RICH. CREAMY. WITH BURSTS OF CHOCOLATE
Classic raspberries and cream frozen into a semifreddo loaf
with little bursts of dark chocolate.
A semifreddo is a class of half frozen ice-cream like dessert, the literal translation from italian being ‘half-cold’. I had my Mum to dinner a few weeks ago, and served this iced raspberry cream with keto chocolate brownies (made from a store bought mix!), and it got the Mom seal of approval. That’s what we all want isn’t it!
Yes, this is literally just frozen raspberries, blitzed but still frozen, whipped into whipped cream and poured into a loaf tin with little splinters of dark chocolate between layers. Raspberry and cream really needs little more in the way of flavour or sweetness – just a little dark chocolate drama and it’s good to go.
What I love most about this is I enjoy it without going back for more. That’s right! I’m a total ice-cream freak, so this is important to me. The raspberries make it sweet enough to enjoy, but not sweet enough to eat a bucket loads worth, and the richness of the cream makes one slice more than enough.
To make this you do need a high speed blender or food processor, to give the whole frozen raspberries a single turbo blitz to blitz them into little pieces, but not a slush. The rest is just beating the cream, then beating everything, and pouring.
I want to emphasise this is an iced-cream, not an ice-cream. It’s served when just frozen – semifreddo! Keto ice cream is another days post. Once poured, this loaf needs about 1.5hrs in the freezer to become firmer before serving. (That’s assuming it was at a soft serve texture going into freezer). If not serving at that stage, it should be sliced before freezing fully and then thawed for about 1.5 hours before serving – again, that time will vary depending on where you live – the 1.5 hours is an Irish cool spring day.
The pinch of salt in this recipe helps keep a little softness to the loaf, but if you want a more scoopable texture, add 2-3 tsp vodka or some allulose, which will lower the freezing temperature and give a softer iced-cream. Experiment with that if it works for you, it doesn’t add any more carbs.
Serve with brownies or with keto meringues if you need to add extras.
Raspberry Cream Semifreddo
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups double cream (or heavy cream / whipping cream) 12 fl oz
- 2 cups frozen raspberries
- 30g dark chocolate (84% or more)
- 1 tsp coconut oil optional
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Line a 2lb loaf tin (9 inch x 5 x 2) with greaseproof paper.
- Melt the chocolate and coconut oil over a double boiler.
- Whip the cream with an electric hand beater until soft peaks form and it's doubled in size. You should have 3 cups of cream now.
- Blitz the frozen berries in a blender until just broken but still completely frozen.
- Add the berries to the cream and beat on slow until the berries have combined and the cream is pink, with a few berry pieces still dotted here and there. (You can do this by hand with a spatula if you prefer). Your mix should be the consistency of a soft serve icecream now.
- Sprinkle a pinch of salt on and mix.
- Spoon a layer of the cream and raspberry mix into the prepared tin. Tap on counter to level.
- Drizzle a teaspoon of melted chocolate all over this layer. Keep the drizzle thin and use lots of thin lines instead of fewer thick ones.
- Repeat with another 3 layers so you've 4 layers in total and finish with a chocolate drizzle layer.
- Freeze this mix for about 1.5 hours, until semi solid and serve. (Adjust this time if you live in a super hot country, where your mix is less solid going into freezer)
- Unmould, slice and serve or slice in the tin at this stage if you are leaving for another day.
- Can you sub some yogurt or use vegan cream? Yes you can use vegan cream, I have. Yogurt is fine also, but keep to about 1/3 of final cream volume, as it does affect texture, particularly if leaving frozen and not serving after first freeze.
- If making in advance, leave plenty thaw time or consider individual sized loaves or silicone cupcake cases. My thaw time is based on Ireland in the spring, we're about 8C (46F)
- If you do want to make this more scoopable, and are serving to adults, 2-3 tsp vodka or some allulose will lower the freezing temperature so it doesn't get as hard. Do not be tempted to use e.g. erythritol or any other low carb sugar, which will freeze to rock hard at a higher temperature.
