Dried Cranberry & Candied Orange Semifreddo with Red Wine Sauce
A fabulous dessert for Christmas Dinner because it can easily made up to 2 weeks in advance and kept well wrapped in the freezer. Serve this along side your traditional plum pudding and everyone will be happy.
Ingredients
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup Cointreau
8 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup candied orange peel, roughly chopped
Red wine sauce:
4 cups red wine
2 cups sugar
1 strip of orange peel
2 star anise, whole
Directions
In a small saucepan, cover the cranberries with Cointreau. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, set aside to let the cranberries plump for 1 hour. Line an 8 cup loaf pan with parchment paper or plastic wrap.
Beat together egg yolks, half the sugar and salt in a heavy-bottomed pot or on top of a double boiler until thick and glossy. Set aside. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks and add the rest of the sugar. Continue beating until just incorporated. Set aside. Beat the cream to soft peaks. Fold the yolk mixture into the cream, fold in the cranberries and dried candied orange peel. Fold in the egg whites. Pour the mixture into the loaf pan or individual molds and freeze until firm, 6 hours or overnight.
To serve, loosen the semifreddo with a knife and unmold. Slice with a hot, wet knife. Drizzle plate with red wine sauce and top with a slice of semifreddo.
Red Wine Sauce:
In a heavy saucepan, combine all the ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer to reduce until the liquid thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon - about 45 minutes.