Barefoot Contessa's Ice Cream Bombe

I promised myself I'd tackle one of Martha Stewart's ice cream bombes this summer, a rather delicate, precious one called a "raspberry pavlova bombe" that involves placing dozens of delicate raspberries inside a bowl.

Yes, well, as much as I'd love to do that, I thought I'd start with something less ambitious. And so when I saw the Barefoot Contessa's recipe for an ice cream bombe in her book "Barefoot in Paris" I knew I'd found the right recipe for me: only three ingredients.


If you don't have the book and it's too late to run to the bookstore and invest in this worthy tome, you can find the recipe on the Food Network website.

To be honest, I have no idea what an ice cream bombe has to do with Paris, and I have eaten my way through that city four times, but maybe I missed the ice cream arrondissement and you can enlighten me now.

Substitutions: The great thing about this recipe is that you can make it as fancy and complicated as you want - and make your own sorbets, or you can do what I did and hightail it to your nearest freezer and purchase the flavours you want. Instead of mango sorbet, I used a frozen yogurt-sherbet mix of mango and peach. Instead of the raspberry sorbet, I used a frozen yogurt-sherbet mix of raspberry and pomegranate. Instead of the strawberry ice cream, I used vanilla.

Would I make this again? Indeed I would, only I would account for it to take longer than I imagined. You have to freeze the bombe in layers, so that each layer will take about 30 minutes in the freezer. If you are busy chasing around a precocious near-toddler, or you really want to go to sleep when he does, this might not be the recipe for you.

But you know what? It's a showstopper and the perfect way to end a hot summer barbecue. Be warned, however; this is a recipe for 10-20 people otherwise you will be rushing back inside to pop it in the freezer so that it keeps its shape or risk throwing the rest out.

Grade: I'm feeling generous today, so another five stars out of five. I love a recipe that you can play around with, and particularly one that is as colourful and fun as this one is.