Cranberry Sorbet: the kind you find in a specialty store

We've made Cranberry Sauce for the holidays forever but this Thanksgiving in Barcelona I wanted to try making a Sorbet instead. I found David Lebovitz recipe, which was like my sauce, but with less Sugar. It's difficult to find Cranberries in Barcelona, but our favorite specialty fruit and veg store -- Giro, in the Mercat de Sant Antoni -- does carry them for their North American customers this time of year. Unfortunately, they're 5,80€ for a 130 g package, and I got two, but wish I'd gotten three -- ouch! (In US stores, they're $2.50 for a 12 ounce / 340 g bag). Below, I show Lebovitz' recipe and my version scaled down to 75% for the Cranberries I got.

(For what it's worth, Harold McGee's "The Curious Cook" shows these proportions for a Cranberry "soft ice": 3/4 C Cranberry,  13 Tbs Sugar, 3/4 C Water).

125 g    94 g    Water

100 g    75 g    Sugar

340 g   255 g    Cranberries, fresh

125 ml   94 ml   Orange Juice, fresh squeezed if possible

 15 ml   11 ml   Orange Liquor

 60 g    45 g    Water

Heat the first addition of Water and dissolve the Sugar, then add the Cranberries.

Boil slowly, covered, for about 10 minutes until all the Cranberries soften.

Let cool to room temperature.

Whiz with a stick blender, and add the Orange Juice, Orange Liquor, and second addition of Water.

I got about 400 ml of dense liquid from my 75% scaled recipe.

Chill overnight, and also chill your ice cream maker's canister.

Churn 20-30 minutes, then freeze tightly covered overnight or at least several hours to firm up.

This came out a bit too firm, it could use a bit more Sugar or Liquor to soften it for serving. It's a good taste, but not mind-blowing -- perhaps add a bit of acid.

Lemon mint sorbet

We like the Grapefruit Rosemary sorbet I make, and I've got a little lemon tree and mint growing on the terrace, so let's try something with those. 

Lemon sorbet with Nona's Liqueur #3

The proportions below come from Harold McGee's table in "The Curious Cook", chapter "Fruit Ices Cold and Calculated":

Flavor        Fruit  Sugar   Lemon  Water
-----------   -----  ------  -----  -------
lemon, hard   1/2 C   8 Tbs  0 Tbs  1 1/4 C
lemon, soft   1/2 C  14 Tbs  0      1     C

Let's go with the "soft", and convert to metric:

118 ml Lemon juice

177 g  Sugar

237 ml Water

I've got 2 lemons left on my tree. Serious Eats uses 4 lemons to give 3/4 C juice (180ml) for the Lemon Tart I make, so I expect to have about  90 ml juice, so I'm scaling the above by 76%. 

        Zest of 2 lemons

135 g   Sugar (I used 121 g Palm sugar

180 ml  Water

 19 g   Mint leaves, roughly chopped to expose oils

pinch   Salt

 90 ml  Lemon Juice (2 tree lemons and 1 store-bought lemon)

Zest the 2 Lemons, chop the Mint Leaves, and add to a pot with Sugar, Water, and Salt.

Bring to simmer to dissolve the Sugar.

Cover and let it infuse 15 minutes and cool.

Juice the Lemons by rolling them firmly on the counter to loosen the juice;

use a reamer or lemon squeezer to get as much juice as possible.

Strain the Sugar solution into the Lemon Juice.

Chill overnight.

Churn in an ice cream maker.

Cover and chill overnight.

This tastes excellent -- the mint really comes through, without being grassy. 

The texture is good, smooth and not too hard. 

But it melts very quickly -- consider backing out the Sugar a bit, or adding something that will prevent the syneresis.

Grapefruit Rosemary Sorbet

This unusual flavor pairing works well and is a great way to end a meal. You can use a little rosemary for a subtle accent, but it's a fun slap-in-the-face if you use a lot.

The proportions for the grapefruit sorbet were found on the net, copied from Harold McGee's book The Curious Cook. The addition of salt as a flavor enhancer comes from Shirley Corriher's book CookWise.

Our ice cream maker is a cheap but effective model by Deni (it wasn't nearly that $60 when we bought it), with a chilled tub that's spun by a motor that holds the dasher. There are other makes and models for less, and for more.

125 ml    Water
215 g     Sugar
1   pinch Salt

1-4 sprig Rosemary, leaves pulled from stem
          Zest from Grapefruit, optional (microplane 1 grapefruit)

250 ml    Grapefruit Juice, fresh squeezed, sieved to remove pulp

Add Water, Sugar, Salt, Rosemary leaves and Zest to a pot.
Heat and stir until sugar is dissolved.
Cover and let steep on very low heat (or none) to infuse Rosemary, about 15 minutes.
Strain rosemary syrup into Grapefruit Juice;
you should have about 2 cups liquid.
Chill in freezer for an hour or fridge overnight to chill well.
Add to ice cream maker and process per instructions;
on ours, we let it spin about 20 minutes.
Scoop out the sorbet into containers, cover, and freeze hard over night.

If the Sorbet is a bit crunchy, like granita, next time back out the water or simmer the syrup a bit to drive off some of the water: it'll will become more dense and creamy in texture.

In the photo, We added a dollop of the sorbet to a sweet dessert wine, unconventional but very good.

Dessert wine with grapefruit-rosemary sorbet