Saturday 20 July 2013

You have been hacked - Lavender & Chocolate Semifreddo

Have you been hacked? No, I'm not talking about your Twitter or Facebook account, nor about your blog in the way that they have been hacked and strange posts appear. By that standard, my blog must have been hacked quite some time ago.
However, you might be hacked in another way. If you believe, you can only be happy when you buy certain brands, you have been hacked. If you believe, you need a lot of money on your bank account in order to be secure, you have been hacked. If you believe, that people need to be able to contact you anytime and anyplace, you have been hacked. 
We just could go on while talking about things that the system wants to make you believe you need to have it or do it in order to find real happiness. That is not going to happen that way.


Lets go on a bit more. If you believe that you need ice cream when it's hot outside, you have been hacked ... due to various reasons:
  1. You could have a sorbet or semifreddo as well. 
  2. You can have ice cream anytime. In fact, it is better to have a large portion of it, when it's not so hot, so it doesn't melt away so far. 
  3. You might simply enjoy the heat as it is.
  4. You can have ice cream anytime. What? I already mentioned that. Well, can't be said often enough.
Then you might be hacked as well, if you believe in just the usual standard flavours for ice cream. Why not use something slightly different ... hm ... lavender.


You are about to enjoy some lovely Lavender & Chocolate Semifreddo. I got the idea for it in the first place due to the theme of this month's We Should Cocoa, which is ice cream.


While being at it, I which to contribute it to other challenges, too. There is another lovely sounding challenge at Kavey Eats: Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream. Currently it's about herbs. So, here we go.

IceCreamChallenge

Herbs, I said, so we simply can't miss the Cooking with Herbs challenge from Karen over at Lavender & Lovage (double reason to join with this post).

Cooking with Herbs


Now, really finally, we can go on with the recipe for Lavender & Chocolate Semifreddo.


Ingredients (simply double or triple or ... you know):
The buds from three stems of lavender
1 tbs water
50 g sugar
50 g shavings, chunks and crumbles of chocolate
2 eggs
A pinch of salt
200 ml cream

The making of it:
You already see, there are not too many ingredients. So, how hard can it be?
I simple went to the garden and cut down some lavender.
Take the buds from the lavender and start working on them in a mortar. Add two teaspoons of the sugar and the water. Turn it into a thick green liquid.
Now I am sure, you want to use some fresh eggs. Although I had some eggs ready, I waited until I got some fresh ones. After all, we don't want to take any risks for the eggs remain uncooked.


Accordingly, we separate the eggs. Have the egg whites in a separate bowl and mix the egg yolks with the remaining sugar, the lovely green liquid and the chocolate.
There is not much more left to do. Let the egg whites enjoy a pinch of salt and then whisk them until they pass the turn over test. If you turn the bowl over upside down and the egg whites fall out ... you have lost. If not ... you win ... respectively.
Spoon the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk bowl. Now the egg white bowl is free again to whip the cream. Do your best, but don't go so far the fat gets separated from the cream. Otherwise ... you have lost. However, we all want you to ... win.
The whipped cream goes to the large bowl, too. Carefully make all the ingredients to become one. We want it to be light and slightly ... fluffy.


At this point we don't have any kind of freddo, not even semifreddo. In order to get it real freddo, really cold, we have to put it into the freezer for some hours. Due to that, if you have the space in your freezer, rather do at least the double amount.
Ah, you are not sure about it, whether it is worth it. To tell the truth, I simply imagined it would be nice and lovely, but couldn't be 100% sure. I had more cream and eggs at my disposal. I thought, maybe I have to try another flavour combination ... apart from not having enough space in my freezer.


In the end, I don't have to try another flavour combination, although I could. Hm ... I might be hacked by myself, but I believe the Lavender & Chocolate Semifreddo really tastes gorgeous ... but then again I am a lavender person.

12 comments:

  1. What a delicious alternative to ice cream! I love how simple it is to make and the combination of chocolate with lavender must be heavenly...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, thank you, the hardest part really is to wait for the freezer to do its job. Well, I would 100% say so, that this combination is heavenly. So I have to behave now and still leave some of the semifreddo in the freezer and have it another day.

      Delete
  2. Yes I think people are far too conforming in many ways... great intro!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much, good to hear that you like the introduction.

      Delete
  3. What an interesting idea ... May have to give it a go :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Let me know, how you like it, then.

      Delete
  4. Another wonderful post Chris and I think you've not been hacked and come up with a win win ice-cream flavour. Love chocolate and lavender together. I've never made semifreddo, but it is on my to do list. Thanks for joining in with We Should Cocoa :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Choclette. I really should make some more of it. I really liked it very much, even better than the mint liqueur chocolate one I tried afterwards and still have a bit in the freezer of. Indeed, it was really a joy to join We Should Cocoa once more.

      Delete
  5. I've always wanted to try making semifreddo. It seems pretty easy and yours looks delicious!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Yes, it's so easy ... unless you try a bit more advanced flavour combination.

      Delete
  6. BEEEEEAUTIFUL and you KNOW how much I LOVE lavender! What a fabulous recipe and your photos are simply stunning Chris! Karen xxxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Yes, the fact, that you love lavender somehow came to my mind, when I wrote this post and originally had some further ideas for this post, but I couldn't put it the right way.

      Delete

Why not leave a comment!? I love to receive messages.