Semifreddo!

This is my first food post! Horray! Anyone who knows me, knows that I absolutely love to cook. (my husband loves my food, but hates that I use approx 15 pots and pans and bowls in order to accomplish my meals). This dessert was certainly no exception!! I used 4 pots, 5 bowls, 1 food processor, 2 electric mixers, and lots of small bowls and strainers to complete this feat of culinary delicious-ness!

I made a semifreddo. What is this you ask?! It is an amazing mousse-like Italian dessert. It is equal parts ice cream (usually gelato) and whipped cream folded together and usually frozen in layers. I made mine pistachio (my fav), strawberry and vanilla-honey.

This was by far the most complicated recipe I have even made and it wasn't easy! I made each layer from scratch. The pistachio layer being the most difficult. I hand-shelled all the pistachios and then chopped them in the food processor with a bit of sugar. The next step was to boil the pistachios in a little bit of whole milk and then let them soak in for 20 minutes. Afterwards I had to strain out the pistachio bits, and voila! Homemade pistachio "flavoring".

I repeated the same steps for the vanilla and strawberry (except that the strawberry as no added milk). The next and most difficult step was the beat 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of sugar together in a metal bowl over top of a pot simmering with about 3/4 in of water, all while keeping the bowl from actually touching the water. I beat them for about 6 minutes until the mixture tripled in size. Then folded it into the pistachio, strawberry and vanilla separately.

The final ingredient was to beat heavy whipping cream and fold it into the 3 mixtures. Then pour the pistachio first in to a loaf pan and freeze for 45 minutes. Then gently pour the strawberry on top, followed by the vanilla after 45 minutes. Freeze for 4 hours before serving.

AND boy was it worth the wait! It turned out light and fluffy like a frozen mousse! The pistachio was the most smooth. The strawberry was a bit icy because it was not mixed with any milk. I would highly recommend to anyone who likes to experiment with cooking to make one of these! I love a frozen dessert, especially one that does not require an ice cream maker to create it =).