Nothing could be finer on a summer morning than a cut glass bowl of fresh fruit with a scoop of strawberry sorbet on top!
We have an assortment of scoops we bought from a restaurant supply store (you don’t have to own a restaurant to purchase from them), and we use them for all kinds of things. Scoops are numbered in size–the largest we have is a #20 and the smallest is a #70. The #20 is just the right size for a scoop of pancake batter, #24 is good for a muffin tin, #40 makes just the right size dough balls for cookies, and we use the #70 for a small scoop of strawberry sorbet.
I found out the hard way not to use these scoops for ice cream, which is too hard and bends the mechanism. Just buy a good ice cream scoop for that. I also let the sorbet sit out on the counter for 5-10 minutes to soften slightly before scooping it.
Nearly any fruit will make a good sorbet, since sorbet is just like making ice cream, without the cream. Think pineapple, mango, lemon…
This strawberry sorbet recipe is from Paula Dean. Her recipe is double this amount, but this half recipe makes 5 cups of sorbet, which fits nicely in our small ice cream machine.
Fresh Strawberry Sorbet
Paula Dean
makes 5 cups
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 pint (4 cups) strawberries
1/8 cup lime juice
1/4 cup light corn syrup
Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and allow the mixture to simmer, without stirring, until the sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.
Put the strawberries and lime juice into a food processor and puree. Press the strawberry puree through a strainer [or food mill] to remove the seeds.
When the sugar syrup has cooled completely, add it to the strawberry puree. Add the corn syrup and stir well. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Sorbet is particularly soft after churning but firms up after freezing.
