Summer Lemon Sorbet is the perfect pick-me-up when it is unbearably hot, you are tired and just need a quiet sit down with 10 minutes to yourself. It is also perfect when you need a light dessert for dinner. I first made lemon sorbet when I was about 14 years old. We had a huge old chest freezer and I was making it in an old ice-cream tub. I was so pleased at the way it came out, I was a total convert. It was so much better than the syrupy thick, gummy shop bought sorbet. It was light, refreshing and tasted of lemon (not lemon scented kitchen cleaner). I was hooked!
You can find the full Summer Lemon Sorbet recipe here.
Summer Lemon Sorbet is very easy but it takes time. Do this when you have a quiet afternoon and a good book/ lots of admin to do…
Summer Lemon Sorbet goes so well with Roasted Rhubarb with Crumble Topping. Or if you need a revitalising pick-me-up on a sweltering day. You can also use it to refresh you palette in-between courses of a fancy dinner party.
If you have an ice-cream maker you can use this. The texture will be smoother with an ice-cream maker. I used unrefined sugar which gives an almost golden, caramel colour. If colour is important to you use refined white sugar.
It is important to taste the sorbet when adding the juice to get the flavour you like. I like it super tangy, zingy and tart and I used all the lemon juice.
Preparation
Difficulty easy
Preparation time 15 minutes
Cooking time 4 hours
You can find the full Summer Lemon Sorbet recipe here.
Allergens
Summer Lemon Sorbet is gluten-free and vegan as well as…
Celery free
Coconut free
Garlic free
Lupin free
Mustard free
Nightshade free
Onion free
Peanut free
Sesame free
Soya free
Tree nut free.
About
Sorbet is a frozen dessert (usually) made from water, sugar and fruit juice. There are lots of varieties of sorbet from lemon to pineapple to pear to almond… Some may contain alcohol (which lowers the freezing temperature and produces a softer, smoother sorbet) but sorbet does not usually contain dairy products. Sorbet is similar to granita in terms of ingredients however, the difference between sorbet and granita lies in the texture. Granita has a courser, more crystalline texture which is obtained by less mixing during the freezing stage. Granita originated in Sicily and there as many different textures across the island as there are fruits. One side of the island produces a smoother texture than the other and so one. Granita has become very popular throughout Europe.
The more you beat the sorbet during the freezing process, the smoother the sorbet. You can use an ice-cream maker to good effect here. It takes some of the fun out of making sorbet and some of the texture. But if you are short of time or want a smooth texture go for it.
You can also make vegetable sorbets e.g. tomato or cucumber sorbet. Where you would use less sugar but still require some sugar. These types of sorbet are often used as palette cleansers, in-between courses, in fancy restaurants. That said I can easily imagine a cucumber sorbet on a steaming hot day would be amazingly refreshing.