9
RECIPES
Fresh Fruit Sorbets
If you fancy a frozen dessert but don’t want the heaviness of ice cream, sorbets are just the ticket.
These ones are real crowd-pleasers and are perfect as an afternoon treat on a hot summer’s day.
Each serves 4
Vegetarian
Pear sorbet
3 small or 2 medium pears, peeled, cored and
quartered
Juice of 2 large or 3 small lemons
75g (3oz) caster sugar
150ml (
1
/
4
pint) water
Place the pears in a small saucepan with the juice
of half a lemon and the sugar and water. Cook
on a medium heat until the pears are just soft,
about 10 minutes. Remove the pears and boil the
cooking liquid until it’s slightly thick and syrupy.
Allow to cool then liquidise it with the pears and
the rest of the lemon juice and sieve. Taste and
adjust juice if necessary. Then follow the freezing
method below.
Melon and lime sorbet
1
/
2
ripe melon, such as Ogen or Charentais
(about 400g/14oz)
Juice of 1 large or 2 small limes
30ml (1fl oz) stock syrup (see handy tip)
Liquidise all the ingredients in the blender and
push through a sieve to strain. Freeze (see To
freeze).
Raspberry and Blueberry
sorbet
125g (4
1
/
2
oz) raspberries (can be frozen)
125g (4
1
/
2
oz) blueberries (can be frozen)
Juice of 1 large lemon
60ml (2fl oz) stock syrup (see handy tip)
Liquidise all the ingredients in the blender and
push through a sieve to strain. Freeze. (see To
freeze).
To freeze
Pop the liquid sorbet into a medium-sized bowl,
cover and place in the freezer. After about 2
hours, remove the bowl and whisk the sorbet to
break up the ice crystals. Repeat 2 hours later,
adding one slightly whisked egg white. If you have
a sorbetière, use this instead as it is much simpler.
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Rachel’s handy tip
Stock syrup is a useful mixture to have at hand
for such things as cocktails and poaching fruit,
as well as for making sorbet. Store it in a jar
or bottle with a lid in a cool place and it keeps
indefinitely.
To make 150ml (
1
/
4
pint), place 200g (7oz)
caster sugar and 200ml (7fl oz) water in a
saucepan and bring slowly to the boil, stirring to
dissolve the sugar. Then boil for 2 minutes and
leave to cool.
