Sunday, July 17, 2011

Plum Sorbet

Shavua tov! The whole of last week led up to a big Shabbat meal I hosted as a sort of pre-draft get together with all my friends. Thank G-d, it was a success, but this week now leads up to the draft itself, on Thursday. Ahh!! In any case, planning the meal was super fun and this time, with my new (used) ice cream maker in hand, Shabbat dessert was a no-brainer: fresh, homemade fruit sorbet. As you can see, I made a plum sorbet. When I was in the shuk last week, I saw Santa Rosa plums and figured that in one form another, the latest additions to the market would make it into dessert. I opened up my copy of The Perfect Scoop and found a recipe for Plum Raspberry Sorbet. Since raspberries are hard to find here, fresh or frozen, and are quite expensive even if you do manage to find them, I decided to adapt the recipe into a plum only recipe. The sorbet couldn't have been easier to make. Cook together plums, sugar, water. Cool, blend and churn. Done. The cooking turned the final product a beautiful color I don't even know the name of! And the flavor was so fresh and clean and summery. I served these with gingersnaps (more on those later) which I thought was a great pairing and David Lebovitz agrees; I only saw afterwards his recommendation to serve these in gingersnap ice cream cones. Anyway, if you want to take advantage of the fruits of the season, make some sorbet. I have leftover cherries that a guest brought... can you guess what I'm going to make with them once they're all pitted??

Plum Sorbet
adapted from The Perfect Scoop

540 grams plums, a bit over 1 pound
1 cup of water
2/3 cup sugar
Wash your fruit and cut them in half. Remove the pits and cut each half into four slices.
Place into a medium sized saucepan,
and add the water. Cover and cook over medium heat about 8 minutes or until tender.
Remove from the heat and add the sugar.
Stir well to combine. Cool completely.
When the mixture has cooled, pour into a food processor, or using an immersion blender, process until completely smooth. Chill thoroughly.
Freshly churned sorbet
Freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions. Store in the freezer. 

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