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Raspberry Coupe
Prepare a pint only of vanilla ice cream. Place a pint sound, fresh raspberries in a bowl, season with two tablespoons fine sugar, a tablespoon kirsch and a tablespoon maraschino. Mix all well in seasoning, then evenly divide berries into six champagne coupes. Evenly arrange the vanilla cream in the glasses, nicely smooth surface, dome-shape, and serve.
An assembly job rather than a cooked dish, and it stands or falls on temperature and timing. Everything can be prepared ahead except the final scoop.
- The coupeA champagne coupe is the wide, shallow saucer-shaped glass, roughly 5-6 oz. Any small stemmed dessert glass works; a narrow flute does not, since the domed ice cream needs a broad mouth.
- QuantitiesA pint of berries is about 12 oz by weight, or two standard supermarket clamshells. A pint of ice cream is a single small tub, which gives a modest scoop per glass -- the berries are meant to dominate.
- Fine sugarThis means caster or superfine sugar, which dissolves in the fruit juices without grittiness. Granulated will do if you let the berries macerate longer, or pulse the sugar briefly in a grinder.
- Kirsch and maraschinoKirsch is a dry, unsweetened cherry brandy; maraschino here is the clear Italian liqueur (Luxardo and similar), not the syrup from a jar of cocktail cherries. The maraschino adds some sweetness on top of the sugar, and both carry a faint bitter-almond note associated with the cherry stones.
- MaceratingThe recipe says only to mix and divide, but 20-30 minutes in the refrigerator will let the sugar draw out juice before you portion the berries. Left much longer, raspberries tend to soften and lose their shape.
- Keep it coldChill the glasses in the freezer beforehand. Warm glass against soft ice cream over cold fruit turns the whole thing to soup within a minute or two of reaching the table.
- The domeSmooth the ice cream with the back of a warmed spoon rather than leaving a scoop mark. The recipe asks only for a smooth, dome-shaped surface.
- YieldSix servings, as written. Non-drinkers can substitute a spoonful of raspberry or cherry syrup with a squeeze of lemon, though the result is noticeably sweeter.
The coupe in French restaurant usage names both the glass and the dessert served in it: a base of fruit, a dome of ice cream, and often a spoonful of liqueur to bind them. Escoffier codified dozens of them, and by the early twentieth century coupes were a familiar part of hotel repertoire, which is why a book with international ambitions carries one. The pairing of raspberry with kirsch and maraschino is a French kitchen convention rather than an invention of this author -- both are cherry spirits, and their almond edge is the traditional counterweight to the perfume of raspberry.