Strawberries are in season and I could not be more grateful! I try to be good and only buy them when they are in season so at their tastiest (very occassionally I am weak and give in but I really try to be good). Anyway, no need to restrain myself at the moment, it's full steam ahead with strawberries for at least the next month. So time to have some fun. I've tried making strawberry ice cream before in the hope that it would taste better than some of the, frankly, plastic strawberry ice creams out there. Sadly, the fresh strawberries didn't really improve things so clearly sorbet is the way to trap the flavour of my favourite (there I said it) berries in frozen form. This sorbet really shows strawberries at their best. Combined with mint and with a little kick of gin, it's beautifully refreshing and oh-so summery.
The joy of sorbet is that you don't even need an ice cream maker. We usually make sorbets in our (beloved) ice cream maker but have made it the old-school way a couple of times with great success - it just requires a bit more patience.
Ingredients
- 500g strawberries
- 90g caster sugar
- 1 cup water
- 10g fresh mint leaves
- 4-6 tbsp gin
1. Hull and chop up the strawberries, blitz them in a blender under smooth - you may need to do this in batches. Once smooth, pass it through a sieve to remove any particularly large seeds.
2. Place the water, sugar, and mint into a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Leave to one side to cool.
3. Mix the strawberries together with the sugar and mint syrup, stirring well. Add in the gin and chill for about an hour.
4. Place in your ice-cream maker and follow its instructions. Transfer to a container and place in the freezer.
4b. Alternatively, if you don't have an ice cream maker. Place in a container and put in the freezer. Every hour, break up the sorbet with a fork and place back into the freezer. The idea is to break up the crystals to maintain a nice smooth texture.