Bomba Tricolori | Seasoned Cooking

My daughter came up with this for a recent family function and it was an unqualified hit. A word to the wise, key limes can be a bit bitter and you may want to substitute regular limes, although we found that the marriage of the three flavours went a long way towards lessening the bite. For the orange, outside layer:

4 cups extra pulp orange juice

For the red, middle layer:

2 cups cranberry juice (we used pure juice from a health food store rather than cranberry cocktail)

For the centre of the bombe:

1 cup key lime juice, with pulp, mixed with one cup non-carbonated mineral water

Basic Sorbet

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 1/3 cups fruit juice, strained or not (I prefer it with pulp, but it’s your preference)

Stir the sugar and water together in a saucepan. Place over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to med-high and boil for 30 seconds without stirring. Remove from heat, pour into heatproof bowl and cool completely. When cooled, cover and refrigerate 4 hours.

Add 1 2/3 cups of the syrup to your fruit juice and taste. It should be almost too sweet tasting. Adjust and add more sugar syrup if necessary.

Pour into a non-metal bowl and place in the freezer for 3 hours or until set but not solid. Remove from freezer; break up into chunks and process on high until it reaches a smooth consistency. Return to the freezer to allow to refreeze. Repeat the process once more returning it to the freezer a second time.

Meantime, prepare three nesting bowls for the shaping. Line the inside of the largest bowl with plastic wrap. Remove the frozen mixture from the freezer, reprocess and this time, scoop the sorbet into the bowl and shape against the sides, being careful to make the layer as even as possible and leaving a hollow centre. Line with plastic and set the middle sized bowl inside the sorbet shell. Return to the freezer and allow to set. Repeat the process with the middle layer using the smallest bowl to help keep the shape. With the third flavour, you fill in the hollow completely.

When Marina made ours, she started with orange sorbet on the outside, cranberry sorbet in the middle and lime sorbet filling it in. Also, when she removed the orange sorbet from the freezer the first time to process it, she added a container of frozen pineapple – orange juice concentrate to give it a bit of a flavour burst.

When you’re ready to serve, just set it gently in a large bowl full of warm water, but be careful not to leave it in for more than a few seconds. You want to encourage it to loosen from the sides easily, but you don’t want it to melt. Upend the Bombe on a serving platter that you’ve garnished with some edible flowers, and stand back for rave reviews!!!

Through the Kitchen Window