It is spring time in Sydney but it feels more like summer. With temperatures soaring to average 30C the past weeks, you can just imagine how beaches in the city are packed with people. Anything to beat the heat. One of the things I absolutely love making are cold beverages like iced teas and sangria. More like on the fruity kind of refreshments than chocolate-flavoured ones. Homemade ice cream, semi-freddo and sorbet are also favourites in the family. Strawberries are still flowing so I decided to whip up a tin of sorbet.
Look for fairly soft, fresh strawberries to use for this recipe as they are easier to puree. I would not recommend using frozen or canned strawberries as they are too watery and the flavour will not be as good. Strawberries, caster sugar and fresh lemon juice. Three simple ingredients to make this fabulously refreshing treat to beat the heat!
Ingredients
- 1 kg fresh strawberries
- 225 g caster sugar
- juice of 1 lemon
- Hull and halve the strawberries and put into a food processor or blender. Process until smooth.
- Put the sugar and 300 ml water in a small saucepan. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, add lemon juice and allow to cool.
- Mix together the sugar syrup and strawberry puree. Pour into a rigid container. Cover and freeze the mixture for 1 1/2 hours until semi-frozen. Remove from the freezer and whisk with electric mixer or balloon whisk until smooth. Level the surface, cover and freeze for a further 4 hours.
- Transfer to the fridge for 10-15 minutes before serving to soften lightly.
Beating the semi-frozen sorbet in step 3 breaks up the ice crystals and gives the sorbet a smoother texture. Make sure the mixture is just frozen round the edge but still quite soft in the centre before whisking. Truth be known, I may have left the mixture a bit longer in the freezer before beating it, thus my sorbet wasn’t as smooth as it should be. But there will be a next time making this anyway and we enjoyed this just the same.
