Sorbet Success: Our Simple Guide to Making This Icy Delight

Sorbet has to be one of the simplest frozen desserts there is! Sugar syrup + puréed fruit + freezer = heaven. Of course, you can also flavour sorbets with infusions like various teas, coffee or alcohol. Sorbets were traditionally served as palate cleanser between courses, but these days they are a hugely popular dessert in their own right. And don’t think they’re just for summer: refreshing sorbet is the perfect pudding after a rich, heavy winter meal.

While sorbet is really easy to make, there are a few basic rules to follow if you want to avoid common problems, such as rock-hard ice crystals, sorbet that melts before you’ve even had the chance to scoop and serve it, or over-powering sweetness.

OUR TOP TIPS FOR SORBET SUCCESS

• Use the very best quality fruit you can lay your hands on. Sorbet, after all, is a pudding that celebrates the very essence of your chosen fruit’s flavour, so don’t settle for anything less than the best.
• Fruits that purée to a creamier texture – think mangoes, bananas, berries or even pears – will result in a sorbet with a more velvety texture, while citrus fruits, watermelon, pomegranates and the like make for a more icy result.
  TIP Add a mango to the primary fruit to enhance creaminess.
• Taste the fresh fruit first to assess its natural sweetness and adjust the amount of sugar you use accordingly. Too much sugar will not only make for a sickeningly sweet dessert, it also reduces the freezing point so that firstly, your sorbet will take ages to freeze, and secondly, it will crystallize as it freezes. Too little sugar and you end up with loads of crunchy ice crystals. Some experts swear by a ratio of 4 cups puréed fruit to 1 cup sugar.
• If you don’t have an ice-cream maker, place the sorbet mixture in a sealed container in the very coldest part of your freezer (usually at the bottom and back). Don’t forget to mix up the sorbet every 90 minutes while it freezes (use a fork, a metal whisk, a handheld beater or whizz it in a food processor) until you have a uniformly textured slush. Repeat this up to three times and then leave it to refreeze for at least an hour before serving. (An ice-cream maker will always give you a smoother result, but if you pay attention to this step and do a good job of manual mixing, you will still get delicious results.)

GIVE IT A GO… 
See for yourself how easy it is to whip up our Berry Sorbet, which looks even more mouthwatering and beautiful if you make it in our freezerproof stoneware Deep-Heart Casserole, which can go straight from the freezer to the table. Here, two mangoes lend their creamy texture and sweetness to the delicious tartness of mixed strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. (Tip: serve individual portions in stoneware ramekins that you have first chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes.) Yum!

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