The Only Sorbet Recipe You'll Ever Need

Above: The same sorbet (that you can see below)...only it was photographed with my brand new camera. What a great birthday present!


Above: Yummy sorbet...but the picture doesn't do it justice...it was taken with my old camera.

My husband loves sorbet. It is his all-time favorite dessert. So, I made a lot of sorbet while we were dating.

I discovered this basic recipe for Pineapple Sorbet and it is so easy and super tasty. Rather than look for more sorbet recipes that were this fool-proof, I decided to just make the same recipe over and over--but using different fruits.

I have successfully used pineapple, strawberry, mango, and peach. I even made kiwi sorbet (but I used lime juice in place of the lemon juice for that one). It always turns out great. My husband loves to get one scoop of pineapple, one of strawberry, and one of mango and mix and match the flavors as he eats.

My only warning here is my usual warning these days...don't take short cuts. As a mom, I've experimented with shortcuts and as I mentioned in my last post, they usually backfire on me. This time, the shortcut I took was to eyeball the amount of sugar instead of measuring it out. The result? I didn't use enough sugar. So, it wasn't sweet enough and the sorbet turned into more of a granita texture-wise than a sorbet. For those of you who don't know what a granita is, it's kind of like a fruit snow cone. It's not smooth and soft like sorbet, it's icy and crunchy. Still yummy and refreshing, but it's not sorbet. I had to let the sorbet melt again and then add more sugar so that it was the right taste and texture and then I froze it again. After re-freezing, it was my wonderful yummy reliable sorbet recipe again.

The secret to making sorbet is the sugar. The sugar lowers the freezing point of the mixture so that it doesn't become rock hard like an ice cube. I have an ice cream maker, but I usually just freeze this in a freezer-safe container and then let the sorbet thaw until it is scoop-able. If you're impatient, microwave the sorbet for about a minute and then see if it's soft enough to scoop. But whether you decide to make this in an ice cream maker or not, you won't be disappointed. It is the perfect light, refreshing summer dessert.

Pineapple Sorbet

Ingredients:

1 small pineapple, peeled and cored (see notes)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons sugar
mint sprigs, optional (see notes)

Directions:

Cut pineapple into 2 inch pieces. Place lemon juice and pineapple in a food processor or blender. Process until smooth; add sugar. Add sugar; process 1 minute or until sugar dissolves.

Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Spoon sorbet into a freezer-safe container. Cover and freeze 1 hour or until firm. Garnish with mint sprigs, if desired.

If you don't have an ice-cream freezer, use a covered metal bowl (see notes). Freeze mixture 3 hours or until it is hard on the outside, but slushy in the middle. Remove it from the freezer, beat it with a whisk until smooth, and return to the freezer, covered, for 4 hours until firm.

Nutrition Information: Serving Size=1/2 cup. 116 calories, 0.2 g fat, 0.2 g protein, 30 g carbohydrate, 0.5 g fiber, 0.0 mg cholesterol, 0.2 mg iron, 1 mg sodium, 3 mg calcium.

Source: Cooking Light (rated 5 stars!).

Notes: My rule for switching up the kind of fruit you use is that you want about one blender-full of fruit (after the fruit is blended) in place of the pineapple in the recipe.