When Brian and I were on our great food and wine adventure to Oregon last summer, we saw lots of orchards that we could not identify.  As it turns out they were hazelnut trees.  I love hazelnuts.  Some people call them filberts.  They are the nutty goodness in Nutella.  Turns out Oregon is the major producer of hazelnuts here in the United States.  It was nice to see them used on so many of the restaurant menus in that area, especially in their wine country.  I wanted to cook more with them when I got home.

Semifreddo is an Italian dessert which literally means "half cold".  It is frozen, but because it has whipped egg whites and whipped cream folded into it, it does not freeze up quite as hard as ice cream.  You can make it in any flavor, just like ice cream.  In this version, I've made a hazelnut praline first, crushed it up and added it to the semifreddo batter.  I wanted just a little something special on top and almost went with a chocolate sauce but I decided a caramel sauce would match the praline in the semifreddo just perfectly.  

Hazelnut Semifreddo with Caramel Sauce

for a printable recipe, click here

serves 12

(you will need three mixing bowls for this recipe, one large)

for the praline:

16 oz hazelnuts
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water 

for the semifreddo:

1 vanilla bean
1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs, separated
2 cups heavy cream
salt

Caramel Sauce:

1 cup of sugar
6 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 

Make the hazelnut praline:

You want to remove as much of the skins off the hazelnuts as you can.  Do this by placing them on a baking sheet and toasting them at 425 F. for about 4-5 minutes. Immediately wrap them in a clean towel and roll them around in the towel vigorously - this will remove most of the skins.  Remove about 4 ounces of the hazelnuts and chop these roughly and set aside (these will go into the bottoms of your loaf pans later).  Leave the rest of the hazelnuts whole.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil (Reynolds Wrap makes a nonstick foil that works great for this - in fact, it's the only foil I buy).

Put the sugar and water in a heavy pan and place on medium-high heat.  When the sugar is dissolved, it will gradually start to color and turn golden.  You can mix this a little with a spatula dipped in water.  When it turns a nice golden brown, add the whole hazelnuts, turn the heat down and stir to coat the nuts with the caramel. When the caramel is a dark golden brown, turn it out onto the foil and with the spatula, spread it out.  It will cool to a solid sheet.  

When the praline is completely cool (it doesn't take long) break it up and put it in your food processor and pulse it just until the pieces are still quite chunky. Remove about half the praline, then pulse the remainder finely. Set these aside. They will both be added at once to the semifreddo mixture.

Make the semifreddo:

Prepare two small loaf pans (8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 2-1/2)* by cutting rectangles of parchment paper to fit the bottoms.  Line the bottoms of the pans with the paper and spray with a little nonstick cooking spray.  Sprinkle half of the roughly chopped hazelnuts in the bottom of each pan.

Remove the seeds from the vanilla bean by slitting the bean with a very sharp small knife down the length and carefully scraping out the seeds.  With an electric mixer, whisk the seeds and sugar with the egg yolks in a large bowl until pale.  In a second bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream until soft peaks form.  In a third bowl,  beat the egg whites with a mixer along with a pinch of salt until they form very firm peaks (if you lift the beater up the mixture forms a peak that goes straight up).  Add the hazelnut praline, the cream and the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture.  Gently fold in.  Place the contents into your loaf pans.  Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until serving.  

When it's time to serve, run a sharp knife around the sides of the loaf pan and invert pan onto serving platter. The semifreddo should pop out.  Remove parchment paper and slice.  Drizzle caramel sauce over slices.  You can garnish with chopped hazelnuts, if you like.

Make the caramel sauce:

Place sugar in a heavy 3 quart pan over medium-high heat. As the sugar begins to melt, whisk vigorously. As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring. You can swirl the pan a bit if you want, from this point on. As soon as the sugar has melted and is a deep amber color,  add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.

Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk. It is normal for the cream to foam up when it's added - just keep whisking.  Whisk until the caramel is smooth and has no lumps.  Pour into a heat proof container and let it cool to room temperature.  Store in the refrigerator and warm it up a little before serving.  

Makes about a cup of caramel sauce.

 * You can also make the  semifreddo and freeze it just in a plastic container.  Serve it just like you would ice cream, in scoops.

I usually make this delicious cake/bread in a couple of 9x5 loaf pans.  It's a great breakfast/brunch bread. But I was supposed to bring dessert to an evening get together with some of my friends and I had some great blueberries from a local farm and way too many lemons in my fridge, so I immediately thought of this cake.  When you make it in the loaf pans, the slices are very pretty, really showing off the blueberries.  But I wanted to try something different, so I made it in my little individual bundt cakes pan.  They came out cute, but I think I still like it best just in the loaf pans.

This cake is incredibly moist and flavorful.  After you bake it, you poke holes in the cake with a skewer and then brush over the lemon/sugar mixture, letting it soak in to the cake through the holes.  

 The best ingredients. . . real butter,  farm fresh eggs. . . 

Lemon Blueberry Cake with Blueberry Cream 

for a printer friendly recipe, click here

This recipe will make 2 9x5 loaves.  You can also make it in any other kind of baking pan you like.  This bread freezes beautifully, so make two loaves and freeze one.

2 sticks butter, softened
2 2/3 cups, sugar, divided
4 cups all-purpose flour 
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
3 cups blueberries
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 2 9x5 loaf pans.  

In a large bowl with mixer beat butter and 2 cups of the sugar on medium/high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.

With mixer speed on low, add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until well blended and scraping bowl down occasionally.  Alternately add flour mixture and  milk, mixing just until blended.  Gently stir in the blueberries.  Spoon batter into loaf pans.

Bake loaves 1 hour and 5 minutes (much less if baking in a mini bundt cake pan) or until toothpick inserted in center just comes out clean.  Do not overbake loaves.  Cool loaves in pans on wire rack 10 minutes and then remove from pans.

With skewer, prick top and sides of warm cake.  In a small bowl, mix lemon juice and 2/3 cup sugar.  With pastry brush, brush top and sides of warm cake with the lemon glaze.  Cool cakes on wire rack.  

For Blueberry Cream:

1 cup of whipping cream
1/2 cup blueberries
2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar (or regular sugar) to taste

Whip cream and sugar together, adding sugar and tasting until desired sweetness is reached.  Add the blueberries and whip just a little, until the blueberries and just crushed and the whipped cream turns blue.

Aren't these cakes cute?  If you like this bundt cake pan, you can get it here.  This pan is fun to have.  I like making little chocolate cakes in it for my boys.

On a side note, if you love photography (as many readers of this blog do) jump on over to Jen at Use Real Butter and check out her participation in the Macy's "Come Together to Fight Hunger" campaign.  If you leave a comment on her post, you can win a $25 Macy's gift certificate.  She's also got a video on Good Bite for Quaker's "Awaken Your Senses" challenge.  But be sure to check out her wonderful photography on her site - especially her beautiful Colorado landscapes.  Browse through her archives - you'll love her sense of humor.

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes.  She has chosen Abbe's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.