It’s full on summer here in Kiwi-land, where we’re currently enjoying a very temperate 25-30 degrees celsius. I’m quite partial to semifreddos – a semi-frozen Italian dessert that tastes pretty much like ice cream, though the texture isn’t as dense. And, unlike ice cream, you don’t have to make a custard and you don’t have to churn it – in fact it’s surprisingly quick to make.
Given cherries are in their all too brief season, I decided upon this recipe from New Zealand’s Food magazine, (Feb/Mar 2014, Issue 75), which pairs fresh cherries with white chocolate. It’s fair to say that this is a sweet ice cream, but the cherries do provide a nice tart contrast. 
One suggestion I’d make, if you intend to slice this like a cake, is to more finely chop the cherries – the half cherries were a bit bulky and made the slicing a bit challenging. Otherwise, you can always simply scoop the ice cream instead.
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White Chocolate Semifreddo with Cherries
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
Similar to gelato, but without the churning, this cool dessert is sure sweet, but tart cherries bring the perfect touch to round it out. Adapted from New Zealand’s Food magazine.
Ingredients
- 3 eggs (room temperature)
- 100 g 3.5 ounces caster sugar
- 300 ml 10 ounces cream, whipped to soft peaks
- 200 g 7 ounces high quality white chocolate (I used Whittaker’s White Chocolate with Raspberry), plus extra to decorate
- 300 g approx. 2 cups cherries, stoned and halved (or sliced more finely for easier slicing), plus extra to decorate
Instructions
- Line a 1.5 litre loaf pan with plastic wrap, making sure to allow enough to overlap on all sides to fold and cover the top of the semi-freddo.
- In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and caster sugar until the mixture is very thick and pale and about three times the volume – this will take several minutes.
- Fold in the whipped cream and chocolate. Then carefully fold in the chopped cherries until just combined (if you over mix the juice will stain the ice cream giving it a greyish tinge).
- Pour the semi-freddo mixture into the prepared pan and fold over the overhanging plastic wrap. Wrap the whole thing in silver foil for extra protection. Freeze the semi-freddo for several hours, or overnight.
- Turn the semi-freddo out onto a platter and decorate it with extra cherries or shards of white chocolate. Or serve in scoops.
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Italian-Inspired
