If only I could be semifreddo...🍦
slowly heading into another Greek week & my take on a semifreddo
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Enjoy the making of this week’s recipe below.
Dishwasher diaries
Another week of cooking in Greece is quickly coming to a close. As we round the corner into our third week here on the island of Spetses, I’ve realized that I’m here to bring you yet another dessert (or pudding as the English call it) recipe. And I thought, let’s keep with a theme here and make the Greek newsletters all about sweets - because, in the end, it truly is a sweet place to be.
The heat is settling into my bones. I’m almost becoming accustomed to this feeling of slow motion my body seems to move in. My sleep tracker is constantly reminding me that I must be “overtired” as the time is takes me to fall asleep are mere moments - 3 minutes to be exact. My head hits the pillow and I’m almost positive I don’t fully wake up until I’m unloading the dishwasher for the second time after I’ve set the table for breakfast service.
As I sleepwalk most of the morning through my daily chores and duties, I dream about the dessert for the evening’s dinner service. I’ve frozen a leftover chocolate almond cake along with some banana’s that were wilting away in the Greek heat. The humming of the fans seem to blend in with the constant chatter from the cicadas of the island. The air that circulates and blows through the kitchen is warm and repurposed and I find myself opening the freezer door to catch a chill, even if just for a moment.
I slowly walk to our storage space which holds our catering equipment (a spare bedroom within the house). I find a spring form pan and retreat back to the kitchen where my tools are waiting for me. A thin layer of chocolate almond cake lines the bottom of the tin and goes straight into the freezer, saved from the sluggish heat. Bananas are peeled, sliced, and laid on the sheet tray ready to be frozen. I clear the table, empty the dishwasher, load the dishwasher, squeeze more orange juice, empty the fridge and wipe down its surfaces, empty the dishwasher, receive a delivery, load the laundry, stock the drinks fridge, load the dishwasher, and menu plan. Time for an afternoon break before dinner service - special guests are dining with our group tonight. Pudding will be my take on a semifreddo, a banana semifreddo. And then I think, as the steam from the dishwasher evaporates into the hot air, if only I could be semifreddo, semi-cold. I hope you enjoy this semifreddo as much as our guests will.
Banana semifreddo
The beauty of this recipe is that you can use any cake you’d like. The recipe below is for a gluten free and vegan almond olive oil cake (one of my current guests is gluten free and can’t eat eggs) but you can swap out for whatever kind of cake you’d like.
Serves 8-10
Almond Cake: gluten free + vegan
420g of almond flour
3 Tbsp cornstarch
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
180mls plant based milk
180mls olive oil
6 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice (*omit if using cocoa powder)
150g white sugar
1 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
* If you’d like to make this into a chocolate version, omit the lemon juice and add 150g of cocoa powder
Heat your oven to 175ºC/350ºF and line a 20cm spring form pan with a circle of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan.
Aside from the sugar, mix your dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix you whet ingredients with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Pour your liquid mixture into your dry mixture and fold to combine. Pour your cake batter into your prepared tin and bake the cake for about 50 minutes.
Frozen Bananas
5 bananas
Slice or chunk the bananas and lay evenly on a sheet tray. Freeze and once frozen blend until creamy.
Assembling the semifreddo
Allow the cake to cool. Using about half of the cooled and baked cake, crumble the cake using a blender or with your hands. Line the bottom of a spring form pan with the crumbed cake. Press the cake down, there should be about 1-2 cm (about 1/2 inch) of cake lining the bottom of the tin. Spread the frozen bananas on top of the cake crust and smooth into a flat and even surface. Freeze again until you’re ready to serve. Slice and enjoy.
Until next time at a standing reservation…
With love & snacks,
Paige
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A teaser for what’s to come in a few newsletters from now. A recipe for percoche e vino AND some big news about an experience we’ll be opening up to all of your for 2024!!! Free up your calendars because tavolotwelve travel dates and experiences will be released at the end of September (both land and sea!!). I’ll be writing up a newsletter on this info and when we plan to release the dates so stay tuned!