Easy Lemon Sorbet Recipe - Only 3 Ingredients! - Ice Cream From Scratch (2024)

FAQs

What is lemon sorbet ice cream made of? ›

INGREDIENTS: Water, Lemon Juice from Concentrate (24%), Sugar, Dextrose, Glucose Syrup, Invert Sugar Syrup, Lime Juice from Concentrate (2%), Rice Starch, Maltodextrin, Emulsifier (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Citrus Fibre, Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Glucose, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Flavouring.

Without fat from dairy or eggs, it's the suspension of sugar within the fruit purée that allows the sorbet to churn into something with a creamy mouthfeel. You need 20-30% sugar in your sorbet, which will come from your fruit plus some added sugar.

Making home-made sorbet is easier than you think. You don't even need an ice cream machine! It's basically just frozen fruit puree sweetened with sugar and water. You can also add herbs, chocolate or wines and liqueurs to flavor the sorbet.

Too little sugar and you end up with loads of crunchy ice crystals. Some experts swear by a ratio of 4 cups puréed fruit to 1 cup sugar. If you don't have an ice-cream maker, place the sorbet mixture in a sealed container in the very coldest part of your freezer (usually at the bottom and back).

The difference between ice cream and sorbet is also based on whether or not dairy is used. Technically speaking, ice cream always contains cream and/or milk as its main ingredients, while sorbet traditionally never includes dairy or eggs, instead being primarily made from fruit juice or fruit purée.

Sorbets are a simple combination of fresh fruit or fruit juice with sugar. That's it! About two pounds of fruit will be perfect for making a quart of sorbet — that comes out to about five cups of chopped fruit. A little more or less is fine; this is a basic formula, not an exact science.

The Master Ratio

Okay, let's back up a bit. If you don't know the exact sugar content of your fruit, the best thing you can do is play it safe. A sugar concentration between 20% to 30% will generally produce a scoopable, creamy sorbet. * Add less and your sorbet is too icy to scoop; add more and it may never freeze.

At its heart, sorbet is simply a frozen fruit syrup, but you can ramp it up a level and include whipped egg white or even mascarpone for a creamier result.

The quality of the water is important as well — if your water has a bad aftertaste, so will your sorbet — so we recommend using bottled. The optional egg white helps to stabilize, emulsify, and preserve the texture of the sorbet if you are going to keep it in your freezer for a few days.

1 to 2 tablespoons liqueur (this is for flavor, but it also prevents the sorbet from freezing solid. Alcohol won't freeze, so it is great insurance that you will have a soft sorbet. BUT, if you add too much sorbet won't freeze at all and you will basically have a margarita or daiquiri!)

How do you thicken homemade sorbet? ›

In this recipe, we use tapioca starch to thicken the sorbet mixture, which gives a velvety texture to the sorbet, but you can use corn starch if this is what you have. Thickening the sorbet mixture with a starch gives it body, which makes the sorbet expand during churning and become fluffy.

Homemade sorbet generally lasts for about 2 to 3 months when properly stored in the freezer. Ice crystals may develop after 1 month, so don't wait too long to enjoy it.

Here are some tips for making creamy, non-icy homemade ice cream: Use plenty of fat - A good ice cream base should contain ample fat, usually from dairy like cream, whole milk, or egg yolks. More fat means a smoother texture. Cook the base - Heating the ice cream base deactivates enzymes that can make ice cream icy.

If the amount of shell that's showing is about the size of a nickel, your balance of fruit and sugar is correct and it will yield a sorbet that's neither too soft or too hard once it's frozen. If the egg is sitting lower, showing a dime-size or smaller, add more simple syrup.

An all-natural stabilizer, Cremodan 64 is used for creating sorbets, as it improves the texture, making it creamier, denser and overall more appealing. This sorbet stabilizer also inhibits ice crystallization, again, making the texture smoother.

The nutrition lowdown

Because it contains little other than water, sugar and some form of fruit, sorbet tends to be much lower in calories and fat than ice cream.

Sorbet has less calories than ice cream and other frozen desserts, and no fat. It's fruit content also makes it rich in vitamin C. Any downsides? That fruit content also means it contains a fair bit of sugar, and if we're comparing it with ice cream and gelato, it has less calcium, vitamin A and iron.

And the verdict is…. -Sorbet has zero fat as opposed to both ice-creams which have 7g and 5g. -Sorbet has more sugar (20g) than the full-fat ice cream and nearly as much as the lower fat (21g). -Sorbet has less Calcium, Vitamin A and Iron than the ice-cream.

The major difference between the two is that sherbet is made with dairy and sorbet isn't. Sherbet has more of a creamy texture that you'd expect from ice cream thanks to ingredients like milk, heavy cream, or buttermilk in the mix. Sorbet, on the other hand, is simply sugar and fruit.