Sorbet season is here, and if you're like me, you've bought way too much fruit. Not only is it a great way to take advantage of summer's bountiful harvest, but it's also a refreshing way to beat the heat.
To make the most of this joyous occasion, I've devised a no-cook, dump-and-blend sorbet technique that takes as little as five minutes to prepare, depending on the fruit you use.
Sorbet's ability to quench your thirst on a hot day can seem like a shot of adrenaline.
The irony is not lost on me that the very attributes that make sorbet more refreshing than ice cream (specifically, the lack of fat) also make it tricky to get just right. Sometimes sorbets turn out so ice that they are difficult to scoop and leave a gritty aftertaste in the tongue.
For the sorbets I've made in the past, I always had to start by producing a simple syrup that then had to be cooled before being mixed in with the rest of the ingredients. For ease of preparation and enhanced taste, I sought for a method that called for neither heat nor water—both of which can dull fruit's natural vivacity and contribute to that icy quality. I also tried to limit the amount of time spent on preparation and washing dishes. (If there is anyone who is sick of doing the dishes more than once, it's this food critic.)
The ratio I agreed on of about four cups of fruit to one cup of sweetener is similar to one reported by Max Falkowitz on Serious Eats, with one key difference.
After trying up a few different iterations, I figured out that corn syrup is the secret to a creamy, scoopable sorbet. Use three-quarters of a cup of sugar and a quarter of a cup of light corn syrup instead of a full cup of sugar. Corn syrup, which should not be mistaken with high-fructose corn syrup, helps to make the churned sorbet smooth and scoopable because it is sweeter than granulated sugar but tastes more like invert sugar.
While a volume measurement would be more accurate here due to the variability of fruit weight, I've included some ballpark weight estimates in the recipe below.
Very simply put: Fruit, sugar, corn syrup, salt, and sometimes citrus zest and/or juice are blended together in a food processor or blender until completely smooth and the fruit is evenly distributed throughout. When constructing a base with berries that have large seeds, like raspberries, I drain the mixture. Blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, apricots, plums, and honeydew, as well as cantaloupe and melon, all made appearances in my variation of the sorbet recipe shown below. (Unfortunately, the water content of watermelon, another summertime favorite, prevents it from being utilized in this recipe for sorbet.)
All of them had a wonderful aroma, taste, and texture. Stone fruit was the pickiest because you have to remove the pit before you can cut it. Is it true that it is the quickest? These are the berries, of course. After trying each one individually at home, we all decided on our favorite. My spouse absolutely like the soft orange tint of cantaloupe. Our 7-year-old took one whiff of the plum and questioned why it wasn't available commercially.
I personally preferred raspberry because it gave me the opportunity to sing "raspberry sorbet" to the tune of Prince's "Raspberry Beret."
