Georgina Hayden’s spectacular baklava semifreddo has a crunchy, caramelised filo top and fragrant ricotta and rosewater base. It’s frozen dessert heaven.
Georgina says: “I’d say this ice cream is more for a pudding than scooping on a cone (though by all means try it). Take it out of the freezer a good 30 minutes before you want to serve it and turn it out onto a serving board. The caramelised filo bottom becomes an attractive top, and you can scatter it with more nuts if you like, or even an extra drizzle of honey. The texture the filo gets in the freezer is so pleasing.”
Recipe taken from Greekish by Georgina Hayden (Bloomsbury £26) and tested by delicious.
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Ingredients
- 70g unsalted butter
- 1⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 100g caster sugar
- 6 filo sheets
- 75g walnuts
- 500g ricotta
- 1 tbsp rosewater
- 400ml double cream
- 1 lemon
- 100g honey
Specialist kit
- 900g loaf tin
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Method
- Heat your oven to 180°C fan/ gas 6. Melt the butter in a pan (or in a heatproof bowl in a microwave). Mix the cinnamon with 40g of the sugar. Brush the filo sheets with the butter one by one, then sprinkle each with one-sixth of the cinnamon- sugar mixture. Scrunch each sheet into ‘waves’ or loose rosettes in a baking tray. Finely chop the walnuts and scatter over the top. Put in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until crisp and golden-brown all over. Remove and leave to cool.
- When the filo and nuts are cool, scrunch it all up in the tray so you have a mixture of medium and small pieces to stir into the ice cream; it’s nice if some bits are clumpy. Line the loaf tin with cling film, leaving an overhang all around so you can fold it back over the filling. Sprinkle in enough filo mixture to cover the bottom of the tin, setting the rest aside.
- Whizz the ricotta, the remaining 60g sugar and the rosewater in a food processor until just combined and glossy. Whip the cream in a large mixing bowl until soft peaks form (that flop over when you remove the whisk), then fold in the ricotta mixture using a large metal spoon in a figure-of-eight motion. Finely grate in the lemon zest and drizzle in the honey. Fold in most of the remaining filo. Spoon into the prepared tin, fold over the cling film and press gently on top, then freeze for at least 6 hours before serving.
- To serve, bring out of the freezer and leave at room temperature for at least
15 minutes (ideally 30). Turn out the ice cream loaf onto a board, scatter with the reserved toasted and crushed filo and serve in slices.
Nutrition
- 644kcals Calories
- 47g (26g saturated) Fat
- 20g Protein
- 35g (20g sugars) Carbs
- 1.5g Fibre
- 1.8g Salt
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