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