Praline semifreddo is such a decadent dessert, it’s hard to believe how easy it is to prepare.

This semifreddo does involve some cooking

Unlike Jamie Oliver’s no cook raspberry and pistachio semifreddo, Donna Hay’s version involves cooking the eggs in a double boiler or bain marie. As good as the first semifreddo was, cooking the eggs makes a big difference to the texture and how well the dessert “keeps” in the freezer.

Rick and I couldn’t eat the raspberry and pistachio semifreddo fast enough to prevent ice crystals from forming in the mix. After a couple days, it lost the creaminess and much of the flavor.

That wasn’t the case with Donna Hay’s Salted Caramel and Pecan Semifreddo. It remained creamy and smooth until I spooned the last bit from the loaf pan.

Substituting Ingredients

As an Australian, Donna Hay naturally uses ingredients available to her. Some have equivalents in other parts of the world, while others don’t.

For example, she uses caster sugar. This is more like the extra fine sugar used in baking as opposed to powdered or 10x sugar. I used plain old white sugar…need to use less in the future, but it worked fine as far as the semifreddo goes.

Likewise, her recipe calls for “single (pouring) cream”. In the US, that type of cream is more like light cream or half and half. Great for sauces, but challenging to whip as needed to for semifreddo. I used heavy whipping cream based on one of the comments.

This type of dulce de leche or caramel is available anywhere Nestle products are sold. Donna’s recipe calls for 2 cans, I figured I could always pour more over top the dessert and stopped at one can.

Between the sugared nuts and the caramel, the praline semifreddo was almost too sweet, at least to our taste. Like I said, next time I will use probably half the sugar called for the nuts.

Using a double boiler

This was the first time I was able to use my double boiler, obtained from a friend who was going to get rid of it. In the past, I’ve used a bain marie (aka a glass bowl over simmering water) to make custards.

It was much easier to continually beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla over the heat with the double boiler. The set up was very stable and I didn’t have to avoid the steam like I do with a bain marie. I am anticipating making more custards and sauces with my new friend in the future.

One last note about Praline Semifreddo

I found the nuts and caramel sank to the bottom of the mix. After a few hours in the freezer, I mixed everything with a spatula to blend it through. Some caramel remained on the bottom which I liked.