Watermelon Mint Sherbet

 

After an 80 degree day outside and an 80 degree day inside since Charlie likes to turn off the air conditioning when I'm not looking, it was time for a cool refreshing treat.

Before culinary school that would have meant going out for ice cream or heading to the grocery store.

Not anymore.

churn baby churn

With the giant watermelon we purchased last week plus the newly acquired ice cream attachment for Janet that now lives in the freezer, I was ready to give sherbet a second try.

After some research I finally settled on the following recipe:

4 cups Watermelon Juice (you can puree in a blender and strain if you don't have juicer)
10.4 oz sugar
3TBS fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp kosher salt
8.5oz heavy cream
Fresh Mint to taste

This recipe comes together quickly. But, it does take some planning and down time with all the chilling and freezing required.

1. Juice the watermelon. Strain. Straining is super important. If you don't get all of the pulp out, the texture will be a bit waxy. I learned that from my first attempt at sherbet.

2. Place sugar, salt, and lime juice in a food processor. Pulse til sand-like. Add watermelon juice and blend until sugar is dissolved.

you can add red food color but I prefer it natural

3. If you don't want pieces of mint in the sherbet, place a handful (or more) of mint leaves in the mixture and refrigerate for several hours.
Strain mint leaves out before adding to cream.

Otherwise you can just pulse the mint right in with the sugar.

I love mint. So I left the leaves in for a long time. If you aren't sure about mint, check back after 30 minutes or so and taste the mixture. Remember that the mix should be very sweet and overly minty at this point since freezing dulls flavors.

4. After mixture is well chilled and mint infused, whip heavy cream to soft peaks. Then, slowly pour in strained watermelon mixture with the mixer running.

5. Place in ice cream maker and churn about 30 minutes or until soft serve consistency is reached.

If you don't have an ice cream maker I think you could try making this sherbet with a blender. It would be more work. I imagine to get the consistency right you would need to take it out of the freezer every 30 minutes and blend. I can't guarantee this would work but if anyone gives it a try, let me know how it goes!

6. Pour in to a container and freeze for at least an hour (3 is better) before serving.

This recipe produces 10 servings at 120g or about 1/2 cup

Approximate Nutrition Per Serving: 204 calories, 8g fat, 31 carbs, 105mg sodium, 30g sugar.

Next time I make this I'll probably use less sugar-maybe 7 or 8 ounces. Watermelon is naturally sweet so I felt the additional sugar was overkill. This is probably the only sherbet I've ever eaten that has satisfied my sweet tooth after a single serving.

Now that I've broken the ice cream attachment in, I can't wait to try more recipes!

look at that silky texture!