Strawberry Sorbet

Strawberry Sorbet

What do you do when you have more than 5 pounds of fresh ripe strawberries and just can’t eat them all at once? I mean really, who can?

I love strawberries. I keep them in the freezer at all times to make smoothies. I’ve even bought them frozen with the stems already cut off in a 10 pound box. When I buy fresh strawberries I do eat some, but mostly I cut them up and bag them in serving sizes to be used for smoothies along with cubed mango and banana slices. Its nice to have the ingredients  just waiting to be plucked from the freezer.

This time though, I decided to try something new. I’ve had an ice cream maker for many years. Not the old manual ones I grew up around which required lots of ice, salt and manual labor. This one require two things – a frozen bucket and a switch. Both of which come in the box. I have a Cuisinart Ice-20 ice cream maker. Its a dream to work with as its so NOT complicated to use. One moving part makes it an easy clean up. I’ve made all kinds of ice cream in it from vanilla to soursop. It even makes mean alcoholic frozen beverages and nice fruit drinks for the kids on hot summer days. I digress…

The manual for the ice cream maker came with recipes for different flavors of ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbets and sorbets. As I had all this strawberry to use, I decided to try out the recipe for the Strawberry Sorbet. Its a perfect sorbet. Not too sweet and not too icy. My one suggestion when making this is to have a really fine strainer to remove the seeds. I have one of these Kitchenaid Classic Strainers which make it really easy. Let’s face it, no one wants a sorbet with seeds in it.

Here is the recipe which came with the ice cream maker

FRESH STRAWBERRY SORBET

Preparation: 1-1/2 hours (active, about 15 – 20 minutes), 25 – 30 minutes chilling time; optional 2 hours to “ripen” in freezer. Makes about ten 1/2-cup servings.

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 quart fresh strawberries, stems removed, quartered
4 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice

Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce the heat and simmer without stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Transfer to a bowl and let cool completely.

Combine the strawberries and lemon juice in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse to chop the strawberries, about 15 – 20 times, then process until the strawberries are completely puréed, 1 – 2 minutes. Press the strawberry purée through a fine mesh strainer (chinois) to remove seeds. Combine the seedless strawberry purée with the cooled sugar syrup and corn syrup. Chill for 1 hour.

Turn the machine ON, pour strawberry purée mixture into freezer bowl through ingredient spout and mix until thickened, about 25 – 30 minutes. The sorbet will have a “soft serve” texture. If desired, transfer the strawberry sorbet to an airtight container and place in freezer until firm, about 2 hours to “ripen.”

Nutritional analysis per serving:
Calories 96 (2% from fat) • carbo. 24g • pro 0g • fat 0g • sat. fat 0g • chol. 0mg • sod. 1mg

Strawberries