My all time ultimate favourite dessert!

My ideal dessert is anything creamy served with fruit and something crunchy like nuts. Think panna cotta, cheesecake, ice-cream, crème brulee or chia pudding. Combined with my love of Italian food, it was only a matter of time before I discovered the joys of semifreddo. It's rich, creamy and damn delicious. Plus it's like cheats ice-cream – no churning required. The first one I made was a hazelnut and chocolate semifreddo from Gourmet Traveller and I was instantly hooked. Thus began my mission to find the ultimate recipe.

Whilst it proved hard to beat hazelnut and chocolate (pretty much the best food pairing ever) another recipe from Gourmet Traveller managed to come out on top; salted caramel semifreddo by Mat Lindsay from Ester in Sydney. Served with salted black sesame crumb it is truly to die for. I have now made it countless times and its always met with rave reviews. I personally find it very hard to stop at one serve and have definitely overindulged on occasion.

Recently I have began experimenting with making a vegan semifreddo. Whilst I am not vegan, I love the challenge of making vegan versions of my favourite desserts. That way when I have friends over everyone can enjoy it and I get a kick out of showing non-vegans the joys of vegan cooking. However I struggled getting the texture right and found that either the cashew or the coconut I used as a base dominated the flavour too much.

After a failed attempt years ago making vegan caramel, it didn't even occur to me to attempt a vegan version of Mat Lindsay's dessert. That was until recently when I bought a jar of Pana's cashew caramel and ate it all in one go. It was so good and I felt inspired to try again to make a vegan salted caramel! I adapted a recipe from The Fit Cookie and it works perfectly. Thank you! I use coconut oil and cashew milk which results in a delicious caramel without any other flavours overwhelming it. I think you would be hard pressed to guess it's actually vegan.

And the best thing about it? It turned out to be the missing ingredient in my vegan semifreddo! Obliviously salted caramel is a great flavour but I think the key to why it worked so well is it's sticky texture. It appears to help emulsify and thicken the semifreddo resulting in something that is pretty damn close to the original dairy laden recipe. I'm not going to say it's better (I could never do that to my all time favourite dessert!) but it seriously gives it a challenge. I also add a little butterscotch schnapps (vegan of course) to give it a slight buttery flavour but you can skip this if you like.

The method might seem a bit detailed and lengthy but caramel can be bit tricky so I wanted to give as much help as I can. Don't be put off by it though, it's not that hard and once you have masted the caramel the rest of the recipe is super easy!

An alternative way to serve the semifreddo using dariole moulds

Vegan salted caramel semifreddo with poached spiced pears and black sesame crumb

Prep time: 1 hour 10 minutes hands on prep time plus extra time for cooking and cooling (5 hours). Recipe best started the day before to allow time for the cashews to soak.

Makes: 4 serves

Dietary guideline: This recipe is vegan and gluten free. FODMAP friendly version in the works!

Ingredients

For the salted caramel

1 cup caster sugar

3 tablespoons of water

Good pinch of cream of tarter

¾ cup cashew milk or another plant based milk (start with just ½)

50g of solid coconut oil broken into chunks

For the salted caramel semifreddo

½ cup of vegan salted caramel (from above recipe)

1 ½ cups of cashews (soak overnight)*

½ cup of cashew milk or another plant based milk

2 tablespoons of vegan butterscotch schnapps or liquor

Seeds from ½ a vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste

2 tablespoons of coconut oil liquefied

Pinch of salt

For the pears

3 medium sized firm pears

3 cups water

½ cup sugar

2 cinnamon sticks

2 cloves

1 star anise

½ a vanilla vanilla or 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste

For the sesame crunch

2 tablespoons of toasted black sesame seeds

1 tablespoon of caster sugar

Salt to taste (about ¼ of a teaspoon)

*If you are in a hurry you can soak the cashews in boiling water for 1 hour

Cooking notes

To set the semifreddo you need a small loaf tin or rectangle container that you can freeze. Lightly grease it with oil and line with baking paper. Use one large piece of baking paper with enough extra paper hanging over the sides to make for easy removal of the semifreddo. Once frozen you can use these bits of excess baking paper as tabs to help pull the semifreddo out of the container.
Alternatively you can serve the semifreddo in individual ramekins or cups or set them in dariole moulds. You will need 4. If using moulds, lightly oil the moulds to make the semifreddo easier to remove from the moulds before serving.
This recipe required a high powered blender to get the right smooth consistency. If you don't have one you can still make it it will just have a little more texture. Using a high powered blenders also means the mix will get quite warm after about 3 minutes (high powered blenders heat up their contents after a few minutes). This heat helps the texture of the semifreddo become more thick and airy like a mousse and means it will set in the fridge. So if you prefer you can serve this mixture as a mousse - use either individual ramekins or dariole moulds and set in the fridge not the freezer (the last image above was made this way). However I prefer it frozen as it tastes more like ice-cream.

Method

First prepare a small loaf tin/container for the semifreddo (refer to the first cooking note).
Now make the caramel. Make sure you have the cashew milk and coconut oil ready and measured out nearby. In a heavy based saucepan, heat the sugar, water and cream of tarter over a medium heat. Don't stir. If you are finding any clumps of sugar are not melting, give the pan a little (gentle!) jiggle to mix. After about 5 minutes the edges of the sugar should start to darken and little bits of the sugar on the edges of the saucepan will start to burn – this is fine. From this point on, keep a very close eye on the caramel as it can burn very quickly. As the edges start to colour, I give the caramel a little mix holding the handle of the pot and jiggling. This means the colour will be evenly distributed and you can then tell if its it ready. It's ready just as it turns from a light golden colour to a darker amber. Too pale and you won't get that toffee flavour but too dark and it will be too bitter. There is a perfect colour in between so it is a fine art to get it just right! I find it helps to remove it from the heat when you think its nearly ready, the bubbles will reside making the colour easier to see. If it's still too pale put it back on the heat. The moment you think you have the right colour, take off the heat and add the solid coconut oil chunks. Mix with a spoon until incorporated and then add ½ a cup of the cashew milk – be careful it will spit and bubble up. Mix well with a spoon and add the salt. You should now have a nice thick caramel.
To make the semifreddo, place ½ a cup of the still warm (reheat if needed) caramel in a high powered blender along with the rest of the ingredients. Blend on high for 90 seconds. Scrape down the sides if needed and blend on high for another 2-3 minutes or until super smooth. Poor into the prepared moulds or tin, cover with food wrap and place in the freezer to set. Should take between 4-6 hours. Leave the remaining caramel in the saucepan for easy re-heating when serving the semifreddo.
Meanwhile prepare the pears. Bring the water, spices and sugar to the boil in a small-medium sized saucepan. Scape the seeds from the vanilla pod and add both the seeds and the pod the water. Peel the pears and cut in half placing them quickly into the boiling water before they start to oxidise. Turn the heat down as low a possible (use jam matt if you have one) and cover with a cartouche (a circle of baking paper that fits snuggly on top of the pears). Cook for approximately an hour and a half stirring a few times to make sure the pears cook evenly. When they are almost ready, i.e. still a little too firm, turn off the heat and allow the pears to cool (keep the cartouche on). The residual heat should mean they are perfectly cooked by the time they reach room temperature.
To make the sesame crumb, grind up the toasted sesame, sugar and salt in a mortar and pestle, food processor into a fine crumb. Taste and adjust for sugar and salt if needed.
To serve the semifreddo, gently warm the remaining caramel in the saucepan. If its too thick add some more cashew milk. Take the semifreddo out of the freezer and remove it from the tin/container but gently pulling the baking paper up – the semifredddo should lift out as a block. Slice into squares and place onto dessert plates/bowls– you should get at least 4 serves. Top with the slightly warm caramel, a pear half and sprinkle with sesame crumb. Best consumed within ten minutes.