Semifreddo is a frozen dessert that is somewhere between a mousse and an ice cream, made with a flavored base of whipped cream and egg white meringue. It is lighter in texture than ice cream and requires no churning, just some time in the freezer to set up. I like it because it is easy to make, it looks very elegant and it melts quickly into the lightest, creamiest dessert you can imagine once it hits your tongue. The name means “half-cold,”  and while this is usually said to describe the fact that there are lots of mix-ins in semifreddi, like nuts, fruits, chocolates and cookies. I used cookies in this recipe, adding the chocolate and crunch of Tim Tams into the ultra-light vanilla base of the semifreddo.

Tim Tams are a hugely popular Australian cookie that consists of a layer of chocolate mousse sandwiched between two layers of crispy chocolate biscuits, all of which is dunked in chocolate. Pepperidge Farms released them in the US earlier this year, and I’m not sure if they’re still available, but I regularly find them at stores that specialize in imports, like Cost Plus World Market. Typically, I eat these one at a time with a cup of coffee and do the Tim Tam slam. It was a little bit of a sacrifice to put almost a whole package into this dessert, but the result was well worth it. The crunchy, chocolaty cookies held up amazingly well in the creamy semifreddo and the chocolate mousse stayed just soft enough to melt in my mouth along with the dessert base.

If you can’t find Tim Tams, you can use other types of cookies. Oreos, Thin Mints or other similar crunchy chocolate cookies are great choices. Oreos have the bonus of a cream filled center that adds even more texture and flavor to the dessert. Feel free to experiment, but if you’re not using Tim Tams this time around, keep your eyes out for a package because they’re just right. This recipe calls for uncooked eggs, so if you’re uncomfortable using them, look for pasturized eggs. I used Safe Choice eggs, which are pasturized in the shell, in this recipe, but I’ve made it using completely uncooked eggs in the past.
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Yogurt can be a great ingredient in popsicles because it can help build a creamy base for a pop. Popsicles made with juice alone tend to be a little on the icy side and the yogurt mitigates that, giving the treat a much smoother melt and richer mouthfeel. Still, a popsicle should be refreshing (or you’d just have ice cream, right?), so I used fresh lemon juice to give a lemonade zip to these popsicles.

The popsicle mixture has just lemon juice, sugar and plain yogurt. Vanilla yogurt will work, too,. Regardless of which flavor yogurt you wish to work with, I recommend using a low fat version over a nonfat because the consistency will be slightly better. It won’t be bad with the nonfat, but it might be a tiny bit icier to bite into (the melt is still pretty good, though). I basically just heated the lemon juice, dissolved the sugar in it and then mixed the strong “lemonade” into the yogurt before freezing. The pops are zesty and refreshing, with a slight yogurt tang that goes well with the lemon. Lime also works well in these.

My popsicle molds hold just about 3-oz each. It may vary widely by shape and manufacturer. I used Tovolo Rocket Pop Molds, which I like because of their fantastic shape and good overall design. So, in light of sizing differences, be aware that you might need a bit more or a bit less of the yogurt mixture to make your popsicles.

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July is National Ice Cream month, and the third Sunday of the month is National Ice Cream Day. Both of these are good reasons to make ice cream - as though the heat of summer weren’t enough on its own - so I spent the afternoon of my National Ice Cream Day making a batch of vanilla gelato at home. “Gelato” is the Italian word for ice cream and, like American ice cream, there is no single standard recipe for what it is. It is know for having a denser, softer texture than ice cream, in addition to being made in more and bolder flavors.

This recipe appeals to me because it is incredibly simple. You don’t need to cook anything in advance or wait for anything to chill before pouring it into an ice cream maker. It has just three ingredients: milk, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. The sweetened condensed milk adds plenty of sweetness to the gelato and also helps to make the finished product a little richer. That said, this recipe is a little bit less rich than a similar ice cream might be because it uses milk, not heavy cream, alongside the sweetened condensed milk. This gelato will work with lowfat milk (I did not try it with nondairy milks), but as you lower the fat content, you will also loose a little bit of creaminess in the finished product. The gelato will still be smooth and have a great melt-in-your-mouth texture to it, and it shouldn’t get too hard or icy in the freezer, but it will just be slightly less smooth than a batch made with whole milk.

I used vanilla extract to get the vanilla flavor into the gelato, but you can also scrape a vanilla bean directly into the milk mixture if you prefer to get a vanilla bean look. The vanilla flavor is wonderful, bold and fragrant. It stands alone very well, but could also be served with fresh fruit, a fruit cobbler or with cake.
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These Chocolate-Dipped Ice Cream Cream Puffs pretty much explain themselves. They’re cream puffs that are filled with ice cream and dipped in chocolate. The cream puffs themselves are not hard to make, but they look so cute when they’re done, that these simple frozen treats look pretty impressive. If you’ve made cream puffs before, you’ll know that they come out of them oven a little crisp on the outside. The cream puffs loose a little bit of their just-baked crispiness when frozen, but these are such a tasty treat to pull out of the freezer that it just doesn’t matter.

I dip these in chocolate before I freeze them, making the chocolate shell nice and crunchy when I’m ready to eat. This also makes eating the cream puffs a pretty non-messy affair, even considering the prospect of the ice cream melting if you eat too slowly. To make the dessert a little more interactive, you can serve undipped cream puffs with melted chocolate (i.e. fondue-style) or with some fudge sauce and let your family and friends dip to their hearts’ content.

These will keep in the freezer for at least a couple of weeks and can be made with any kind of ice cream you like. The recipe below makes smaller, easy-to-hold cream puffs. If you want to go big, double the size of each ball of dough and double the baking time.
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Even since I had an amazingly delicious coconut ice cream in Paris, I’ve wanted to make up a batch of it at home. That ice cream was amazing, creamy and full of shredded coconut. There are lots of coconut ice cream recipes out there to choose from, but since I wanted to maximize the coconut flavor in mine, I wanted to choose a recipe that used coconut milk, either in addition to cream or instead of it. I ended up trying the coconut ice cream from The Vegan Scoop. The cookbook is all vegan/nondairy ice creams and their coconut caught my eye because it only used coconut milk (not soy milk and, being a vegan book, obviously not any cream), as well as shredded coconut.

The ice cream was easy to make and turned out to be delicious. It was creamy and smooth, and seemed to taste a little lighter and more refreshing than some other coconut ice creams I’ve tried. It froze and softened up again (for seconds) nicely, without getting icy or turning into a sorbet-like consistency. The ice cream uses arrowroot starch as a thickener, not eggs. You could get away with using cornstarch as a thickener in its place if you don’t want to buy a batch just to try this recipe. That said, if you’re planning to try others from the book - they all look good - it might be worth picking up a small bag, since all the recipes call for this thickener.

I made a few small changes to the recipe as it was written. I used 800 ml coconut milk instead of the 825 ml called for in the original recipe because my cans of coconut milk each hold 400 ml, and I didn’t want to open another can just for a few tablespoons of liquid. I didn’t add coconut extract, as was suggested to boost the coconut flavor, to see how the natural flavor stood out on its own. I also doubled the amount of shredded coconut that I mixed into the ice cream. I love the chewiness that the coconut adds and you can’t beat the flavor. Unsweetened and sweetened coconut will both work in this recipe. It’s not particularly sweet on its own, and sweetened coconut will not make it too sweet if you choose to use it.
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One of the reasons that I love living in California is that phrases like “I have a surplus of ripe avocados” are pretty commonly uttered in my kitchen. I love avocados and use them all the time on sandwiches, in salads and in guacamole. I often eat them plain, with just a sprinkle of salt if I get a really good one. I’m often tempted to turn them into a sweet dessert, as it is frequently done in Central and South America, but I almost always turn back to a savory dish in the end.

Almost.

This is an avocado ice cream and, while it may share its color with some savory avocado dishes, it is definitely a dessert dish. The ice cream is made by pureeing avocados with some sugar, milk and half-and-half. A food processor works best for this, as it does an excellent job blending everything together and making sure that all of the sugar is well-incorporated into the ice cream base. I added some rum, for a little flavoring and because a small amount of alcohol will help to lower the freezing point of the mixture, making it softer in the freezer, and a little bit of vanilla extract. You could leave out the alcohol, if you like, but your ice cream may not be quite as creamy once it has been stored in the freezer.

The finished product is a very creamy sorbet, with a definite splash of rum and vanilla, and the slightest aftertaste of avocado. it’s not quite as creamy as an ice cream, but much smoother than most fruit-based sorbets. I think that if the ice cream wasn’t green, you might get away with pretending the avocado isn’t in there at all. The ice cream is good on its own, but gets even better if you introduce a little bit of texture to it. I found that chopped pistachios looked great on top of the ice cream and added a nice crunch, as well as a little bit of a toasty flavor. The ice cream also went fabulously with hot fudge sauce, which seemed to really bring out the rum notes in the dessert.
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