Last week I waxed lyrical about summer stone fruit, and ended up making some sorbet with a few delicious plums before they where all eaten up. Sorbet is so easy to make with or without an ice-cream churn, and it's fat free! It's a great way to extend your enjoyment of fruit in season.
Ingredients
- 2 cups of caster sugar
- 2 cups of water
- about 1 kg of plums.
That's it!
Method
- Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan over high heat and bring to the boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes to make a light sugar syrup. Don't let it colour too much, you are not making caramel. Put the sugar syrup into a heatproof container, and let it cool completely in the fridge - overnight is best. I like to use this 4 cup Pyrex jug because I can make it all in the one container and it minimizes washing up. Thinking ahead!
- Prepare your fruit. For these plums, I removed any stems, cut some crosses across their bottoms and plunged them into boiling water for a few minutes to loosen the skin, then I sat them in ice water to stop the cooking process before slipping the skins off. The ice water is important to stop the cooking process, because you are making plum sorbet, not plum jam sorbet. Cut the flesh off the stone, them add it to your chilled sugar syrup. Take a moment to admire the colours.
No, really; take a moment. How spectacular is this? It's like some sort of fluorescent sunset. Breathe in, breathe out. Lovely.
- Using a stab blender, regular blender, or food processor, puree this mixture as finely as you can, to ensure a smooth sorbet.
- If you have an ice cream churn, pour it in and press go. If you don't have an ice cream churn, pour it into a container and stick it in the freezer; you will need to stir it every couple of hours until it has turned into sorbet.
- If you cannot wait to eat it, don't stress, but here is a secret tip: after it is ready, leave it in the freezer for a further 24 hours to allow the flavours to marry properly. It's called 'letting the sorbet cure'.
That's it! How easy was that? SUPER easy!
It's fun to experiment with different flavours - one of my favourites is pineapple and mint sorbet. Interestingly I've found that mango and watermelon both make sorbets that taste exactly like frozen fruit, so to save some sugar intake I might have just pureed and frozen the fruit by itself. Peach is lovely, and a mix of peaches, nectarines and plums is also delicious. Strawberries are just divine. All of these sorbets are delicious in a champagne glass topped up with some bubbles...
Do you make sorbet? What is your favourite flavour combination?
xx