Port Plum Sorbet

Photo by J. Jagroop

This is an update on my post from April 16, 2009.  After making this sorbet for a dinner party I thought the tweaks I made were worth mentioning.  So here goes.

Making sorbet is truly simple these days with the inexpensive ice-cream machines now available.  The trick to making a smooth and creamy sorbet is in the ratio of liquid to sugar.  Too much liquid and an ice block results.  Too much sugar and a slushy results.  If you’re using canned fruit, buy the unsweetened kind.  The same is true with the addition of wine or spirits to a sorbet.  Too much wine or alcohol will produce a slush rather than a sorbet.  Add just enough to impart a perfume and enhance the fruit while keeping it smooth and creamy frozen for scooping.

Some recipes call for egg whites or gelatin as stabilizers that prevent those ice blocks.  Egg whites are uncooked and subject to salmonella.  Gelatin gives the sorbet a distinctive taste of plastic.  It’s easier, tastier and safer to let the sorbet sit at room temperature for 10-20 minutes before trying to scoop it.

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Tags: Fruit Sorbets, Making Sorbets, Plum Port Sorbet, Sorbets, Wine & Sorbets