Glace Marie-Thérèse

Glace Marie-Thérèse (a chocolate-clothed frozen mould filled with vanilla Chantilly and decorated with pineapple ice) teaches one decisive lesson: frozen mixtures obey temperature, not force. The chocolate ice must be supple enough to spread into an even shell before it sets hard. Once the mould is lined, the rest is patience and cold.

The original entry assumed an entremets station with several finished ices ready, a deep cold room, and a large Madeleine-mould shaped like a narrow scallop shell. At home, use a 1.2-liter fluted mould, excellent finished chocolate ice cream and pineapple sorbet, and an ordinary freezer. Making two separate ices for this assembled dessert was brigade scaffolding; the exact sequence, chocolate shell, vanilla Chantilly, unmoulding, then pineapple decoration, is the dish and stays. One cook, one stove, one evening, and for once the stove may remain cold.

Keep the chocolate ice soft, never melted, and press it into every groove before it firms. If the lining tears or leaves a bare patch, freeze it briefly and patch it with another spoonful. Ça se rattrape. The even chocolate shell is the one step that matters.