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Roast Plum & Miso Semifreddo

Roast plum & miso semifreddo - you can make it up to a week before you plan to serve, and then just slice and plate up gorgeous slabs of tangy, salty sweet roasted plum ice cream, topped with a generous handful of buttery shortbread crumble.

Author: Claudia Brick
Ingredients
Roast Plums
  • 500 g stoned, quartered black or red plums + another 4 plums halved for serving
  • 3 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Semifreddo Base
  • 1/2 cup caster sugar, split in half
  • 4 eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups cream (heavy cream in the US)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
  • 2 tablespoons white miso
Shortbread Crumble
  • 110 g butter, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup caster sugar
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 165 g plain flour (1 cup + 2 tablespoons)
  • pinch of salt
Instructions
Roast Plums
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. In a baking dish lined with baking paper, combine the quartered plums, maple syrup and balsamic, stirring to coat the plums. Beside these, place the 4 halved plums cut side up and drizzle with a little maple syrup (1-2 tablespoons). (You want to keep these separate but roasting them at the same time saves time). Roast for 30-40 minutes or until the plums are tender and starting to release their juices.
  2. Remove and set aside to cool completely. Place the 4 plum halves in a separate container and refrigerate. Place the quartered plums in a blender or similar and blitz a few times to break up - you want the plums to still be a little chunky, not a completely smooth puree. You could also mash them by hand to achieve this.
Semifreddo Base
  1. For the semifreddo, grease and line a 21 x 11cm loaf tin with cling film (not baking paper here!), smoothing out most of the creases.
  2. Place the eggs and 1/4 cup of caster sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the beater attachment. Beat on high for about 5 minutes until tripled in volume and very light and airy.

  3. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl using an electric hand beater (or after the eggs, if you have only one beater), combine the cream, the second 1/4 cup of caster sugar, vanilla paste and miso and whisk to firm peaks.

  4. Next, the aim is to combine the cream, eggs and plums while retaining as much air as possible: so add half the eggs to the cream and gently fold to almost combine. Add half the plum mix, and again gently fold. Add the remaining eggs and gently fold to combine. Add the last of the plums and swirl through, making sure you haven’t got all the heavy plum mix sitting at the bottom of your bowl - you want them fairly evenly distributed through the semifreddo.
  5. Pour the semifreddo into the loaf tin, cover with clingfilm and place in the freezer overnight to set (bottom shelf near the back, if it’s summer!).
Shortbread Crumble
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a small tray with baking paper
  2. Cream the butter, both sugars and vanilla together in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until very light and creamy, about five minutes.
  3. Add the flour and salt and mix to just combine.
  4. Tip the shortbread out onto the lined tray and roughly crumble up with your fingers, to resemble something similar to the crumble topping of a fruit crumble.
  5. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Set aside to cool completely.
To Serve
  1. To serve the semifreddo, run the a knife around the edge of the cling film and tip the semifreddo out onto a serving platter (upside down). If it is very firm, you may need to let it soften for a couple of minutes on the bench before you can remove it from the tin. Cut up slices of semifreddo and top with crumbled up shortbread and the plum halves you reserved previously.