My Strawberry Sherbet

Photo: it's already credited: onehundreddollars.com

 I don't own an ice cream maker, so what I should make is strawberry granita, but I use milk and a food processor to get a creamy sherbet-like consistency.   

Here are three very similar, yet different frozen desserts:

Granita is made of fruit purée, water and sugar. You freeze it in a shallow pan, then break up the icy mixture as it forms with a fork. They are called Italian ices in New York City.

Sorbet consists of fruit purée, water and sugar. It is frozen and churned in an ice cream maker. 

Sherbet is made with fruit purée, sugar and milk, or cream. It can have egg whites and/or gelatin as ingredients, but not necessarily. Sherbet is also frozen and churned in an ice cream maker.

Well, my dear readers, I can't trust myself with an ice cream maker. Ice cream is addicting. If I crave ice cream, it is better for me to go out to buy a cone ... with two scoops, rarely just one! So, here is my recipe for:

Strawberry Sherbet - sans an ice cream maker

Ingredients:

16 ounces of strawberries
3 tablespoons sugar (or Stevia to taste)
1/2 cup buttermilk (You can use any milk, including condensed milk, or yogurt. Skim milk works too, but it won't be as creamy.)
1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice

Optional: Add 1 teaspoon vodka, or strawberry liquor (It makes the sherbet softer.)

Directions:

1) Remove the steams and wash the strawberries.

2) Purée the fresh strawberries in a food processor. (I don't strain it. To me, that's like removing the pulp from orange juice. Why? Consume all the goodness!) 

3) Add the buttermilk (or the milk, or yogurt you are using), lemon juice and sugar. Pulse until well blended. 

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Note: If the texture is right I eat it at this stage. If you are a perfectionist here are a few more steps. With about 1/4 milk you can make a sherbet-like dessert a blender also.
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4) Pour into a shallow pan and place in the freezer.

5) Every half hour, use a fork to scrape and break up the ice. Return to the freezer. Repeat until the mixture is sherbet-like and finished. After about 2 hours, it will be ready to eat. 

6) You can also return the sherbet to the food processor for a few more pulses before serving.

In my opinion, this is pretty darn close to authentic ice-cream-maker-churned sherbet. Buy one of those machines at your own peril!

Extra tips:

1) If you can think ahead, slice and freeze the strawberries beforehand. Then you can throw them right into the food processor (+ the buttermilk, sugar, lemon, etc.) Eat straight from the food processor. It has a soft-serve sherbet consistency, which is tasty and refreshing. If you want a hard sherbet, you have to follow the two-hour method above.

2) A sliced frozen banana thrown into a food processor with a tiny amount of milk is creamy like ice cream. No sugar needed. You can easily make banana; or banana-strawberry soft-serve ice cream using a food processor.

Stay tuned: More favorite, yet easy recipes to come. Because. We have to eat every day!

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