RASPBERRY RIPPLE ICE CREAM CAKE
Serves 6 to 8
10 chocolate wafer cookies, finely crushed (about ½ a cup)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 cups fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
3 large eggs
2 large egg yolks Seeds of 1 vanilla bean, scraped
1 cup sugar Fine sea salt
1½ cups heavy cream
Line the bottom of an 8½-by-4½inch loaf pan with waxed paper.
Stir together the cookies and melted butter; set aside. Combine the raspberries, lemon juice and zest in a high-powered blender and puree until completely smooth. Set aside.
Combine the whole eggs, egg yolks, vanilla bean seeds, sugar and a pinch of salt in a heatproof bowl, set over a pot of simmering water so that the bowl doesn’t touch the water and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and beat with an electric mixer until thick and completely cool, 2-3 minutes more. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form, 2-3 minutes, depending on the speed of your mixer. Gently fold the egg mixture into the whipped cream, taking care to keep it light and airy. (Take a tiny taste at this point; it’s so delicious!)
Pull out 2 cups of the mixture, put it in a bowl, and fold in the raspberry puree until it is a uniform pink color. Dollop the two mixtures in heaping ladlefuls, alternating vanilla and raspberry cream, into the prepared pan. You can leave it like this, for a more modern look, or use a skewer or a thin knife to streak and marble the two creams together in places.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap and freeze, level, until it starts to firm up, about 1 hour. When the semifreddo has set a bit (is not jiggly), sprinkle the buttered chocolate cookie crumbs evenly over the top to make a crust, and press them in just slightly. Freeze until completely solid, at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.
To serve the cake, dip an offset spatula into warm water and turn the cake out onto a chilled platter. Slice and serve within 5 minutes; return to the freezer until ready to serve a second round.
Get ahead: Because you need it to set up to slice, an icebox cake is just the thing to make ahead and have at the ready. Make this up to a day in advance, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and foil. Because of its lower fat content, freezing it any longer than 2 days can make it turn icy — but still delicious.