Simple to make, impressive to look at and delicious to eat, Ella Risbridger’s recipe for a frozen berry ‘bomb’ lolly from ‘The Kitchen Book’ ticks all the summer pudding boxes
IMAGE: YUKI SUGIURA
Bomb, and her little cousin the Bomb Lolly, were such a fundamental part of my childhood summers I am always surprised they don’t form a more solid cornerstone for summer culture as a whole. I actually have never met anyone, outside of my immediate family and the families we grew up spending summers with, who understands properly about Bomb and Bomb Lolly.
When I talk about it people like to tell me I mean bombe, and listen, I suppose I sort of do: bombe is the fancy Italian semi-spherical gelato-type number that did big business in the eighties, and Bomb Lolly is like if that fancy Italian left, like, Milan to run a commune in the mountains. No ice cream, just whipped creme fraiche mixed with berries; water, a little sugar, a little lemon juice depending on the tartness of your fruit; and handfuls of crumbled meringue swirled through. It’s most like, I suppose, a kind of frozen pavlova, either in a bowl or in lolly moulds (depending on if it’s B or B.L.). Any berries you want. The sound of the summer.
Bomb Lolly
Ingredients
- 500 g frozen berries
- 400 ml creme fraiche
- 100 g sugar
- 250 g meringue (shop-bought is fine)
- 100 g white choc chips
Instructions
- Blitz the frozen berries with 100ml water until smooth. Whip the creme fraiche with the sugar. Crumble the meringue into the creme fraiche.
- Layer the berries and creme fraiche meringue either in lolly moulds (perfect) or swirl together in a Pyrex bowl (also perfect, less of a lolly). Freeze until set.
- Melt white choc chips by putting the bag, unopened, into a mug of hot water. Snip off one corner when completely soft, and drizzle liberally over frozen lollies. It will set immediately.
The Kitchen Book by Ella Risbridger, 4th Estate, £26, photography by Yuki Sugiura
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