What are all of us screaming for each summer besides cooled water and swimming pools? Correct, that’s ice cream. Frozen, luscious, dairy (cashew, coconut, or even tofu) flavoured dessert that people used to call cream ice. But no matter the name, we all love it. It’s believed that people made ice cream throughout history. The first ice cream was allegedly made by simply mixing crushed ice with honey and wine.
Today such a kind of concoction is called sorbet aka water ice. It’s an easier type of preparation for which you don’t need an ice cream maker, only a food processor or a blender. Because, basically, all you need to do is to blend all ingredients. Sorbets are a simple combination of sugar and fruit juices. Frozen and refreshing.
Basic sorbet
A basic formula for a sorbet base is 1 kg of any fruit, chopped and mixed with sugar. That’s pretty much it.
A more detailed version will require you to mix 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of water in a pan, bring to a simmer, wait until sugar is dissolved. Add the resulting simple syrup to a food processor along with your fruits of choice. Blend on high speed until homogenized. In case you used some fibrous fruits like mangoes or seedy ones like cucumbers (yes, cukes are fruits in botanical terms), strain the mixture to remove the unwanted solids.
Taste the base, it should be sweeter than normal, but that’s totally fine. When the mixture gets frozen, all tastes will be dulled. That’s why we bring them up in the first place. You could also add some lemon juice and even salt, just a teeny-tiny amount to enhance the overall flavour.
When tastes are edited, put the mixture in an appropriate container and freeze for 4 hours. Then take the sorbet out and blend again. This ought to be done in order to crash bigger ice pieces that formed during freezing and hence achieve a smoother consistency. Transfer the sorbet to a freezer again and leave it there until it hardens.
How to up your sorbet
You may serve sorbet as is. It’s always a good idea to refresh oneself with a ball of cream ice. But of course, we always have a bright idea on how to up the ante. Let’s say you get yourself raspberry or strawberry sorbet. Scoop it into the glass bowls and pour some sparkling wine over it. Garnish with fresh mint and enjoy immediately.
Or say you want a kid-friendly version. Not a big deal! Go ahead and place one ball in a tall glass and fill it ¾ with ginger ale, cola, or any soda you like. Of course, you must try to pair your sorbets with fresh fruits, sweet sauces like condensed cream and butterscotch, or with herbs like sage, mint, lemon verbena.
What do you think?