Chocolate Pistachio Semifreddo

 Refreshing on a hot day.  Multi-layer with different flavours...

Ingredients for Chocolate SemiFreddo

- 2 eggs separated

- 1 tablespoon sugar

- 100g of bitter sweet dark chocolate

- 200mL of heavy cream

Ingredients for Pistachio

- 70g of pistachio nuts (peeled and skinned)

- 1/3 cup water

- 3 tbls sugar

- 2 eggs separated

- 200mL heavy cream

Directions

3 components for mousse

This is not a difficult dish to make but just requires a bit of organisation and a lot of mixing bowls.  I followed the following sequence.

Skin the pistachio nuts by putting in hot water for 2 minutes.  Then pour into a collander and the skins will come off easily.  Lay on a baking tray and put in the oven on 100C for 15 minutes to dry out. 

While that's going do the following :

- Melt the chocolate on a double boiler 

-  Beat the 2 egg whites till they form stiff peaks. 

-  Beat the cream until nicely whipped. 

-  Add the egg yolks and sugar to the chocolate and beat on high speed.

You'll need to wash the beaters between each one of those.  Then combine the egg whites into the chocolate mix with a plastic spatula and then the cream and stir until a nice smooth consistency like a chocolate mousse.

Take a dozen of the pistachios and chop up fine.  Put these in the bottoms of 4 dessert dishes.  On top of each  using a ice cream scoop put 3 scoops of chocolate mousse into each bowl and put in the freezer for 20 minutes.  Put the remaining chocolate in the fridge.

While that is setting in the freezer you can make the pistachio mousse in the same way.  First though you need to make a pistachio paste.  Using either a blender or food processor, add the pistachios, water and 2 tablespoons of sugar and blend until well blended.  You might need to brush the sides of the processor a few times to ensure all pistachios get processed.

After that the steps of beat the eggs, cream and pistachio with egg yolks and sugar are repeated to form a pistachio mousse.  Take the dishes from the and layer each one with 4 scoops of pistachio mix.  Then put back in the freezer for 20 minutes.

After that has set fill the dish with more chocolate mousse and put in the freezer for 6 hours to set nicely.

I found i had about half of the pistachio mousse left over, so you may be able to halve the ingredients above, save the mousse or just make a separate one with pistachio alone.

Served here with fresh mago slices or cooked strawberry topping.

Enjoy!