This month, I’m celebrating nine years of writing the Twice as Tasty food blog and more than 3-1/2 years of this column. My family also recently celebrated several birthdays, and one of my contributions was blackberry sorbet.
I make sorbets at home because they don’t require any special equipment. You can make sorbet in an ice cream maker, but I just use a blender, a shallow pan and a flat space in the freezer. My sorbets vary throughout the summer from Rhubarb-Rosemary Sorbet to versions with currants and plums, but frozen fruit works well too.
It’s easiest to turn dense stalks of rhubarb into a puree if you cook them first. Berries don’t need such treatment, so they have a bright, intensely fresh flavor even if you thawed frozen fruit. Strawberries can be simply pureed with the other sorbet ingredients and frozen, but I strain the seeds from blackberries, raspberries, currants and other seedy fruit to create a seed-free sorbet.
To keep sorbet from freezing in icy chunks, I stir in a tiny amount of alcohol, like vodka or gin. It lowers the sorbet’s freezing point, minimizing crystallization and making the sorbet just soft enough to scoop. For a nonalcoholic alternative, substitute non-high-fructose corn syrup, which has the added advantage of putting a little body back into a strained, seedless berry puree. Other viscous sweeteners, like honey and agave nectar, won’t be as effective and impart a strong flavor.
I love combining fruit and herbs for sorbet and often adapt this recipe for other combinations. Try strawberry and basil, blueberry and lavender, raspberry and thyme or gooseberry and lemon balm, and substitute lemon or lime juice for the orange as desired. Some berries release more juices than others, so add just enough water to produce about 3-1/2 cups of puree.
Blackberry-Orange-Basil Sorbet
Makes about 1 quart
1-1/2 pounds fresh or frozen and thawed blackberries
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
Zest and juice of 1/2 orange
2 tablespoons vodka or gin
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Use an immersion blender, food processor or upright blender to puree the blackberries. Stir in the water, sugar, basil and orange juice and zest, and then puree until smooth.
Pour the berry mixture into a fine-mesh strainer set over a large liquid measuring cup, in batches as needed, and stir and press it with a spoon to separate the seeds and liquid. Compost the seeds in the strainer, and then stir the alcohol and salt into the seedless puree.
Pour the puree into a 9-by-13 inch baking pan or other shallow pan. Cover with a lid or food wrap and freeze for four to six hours. Occasionally remove the mixture, quickly stir it with a fork until it forms pebble-sized chunks and return it to the freezer. When the sorbet is nearly frozen hard, puree again to smooth it out. Refreeze the sorbet for at least one hour before serving; transfer it to a freezer-safe container for longer storage.
Julie Laing is a Bigfork-based cookbook author and food blogger at TwiceAsTasty.com.