ice cream bombes

January 19th, 2009 by justJENN

Every year I do a watermelon ice cream bombe. I’ve even been known to do mini 50/50 bombes. But for my Kid’s 5th birthday, in the height of an 80 degree ‘winter’ in L.A. I figured ice cream bombes were in order instead of a traditional birthday cake.

I made two, an orange sherbet filled with rainbow sherbet, and a chocolate filled with coffee chip. The coffee one was for the adult guests, of course. When I make bombes I always go for the element of surprise, so I like the inside ice cream to be colorful and complimentary to the exterior flavors.

Orange bombe ingredients:
one – half gallon orange sherbet
one – half gallon vanilla ice cream
one – half gallon rainbow sherbet

Chocolate bombe ingredients:
one – half gallon chocolate ice cream
one – half gallon vanilla ice cream
one recipe of coffee chip ice cream

First, line a large bowl with saran wrap. This will make for an easy escape when you are trying to turn them out.

For the orange, I ‘line’ the outside with a whole half gallon of orange sherbet, covering the sides and bottom of the bowl. Same goes for the chocolate – use a whole half gallon of ice cream. Use a spatula to help smooth it out, and you can put it back in the freezer if the ice cream is too drippy or melting fast.

Next, I always like to add a thin layer of vanilla in between the outer ice cream and the filling. It adds a nice change of taste and looks darn pretty too. Use HALF of a half gallon, just follow along the outsides of the ice cream you’ve already put down.

Always put the bombes back in the freezer to set. You can do this process all in a few hours or a few days, as long as it’s tightly saran wrapped, it’s pretty smooth going. Now for the filling. For the orange sherbet, I used a whole container of rainbow sherbet, just soften it up and pour it in. Return it to the freezer.

For the chocolate bombe, I used my homemade coffee ice cream recipe and added mini chocolate chips. Again, pour it into the center of the chocolate bombe, then return it to the freezer.

Now to continue with the element of surprise, I always like to ‘top off’ the bombes, by covering it with more vanilla ice cream. that way you can’t see the filling, and again, you add a nice vanilla flavor to compliment all the ice creams.

Use HALF of a half gallon to cover the bottoms – if you notice that means you’ll actually be using the other half of the vanilla ice cream that you had used to do the inner layer.

Back in the freezer (yes, this is a process) and when you turn them out, and pull the plastic wrap off, you get a nicely shaped half-orb of ice cream.

Look how gorgeous they are when you slice into them!

These are a big hit at parties and you really DO need to throw a party to serve them ’cause come on, one bombe contains 3 containers of ice cream, that’s a heck of a lot to consume by yourself.