This dessert can be partially prepared a few days before a party. About 20 minutes before serving, remove from the freezer to let the bombe (without the meringue) soften in the refrigerator. Turn the bombe out onto a serving tray. Then freeze the bombe again for 10 minutes so the surface can harden – do this so the meringue doesn’t slide off. You have to work fast when you pipe the meringue since the ice cream melts quickly. You will need a blow torch to brown the meringue.
Ingredients
- 2 litres (3½ pints) softened vanilla ice cream
- ¾ litre (1¼ pints) softened raspberry sorbet
- 1 cake base (ready-made is fine)
- 1 small metal bowl (¾ litre/1¼ pint capacity)
- 1 large metal bowl (2 litre/3½ pint capacity)
Raspberry Meringue
- 3 free-range egg whites
- 4 drops fresh lemon juice
- 11 oz (325 g) sugar
- 7 oz (200 g) fresh or frozen raspberries
How to Make It
-
For the Bombe
- Freeze the bowls (so the ice cream sticks to the sides and does not melt as quickly when the bowls are being filled).
- Soften the sorbet in the refrigerator for 20–30 minutes. Pack it firmly into the little metal bowl. Cover with clingfilm and freeze it until the sorbet is hard again, about 2 hours.
- Soften the vanilla ice cream in the refrigerator for 20–30 minutes. Cover the bottom and walls of the larger metal bowl with vanilla ice cream so you leave the centre hollow.
- Take the bowl with the raspberry sorbet out and dip the outside of the bowl quickly into hot water. Take the sorbet out and press it into the hollow space in the vanilla ice cream. Fill in any excess space with more vanilla ice cream and spread a layer of vanilla ice cream on top so the sorbet disappears into the middle of the bombe.
- Cut a round slice out of the cake bottom so it covers the entire surface of the ice cream. Cover with clingfilm and freeze again until the ice cream bombe is hard.
- Quickly dip the outside of the bowl into hot water and turn the ice cream out. Freeze it again so the surface freezes. For the Meringue
- Whisk the egg whites, lemon juice and 100 g (4 oz) of the sugar with an electric mixer into a thick meringue in a dry, clean stainless steel bowl.
- Add another 100 g (4 oz) sugar while whipping it.
- Mash the raspberries with the rest of the sugar and whip it into the meringue at low speed. Whip until it is firm.
- Pipe or spread the meringue over the ice cream bombe and brown the surface with a blow torch.