Lemon Lime Sorbet

Another sorbet recipe!  Is there no end?  Probably not.  Even Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book has this to say about sorbet:  “If there is a special flavor or ingredient you would like to try --- and we haven’t included it here --- go right ahead.  It will probably work just fine and taste great.”

Whenever I hear encouraging words like those; that it’s really hard to mess it up; I’m motivate to try just about anything.  I stayed rather conservative with my third batch and made lemon lime.  It was really simple to make and the flavor was crisp and refreshing.  I actually doubled the amount of sugar in the original recipe I found on the internet, and the finished sorbet still had a serious tartness.

Ingredients:

Zest of one lemon and one lime

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 cup (total) freshly squeezed mixed lemon and lime juice.  (Approx. 3 lemons and 2 limes)

¾ cup ice water

Use a fine hand grater to make the zest.  Finer grating makes the flavor more intense.  To zest, use the grater to remove just the outside layer of the lemon and lime.  Don't grate too deeply.  The white material under the skin is very bitter.

This is the hand grater I used to make the zest

Bring the zest, sugar and water to a boil in a small pot.  Reduce the heat and gently simmer for about 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.  The original recipe called for the zest to be strained from the water and sugar mixture after cooling.  I decided to leave it in as it had been grated so finely.  I was glad I did.

I got a new gadget for squeezing the lemon juice.  You've probably seen these, and as with most kitchen gadgets, I'm skeptical.  However, this one, picked up at The Restaurant Store in Reading, works like a charm.  Try to picture this:  You halve the lemon and actually place the cut end facing down in the cup with the holes.  Pressing the two sides together actually turns the lemon half inside out, and it really does extract most of the juice.  The yellow model is for lemons, but I also tried it on the limes, not wanting to spring for the green model...just in case.  There wasn't the same level of compression for the lime and juice remaining in the lime had to be squeezed the old fashioned way.

Stir the lemon/lime juice and ¾ cup ice water into the cooled sugar, water, and zest mixture.  Mix thoroughly.  Cover and place in refrigerator for at least an hour.  You may want to put the mixture in the freezing can of your ice cream/sorbet maker before putting it in the refrigerator.  This will help keep it cold when transferring it to your ice cream maker.

Freeze following the instructions for your ice cream maker.  For more detailed directions on how I use mine, see the post for Raspberry Sorbet.

After freezing, remove sorbet to an air-tight plastic container and allow the sorbet to ripen in a freezer for 3-5 hours.

Enjoy!