2024 and the return to sorbet making and blogging.

It has been very wet and not particularly warm this year but after last years drought I think my garden is grateful and doing its best.

The strawberries have been prolific, nearly a kilo a day which is impressive for just 20 plants. We ate a lot and gave some away but now it is time for some serious sorbet making. 

The first bowl full of strawberries had to be halved and hulled, then I added white sugar, black pepper and about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. and a bit of star anise. The proportions for fruit sorbet are about 4:1 according to icecreamnation.org. A super site for technical information and delicious recipe ideas.  I had 700gms of fruit  so I used about 175 gms of sugar. I let it all macerate for several hours and then whizzed it into a purée. Because I didn't cook up the fruit or a sugar syrup it was all quite cool. I let it sit in the fridge while I made some sugar syrup and  macerated a bowl of scented rose petals. (Coming shortly.)

The next step was to prepare some containers for the finished sorbets I have some plastic pots with lids but I also decided to try some paper /cardboard coffee cups  which would be perfect for individual servings. When everything was ready I poured my fruit purée into the ice-cream maker, added half glass of rosé and left it to churn. I felt fairly confident but also apprehensive as I hadnt made a sorbet since 2022.

A few days later we had to try out the coffee cup moulds. I remembered buying Kulfi in India from a street vendor and how he had briskly rolled the paper cone between the palms of his hands before peeling it away, so I rolled the little cardboard cups in my hands, feeling very streetwise, while my husband looked on in anticipation and sure enough a beautiful little strawberry pink cone of sorbet popped out into his waiting bowl. It worked!