Sour cherry sorbet

A dark red sour cherry sorbet with a pleasant tartness. Works with frozen or bottled sour cherries too.

Sour cherries are ideal for sorbet — they have a bold flavour, a deep colour and plenty of acidity. A short simmer intensifies the flavour and makes blending easier. Pitting is the most laborious part; frozen pitted sour cherries save time.

Type: Sorbet · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Easy

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 600 g sour cherries (pitted) (pitted)
  • 170 g water
  • 190 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 30 g dextrose (glucose powder)
  • 10 g lemon juice (fresh)

Making the mix

  1. Pit the sour cherries and bring them to the boil with the water, sugar and dextrose. Cook for 3–5 minutes.
  2. Blend with the lemon juice until smooth. For a finer sorbet, press through a sieve.
  3. Leave to cool and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch the ice cream maker on 5–10 minutes ahead so the bowl can pre-chill.
  2. Pour in the chilled mix (no higher than the fill line) and churn for 25–35 minutes until the sorbet is thick, glossy and holds its shape on a spoon.
  3. Transfer to a chilled container, cover the surface with cling film and leave to harden in the freezer for 1–2 hours.

Total time: 5 h

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Take the frozen bowl out of the freezer just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
  2. With the machine running, pour in the well-chilled mix — no more than two thirds of the bowl; freeze the rest in a second batch.
  3. Churn for 20–25 minutes until the sorbet thickens into a dense ice slush. Churning longer is pointless — the bowl has already warmed up.
  4. Transfer to a chilled container, cover the surface with cling film and leave to harden in the freezer for 3 hours.

Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours ahead. The mix must be fridge-cold (5 °C or below) — a lukewarm mix warms the bowl before the sorbet can set.

Total time: 5 h 55 min

Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines

  1. Pour the chilled mix into the CREAMi tub up to the MAX line (any extra into a second tub), 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 sorbet is crumbly or powdery, add 1–2 tablespoons of water or juice and run Re-spin. Serve straight away.

Programme: Sorbet

Smooth over whatever is left in the tub, put the lid on and return it to the freezer; before serving again, run the Sorbet program or Re-spin once more.

Total time: 26 h 35 min

Method — No-machine method

  1. Pour the chilled mix into a shallow metal or glass container (3–4 cm deep) and put it in the freezer.
  2. After an hour, stir the mix thoroughly with a fork or a stick blender — work the frozen edges into the centre.
  3. Repeat every 30–45 minutes, 5–6 times in total, until the sorbet is thick and smooth.
  4. Finally, you can briefly whizz it in a food processor for an even smoother result. Leave to harden for an hour.

Without a machine, larger ice crystals grow and the sorbet is coarser. Each stir breaks them up — don’t skip any.

Total time: 7 h 30 min

Stages

Preparation
25 min
Cooking
5 min
Cooling
2 h
Churning
30 min
Hardening in the freezer
2 h
Total time
5 h

Serving and storage

Serve with dark chocolate, a dollop of whipped cream or a slice of chocolate bundt cake (bábovka).

Best within 1–2 weeks, kept in a closed container with cling film on the surface. After that the fruit flavour fades and the sorbet turns coarse. Do not refreeze once thawed.

Tips

  • Fruit is sometimes sweeter, sometimes more tart. Taste the mix before freezing — it should be a little sweeter than seems right, as the cold dulls sweetness. A refractometer measures it precisely (target 26–30 °Bx); if it is below 25, add sugar a tablespoon at a time.
  • With bottled sour cherries, use both the fruit and the syrup, but reduce the added sugar according to how sweet the syrup is — measure it with a refractometer.
  • A few stones crushed in a tea towel and cooked with the juice add a subtle almond note; remove them before blending.

Why it works

The sugars in sour cherries are mostly glucose and fructose. These simple sugars lower the freezing point about twice as much as granulated sugar, so at the same sweetness sour cherry sorbet is softer than, say, apricot sorbet, where sucrose dominates.

Sources