My Semifreddo is Hot! Semifreddo al ribes rosso ( Red Currant, Biscuit and Vanilla Flavour Semifreddo)

I come from a city on the Adriatic Coast, where, though you would be able to grow figs, dates and even bananas, it's so hot, you'd never ever would grow a red, a white or a black currant. A colder climate suits currants better.

I like the beauty of red currants: the tiny little translucent berries look as if they were made from very expensive Murano glass. Red currants are like tiny, shiny rubies. So beautiful! "Too beautiful to eat" I thought the first time I saw them...



I bought a large punnet of red currants, which someone had grown in their garden and wanted to use them to make something really pretty and Italian and... yes, I actually found a semifreddo recipe where one of the delicious ingredients was... red currants!

I love semifreddo, even just plain, vanilla flavoured semifreddo. This recipe combines the creamy sweetness of vanilla cream semifreddo with the gorgeous taste and colour of red currants.



It's easy to make and it will be the last sweet I make and post for a while, as I already have posted a lot of "sweet" recipes. The thing is: taking photos of cakes, biscuits and pastries is so much fun!

Il mio semifreddo preferito al ribes rosso

(My favourite Red Currant Semifreddo)

Ingredients:

(Makes 5-6 slices)

4,5 dl ( just over 3/4 of a pint) fresh whipping or double cream

100g (4 oz) icing (confectioner's) sugar

50 g ( 2 oz) biscuits (any kind you like!)

few drops vanilla extract

150 g ( 5 oz) red currants

  

To crystallized currants for garnish:

a few small bunches of red currant 

1 tbs sugar

the white of one egg

Before you begin, you need to get rid of all the stalks on your currants. The quickest way is to run a fork through the bunchlets, as if you were "combing " them. Alternately, you can pick every berry, like you do with grapes.

Next, crumble your biscuits very roughly ( don't make it into thin crumble) next, whip your cream, then fold your icing sugar into it and add a few drops of vanilla extract.



Divide the cream between two cold bowls: pour the biscuits into one bowl and the currants into the other, to create two different textures, flavours and colours. You can puree the berries if you like. I didn't, as I didn't want to crush the pips. I still got a delicate pink mixture with a fantastic taste.

You now have two lots of cream and they both taste delicious! I know, because I tasted them!

 

Line a bread or plum cake tin with cling film, make sure you have some overlapping, on the outside of the tin. Make layers of pink and white cream (I made two layers) Cover with cling film and freeze for at least 4 hours.

I had a lot of berries, so I decided to make a coulis to go with my semifreddo. I put 200g of berries in a pan with a couple of tablespoons of water and 3 tbsp of sugar. I cooked on a moderate heat for a few minutes, then sieved. I ended up with a silky, ruby red thick sauce, liquid enough to be poured. As this is a creamy pudding, I decided to also serve it with my home made crunchy flower biscuits. The recipe I used for these is the same as my crostata dough. If I had not forgotten them in the oven, I wouldn't have burnt half of them! Mummy's girl...

Coulis and biscuits

Semifreddo is a fantastic Summer and Winter pudding, as, at Christmas time you could use cranberries instead of red currants and then decorate your semifreddo so it looks like something that Rossetti would have painted, being as decadent as he was! I so love looking at things which look beautiful!

My Semifreddo really looks "Hot!"