Paper Chef #6: White chocolate & ricotta semifreddo and garden fresh strawberries in almond tuille cups (with bonus recipe)

I was delighted to see that this month's paper chef ingredients were all things I liked: ricotta, white chocolate, almond (paste) and strawberries! After an absence from my blog due to an assortment of reasons, I am raring to go and now I have an excuse for a yummy dessert as well! I couldn`t find any almond paste, so settled for ground almonds. I figured making the ricotta from scratch excused me from having also to make my own almond paste from scratch.

I must admit, I didn't think too hard about trying to come up with something savoury for this paper chef. I kept getting hung up on the white chocolate. However, the array of sweeties you can make with these four venerable ingredients is staggering: tarts, pies, cakes, shortcakes, biscuits, cobblers, ice creams....yum. I had so much trouble choosing, and I made such an enormous amount of ricotta, that I made two items. They differ mainly in what I did with the ricotta and chocolate, using the same (or almost the same) treatment for the strawberries and almonds. As it is still so early in the season here in the arctic, I couldn't bring myself to do anything with the strawberries other than to slice them and leave them to sit quietly in a bowl with some sugar and cracked pepper until they became all juicy and gorgeous! later in the summer when I've had my fill of simple fresh berries with sugar, I will become more adventurous - cooking them into a puree or grilling large ones whole on the barbeque. For now, they must remain fresh.

White chocolate & ricotta semifreddo and garden fresh strawberries in almond tuile cups

This semifreddo is amazing. It tastes like what rice pudding could only dream of tasting like in rice pudding heaven. The texture is velvetty, despite the ricotta curds. it would definitely stand alone, without accompaniment.

White chocolate ricotta semifreddo:

• 175 gm white chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 400 gm fresh, creamy ricotta
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 200 ml heavy cream

Chop chocolate finely and melt slowly in a double boiler or in a bowl over hot water. be careful that neither the bowl the chocolate is in, nor the utensils you use to stir it (occasionally) become contaminated by water. The least little bit will cause your chocolate to seize and go grainy.

While your chocolate is melting, combine in a small saucepan over low heat, eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla. Whisk to blend thoroughly and heat until it is at least as hot as the melted chocolate. Beat the melted chocolate and milk and egg mixture until fully combined. Beat in the ricotta until well blended. Don't expect this to be perfectly smooth, there will still be some ricotta grains. Don't worry, the texture is fantastic.

Whip cream in a chilled bowl until stiff peaks from. Fold chocolate mixture into whipped cream just to combine.

Use a silicone loaf tin, or line a metal loaf tin with cling wrap. spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and freeze at least 5 hours. Scoop out into almond tuile cups and decorate with sugared strawberries.

Almond tuile cups

I used the Almond Tuile recipe from the April 1997 edition of Gourmet Magazine, with a few minor variations:

• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1/4 cup baking flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg whites
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 tablespoon milk
• 2/3 cup toasted sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 275° F. Coat a baking sheet well with butter.

Beat together ground almonds, flour, sugar, and salt and beat in egg whites, butter, milk and vanilla extract until well combined. Gently stir in toasted almonds.

Drop tablespoons of batter about 5 inches apart onto baking sheet and spread into 4 to 5 inch rounds using the back of a spoon. Bake in middle of oven 11 to 13 minutes, or until golden.

Working quickly, remove cookies, 1 at a time, from baking sheet with a thin spatula and drape over upturned drinking glasses to create an upside down bowl shape, do not force the cookie into the correct shape, but gently coax it. If the cookies become too brittle to form, return baking sheet to oven a few seconds to allow cookies to soften. Cool cookies completely on the forms and transfer to an airtight container. Make more cookies with remaining batter in same manner, spraying or lining baking sheet for each batch. Cookies may be made 2 days ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.

BONUS RECIPE: Baked white chocolate ricotta cakes with almond tuile cookies and fresh sugared strawberries

Baked white chocolate ricotta

• 275 gm ricotta
• 4 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• pinch cinnamon
• 50 gm grated white chocolate
• 1 egg
• 1.5 tablespoons flour

Beat all ingredients together. Pour batter into silicone muffin tins (the flexible silicone makes it much easier to get the warm cakes out) and bake at 300 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes. allow to cool in tin. Remove from muffin pan and place, top down, on baking tray. Return to oven on baking tray and broil for 2 or 3 minutes until tops are browned. slice, and serve wedges atop almond tuile shards with strawberries. These cakes would also be really nice all on their own with some strawberry compote on top.

Almond tuile shards

Use the recipe for almond tuile bowls above, but make smaller tuiles and allow the tuiles to cool and dry in a flat position.

Comments

[Stephanie]

Oh, that is fantastic! Both of them! I'm loving it...and I'm such a huge white chocolate fan; Matt brought home two bars of Green & Black's white chocolate for me yesterday...mmm.

[Owen]

Lovely entry - check Kevin at Seriously Good's one out too - they look a lot alike...

full ist is up on the site now - they are a VERY high standard...