Bombe Marquise

Bombe Marquise (apricot-clad Champagne frozen cream) teaches the architecture of a proper bombe: one ice forms the mould, another preparation fills it, and each must reach the freezer at exactly the right consistency. The centre is a Champagne pâte à bombe, the cooked-yolk foam that gives the filling its satin body. The one true thing to know before touching the pan is this: the apricot shell must be frozen hard before the filling enters, or the two layers blur into one.

The original assumed a sorbetière, a metal bombe packed and repacked in salted ice, and enough hands to tend both mixtures. Your honest equivalent is a 1.5-litre metal mould, an ice-cream machine, and the coldest part of a household freezer. The brigade's broken-ice station is scaffolding and can go. Clothing the mould with apricot ice and filling it with Champagne Bombe-preparation are the dish, so they stay. This version makes eight generous slices with one evening of work, then lets the freezer keep watch overnight.

The Champagne goes in cold and last, preserving its perfume while the whipped cream carries its lightness. Do not rush the final freeze; alcohol and sugar make the centre beautifully tender but slower to set. Freeze the apricot shell until it is hard enough to resist the spatula before you fill it. Everything depends on that clean boundary.