Nougat Semifreddo, the Frozen Dessert With No Machine

A slice of semifreddo looks like ice cream that has been cut with a knife, and that is more or less what it is. A honey meringue (egg whites beaten with hot syrup into a stiff, glossy foam) and softly whipped cream are folded together with chopped nougat, poured into a loaf pan and frozen. Nothing gets churned, meaning stirred while it freezes, and no ice cream machine is involved. The next day it comes out of the pan as a pale block that slices cleanly and tastes of honey, cream and toasted nuts, with small crunchy and chewy pieces of nougat through every bite.

The Italian version made with nougat is called semifreddo al torroncino, and it puts torrone (Italian nougat, a candy of honey, sugar, egg white and nuts) on a dessert plate with very little fuss. It is also a holiday dessert that has to be made the day before, which is its best feature. The whole method rests on one idea: if enough air goes into the mixture before it freezes, the freezer cannot turn it into a brick.

Half cold, and why that is the point

The word is a compound of semi- and freddo, half cold. Treccani's Italian dictionary defines semifreddo as a dessert similar to gelato (Italian ice cream) that never reaches gelato's consistency or frozen state, for two reasons: what it is made of, and the temperature it is kept at, which the dictionary describes as not excessively low. In other words, a semifreddo is supposed to be served softer than ice cream. The name is a serving instruction.

The same Treccani entry records a second meaning, the one worth bringing to the table. In the youth slang of 1960s Italy, semifreddo was a teasing, slightly irreverent name for older people, used in the same years as matusa. Somebody's grandfather could be a semifreddo. So could the dessert he was eating.

How a dessert freezes soft without churning

An ice cream machine stirs a sweet mix while it freezes, and part of what it adds is air. Dairy scientists call that added air overrun: the extra volume a mix gains as air is beaten into it during freezing. Air is one of the things that decides how hard a frozen dessert turns out, along with how much sugar is in it and how cold it is when it is served.

Semifreddo puts the air in before the freezer, with two foams (a foam is simply a liquid full of trapped air bubbles). Whipped cream is the first. US rules sort cream by its fat: cream sold as light whipping cream must contain at least 30 percent milkfat, and heavy cream at least 36 percent, which is the richer one this recipe uses. The meringue is the second foam. Beating egg whites works air bubbles into the water and proteins of the white, and the beating unfolds those proteins so they form a network around each bubble; heat makes that network firm up, which is what the hot syrup in this recipe starts to do. Fold the two foams together and the mixture is already full of air when it goes into the pan.

Sugar does much of the rest. Dairy scientist Michael Mullan, writing on how to control the hardness of ice cream and gelato, names the amount of sweetener and the serving temperature as the most important factors, with air and the other variables mattering less. Sugar dissolved in water lowers its freezing point (the temperature at which it turns to ice), so a sweetened mix does not freeze solid. His guideline for a mix that scoops well is that, at the temperature it is meant to be served, only about 65 to 70 percent of its water is frozen. Gelato, by comparison, is made with little air (usually under 18 percent added volume, Mullan notes) and is served from cabinets held at about minus 11 to minus 12°C (about 10 to 12°F). A home freezer runs colder: the FDA's recommended setting is 0°F (minus 18°C). So the semifreddo leans on its sugar and its air, and a short rest in the refrigerator before slicing brings it back toward the half-cold state Treccani describes.

A torrone that stops early

Anyone who has made the honey torrone recipe will recognize the first half of this one. In the table below, soft ball, hard ball and hard crack are the names candy makers give to stages of cooked sugar syrup, from softest to hardest. Torrone starts with hot honey and hot sugar syrup beaten into egg whites. So does the meringue in this semifreddo. The difference is how far the syrup is cooked, and what is left to hold the dessert together once the beating stops.

Honey torrone Nougat semifreddo
What goes into the egg whites Honey syrup, then sugar syrup One honey and sugar syrup
Syrup temperature, sea level 250°F (hard ball) and 300°F (hard crack) 240°F (soft ball)
Syrup temperature, Denver 240°F and 290°F 230°F
What is folded in About 500 g of warm toasted nuts Whipped cream, then chopped nougat
What sets it Sugar, which cools into a firm, chewy candy Cold, with cream fat and trapped air keeping it soft

Stopping at soft ball is what keeps the meringue light. As a sugar syrup cooks, water boils away and the share of sugar rises. The Exploratorium's science-of-cooking pages put syrup at the soft-ball stage at about 85 percent sugar, at hard ball about 92 percent, and at hard crack about 99 percent, with almost no water left. Soft-ball syrup still carries enough water to stay soft once it cools, and its heat starts to firm up the egg white network around the bubbles. A meringue made this way, by beating hot syrup into whites, is called an Italian meringue. Cooked further, to torrone's temperatures, the same syrup would set as candy around the bubbles. Here it stays soft, and the cream carries it the rest of the way.

That kinship explains how a white nougat behaves inside the semifreddo too. When the chopped pieces are an egg-white torrone, they and the meringue around them are built from the same ingredients, cooked to different points, so the nougat reads as a firmer, nuttier version of the dessert surrounding it.

Choosing the nougat

Any nougat works, and different kinds give different textures. Hard torrone stays crunchy longest. Soft nougat turns pleasantly chewy when frozen and should be chilled before chopping so it does not smear across the knife. The torrone and nougat guide explains the regional styles, and a mix of two of them gives the best slice.

  • Soft almond nougat. Brontedolci's Brontoncini are small soft nougats made to a traditional Sicilian recipe with almonds, in flavors including orange, lemon, coffee and vanilla (shop Brontedolci Brontoncini). Chopped and frozen, they give the slice its chewy pieces. The workshop's story is in the Brontedolci producer guide.
  • A hazelnut crunch. Venchi's Nougatine is chopped Piedmont PGI hazelnuts (PGI, Protected Geographical Indication, is a European Union label tying a food to its home region) bound in caramelized sugar and covered in 60 percent dark chocolate, a recipe that has not changed since 1905 (shop Venchi Nougatine). It is vegan, so there is no egg white in it: caramelized sugar holds the hazelnuts together, which puts it in the nut-brittle family rather than the egg-white nougat family, and it gives the semifreddo the crunch that the soft pieces lack. More on the company is in the Venchi producer guide.
  • White nougat with fruit. Maffren, a Provençal confectioner at Le Poët since 1945, tops its white nougat bar with sliced dried strawberries (shop Maffren white nougat with strawberries). Chopped into the semifreddo, the strawberry adds a small sharp note against all that honey.

The honey sets the tone of the meringue. Bee Squared's orange blossom honey is medium bodied with a distinctive citrus flavor (shop Bee Squared orange blossom honey). A dark honey such as buckwheat makes a bolder, more honey-forward slice. The honey guide is the place to start for choosing one.

A word about the egg whites

The hot syrup warms the whites, but no step in this recipe takes them to the 160°F that the FDA gives for dishes containing eggs, so treat them as lightly cooked. The FDA's advice for recipes with raw or lightly cooked eggs, and it names homemade ice cream as an example, is to use shell eggs treated to destroy Salmonella (a bacterium that causes food poisoning) or pasteurized egg products. That matters most for the people the agency lists as being at greater risk: young children, older adults, pregnant people and anyone with a weakened immune system.

Ingredients, for one 9 by 5 inch loaf

  • 150 g (about 1 cup) nougat, chopped into pea-sized pieces: hard torrone, soft nougat, chocolate-covered nougat or a mix
  • 360 ml (1 1/2 cups) heavy cream, very cold
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 large egg whites (about 100 g), at room temperature
  • A pinch of fine sea salt
  • 100 g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
  • 60 g (3 tablespoons) honey, such as orange blossom or clover
  • 40 ml (2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons) water
  • To serve, if you like: warmed honey, cocktail cherries in syrup, or more chopped nougat

You need a stand mixer (or a hand mixer and a helper to pour), a small heavy saucepan and an instant-read or candy thermometer. The meringue cannot be judged reliably by eye.

Method

1. Line the pan and chop the nougat

Line a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan with plastic wrap, pressing it into the corners and leaving plenty hanging over every side, and put the pan in the freezer. A cold pan stops the first layer from melting at the edges. Chop the nougat into pieces about the size of a pea. Soft nougat cuts cleanly after 20 minutes in the refrigerator; hard torrone is easier to break with the heel of a heavy knife than to slice. Spread the pieces on a plate and freeze them too, so they do not stick together or sink later.

2. Whip the cream

Whip the cold cream with the vanilla until it holds soft peaks: lift the whisk and the peak should stand for a moment and then fold over at the tip. Stop there. Cream whipped stiff will look grainy once it meets the meringue, and it folds in lumps instead of ribbons. Keep it in the refrigerator while you make the meringue.

3. Start the syrup, then the whites

Put the sugar, honey and water in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup is clear. Clip on the thermometer and let it boil without stirring. Honey syrup can foam up as it boils, so use a pan with high sides. Put the egg whites and salt in the bowl of the stand mixer. When the syrup reaches about 225°F (107°C) at sea level, or 215°F (102°C) in Denver, start beating the whites at medium speed. They should reach soft peaks just as the syrup gets to temperature.

4. Pour in the syrup and beat the meringue

Cook the syrup to 240°F (116°C) at sea level, or 230°F (110°C) in Denver. The bubbles will have turned small and slow. Take it off the heat, turn the mixer to medium-high, and pour the syrup in a thin, steady stream down the inside wall of the bowl. Keep it off the whisk, which flings syrup onto the bowl, where it sets into threads. Keep beating for 6 to 8 minutes. The meringue is ready when it is stiff, bright white and glossy, stands in a firm peak, and the outside of the bowl feels only slightly warm. Warm meringue will melt the cream, so do not rush this.

5. Fold

Whisk a large spoonful of the whipped cream into the meringue to loosen it. Add half the remaining cream and fold it in with a wide spatula: cut down through the center to the bottom of the bowl, sweep up the side, turn the bowl a quarter turn, and repeat. Fold in the rest the same way, stopping as soon as no white streaks remain. Every extra turn knocks out air, and air is what keeps the semifreddo soft.

6. Layer and freeze

Spread half the mixture in the cold pan and scatter two thirds of the frozen nougat over it. Cover with the rest of the mixture, smooth the top, and scatter the remaining nougat over it, pressing it in lightly. Layering keeps the pieces evenly spread; stirred straight in, they tend to sink to what will become the top of the slice. Fold the overhanging plastic over the surface and freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

7. Rest, unmold and slice

Move the pan to the refrigerator 15 to 20 minutes before serving. Straight from a home freezer the semifreddo is firmer than it is meant to be; after the rest the knife should go in with steady pressure and the slice should hold its edges. Lift the block out by the plastic, turn it over onto a cold board, and peel off the wrap. Dip a long knife in hot water, wipe it dry, and cut slices about 2 cm (3/4 inch) thick, rinsing and drying the blade between cuts. Return any leftovers to the freezer right away.

In a Denver kitchen

Only one step changes at altitude, and it is the syrup. Water boils at a lower temperature the higher you go, and Colorado State University Extension notes that at 5,000 feet it boils at 202°F, ten degrees below sea level. Sugar syrups reach each candy stage at correspondingly lower temperatures, so CSU's rule is to reduce candy temperatures by 2°F for every 1,000 feet. Its table puts soft ball at 234 to 240°F at sea level and 224 to 230°F at 5,000 feet. That is why the syrup stops at 230°F (110°C) in Denver.

Cooking a Denver syrup all the way to 240°F takes it past CSU's 5,000-foot soft-ball range to the edge of hard ball, which leaves less water in the syrup and makes a firmer, heavier meringue, closer to torrone than to mousse. If you cook somewhere else, check your thermometer in boiling water and subtract the difference between that reading and 212°F from the sea-level target. Whipping and freezing are not affected by the elevation. The Denver altitude cooking guide covers the rest of the kitchen.

When it goes wrong

What you see Likely cause Fix
Hard threads of candy in the meringue Syrup poured onto the whisk, or poured too fast Pour slowly down the side of the bowl; scoop out any threads before folding
Meringue stays soft and runny Syrup not hot enough, or whites under-beaten when the syrup went in Use the thermometer; start the whites earlier so they hold soft peaks first
Folded mixture looks grainy or lumpy Cream whipped too stiff Fold in 2 or 3 tablespoons of unwhipped cold cream to smooth it
Mixture turns thin and soupy while folding Meringue still warm, or folded too long Beat the meringue until the bowl is barely warm; stop folding when the streaks go
Icy, dense layer at the bottom of the loaf Liquid separated out of an underwhipped or overfolded mixture before it froze Whip the cream to soft peaks, fold gently, and freeze the pan at once
Too hard to cut Served straight from the freezer Rest 15 to 20 minutes in the refrigerator; use a hot, dry knife
Nougat sticky or soft after a few days The sugar in the nougat draws moisture from the cream around it Serve within 3 days, or scatter extra nougat on each slice at the table

Other ways to finish it

For a richer slice, add a cooked yolk base alongside the meringue, which also uses up the three yolks this recipe leaves behind. Heat them with a little of the sugar over simmering water, whisking, to 160°F, then beat until cool and fold them in before the cream. The slice comes out more custardy and yellow, and a little denser.

The simplest change is in the nougat. Chopped candied orange peel goes well with honey and almonds, and a spoonful of cocktail cherries with their syrup is a handsome thing to spoon over a pale slice, such as Luxardo's maraschino cherries (shop Luxardo maraschino cherries). For a churned dessert to compare it with, the dulce de leche ice cream recipe shows the other route to the same freezer.

At the table

Bring the whole loaf out on its board and slice it in front of people. Semifreddo is a good holiday dessert for exactly the reason it looks hard: it is finished a day early, and serving it takes a knife and a jug of hot water. A thin drizzle of warmed honey over each slice is enough decoration. Nougats sit with the rest of the confections in the Sweets & Desserts collection (shop Sweets & Desserts), which ships nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com; the shop itself is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver.

Once you have made it, the family resemblance is hard to miss. Torrone and semifreddo al torroncino begin in the same bowl, with honey syrup streaming into beaten egg white, and part ways only at the thermometer. Push the syrup hot and let sugar do the holding, and you have a candy. Stop it early and let cold and air do the holding, and you have something that is only ever half frozen, which is exactly what its name promised.

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