Recipe: Fresh Lemon Sorbet

For Christmas, my brother gave us this ice cream maker.  We've been having a lot of fun with it.  Since Kathleen doesn't handle milk well, we often make non-dairy frozen treats.



Fresh Lemon Sorbet
Bits of fresh citrus zest add a burst of flavor to these refreshing sorbets.

Makes about eight 1/2-cup servings

2 C Sugar
2 C Water
1 1/2 C freshly squeezed lemon juice [If I have a lemon, I'll use whatever juice I get out of it, along with bottled. If I don't have a lemon, I just used bottled.]
1 T finely chopped lemon zest [If I have a lemon.]

Combine the sugar and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-hight heat.  Reduce heat to low and simmer without stirring until the sugar dissolves, about 3 to 5 minutes.  Cool completely.  This is called a simple syrup, and may be made ahead in larger quantities to have on hand for making citrus sorbets.  All to cool completely.  When cool, add the lemon juice and zest; stir to combine.  If not freezing immediately, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Turn on ice cream maker and pour in ingredients.  All to mix and freeze until desired serving consistency after 12 to 15 minutes of freezing.  If sorbet is not thick enough, continue mixing/freezing until desired consistency is reached, checking every few minutes.

Nutritional analysis per serving:
Calories 204 (0% from fat)
Carbs 54 g
Protein 0 g
Fat 0 g
Saturated Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 g
Sodium 3 mg
Cal. 5 mg
Fiber 0 g

Fresh Lime Sorbet:  Substitute 1 1/2 Cups freshly squeezed lime juice for the lemon juice and 1 T finely chopped lime zest for the lemon zest.

Fresh Lemon-Lime Sorbet:  Use half lemon juice and half lime juice and 1/2 T of each of finely chopped lemon and lime zest.

Fresh Pink Grapefruit Sorbet:  [Ewww.]  Substitute 1 1/2 C freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice for the lemon juice, and 1 T finely chopped grapefruit zest for the lemon zest.  Add 1/4 C orgeat syrup to the mixture (orgeat syrup is used for cocktails such as a mai tai or scorpion and can be found with the drink mixers in most grocery stores.)

Recipe from:  Cuisinart Recipe Booklet

We also have an ice cream maker kind of like this one.  With seven of us, we'll often have both ice cream makers going at once because neither one makes an awful lot of ice cream.  However, they are both super convenient because you don't have to add ice or salt.  You freeze the "bowl" that comes with the maker and use it instead.