Anindya writes– There is something about the desserts. For my regular readers, it is a well known fact that I have never been a fan of desserts. I grew up in Chandannagore which is as famous for its Tele Bhaja (deep fried goodness) and for the Jolbhora Sandesh of Surya Modak. The latter indeed deserves a special post altogether as this is one sweet which is a century old and has almost become synonymous with the city. However, I have never been very fond of desserts. Barely 4 to 5 sweets have been my personal favourite and the only point when I used to have sweets was when every evening, the local sweet seller used to come to our locality with a cane box or tokra as they call it in hindi and used to shout Khabar Khabar (Food – in English). The thrill was in finding out what fresh and new sweets his cane box would be filled with every day and my favourite was an amriti or mouchak. Now when I look back, I think I have always favoured sweets having different layers and textures.

Madhushree writes– I loved desserts since time immemorial. If there is one example of someone growing up with a sweet tooth, that is me. My early childhood was spent in Port Blair, where one would not get much or any variety of sweets. My mother would make desserts and bakes which were pretty basic, but I totally enjoyed them. And during summers, we used to come to Kolkata for holidays and gorge on all possible sweets and ice creams and desserts. As I grew up, I landed up in Goa and started baking myself. That gave me pure pleasure to see and taste the end product. And finally Cardiff gave me the necessary exposure to some complex desserts.

Raspberry Semifreddo 2

The best part in a marriage lies in exploring new things and sharing experiences with each other. Last autumn, as I was sharing stories of the red and brown hues of the autumn leaves all around my campus in Cardiff, I thought of making a dessert inspired by the colour of autumn. Even though in Kolkata, we can barely feel the difference between autumn and summer, we thought of celebrating the season by making a dessert with raspberries. Of course, I had to do with a raspberry pie filling instead of fresh raspberries. However, the dessert had the freshness and the tart of the raspberry which made it a quite indulgent. Presenting Raspberry semifreddo.

Raspberry Semifreddo

Yield: I medium loaf tin

Ingredients:

Raspberry Pie filling * 1 cup Sugar ½ cup
Eggs 3 at room temperature Heavy cream 1 ½ cup
Vanilla ½ tsp Lemon curd 2 tbsp (optional)

 

Method:

  • Separate the eggs and use only the yolks. Take the 3 yolks and the sugar in a bowl and set it on a double boiler. Whisk using an electric hand beater till it becomes pale yellow in colour and has almost tripled in volume.
  • Transfer the bowl over an ice bath and cool down the mixture while stirring continuously.
  • In another large bowl, whip the cream and the vanilla until soft peaks are formed.
  • Whisk a third of the cream mixture in the egg yolks mixture and fold using a spatula until it is all incorporated properly.
  • Pour the raspberry pie filling into the balance of the cream and fold properly
  • At this point I had also added the lemon curd. I had some leftover lemon curd, hence used it. It does add an extra lemony kick. However, one could completely skip this step.
  • Finally add the entire cream mixture with the raspberry into the yolk and cream mixture and fold gently.
  • Pour the mixture into moulds or in a loaf tin which has been lined with some cling film.
  • Cover it and freeze for at least 12 hours.
  • To serve, invert on a plate and slice it, in case it has been poured in a loaf tin.
  • Serve with some extra pie filling and some chocolate crumbs; alternately you could also serve with some pistachio crumbs.

Note: * I used a pie filling, since raspberries are not available in my city. In case you can get fresh raspberries, then make a raspberry sauce using 2 cups of fresh raspberries, 2 tbsp of sugar and some water by simmering over medium heat and then pulsing the entire thing.

Raspberry semifreddo 3