I am cream/butter kind of girl and sorbet hasn’t meant to me much. But at the same time I am not a real fan of combining fruit and dairy, if you know what I mean. When I eat yogurt it has to be one where yogurt and fruit come in separate compartments. Cheesecake with strawberries? Yes, please, just don’t mix them. I want to still be able to see the whole fruit there.
From time to time I’ll try something new, just to keep an open mind, and sometimes it is a success. Like this strawberry ice cream for instance. Yum.
I think I started embracing sorbet/watery fruit bars when I got pregnant. It was hot outside, I wasn’t feeling well and these treats on a stick were cold, refreshing and welcomed. I like this variety especially. Love berries. A big plus is that I can have more than one guilt free ;). It was enough until I got an ice cream maker! It is like having a new toy. I just wanted to play with it and blueberry sorbet seemed a natural choice. Blueberries are in season, are they not? 🙂
What I like about this recipe: it produces a blueberry on a stick. Simple as that. The flavor is sharp and I love that. I like pieces of blueberry skin in it. Such a sweet reminder that it was made from the actual fruit. Also the addition of an alcohol help the texture to stay just right. No icy mass there. The original recipe called for 1 cup of sugar, but it was too much for me, so I decreased to 3/4 with great result. Probably could go down to just 0.5 cup, but Pawel would protest, so this is our compromise. Maybe I’ll do the 0.5 cup when he’ll be out of town on a business trip or something 🙂 Just to try. One thing to remember when decreasing the sugar is that too little may alter the texture of the final product, so it is better to do it in small steps and adjust it to your liking.
Recipe was adapted from Cook’s Illustrated.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
- 1/2 cup water
- 3/4 – 1 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon vodka
Instructions:
- Puree berries with water in food processor*.
- Transfer puree to medium bowl, add remaining ingredients. Mix well.
- Keep stirring until sugar dissolves (nice trick I haven’t thought about – rub your CLEAN finger along bottom of the bowl to check if it has dissolved).**
- Place the bowl in refrigerator until it reaches 40°F or less.
- Once chilled, pour it into bowl of ice cream machine and follow manufacture’s instructions. If you don’t have an ice cream maker click here for alternative method.
- Transfer frozen sorbet to freezer friendly container and freeze for enough time to let it firm up a little.***
- Divide into serving bowls and enjoy!
*I tried to use immersion blender. It is doable but will take more time as you need to be super careful to minimize the mess created during the process.
**You may place the mixture in a metal bowl and place the bowl over ice water to bring the temperature down. If successful skip step 4.
***We like it soft, and are impatient, so we loved it straight from the ice cream machine. About two hours in the freezer gave the sorbet just enough firmness.
Yield: 4 generous portions
Nutritional Info: Cal 216, Prot 1g, Carb 52g, Fat 0g, Fiber 2g
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