Cassata is the famous Sicilian cake that is made from ricotta cheese and is decorated with marzipan and fruit. However, when it left its homeland- variations appeared. The American cake of the same name is actually a spongy biscuit soaked in rum, decorated with fruit and whisked cream. Another popular version is the Neapolitan cassata or the Harlequin cake: a three-layered ice cream, very similar to the Indian cassata which is also an ice cream.
The most common is that one layer is chocolate, the other pistachio or peanuts, and the third is always a liqueur or rum with dried or candied fruit or just strawberry ice cream. Some versions have a biscuit base crust, and some don’t. Our cassata is just ice cream, without the crust.
It is made from concentrated ingredients (simple sugar syrup, cream, and condensed milk) so even without an ice cream and mixing machine, ice crystals won’t appear. We guarantee it!
It is extremely creamy, but full of calories. Luckily, it is in the freezer, so you can enjoy it for longer, in smaller portions!
Ingredients
300 ml of Moja Kravica milk * (see advice)
250 ml of Moja Kravica Kuhinjica whipping cream
200 g of sugar
5 yolks
100g of pistachios which you need to peel and chop
Optional: green food dye or a little bit of Matcha tea
A bar of baking chocolate
70 g of chopped chocolate pralines with peanuts or just chopped
rum or rum aroma
70 g of red candied or dried fruit (mango, cherry, sour cherry, cranberry…)
Preparation
For this recipe it is necessary to make condensed milk. It is made by cooking the milk on medium heat until the mass separates in half. So, from 300 ml of Moja Kravica milk you should get 150ml which you then use in the recipe. If you don’t feel like cooking, you can instead take the 150 ml of Moja Kravica Kuhinjica neutral cream with 20% of milk fat.
Cook a thick syrup from 200 g of sugar and half a cup of water, then cool it. In a small pan, whisk the yolks, and in a separate pan cook the 150 g of condensed milk so it starts boiling. Pour the milk in the small pan with the yolks with continuing beating with an electric mixer. Then put the eggs and milk on a stove and stir with a mixer or mixing wire until it boils and then cook a little longer (30-35 seconds). Let it cool.
Beat the Moja Kravica Kuhinjica whipping cream with sherbet. The should be liquid and that’s OK. Now blend the whipping cream and the cooled milk with the yolks. Split the mass in three equal parts. In the first part which will be at the bottom, put the melted chocolate and chopped pralines with peanuts. In the second part, add the chopped pistachio and if you wish, a little bit of Matcha tea or green food dye. In the third part, add rum and chopped red fruit.
Leave all three ice creams in the fridge so they cool properly, and line the mold in which they will freeze with baking paper and leave in the freezer so it freezes. It is good for freezing the ice cream!
Put the first layer (chocolate) and leave in the freezer until it hardens. Pour the second layer over the first only when the first layer is frozen- which you will repeat with the third layer which is poured only after the second freezes. It is best to leave overnight and serve the day after. The Moja Kravica whipping cream and fresh mint leaves are the ideal decoration.
ADVICE: For cassata it is ideal to use a smaller bread mold and after freezing it to cut it in slices- but you won’t make a mistake if you use a round mold and cut it like a cake- or smaller molds for individual portions.
