Sorbet

At the beginning of summer(I know, its fall now), an ice cream maker jumped off the shelf at Costco and ended up in my basket.  Actually, it was "only" $29.99 and sounded fun. The best thing was, when I got home, I realized there was a $6 coupon, so I really only paid $23.99! Anyway, I thought this would become a novelty appliance, you know, the kind that end up in the basement, only to be pulled out once a year? Boy was I wrong...of course, I made the ice cream and the frozen yogurt at first, but then I found its secret...turn "old" fruit into sorbet.

My daughter eats lots of fruit...12 nectarines? No problem, gone in a couple days...she is the same with all fruit until she decides she is sick of it. My son is the same way, though he is a bit pickier...Mango by the box, apples by the bushel.  Then I come home from Costco with a tray of nectarines or a box of kiwi or mango and they sit, and sit, and sit.  This used to drive me crazy because I thought it was such a waste. Well, the ice cream maker is the best solution.  I take whatever fruit I have that can become sorbet(apples, grapes, oranges etc won't work) and create a puree. I even take fruit that has bruises and use the remaining good fruit.  To remove the skin from the fruits I quickly dip them in boiling water and the skins come off more easily.  I process about 3 1/2 cups fruit for each batch of sorbet and usually add the juice of 1/2-1 lemon. I then strain some of the mixture through a very fine sieve to remove tough strands(mango) and some of the seeds(kiwi, strawberry) though I don't strain the entire mixture. I taste the result and if it is too tart I add about 1/2 cup sugar water(dissolve 1 cup sugar in 1 cup water over heat, then cool).  Most of the time I DON'T add sugar.

Once the puree is made, I refrigerate it for 1 hour to overnight to chill it.  This will make the sorbet set up more quickly.  Then I pour it into the ice cream maker, turn it on and let it run for about 30 minutes.  The sorbet is fairly soft when it is finished so I spoon it into 1/2 cup plastic containers(single servings!) and put them in the freezer.

The batch in the picture is kiwi, nectarine, mango, strawberry...no combination has ever been bad, so use whatever you have!

Print Page