Mango sorbet with no added sugar

A sorbet made only from fruit: ripe mango, overripe banana, dates and lime. The fruit itself provides the sweetness and smoothness.

Sorbet needs about 25 % sugar, otherwise it freezes into ice. Here it comes not from a bag of sugar but from very ripe fruit and dates. Banana adds creaminess, dates sweetness and lime balance. The healthier side: about 95 kcal per 100 g and no added sugar, plus fibre from the fruit. To be honest: the sorbet contains almost as much sugar as an ordinary one — it just comes from fruit. The WHO doesn’t count the sugars in whole fruit as free sugars, but the UK’s NHS points out that blending releases them and, as far as your teeth are concerned, they then behave like added sugar.

Type: Sorbet · Servings: 6 · Difficulty: Easy

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 500 g mango (flesh) (flesh of 2–3 very ripe mangoes (or frozen chunks))
  • 200 g overripe banana (brown-speckled, peeled) (2 bananas with brown spots)
  • 120 g dates (Medjool, pitted) (7–8 Medjool dates, pitted)
  • 30 g lime juice (fresh)

Making the mix

  1. Soak the pitted dates in hot water for 15 minutes and drain.
  2. For an ice cream maker or the CREAMi: blend the mango, banana, dates and lime juice in a high-speed blender into a completely smooth purée (strain out any bits of date skin) and chill it in the fridge for about an hour.
  3. For the blender method, don’t blend the fruit in advance — the mango and banana are first frozen in cubes (see the method below).

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch on the ice cream maker 5–10 minutes in advance so the bowl pre-chills.
  2. Pour in the chilled mix (no higher than the fill line) and churn for 25–35 minutes until it has the consistency of a thick cream.
  3. Transfer to a chilled container, cover the surface with cling film and leave to harden in the freezer for about 60 minutes.

Total time: 2 h 50 min

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours in advance. Take it out just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
  2. With the machine running, pour in the thoroughly chilled mix — filling the bowl no more than two-thirds full; freeze the rest as a second batch.
  3. Churn for 20–30 minutes until the mix thickens. Going on longer is pointless — the bowl has already warmed up.
  4. Transfer to a chilled container and leave to harden in the freezer.

Total time: 3 h 15 min

Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines

  1. Pour the mix into the CREAMi tub up to the MAX line (one or two tubs, depending on their size), put the lid on and freeze level for 24 hours.
  2. Put the tub in the machine and run the Sorbet program.
  3. If the result is crumbly or powdery, add 1–2 tablespoons of water or orange juice and run Re-spin — with a very cold freezer even twice.

Programme: Sorbet

Total time: 25 h 25 min

Method — High-speed blender

  1. Cut the mango and banana into cubes, spread them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and freeze for at least 6 hours. (Or use shop-bought frozen mango.)
  2. Put the lime juice and soaked dates into a high-speed blender first, then the frozen fruit.
  3. Blend in pulses, scraping down the sides, until you have a smooth sorbet (3–5 minutes). If the blender struggles, add 2–3 tablespoons of water.
  4. Serve straight away or after 30 minutes in the freezer.

Total time: 7 h 25 min

Stages

Preparation
20 min
Cooling
1 h
Freezing
24 h
Processing in the machine
5 min
Total time
25 h 25 min

Serving and storage

With mint leaves, slices of fresh mango or, for adults, a pinch of chilli with lime zest.

Up to 5 days. After a day in the freezer it hardens — let it soften for 15 minutes or run Re-spin in the CREAMi.

Tips

  • The ripeness of the mango matters most: it should smell fragrant and give when pressed. Unripe mango won’t make the sorbet sweet enough.
  • Shop-bought frozen mango is picked ripe and is often sweeter than fresh mango from the winter produce aisle.
  • You can replace the dates with 150 g more overripe banana; the sorbet will be less sweet and more strongly banana-flavoured.

Why it works

Dates are about 65 % sugars, almost exclusively glucose and fructose. These simple sugars lower the freezing point about twice as much as granulated sugar, which is why a sorbet made with dates and overripe banana stays scoopable even without added sugar. The fibre and pectin in the fruit bind water much like a stabiliser. Dissolved sugars come to about 21 % — at the lower end for an ordinary sorbet — so it hardens faster.

Sources