Recipe | Passionfruit & coconut bombe alaska

Passionfruit’s ability to shine through too sweet, too cold and just too much makes it the perfect ice cream inside for bombe alaska. Traditional alaskas use a cake, but I love to scatter a crunchy coconut cookie throughout and swirl some jammy pash too. Bombes away!

—

Makes: a bombe alaska to serve 6–8

Takes: approx. 3 hours hands on, then overnight to freeze

Ingredients

1 batch Italian meringue (see below)

Coconut crumble

60 g (2¼ oz) pure icing (confectioners’) sugar

50 g (1¾ oz) egg, from
approx. 1 egg

100 g (3½ oz) desiccated (fine) coconut 

¼ teaspoon (2 g) fine sea salt

⅛ teaspoon (1 g) coconut essence (optional)

Passionfruit semifreddo

150 g (5½ oz) passionfruit pulp (see Top Trix 1 below)

160 g (5¾ oz) egg yolks, from approx. 8 eggs

190 g (6¾ oz) caster (superfine) sugar

50 g (1¾ oz) glucose syrup or light corn syrup

450 g (1 lb) thick (double/heavy) cream (45% fat) 

Passionfruit swirl

60 g (2¼ oz) passionfruit pulp

60 g (2¼ oz) caster (superfine) sugar

— 

Method

Choose a form I like to bombe in a rounded loaf tin – approx. 23 cm × 12 cm (9 × 4½ inches) and 7 cm (2¾ inches) deep. Volume is in the ball-park of 950 ml (32 fl oz). 

Make the coconut crumble Preheat the oven to 130°C (250°F) and line a shallow baking tray with baking paper. Hand-whisk the icing sugar and egg until frothy, then stir in the remaining ingredients to achieve a crumbly consistency. Scatter in a single layer on the tray and bake for 40–50 minutes until crisp and honey gold, stirring twice to promote even colouring. Freeze. 

Make the passionfruit semifreddo Line the form with a double layer of plastic wrap, and place in the freezer. Pulp the passionfruit and reserve the husk of one passionfruit. Whiz the passionfruit pulp in a food processor, then strain to get 150 g/ml (5½ oz) of juice. 

Place the egg yolks into a wide mixing bowl and start whipping on high speed using hand-beaters. The egg yolks will only become frothy at this point. 

In a small saucepan over medium–high heat, stir the passionfruit juice, sugar and the glucose syrup together until the sugar has dissolved and starts to boil. Remove the spoon and keep boiling until you temp check and the syrup has reached 116°C (240°F). It will cook slowly to 110°C (230°F) then take off, so be careful and don’t let the syrup catch any colour. 

Turn the beaters off and quickly pour half the syrup onto the whisked egg yolks. Recommence whipping on high for 30 seconds, then stop and add the remaining half, scraping all the syrup in. Start whipping again for 8 minutes until the mix has turned to pastel yellow/orange fluff. Place the bowl in the fridge to chill completely (to 5°C/41°F) for around an hour, hand-whisking every 15 minutes to chill evenly.

Make the passionfruit swirl In the syrup saucepan (no need to clean), simmer the passionfruit pulp and sugar and reserved passionfruit husk over medium heat until thick and reduced by half, approx. 5 minutes. Refrigerate and check the set – it should be a loose jam consistency. Simmer again if needed or loosen with water.

Whip the cream and layer the freddo Whip the cream until it forms medium peaks and keep chilled. The aim is to get the base mix and cream to a similar airy consistency and temperature. This helps the air remain trapped as the finished mix freezes. 

Using a balloon whisk, fold one-third of the cream into the chilled base mix until lightened, then fold in the remaining cream so no cream streaks remain. Pour one-quarter of the semifreddo mix into the mould, then scatter a big handful of the crumble. Spoon one-quarter of the pash swirl and keep layering the semifreddo, crumble and swirl until all are used up. Swirl a spoon through the mix once only, then cover with plastic wrap and freeze to set, ideally overnight. Chill a serving plate too. 

Make the Italian meringue and assemble Make the Italian meringue and divide between three different piping-tipped piping bags. Take the semifreddo out of the freezer and unwrap the top plastic. Place on the serving plate and remove the tin and remaining plastic wrap. Pipe over the meringue with a relaxed mindset – just squeeze and let it come out as it wants, ensuring the meringue creates a seal with the serving plate at the base. Torch with a brûlée torch until scorched dark brown. It can go back into the freezer to hold for 30 minutes after this if needed. Cut slices with a very hot sharp serrated knife. 

Keep and store Best eaten soon after torching but leftovers do keep covered and frozen for a week.

—

Top trix 1: You need around 200 g (7 oz) fresh passionfruit pulp to make the entire recipe, but you can riff and swirl with another jam – just something high in sugar so it doesn’t freeze hard.

Adaptrix: Lemon is a lovely sub-in. Reduce 150 g/ml (5½ oz) lemon juice by half to make the syrup. Instead of the passionfruit jam, use blueberry jam.

—

Italian meringue

Makes: 300 g/ml (10½ oz) meringue 

Takes: approx. 30 minutes

Ingredients

200 g (7 oz) caster (superfine) sugar

150 g (5½ oz) egg whites, from approx. 5 eggs

¼ teaspoon (2 g) cream of tartar

15 g (½ oz) vanilla bean paste 

½ teaspoon (3 g) fine sea salt

— 

Method

Make the passionfruit swirl In the syrup saucepan (no need to clean), simmer the passionfruit pulp and sugar and reserved passionfruit husk over medium heat until thick and reduced by half, approx. 5 minutes. Refrigerate and check the set – it should be a loose jam consistency. Simmer again if needed or loosen with water.

Whip the cream and layer the freddo Whip the cream until it forms medium peaks and keep chilled. The aim is to get the base mix and cream to a similar airy consistency and temperature. This helps the air remain trapped as the finished mix freezes. 

Using a balloon whisk, fold one-third of the cream into the chilled base mix until lightened, then fold in the remaining cream so no cream streaks remain. Pour one-quarter of the semifreddo mix into the mould, then scatter a big handful of the crumble. Spoon one-quarter of the pash swirl and keep layering the semifreddo, crumble and swirl until all are used up. Swirl a spoon through the mix once only, then cover with plastic wrap and freeze to set, ideally overnight. Chill a serving plate too. 

Make the Italian meringue and assemble Make the Italian meringue and divide between three different piping-tipped piping bags. Take the semifreddo out of the freezer and unwrap the top plastic. Place on the serving plate and remove the tin and remaining plastic wrap. Pipe over the meringue with a relaxed mindset – just squeeze and let it come out as it wants, ensuring the meringue creates a seal with the serving plate at the base. Torch with a brûlée torch until scorched dark brown. It can go back into the freezer to hold for 30 minutes after this if needed. Cut slices with a very hot sharp serrated knife. 

Keep and store Best eaten soon after torching but leftovers do keep covered and frozen for a week.

—

Other recipes from Sweet Heart — 

Flourless almond & mandarin cakes

Honey-poached quince