This ice cream bombe uses two pints of ice cream, but that doesn’t mean you need to stick to only two flavors—use what you love and as much as you want. I love chocolate wafer cookies, but chocolate chip, shortbread, Oreos, or whatever cookie is your vice is totally acceptable. Buy whatever toppings you like on your banana split already prepared from the grocery store, and treat yourself to the best ones available because you’re worth it. Splurge on a good chocolate bar for the magic shell, because it really does make all the difference. And make this often—now that you know how simple bombe-making really is, there’s no reason you shouldn’t treat yourself like ice cream royalty on the regular.
Directions
- Lightly grease a 1 ½-quart bowl with a touch of oil or cooking spray, then line completely with plastic wrap, smoothing it as well as you can. It doesn't need to look pretty, but you don't want any air pockets, which will take up valuable space you could be filling with fudge.
- Place your ice cream on the counter to soften while you gather and prepare your ingredients. Cut the bananas into half-inch slices. Microwave the containers of hot fudge, caramel, and marshmallow fluff in 30-second increments until they are just softened—you do not want them to be hot, or else they'll melt the ice cream. How long this takes depends on your microwave, as well as the brand of dessert toppings you're using, but in my kitchen it took about 90 seconds.
- Arrange the ice cream and all your toppings around the bowl, because you're going to work quickly, and it's probably (definitely) going to get a bit messy. Wrap your non-dominant hand extremely well in plastic wrap (wrapping all the way up to the elbow will help keep it from sliding off).
- When the ice cream is just soft enough to scoop easily, put a scoop or two of each flavor at the bottom of the bowl and use your wrapped hand to smoosh them down. Add a layer of bananas, a drizzle of fudge, a good shake of sprinkles, then add some more ice cream to cover. Drizzle on some caramel and marshmallow, add chopped nuts and more bananas, then more ice cream, and smoosh. Don't worry about order, don't worry about appearances, don't worry about using up all the ingredients, don't even worry about spreading things out evenly—this is chaos! Embrace it!
- Continue building the bombe, stopping when you're about one inch from the top of the bowl. Add a thin layer of fudge, caramel, or both, then fill the bowl with cookie crumbs and level off. Cover with a piece of parchment paper, pressing down a bit to help the crumbs set, then wrap the entire bowl well with more plastic and freeze for at least two hours.
- When ready to serve, unwrap the bowl, remove the plastic, then invert the bombe onto a large serving plate. It may take a few minutes before you can slide the bowl off—if you're impatient, run it under some tap water or gently warm it with a hair dryer. Peel off the plastic wrap and gather whatever toppings you'd like for garnish (sprinkles!).
- In the microwave or over a double boiler, gently melt the chocolate, corn syrup, and oil together, then stir violently until smooth and shiny (in the microwave this takes 90 seconds). Pour over the bombe, allowing it to drip down the sides. Quickly sprinkle on nuts, rainbow sprinkles, cookie crumbs, or whatever crunchy toppings you like before the magic shell sets completely. Serve immediately with whipped cream and maraschino cherries or keep in the freezer until you're ready to serve.
Allison Robicelli
Allison Robicelli is a D-list celebrity-chef chef, author, humorist, entrepreneur, general polymath, and all-around good time. You may remember her from such places as Food52, Eater, Food Network, VH1, and many other quirky corners of the food Internet. She is the author of the critically acclaimed cookbook/memoir Robicelli's: A Love Story, With Cupcakes, which has been called one of the funniest food-related books of all time. You should buy it.