Raspberry Lime Sorbet

After the success of my lemon sorbet, I decided to try another kind.  Andrew and I have made sorbet one of our nightly rituals, having anywhere from a spoonful to a half cup each night as a sweet treat. 

I had planned to do the raspberry sorbet in my Kitchen Aid booklet, but got such a great deal on limes at the farmer's market ($1.50 for 13!) that I decided to make a raspberry lime sorbet.  I doubled the recipe, since I had already bought four pints of raspberries when I picked up the limes.

To see the steps to making simple syrup and sorbet, click here.


Raspberry Lime Sorbet

2 c. raspberry juice*
2 c. lime juice
2-1/2 c. simple syrup

*To make the raspberry juice, combine 6 cups fresh raspberries and 1/4 c. plus 2 tbsp. water in the bowl of a food processor.  Process until very smooth.  Press berry mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove seeds.  I opted to strain it twice to ensure all the seeds were removed.

You will have to make this in two batches, re-freezing the bowl of the ice cream maker for 12 hours in between.  Obviously, you can cut it in half for one batch, the measurements here are what I used.

Raspberry Lime may seem an odd combination, but the combination of sweet and sour is a winner, and the hot pink color is pretty fun too!

Lemon Sorbet

After breaking in my ice cream maker with vanilla and vanilla-strawberry ice cream, as well as a fantastic go at cookies 'n' cream, I decided to try something different.  I was thinking something fruity, but different than the vanilla-strawberry.  I settled on lemon sorbet when all but one of the ten lemons Andrew bought at the farmer's market had been sitting there for a week untouched.

I used the recipe in the booklet that came with my ice cream maker.  The vanilla and cookies 'n' cream had come out so well that I trusted KitchenAid not to steer me wrong, and my faith was well founded.  The lemon sorbet is tart, yet sweet, light, and delicious. 


Lemon Sorbet

1-1/4 c. simple syrup
2 c. lemon juice

Yup, that's really it. 

To make the simple syrup, you want to use equal parts sugar and water.  The recipe in the booklet tells you to use 2 cups of each to yield 3 cups of simple syrup.  As you can see, this recipe only calls for 1-1/4 cups.  Don't worry, I did the math for you.  You'll need to use 1-2/3 cups each of sugar and water to make 1-1/4 cups simple syrup. 

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil, cook about 10 minutes. 

Transfer to an ice bath, stirring until well chilled.

I put the simple syrup in a medium sized measuring cup, then put that cup into a large measuring cup about one third full of ice water.

While the simple syrup is cooking, you'll want to prep your lemons.

I cut each lemon in half, then juiced them into a measuring cup.  When I had a little more than I needed, I got ready to strain the juice into a bowl.

This gave me the opportunity to get rid of all the pulp and seeds, leaving me with pure lemon juice.

I covered this bowl and the container of simple syrup and chilled the juice completely.

When I was ready to make the sorbet, I set up my ice cream maker and combined the lemon juice and simple syrup.

Now you just have to let it churn, baby, churn!  (I feel like I've made that pun before.  I apologize if I'm repeating my lame jokes.)

Action shot:

After ten minutes of churning on Speed 1, you will have beautiful lemon sorbet.  Before you freeze it, it will have a soft, homemade Italian ice consistency.  I love it at this stage!

I opted to freeze my sorbet in some smaller containers, to assist Andrew and I with portion control.

Sorbet is an easy option to use up leftover fruit, or to provide a (slightly) more healthful option to ice cream.  Though there's tons of sugar, it's fat free...so that has to count for something!

Vanilla-Strawberry Ice Cream

I have been wanting to make ice cream for a long time. I mentioned it a couple months ago in my vanilla bean post, but my desire to make ice cream with my KitchenAid mixer stems all the way back to two distinct life events.

Life Event #1 - Making ice cream at Girl Scout camp. You know how you put the ice cream batter in a small can inside a coffee can packed with rock salt and ice? And then you roll the can back and forth until the ice cream freezes? You know? And Life Event #2 - receiving my KitchenAid mixer and all the attachments from my grandma months before my shower and being SO excited to learn how to use each one.

I have since learned a lot about my mixer, but there's so much more to experiment with. Making ice cream all by myself was a pretty exciting thing to try, and I was so pleased with the results, I can't wait to try new ice cream flavors and fun mix-ins.

I decided to start simple: Vanilla Ice Cream. My childhood favorite, dressed up with real vanilla beans and (I later decided) studded with fresh strawberries. What a treat! Not wanting to be at all adventurous during my first try, I stuck with the vanilla ice cream recipe that came with the ice cream attachment.

Lots of egg yolks - I saved the whites for a later dessert project.

Beat those yolks 'til they cry! Or, you know, until the sugar is incorporated and the mixture fluffs up a bit.

Simmering half & half with egg yolk/sugar mixture.

Transfer half & half mixture to a mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer's bowl) and add whipping cream, vanilla extract, salt, and vanilla from one half of a vanilla bean. I used 3 teaspoons instead of the recommended 4 because I added the real vanilla.

When it was done mixing, I took out about half the ice cream, stored in an air-tight, freezer safe container, and added one cup of chopped strawberries that I had mascerated in a tablespoon of sugar to the ice cream attachment. I churned it for a few more minutes to fully incorporate all the luscious stawberry juice and the berries themselves.

This homemade ice cream was so rich and delicious, I want this to be the only kind of ice cream I ever eat. The plain vanilla is really great, but the strawberry-vanilla flavor is absolutely outrageous! The juice from the mascerated strawberries lightly flavors all the ice cream, and the chunks of frozen strawberries are little bites of fresh berry goodness. I want to try this with peaches too, but I'm afraid the season may be over.

The directions were pretty easy to follow, and since I throw everything I can in the dishwasher, the only thing to wash is the freeze bowl (which you absolutely cannot put in the dishwasher). Keep in mind that there are several steps to making ice cream, and most of them require large lapses of time for chilling. As long as you plan accordingly, you can easily churn up a batch of ice cream anytime.

At the top of the post is one yummy serving suggestion - top my Strawberry Peach Cobbler with this ice cream!