bombe glacée – blood orange sorbet and vanilla ice cream

Bombe glacée is a super retro dessert, but it is pretty and tasty.  It is a molded ice cream dish, usually a half dome (hence, bomb, I think…).  This one is filled with vanilla “ice cream” (dairy free, made with almond milk, or coconut milk), and blood orange sorbet – kind of like a fancy creamsicle.

-1.0 setup and necessary objects

• Locate blood oranges, or blood orange juice (you’ll need a lot of blood oranges, so you can cheat and buy the juice)
• Have an ice cream maker (I have the $50 cuisinart one where you freeze the bowl, it does the job just fine)
• Locate some round bowls, or in my case large latte cups, and slightly smaller bowls (ramekins or prep bowls) that fit inside them.
• Spray the inside of the cup with non-stick spray, then lay a piece of plastic wrap over them, and use the smaller bowl to press the wrap in.  Do this too all the molds.
• Now start on the sorbet:

1.0 blood orange sorbet

Ingredients:

• 600 mL       ________________ Blood orange juice (~ 1 ¹⁄₄ Cups)
• 100 mL ________________ grapefruit juice ( ~ ¹⁄₄ Cups)
• 200 grams  __________________ simple syrup (I used syrup from candying kumquats, but you probably don’t have that)
• 20 drops _________________________orange bitters (cocktail bitters)
• 2  tsp  ________________ Maraschino liqueur

Instructions:

• Juice the oranges
• Mix everything together, and chill for a bit.
• Freeze according to the instructions on your ice cream machine.
• You can either go straight from the ice cream maker to the cups, or freeze the whole batch, then soften it slightly later.
• If your ice cream maker isn’t freezing well, I recommend putting the batch in the freezer, before taking it out to put into the molds.
• My ice cream maker is currently not cooperating.  I think the bowls ware out.

2.0 Dairy Free Ice Cream, with Almond milk

Ingredients:

• ¹⁄₄   ___________________ tofutti “better than cream cheese”
• 1 ¹⁄₂ cups ________________ almond milk
• 1 TBSP _________________ coconut oil
• ³⁄₄ cup __________________ sugar
• 2  _____________________ eggs

Instructions:

• Melt the fake cream cheese in a large sauce pan (you need the magical stabilizers in it) – don’t let it scorch
• Add the coconut oil, and almond milk, and whisk together.
• Whip the eggs with the sugar.
• Slowly add the hot “milk” mixture to the eggs, to temper them.
• Add the mixture back to the pan, and cook to 160° F (just like regular custard base ice cream).
• Freeze according to your ice cream machines whims.
• To make this coconut – substitute coconut milk (full fat) for almond milk.  I prefer the coconut to the almond.

3.0 Vanilla ice cream, with dairy (philly style ice cream, not custard, note: contains “raw” egg)

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups ___________________ cream
• 1 Cup ____________________ whole milk
• 1 TBSP _________________ vanilla (or 1 vanilla bean)
• ³⁄₄ cup __________________ sugar
• 2  _____________________ eggs

Instructions:

• Whip the eggs with the sugar.
• Whisk in the cream and milk, and vanilla
• Freeze according to your ice cream machines whims.

Assemble:

• Once you have made the sorbet, and have your molds ready (lined with plastic wrap), scoop some slightly soft sorbet into each one (about an ice cream scoop and a half, maybe two depending on the size of the mold).
• Take another piece of plastic wrap, and lay it over top, press the smaller bowl down into the mold so the sorbet comes up the sides.  Place in the freezer for at least a couple hours.
• Repeat for each mold.
• Make your vanilla ice cream in the meantime.
• Once they’re frozen solid, pull out the little bowl, and the plastic wrap (carefully).
• Fill with 2 scoops of vanilla, and press it down, and smooth it out.
• Cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for at least a few hours.
• To unmold when the time comes, fill a bowl with super hot tap water, and dip the mold in it.
• Pull ice cream out by the plastic wrap.  You may need to trim the bottom with a warm knife, so it will sit flat.
• Garnish with candied orange peel (cook orange peel in hot water, drain the water, and cook in a 1 to 1 simply syrup solution, then soak for an hour, then lay out on a drying wrack, and after a few hours sand them with sugar and salt).  Or buy some.