A Homemade Sorbet-luscious Day!

So lately I’ve been in the mood for cool things seeing that it’s summer and all that and the norm would be to crave for minus numbers in your tummy mainly. The thing is I’ve also been loving sweet stuff too, so I was wondering whether there would be anything new out there to play around with that I could make at home but without too much effort. I’d browsed the groceries and their shelves of thick ice creams and uninventive ice pops did nothing for me, so I racked my brain and asked Google what I could do about this mind numbing problem. I also switched on my favorite food channel simultaneously. The background noise drowns out the buzzing in my brain momentarily. Then I see Mr. Gorgeous himself, Curtis Stone! Mammamia..Google, brain buzz all forgotten, I settled in to watching yet another addictive episode of ‘Take Home Chef.’ For those of you who aren’t familiar with this guy he’s Australian, innovative and looks generally fun to hang out with. The television was as far as I could go with getting to know him, so I watched his series quite faithfully. His ‘Summer Dessert’ on that particular episode was this mouthwatering granite over mangoes, papayas and other such citrus fruit. I could take it no longer, so as soon as the show was done I dreamt about that granita. His was a ‘Passionfruit Granita,’ but the basic idea here was Water, Sugar, fresh fruit juice, no machines involved but a pyrex dish, a fork and a freezer..hello?? I was beyond thrilled!

Getting down to making it..I decided on an ingredient I had in abundance. Some limes. Then I went all mojito on myself and fished out the mint leaves I’d bought the day before. It was all about a quick simmer and boil but during the process I had somehow messed up my quantity of sugar to water ratio and when I checked my dish 3 hours later I found something far better staring up at me. A sorbet! This is my thrill factor today, and it should be your too when you find out just how simple and lusciously cool life gets. Here is the recipe, and I’m hoping you guys get into it. It’ll impress the socks off your loved ones too! Do tell me how it works out for you guys when you give it a whirl 🙂

Lime and Candied Mint Granita:
Granita:
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
Candied Mint:
1/4 cup sugar
12 fresh mint leaves washed and patted dry
1 large egg white beaten until foamy
Method:
For granita:
Bring 2 cups water and 1 cup sugar to boil in medium saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes. Cool syrup. Stir in lime juice. Transfer lime syrup to 11 x 7 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Cover and place in freezer. Stir every 45 minutes until frozen, about 3 hours. DO AHEAD Granita can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and keep frozen.
For candied mint leaves:
Place sugar on small shallow plate. Brush both sides of 1 mint leaf lightly with egg white; dredge in sugar. Transfer mint leaf to rack. Repeat with remaining mint leaves. Let mint stand at room temperature until dry, about 3 hours. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.

Sorbets:
Lime Mojito Sorbet:

Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 3/4 to 2 cups sugar
1 3/4 to 2 cups fresh lime juice
lime zest grated for decoration-put very little. the pictured amount was for emphasizing illustration only. I used a 2:2:2 ratio in recipe for water, sugar and lime juice. Depends on how sweet you want it. This was quite sweet 🙂

Method:
Bring 2 cups water and 1 1/2 cups sugar to boil in medium saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes. Cool syrup. Stir in lime juice. Transfer lime syrup to glass baking dish. Cover and place in freezer. Stir every 45 minutes until frozen, about 3 hours. Then leave to completely freeze overnight or more. Pictured above is a sorbet made only 3 hours before. It melts waay too fast in the summertime so making and freezing atleast a day ahead is key!

For those of you who are familiar with a granita this is very similar but the ingredient quantity varies abit which creates a gorgeous sorbet!

If you have a little leftover for the next day like I did whip it in the blender with more lime, a dash of sugar, 2 mint leaves and some ice and water..Hello mojito (quantities are for one glass)! What a refreshing way to kickstart the day 🙂 Pure bliss…

Lychee-Lime Sorbet with Candied Mint Leaves:

Follow the sorbet recipe as before but this time after boiling syrup and cooling pour into lychee and lime juice. I used canned lychees so the sugar quantity was reduced by a quarter at the boiling stage. Add one cup canned juice and one lime. You can add food coloring now as well if you’d like. It gives the sorbet a pretty color amongst other dishes. For a more intense color add more coloring now, or when the sorbet freezes up abit, before the scraping stage add it in.

Mint Infusion into Sorbets:

As soon as the sugar syrup has boiled toss in the mint leaves, as many as you’d like for that rich intense minty flavor, or as little, for a milder hint of it. Crush a few and toss in the rest of the mint leaves. Steep the leaves. After awhile you will see them losing color and going brown. Taste the syrup once it has cooled to see how well the mint has been incorporated. Otherwise boil syrup a little and toss in more mint. Strain the cooled mixture into pyrex dish with your chosen flavor and freeze.

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