Bombe Madeleine

Bombe Madeleine (an almond-ice dome with vanilla, Kirsch, and candied fruit) teaches one true thing: freeze the shell hard before the filling touches it. Its centre is pâte à bombe (an egg-yolk foam cooked with hot sugar syrup and lightened with whipped cream), rich but airy against the denser almond ice. If both mixtures are soft, they marble together and the bombe loses the clean surprise of its first slice.

The original instruction is only a sentence because it assumed a pastry station where almond ice and bombe preparation waited as finished mise en place, a pâtissier worked beside a tub of salted ice, and the batch served a dining room. At home, a 1½-quart metal mould, an ice cream machine or shallow freezing tray, and an ordinary freezer do the same work. The salted-ice tub and brigade quantity are scaffolding and can go. The almond shell, vanilla and Kirsch pâte à bombe, candied fruit, and separate freezes are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening of active work, then the freezer keeps watch overnight.

When it is right, the bombe turns out as a pale ivory dome with a firm almond coat and a creamy centre bright with little pieces of candied fruit. If the shell smears while you fill it, stop and freeze it again. Ça se rattrape. The step that decides everything is simple: the almond ice must be hard enough that a fingertip leaves no mark.