Toasted Vanilla and Strawberry Semifreddo

aka strawberries and cream ice cream sandwiches

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This week, I finally got to cook and, more importantly, bake in my new kitchen, and I checked out a new London bakery. Plus, we watched a lot of Wimbledon.

Is the kitchen finally finished? Well, no. Not exactly. When has a builder's estimate ever been accurate? It was, however, finished enough that I could take the kitchen for a spin, enjoy having a dishwasher, and test out the new oven. But, and I hesitate saying this out loud in case there is yet another delay, it should be completely finished early next week! Are you bored of me saying that? Don’t worry, I am also bored of saying it, but more so I am just bored of being told that!

New Bakery

Populations Bakery was, up until a couple weeks ago, a small wholesale bakery operation servicing coffee shop clients around the city. The quality has always been excellent, and I was incredibly excited to hear they were opening a site of their own. Turns out the site is far from the traditional bakery I expected and is actually part of a really fun addition to the London restaurant scene. The bakery has set up shop inside the brand new Corner Shop at 180 Thames, a development hidden away behind Aldwych, in the same building that also houses the excellent Toklas Bakery (must be something in the water). Corner Shop is a mix of deli, cafe, coffee shop and, of course, bakery. I would argue that it is the bakery that is the heart of the operation, with their baking available at the coffee station and in the deli and also used to make dishes in the cafe.

As a fan of Populations baking in the past, I knew to expect pastries made with a variety of stoneground grains for a flavour- and texture-packed experience and ingredients of the highest quality. Thankfully, expectation more than lived up to reality. The baking is of an excellent standard and well worth a visit. I will definitely be a regular going forward. I did also hang around for lunch and got a sandwich made with a warm bread roll (obviously made by Populations Bakery) and was surprised by how ridiculously good the sandwich was. The bread was pillowy and warm, filled generously with hot rotisserie chicken coated in a dijonaisse dressing. So simple but unbelievably delicious. If only I lived around the corner, this would be a regular lunch spot.

For this week's recipe, I wanted to make something loosely related to the Wimbledon finals this weekend, so obviously it needed to revolve around strawberries and cream. My fiancé is tennis mad, and whilst I do enjoy watching the odd match here and there, making dessert that celebrates Wimbledon is obviously more my speed. Because it is also a scorcher of a week, I wanted something frozen because a slice of cake or a brownie wasn’t going to cut it. Instead, I made some strawberries and cream ice cream sandwiches.

I generally think most strawberry ice cream kind of sucks. When you mix a strawberry puree into an ice cream base, one made with lots of dairy, you end up diluting the flavour of the puree, leaving you with a dull, flat strawberry flavour. I don’t want a strawberry milk flavour; I wanted intense jammy strawberries, something that screamed summertime. So, instead of going down the simplest route, I went for a strawberry swirled ice cream, making an intense compote to fold through a vanilla ice cream so that you get pops of intense strawberry flavour. For the ice cream itself, I decided to make something that didn’t require an ice cream machine. This was mainly because I know it's not a machine everyone owns, and it's no fun when you can't make the recipe yourself. You can, of course, make a no-churn affair, the type made with cream and condensed milk. But, today, I went a different route - semifreddo.

Technically, this isn’t really an ice cream at all; it is much more like a frozen mousse. Eggs and sugar are whipped until light, folded through whipped cream, and then frozen. Meaning semi-frozen in Italian, semifreddo is arguably the original no-churn ice cream, made with nothing more than a whisk and a bowl. The frozen treat gets its texture from a whipped egg foam, which creates a light and creamy texture that is edible straight from the freezer with no hint of iciness. For the vanilla flavour, I used a fun technique to ensure every bit of vanilla went to good use. When making ice cream, I like to use a whole vanilla pod and infuse it into the base to give a strong, rounded vanilla flavour. Traditionally you scoop out the seeds and add both the seeds and the spent pod to your base to infuse as much flavour as possible. In this recipe you go a step further. Instead of adding the spent pod, you first toast it over flames or in a screeching hot pan. The pod puffs up slightly and gets a little toasty. This pod is then added to the base and blitzed up. This not only uses up every single bit of vanilla flavour, but it also adds a gentle toasty flavour to the base, really deepening the vanilla flavour.

For the sandwich element, I also decided to go against tradition and skip the cookie and go straight for cake. Whilst I love a cookie-based ice cream sandwich, often the cookie is far too solid once frozen, and it can make for an unpleasant eating experience; you have to leave the sandwich for 10 minutes before you can even take a bite, at least if you want to keep all of your teeth! Cake freezes perfectly, firming up without becoming a rock-solid block. Coupled with the texture of semifreddo, this is an ice cream sandwich that is ready to eat straight from the freezer. I opted for a chocolate cake, but you could just as easily make these with a vanilla cake should you want to avoid too much extra flavour andkeep the strawberry and vanilla flavours pure and simple.

Strawberries and Cream Ice Cream Sandwiches
Makes 10

Chocolate Cake

125g plain flour

35g cocoa powder (dutched)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

150g light brown sugar

100ml hot black coffee

125ml buttermilk

1 large egg

50ml vegetable oil

Strawberry Compote

300g strawberries

100g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cornflour

1/2 tsp water

Toasted Vanilla Semifreddo

300ml double cream

1 vanilla pod

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

125g caster sugar

To make the toasted vanilla cream, used to make the semifreddo, add the cream to a saucepan and place over medium heat. Add a second pan over high heat and heat until very, very hot. If you have gas, you can skip the pan and use the naked flame. Slice the vanilla pod in half and scrape out the seeds and add them to the cream. Add the spent pod to the hot pan and toast until it has puffed up slightly and there is a toasty aroma coming from the pan. If you have a gas hob, you can hold the pod with tongs and pass the pod back and forth over the direct flame until the pod is nice and toasty. This action dries up the pod, and you should find it slightly crisp. Chop up the toasted pod and add to the cream. Once the cream is at a simmer, remove it from the heat. Use a stick blender to blitz the pod into the cream. Pour this mixture, through a fine mesh sieve, into a small container or jug and cover. Refrigerate this cream for at least 4 hours but preferably overnight until thoroughly chilled.

To make the compote, hull the strawberries and cut them into quarters. Toss together with the sugar and set aside for at least an hour, stirring occasionally, until the fruit is sitting in a puddle of syrup. You can actually do this the night before if you prefer; simply mix together the fruit and sugar, cover the bowl, and transfer to the fridge overnight.

To cook the compote, scrape the strawberry mixture into a small saucepan and cook over medium/high heat for about 8 minutes or until the fruit is broken down but still with visible chunks and the liquid has reduced significantly. In a small bowl stir together the cornflour and the water. Add the slurry to the pan and cook for another minute or until the compote has thickened ever so slightly. If you draw a line through the compote, it shouldn’t immediately fill back in. If it does, continue cooking for a couple minutes more until reduced further.

Note: this may seem like a very small amount of cornflour, and it is, but the aim isn’t to thicken this mixture like a pastry cream. The small amount of liquid left in the compote still contains water, and the small amount of cornflour helps to prevent this from having an icy texture when eaten.

Scrape the compote into a small bowl and refrigerate until needed. The finished texture should be a little bit like a loose jam, pourable but with body.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan). Lightly grease an 8-inch square cake pan and line with parchment so that the base and all sides are lined.

To make the cake, sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt into a large bowl. In a separate bowl stir together the sugar and coffee, stirring until the sugar has mostly dissolved. Add the buttermilk and whisk to combine before adding in the egg and oil, whisking until fully combined. Pour the dry mixture into the wet mixture and whisk briefly, just until a smooth cake batter is formed. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan; the batter will be liquid, so it should spread out on its own.

Bake the cake in the preheated oven for about 20-22 minutes or until the cake springs back to a light touch. Remove and set aside, in the tin, for 15 minutes before carefully lifting out the cake and setting it onto a wire rack and allowing it to cool fully.

Before you make the semifreddo, prepare your pan and the cake. Line the same pan you baked the cake in with a couple layers of cling film or parchment paper. Use a serrated bread knife to slice the cake into two thin cake layers. If the cake has a pronounced dome, you can also trim this off so that you end up with two thin cake layers. Place one of the cake layers into the bottom of the prepared pan and dot over about a quarter of the compote.

To make the semifreddo, remove the infused cream from the fridge and pour it into a large bowl. Whisk until the cream barely holds soft peaks, then refrigerate until needed. Add the eggs, yolks, and sugar to another large bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. Using an electric hand mixer, whisk this mixture for about 6-8 minutes or until the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture is hot to the touch. If you want to double-check, the mixture should be around 74-75ºC; at this temperature the eggs are pasteurised and warm enough that they’ll whip up easily. Remove the bowl from the pan and continue whipping for another 7-8 minutes or until the mixture has formed a thick pale foam. Importantly, this also helps cool the eggs down, meaning they can be combined with the whipped cream without it melting.

Add the foam mixture to the whipped cream in two or three additions, folding together until no streaks remain. Spoon about half of the semifreddo mixture into the prepared pan and then dollop on about half of the original amount of compote. The semifreddo mixture is very light, so try not to make the dollops of jam too big; otherwise, they’ll sink to the bottom. Spoon on the remaining semifreddo mixture, and then add the final portion of compote. Carefully lay the second layer of cake on top. Wrap the tin in a couple layers of cling film and freeze overnight. This stage should also not be rushed. Semifreddo needs a good long time to set up, and this takes at least 6 hours.

Once solid, carefully unmold from the pan. Working quickly, cut the semifreddo into individual bars and wrap in squares of parchment. Place back into the freezer until ready to serve. As with all homemade ice creams, these are better enjoyed sooner rather than later, but ideally within two weeks. After this the textures start to break down, and the semifreddo won't be up to scratch.