Malted Cheesecake Semifreddo: A Piece of Cake #63

Welcome back! We've got a lot to catch up on.

Apr 15, 2022

I do apologize for the gap, but it has been a weird few weeks over here in the Spena-Clark household. I had back-to-back food poisoning, a slipped disk, and the worst flu I’ve had in my adult life. That’s right, like the classic flu. How retro of me. But here we are, back at it, and we shot a ton of new recipes in the last couple of days. So keep an eye on your inboxes for a couple of extra recipes peppering the coming weeks.

Now, onto the main event. This semifreddo began its life long ago as a jotted down scribble of an idea for a dinner party menu that’s long since passed. All it said was “malted cheesecake.” And even though I didn’t make cheesecake for that dinner, the little scribble stuck with me. I started playing around with various forms of cheesecake.

There was a baked bar version I made that, while tasty, was too sticky. That bar evolved into a no-bake cheesecake situation that didn’t quite set like I had imagined it would. And that’s when the lightbulb flickered on. I popped the no-bake bar into the freezer, and the next day, it was something else entirely. The texture still wasn’t right, but frozen cheesecake was decidedly where this recipe was headed. A bit more tinkering, and here you have a tangy, luscious, smooth cheesecake semifreddo.

To the cheesecake, I added a sturdy base of chocolate cookie crust. I used Chocolate Teddy Grahams for this, but any crispy, crunchy chocolate cookie would work in place of those. If you want to lick all the filling off of a bunch of Oreos to make this? More power to you. And if you want to make your own chocolate cookies for this recipe? Well, we are two totally different people, but I respect you all the same.

I served the semifreddo on a drizzle of hot fudge (strawberry fan optional). If you’re looking for a good hot fudge recipe, I’ve got two in the archives for you! And while I love malted milk powder, I understand it might seem like a random pantry addition for you. But think of it this way: if you buy a tub of malted milk powder for this recipe, you’re well on your way to making one of my favorite snack cakes ever: Strawberry Snack Cake with Malted Milk Buttercream.

Malted Cheesecake Semifreddo

For the crust

6 ½ ounces crispy chocolate cookies, I used Chocolate Teddy Grahams

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt

For the semifreddo

1 cup heavy cream

5 egg yolks

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt

⅓ cup malted milk

7 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

Make the crust

In the bowl of a food processor, combine all the ingredients. Pulse until the cookies are crumbs and the mixture begins to clump together.
Line an 8x4 loaf pan with parchment, fully lining up the sides and enough to fold over the top of the filled pan.
Press the crumb mixture in the bottom of the pan and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until the crust begins to crisp. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Make the semifreddo

In a medium heat-proof bowl, using a whisk, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, and malted milk until smooth.
Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water, but don’t allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Whisk constantly until the mixture has lightened and doubled in volume, about five minutes. The sugar should be completely dissolved: when rubbing a small amount between your fingertips it should be smooth. If any granules of sugar remain, keep whisking.
Remove the bowl from the heat and transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high until the mixture is room temperature, 8-10 minutes.
Add the cream cheese and continue to beat until completely smooth.
Transfer the cream cheese mixture to a separate bowl and clean the whisk and bowl of the stand mixer.
To the clean stand mixer bowl, add the heavy cream and whip until stiff peaks form.
Fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipped cream until just combined. Do not overmix.
Pour the semifreddo mixture into the pan with the cooled crust. Smooth the top and gently fold the parchment paper over the mix, pressing the paper to the surface of the semifreddo.
Wrap the pan tightly in plastic and freeze until firm, at least 12 hours or overnight. This can be made well ahead of time and kept frozen until ready to serve.
To serve, remove from the freezer and slide a warm knife along the two short sides of the pan to release. Unfold the flaps of parchment from the top of the semifreddo and use them to carefully lift it from the pan.
Using a knife warmed in hot water, slice the semifreddo into one-inch slices. Serve with hot fudge if desired.

Quick Bites:

On Sunday, April 24th, I’ll have the pleasure of joining a bunch of great food friends at the Picnic Pavilion in Prospect Park to celebrate the opening of Winner’s new outpost there. I’m making a really incredible cookie for the occasion. Tickets are available here. See you there!
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A post shared by Winner®️ (@winnernyc)

Just a friendly reminder to my fellow Brooklynites that St. Anselm is still really, really good. Andrew and I desperately needed dinner after a long shoot day the other night and popped in for a last-minute reservation. It really holds up.

A Piece of Cake is written by Bill Clark and edited by Andrew Spena. Photography by Hunter Abrams. Logo design by Brett LaBauve.