Strawberry Sorbet

Strawberry sorbet is my favorite kind of sorbet. I'm glad that Serious Eats had a recipe posted, and even happier that it's an easy and delicious recipe! This recipe only requires 4 ingredients, an ice cream maker, and a little bit of time. 

I made this recipe in a hurry because company was coming over; I had about 30 minutes to get everything ready. This really tested whether this recipe required the full amount of chill time it states. The first thing I did was wash and hull the strawberries. I increased the recipe a little, using 3 1/4 lbs, or 3 containers, of strawberries (I also increased the other ingredients appropriately) because the recipe said that this yields 1 quart of sorbet, and I had a 1.5 quart container that I wanted to fill up. For clarification, 3 1/4 lbs was the weight of the strawberries after they were hulled.

I had to processes these berries in 2 batches. I put in half the berries, sugar, lemon juice and salt in each batch.

The instructions said to blend until there was a nice purée and then strain it. Personally, I like having chunks of fruit in my sorbet, so I didn't strain mine. I threw this in the fridge as is.

A few minutes later, my guests arrived. I knew that my purée was not chilled yet, so we waited another 45 minutes to an hour (instead of the recommended 2-3 hours). The purée went straight into my ice cream maker and sure enough it got to soft serve texture within 20 minutes. Everyone got some soft serve fresh sorbet before I froze it again overnight.

The next day, I was happy to scoop out the most intensely colored strawberry sorbet I had ever seen.

I couldn't resist. I at 4 scoops in about 5 minutes...and I wanted more. This recipe is definitely a keeper! Note to self: 3 containers of strawberries yields a lot more than 1.5 quarts of sorbet (closer to 2 quarts). I am terrible at math.

Ingredients
2 quarts strawberries, washed (about 2 1/2 pounds)
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice, to taste
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, to taste

Procedures
1. Remove tops from strawberries and purée in a blender or food processor until smooth. 2 quarts whole strawberries should yield 1 quart of purée. Add sugar and blend for 30 seconds. Add lemon juice and salt, blend to incorporate, and adjust to taste.

2. Strain purée (unless you want strawberry chunks in your sorbet) and transfer to refrigerator; chill for 2 to 3 hours until very cold. Churn sorbet in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer sorbet to freezer to firm up for 2 to 3 hours before serving. Let the sorbet soften for a few minutes before serving; it will make scooping easier.

YIELD: makes 1 quart

From Serious Eats