the cream.
Fold in the egg white Merengue.


Use a container lined with clingfilm and fill the mix in. Freeze for 4 hours or over night.

Before serving, let it come back to semi frozen state and serve on top a bit of Nutella swipe on the plate.

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