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Goats’ Cheese Semifreddo, Apricots, Raspberries and Toasted Quinoa

If you don’t fancy making all the elements to this complicated recipe, the semifreddo makes a delicious dessert with cooled stewed fruits.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 31 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and apricot share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 65 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Toast the quinoa in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes. Set aside. Bloom the bronze gelatine in cold water and squeeze out the excess.

  2. Gently warm the full-fat milk with the cream cheese and the goats' cheese, stirring until smooth. Scrape in the seeds from the ½ vanilla pod and stir well. Keep warm.

  3. Separate the eggs. Whisk the yolks with 60g caster sugar in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water until thick and reaching 160°F (71°C). Stir in the softened gelatine off the heat, then fold into the cheese mixture.

  4. Whip the chilled double cream to soft peaks. Whip the egg whites with 40g caster sugar to stiff, glossy peaks. Fold the cream, then the whites, into the cheese base. Spoon into a lined loaf tin or individual moulds and freeze at least 6 hours.

  5. Halve and stone the fresh apricots and the 250g apricots. Simmer them with 50g caster sugar, the ¼ vanilla pod, the lemon juice and a splash of water until soft, about 8 minutes. Blend in the reserved apricot and cool.

  6. Purée 350g raspberries with 40g caster sugar and lemon juice, then strain. Warm a little of this with the remaining gelatine until dissolved, stir back in and chill until just set.

  7. Make the quinoa brittle: melt 100g caster sugar with a splash of water until golden, stir in the toasted quinoa and spread on an oiled tray to cool and harden.

  8. Make the crisp: whisk the egg white with icing sugar, flour and melted butter, fold in 35g caster sugar and some grated lemon zest, spread thin on a lined tray and bake at 350°F (177°C) for 6 to 8 minutes until golden. Cool.

  9. Toss the 90g raspberries with 35g caster sugar and lightly crush them. Unmould the semifreddo and serve with apricots, raspberry sauce, crisp, quinoa brittle and honey cress for garnish. Halved the remaining vanilla pod can flavour the sauce.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cheese + apricottop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheese + cream cheesetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Vanilla + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together608 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Milk + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Vanilla + sugartop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Vanilla and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, milk, cream cheese, vanilla, egg, sugar, cream):

  1. Strawberrybetter flavor fit
  2. Raspberrybetter flavor fit
  3. Pineapplebetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, milk, cream cheese, vanilla, egg, sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).