Blood Orange Sorbet

About five or six years ago I planted a blood orange tree and we have waited and waited and waited for a bud and nothing so finally I had enough and last year I threaten the tree with removal.  My youngest laughed at me.  Lo and behold this year we have buds and fruit! Who says talking to your plants is a load of butter spread?  So, I am happy my youngest amazed and the tree gave me the finger by only fruiting on one side - so bizarre but I will take what I can get.
My oranges will not be ready until December; however, I found some at Trader Joes and decided to give sorbet a whirl in anticipation of my crop.

 visit my garden blog for tips on growing blood oranges

Blood Orange Sorbet

sorbet base from

The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato & Sorbetto

Simple Syrup
makes 1 1/3 cups

1 cup of filtered water
1 cup sugar


~Combine water and sugar in medium saucepan
~ heat on medium high heat
~ whisk and bring to a boil
~ reduce heat to medium
~ continue to whisk and simmer 4 minutes until sugar is dissolved
~ remove from heat and cool
~ place in a Pyrex and refrigerate at least 1 hour

1 cup blood orange juice [adjust to your taste]
1 recipe of simple syrup
1T key lime zest
splash of vodka

~ blend all ingredients together
~ make according to ice cream makers instructions
 

Kiwi Sorbet

Rain and Flooding...time for sorbet.  Kiwi, perfect acid with crunchy seeds great sorbet

Kiwi Sorbet

from Me

1 1/2 simple syrup see other sorbet recipes (from The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato and Sorbetto)
6 kiwi's (enough for 1 cup)

~ make simple syrup and allow to cool
~ remove flesh and and grind in mini food processor until smooth
~ mix kiwi flesh and syrup
~ freeze according to manufactures instructions

a most fabulous book, I highly recommend it

Cranberry Sorbet

Looks like a big tongue.  Left overs from Thanksgiving tossed together with some simple syrup transforms boring to brilliant.  The basic simple syrup recipe keeps refrigerated in a clean bowl for a month.  I usually 4x the recipe for spontaneous sorbet.

Part One

Cranberry Sauce

from The American's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

adapted

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/4t sea salt
12oz fresh cranberries

~ bring sugar, water and salt to a boil in non-reactive saucepan medium heat
~ stir to dissolve sugar
~ stir in cranberries and simmer to thicken
~ 10 minutes berries will begin to pop
~ remove from heat and cool to room temperature

Part Two

Cranberry Sorbet

from Me

1 cup left over cranberry sauce
1 1/2 cup simple syrup (see other sorbet recipes)
1t lemon juice
splash vodka

~ combine all ingredence
~ freeze according to manufactures directions

If you prefer a smooth sorbet, put all ingredient in blender and blend until smooth before freezing.

Cashew Sorbet

We had the most amazing sorbet in the bay area, Scream Sorbet.  Pacojet, pacojet, I want a pacojet! That is my scream after I found out and researched just how they made this incredible sorbet.  Well, my money tree is bare (they cost over $2,000 used and $4000 new)  and they are loud, but oh so awesome.  In the meantime, I will experiment and here is my latest.

Those in our family who can eat nuts went nuts over the Scream Sorbet nut sorbets.  I thought recreating those sorbets would be impossible until I attended a cooking demonstration at Native Foods.  Tanya, the chef and owner, explained how she used soaked cashews in the place of heavy cream.  Humm, I thought this might work for sorbet so I gave it a try with mixed results, learning curve...  Mine tasted a bit grainy so the recipe below is how I will make it next time.  I ground the nuts in the liquid, not recommended.

Cashew Sorbet

from Me

2 cups dry roasted and toasted cashews
water to cover

~ put cashews in bowl and add enough water to cover for 4 to 8 hours
~ drain cashews

2 cups soaked and drained cashews
1 cup simple syrup
2 cups filtered water
1T lemon juice
1T vodka

~ grind cashews in processor until smooth
~ blend in syrup, water, lemon juice and vodka
~ churn in ice cream machine according to manufactures instructions
or
~ filter through cheese cloth
~ churn in ice cream machine according to manufactures instructions

We topped ours with home made caramel sauce and toasted nuts.

 

coming up...left over cranberries into sorbet

bleech, I really don't like Thanksgiving Turkey.

Persimmon Sorbet

I have really never had a persimmon so, I thought way not grind it up and introduce it in the form of sorbet.  Interesting flavor...not sweet or sour, perhaps just picked are amazing.  I will have to keep a look out at the farmers market and repeat with a more stunning one.

 

 Persimmon Sorbet

Simple Syrup

makes 1 1/3 cups

1 cup of filtered water

1 cup sugar

~Combine water and sugar in medium saucepan

~ heat on medium high heat

~ whisk and bring to a boil

~ reduce heat to medium 

~ continue to whisk and simmer 4 minutes until sugar is dissolved

~ remove from heat and cool

~ place in a Pyrex and refrigerate at least 1 hour

3 persimmons skinned  and seeds removed

1 recipe of simple syrup

1T key lime zest

splash of vodka

~ blend all ingredients together

~ make according to ice cream makers instructions

Cantaloupe Sorbet

Sorbet, ice cream, gelato are fantastic treats spring, summer, winter and fall. 

 

Cantaloupe Sorbetto

from The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato & Sorbetto

adapted

Simple Syrup

makes 1 1/3 cups

1 cup of filtered water

1 cup sugar

~Combine water and sugar in medium saucepan

~ heat on medium high heat

~ whisk and bring to a boil

~ reduce heat to medium 

~ continue to whisk and simmer 4 minutes until sugar is dissolved

~ remove from heat and cool

~ place in a Pyrex and refrigerate at least 1 hour

1 large cantaloupe

1 recipe of simple syrup

1T key lime zest

splash of vodka

~ blend all ingredients together

~ make according to ice cream makers instructions

Key Lime Sorbet

Packs a puckering punch!  Like The Little Red Hen, I picked the limes.  Made the simple syrup.  Squeezed out the juice. This sorbet was mine.  I ate it and enjoyed every tart drop.  Perfection in an icy lump.

from this

 to

that

Key Lime Sorbet

an adapted version of

Lemon Sorbetto

from The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato & Sorbetto

Simple Syrup

makes 1 1/3 cups

1 cup of filtered water

1 cup sugar

~Combine water and sugar in medium saucepan

~ heat on medium high heat

~ whisk and bring to a boil

~ reduce heat to medium 

~ continue to whisk and simmer 4 minutes until sugar is dissolved

~ remove from heat and cool

~ place in a Pyrex and refrigerate at least 1 hour

An easy recipe to double or triple

Key Lime Sorbet

3/4 cup key lime juice (adjust for tartness or lack of)

1 recipe of simple syrup

1T key lime zest

splash of vodka

~ whisk all ingredients together

~ make according to ice cream makers instructions

Grape Sorbet

 

Organic grapes are still available so I decided to make sorbet.  I just checked out The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz from the library.  His recipe called for corn syrup.  I am not a fan of corn syrup so, I pulled out my book Gourmet Sweets Desserts for Every Occasion and combined the two recipes.

Grape Sorbet

from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

and

Gourmet Sweets

adapted and combined

2 cups of grapes

1T water

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2t lemon juice

1T vodka

~ remove grapes from stems

~ place in a non-reactive pot add water, cover and cook over medium heat until the skins have burst and the grapes are soft

~ let cool

~ blend grapes 

~ add sugar, lemon and vodka

~ blend

~ freeze according to ice cream makers instructions

Pineapple Sorbet

 We love love love our gelato maker.  My experiments with fruit continues.  Coming up later: grape, fancy sweet cantaloupe, and persimmons sorbet.  So refreshing, during this ^*^%* hot weather!

Pineapple Sorbet

from Cook' Illustrated July/ August 1995

adapted

1 pineapple

1/2 cup sugar

some agave

1T lemon juice

1T vodka or rum

~ stem, cut in 1/4ths, peel and core pineapple

~ puree in blender

~ add sugar, agave, lemon juice and vodka

~ puree

~ put in ice cream maker

Fabulous!  Tasted rich like a sherbet.

Plum Sorbet

"Mom can you make me sorbet?" yells out my youngest.  Grinning I reply sure what flavor would you like as I looked over the nearly deceased fruit. We have pears, plums, grapes, banana, and apples.  A perplexed look crosses her face and we decide plum.

The last time I made sorbet I hit the hare trigger switch on my blender and everything went flying into the air.  watermelon sorbet on the walls, on the window, all over my gelato maker, my mixer...New rule unplug the blender before the lid comes off!

Quickly, we threw everything in that evil blender.  We had only 20 minutes until we needed to hop into the car and head to dance.

Plum Sorbet 

5 very large plums

1/2 c sugar

couple squirts agave

2T lemon juice

1T vodka

~ Put plums in blender and puree 

~ Add  sugar and agave blend on-off until fully dissolved

~ Mix in lemon juice and vodka

~ Chill or put directly into ice cream maker

 This was deemed a make again.