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For this purple dessert I've combined two purple powerhouses: lavender and blueberry. In spite of the name, blueberries are distinctly purple once they are cooked. Those pesky, unstable fruit pigments are so fickle. But the combination of blueberries and lavender is not just for color, the floral notes of lavender compliment blueberries' robust character magnificently.
Semifreddos (transl: semi-frozen) are a wonderful dessert, and an especially wonderful way to make a frozen treat without an ice cream machine. Cream (and sometimes egg whites) are whipped, folded into a sweet, flavored base and then frozen. You can shape a semifreddo with just about anything you want-- ,muffin tins, a loaf pan, paper coffee cups. Just line the mold with plastic wrap, fill with your beautiful whipped filling and a few hours later you'll have an elegant frozen treat. Semifreddos are at their best when they are served with a contrasting warm element. For this dish, I've kept some of the blueberries warm to contrast the cold of the semifreddo. And I added a walnut streusel for just a little crunch and a delicious nutty flavor. Hope this decadent dessert helps you beat the heat and enjoy summer's bounty.
For those interested in further reading, I've been inspired to play along with the rainbow contest, and I've been cooking up a whole bunch of colorful dishes. You can check out other colorful recipes at my blog, www.kitchentablescraps.com. The attached pdf is simply the recipe, in a printer-friendly format.
Lavender Blueberry Semifreddo
Ingredients:
2 ½ t. dried or fresh lavender flowers
1 t. loose leaf earl grey tea or one bag of earl grey tea
2/3 c. sugar
1 c. water
pinch salt
1 pt. blueberries
½ t. corn starch
1 ½ - 2 c. whipping cream
Walnut Streusel:
S c. walnuts
¼ c. brown sugar
¼ c. butter
¼ c. flour
pinch salt
Yield:
6 servings
.
Semifreddos (transl: semi-frozen) are a wonderful dessert, and an especially wonderful way to make a frozen treat without an ice cream machine. Cream (and sometimes egg whites) are whipped, folded into a sweet, flavored base and then frozen. You can shape a semifreddo with just about anything you want-- ,muffin tins, a loaf pan, paper coffee cups. Just line the mold with plastic wrap, fill with your beautiful whipped filling and a few hours later you'll have an elegant frozen treat. Semifreddos are at their best when they are served with a contrasting warm element. For this dish, I've kept some of the blueberries warm to contrast the cold of the semifreddo. And I added a walnut streusel for just a little crunch and a delicious nutty flavor. Hope this decadent dessert helps you beat the heat and enjoy summer's bounty.
For those interested in further reading, I've been inspired to play along with the rainbow contest, and I've been cooking up a whole bunch of colorful dishes. You can check out other colorful recipes at my blog, www.kitchentablescraps.com. The attached pdf is simply the recipe, in a printer-friendly format.
Lavender Blueberry Semifreddo
Ingredients:
2 ½ t. dried or fresh lavender flowers
1 t. loose leaf earl grey tea or one bag of earl grey tea
2/3 c. sugar
1 c. water
pinch salt
1 pt. blueberries
½ t. corn starch
1 ½ - 2 c. whipping cream
Walnut Streusel:
S c. walnuts
¼ c. brown sugar
¼ c. butter
¼ c. flour
pinch salt
Yield:
6 servings
.
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Signing UpStep 1Poach Blueberries & Make Syrup
Make Lavender Syrup:
Place lavender, tea sugar and water together in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let infuse for 10 minutes. Strain out the lavender and tea.
Make Streusel:
Toast walnuts in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Reduce oven heat to 300°F. Set aside to cool. Cut butter, brown sugar, flour and salt together until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Chop the walnuts and add to the streusel. Spread the streusel mix out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the streusel is lightly browned and crisp. Stir and rotate the sheet once during baking.
Poach Blueberries:
Bring the strained syrup to a boil and add in the blueberries. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the blueberries to poach for 10-15 minutes, until tender. Strain syrup, in all likelihood a few blueberries will have broken down in cooking and left the syrup purple. If not crush a few blueberries into the syrup and strain out the skins. (You want a little fruit in the syrup) Place the syrup over high heat and boil for 5 minutes. The syrup should reduce and slightly thicken. Mix ½ t. corn starch with 1 t. cold water. Add the corn starch slurry to the boiling syrup and cook for one minute, stirring constantly while the syrup boils. Measure out 1/3 c. of the blueberry syrup (this should be most of it). Pour the 1/3 c. syrup into a bowl, cover and refrigerate until cold. If you are making the semifreddo immediately, place the bowl of syrup in an ice water bath to cool it down more quickly. Pour the rest of the syrup in with the blueberries.
Place lavender, tea sugar and water together in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let infuse for 10 minutes. Strain out the lavender and tea.
Make Streusel:
Toast walnuts in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Reduce oven heat to 300°F. Set aside to cool. Cut butter, brown sugar, flour and salt together until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Chop the walnuts and add to the streusel. Spread the streusel mix out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the streusel is lightly browned and crisp. Stir and rotate the sheet once during baking.
Poach Blueberries:
Bring the strained syrup to a boil and add in the blueberries. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the blueberries to poach for 10-15 minutes, until tender. Strain syrup, in all likelihood a few blueberries will have broken down in cooking and left the syrup purple. If not crush a few blueberries into the syrup and strain out the skins. (You want a little fruit in the syrup) Place the syrup over high heat and boil for 5 minutes. The syrup should reduce and slightly thicken. Mix ½ t. corn starch with 1 t. cold water. Add the corn starch slurry to the boiling syrup and cook for one minute, stirring constantly while the syrup boils. Measure out 1/3 c. of the blueberry syrup (this should be most of it). Pour the 1/3 c. syrup into a bowl, cover and refrigerate until cold. If you are making the semifreddo immediately, place the bowl of syrup in an ice water bath to cool it down more quickly. Pour the rest of the syrup in with the blueberries.
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In that regard a little help for the guy from metric Europe please:
is "T c. sugar" supposed to say 1 c. sugar or is that an abbreviations I'm not familiar with?
Hope you enjoy!
Anyway, many thanks for this great recipe!
Stirring the mixture, (like for ice cream or a granita) will make smaller ice crystals, but the texture once it is frozen solid would be similar, and you risk losing the airiness of the whipped cream. I think that increasing the sugar quantity might be a better method to achieve a softer semifreddo. Try decreasing the amount of cream to 1 1/2 c. or increasing the sugar quantity by a Tablespoon or two. Or you could just use the same flavors to make an ice cream:)
I edited the recipe a little to allow for some fine tuning of the texture. Slight differences in the temperature of freezers, or of the kitchen can make a huge difference in the texture of a frozen dessert. The whole process is very inexact, it is very helpful to hear how it went for other cooks!
Increasing the quantity of sugar will make a frozen dessert softer (it lowers the freezing point). The texture of this dessert has a number of tricky factors- first, it contains fresh fruit. The sugar content of fresh fruit is variable, so a batch of sweeter blueberries would make a slightly softer semifreddo. I also inadvertently made it a little difficult to get a precise quantity of sugar, because the sugar is mixed with a liquid, then reduced, so there are lots of places that the quantity could get a little off.
My final tip is that leaving the semifreddo out at room temperature is absolutely a necessary step. I know it’s hard to wait, but the texture really improves.