What a privilege to be invited to cook at the Etwall food fayre, to demonstrate a simple tasty dish in my home town of Derby. As the summer comes crashing to a rather wet and windy end, I wanted one last moment of sunshine, and nothing says that better than this delightful dessert. It’s incredibly simple to make, but will leave your dinner guests stunned by your culinary prowess.

Summer fruit semifreddo

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks (you can use the whites to whip up a lovely meringue)

250g caster sugar

250g mixed summer fruits (Frozen are much cheaper and work just as well as fresh in this recipe)

750mls double cream

Zest of 2 lemons

Method

Start by whisking the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl over a bain-marie (a bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water – don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water or your eggs are likely to scramble). I usually use an electric hand whisk as it is much quicker, but don’t worry if you don’t have one; a balloon whisk will suffice. Continue to whisk until the mixture is pale and thick, and the sugar fully incorporated. With the electric whisk this takes 4-5 minutes and 15-20 with the balloon whisk. Once whipped, leave to cool in the refrigerator.

Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Add the summer berries and lemon zest.

Once the egg and sugar mix is cool, carefully fold this into the cream, being careful not to knock out all of the air.

Line a 20cm round cake tin with cling film. Pour in the semifreddo mix, cover with cling film and freeze.

Remove from the freezer about an hour before you want to serve as it should be served soft and creamy.

Variations:

This dessert easily lends itself to different flavours. The following is far from exhaustive, but will hopefully give you a bit of inspiration.

1tsp of vanilla bean paste, for a simple, classic flavour.

2 crushed Crunchie bars.

A large bag of crushed Malteerser.

3-4 passion fruits.

Chocolate ganache (dark chocolate melted into double cream) folded into the mixture along with the zest of 2 oranges.

Mango puree (freeze peeled and chopped mango before passing through a food processor) with desiccated coconut.