Bombe

The word bombe is often used loosely, referring to both a dessert and to a frozen dessert base mixture. In more specific and correct terminology, the frozen dessert is a bombe glacé, which is traditionally made by lining a chilled half-sphere mold with a firm mixture of ice cream, sorbet, or sherbet, sometimes in multiple layers. The shell is allowed to set then filled with a lighter bombe mixture, and the entire mold is frozen.

A bombe mixture, appareil à bombe or pâte à bombe, is made primarily from egg yolks and soft-ball sugar. It can be prepared in several ways: by adding sugar cooked to the soft-ball stage to whipped yolks; by cooking the yolks with the sugar syrup in a double boiler over low heat, or by cooking the yolks in sweetened milk, as is often done when making crème anglaise. The most common is the first method.