Crunchy Strawberry Semifreddo

Who can resist Strawberry Season? I definitely can’t, so put together two recipes in one! (Why not?!) A strawberry crumble and a Semifreddo!
If you don’t know what a Semifreddo is yet, you can check my previous blog post here!
This tempting dessert combines three different preparations of strawberry: a creamy Semifreddo, a crunchy chocolate shell, and a smooth gel. 

Strawberry Semifreddo
Ingredients (8 Portions):
150g Strawberry puree or compote
140g Italian Meringue
190g Double cream

Italian Meringue
Ingredients:
25g Sugar
60g Egg Whites
100g Sugar
30g Water

Making the Italian meringue:
In a small saucepan, combine 100g sugar and 30g water and cook until sugar syrup registers 118C.
Meanwhile, combine egg whites and 25g of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Set mixer to medium speed and mix until soft peaks form (when lifted, the head of the mixer should form gentle peaks in the egg whites that very slowly collapse back into themselves), about 2 minutes.
With the mixer running, carefully and slowly drizzle in hot sugar syrup. Increase speed to high and whip until desired stiffness is achieved.

Making the strawberry semifreddo:
Whip the cream and mix until soft peaks form, add the strawberry compote, then add the meringue and fold the mix, gently.
Roll the semifreddo mix in clingfilm to form cylinders about 3cm in size, and freeze. (Or feel free to experiment with different shapes and serving styles!)
Once frozen, cut the cylinder three small cylinders of 10cm each, and place back in the freezer.

Crumble
Ingrediens:
50g of butter
50g of flour
50g of ground almonds
50g of caster sugar
50g of Demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C. To make the crumble, mix all the ingredients together on a mixer until combined, do not overwork the mix. Transfer onto a baking tray and cook for 15–20 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool then break the crumble up into small pieces

Strawberry Chocolate Coating
Ingredients:
200g Strawberry Valrhona chocolate
100g Cocoa butter 
Add all ingredients to a double boiler and melt over medium heat. Once liquefied, whisk until smooth. With that the temperature reach 30°C.

Dip the frozen strawberry cylinder in the chocolate and then in the crumble, and put back in the freezer.

Strawberry gel
Ingredients:
200gr Strawberry puree 
20gr Sugar
2gr Agar agar
1/2 Lime zest 
Combine the ingredients in a stainless steel pot and whisk to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes and pour into a sprayed shallow pan to cool. This will set up hard. Cool for 2 hours. Then Blend till smooth 

Plating:
Place a little of the strawberry gel in the centre of the plate and hit gently with a spoon to create a "splat' pattern on the plate. 
Then add a spoonful of crumble then place the semifreddo cylinder on top. Decore the plate with dots of strawberry gel, fresh strawberry and lemon balm. 
Enjoy!