Very Berry Sherbet

Oh how quickly a week can go by!  As I mentioned before, our summer schedule has us hosting family from the lower 48 almost non stop this summer.  This past week, started out with some fantastic house guests and then a couple of days to catch our breath and prepare for our next set of visitors due to arrive in two days.  I also threw some Bible class preparation into our schedule last week for an upcoming vacation Bible school our church is hosting in a few weeks.  So yes, it's been a busy week. :)

But I made sure there was time to make this DE-licious frozen treat.



As many of you know I really like to make desserts. (exhibit A, exhibit B).  And I pretty much love to make homemade ice cream. (exhibit C, exhibit D).  Even though I found I really like french style custard ice cream and have several favorite recipes, I also really like to try new ice cream recipes.  I guess my interest in trying new ice cream recipes comes from the seemingly endless possibilities for flavors and mix-ins.

And every now and then when I try a new recipe, I find a new item to add to my list of favorite ice cream flavors.  That's was the case with this Berry Sherbet.  Sometimes I'm leery of sherbet or sorbet recipes where fruit is the star.  Not because I don't like fruit, but because of the expense of the usual high amount needed for a recipe that often makes a small batch.  In the summer, I sometimes turn into a berry hoarder.  I try to hang onto the fresh berries I buy and make as many dishes as possible with the package.  I ran across this recipe when I had some berries that I'd hoarded and had entered the "hurry up and use these before they spoil" category.  That's when I noticed that the recipe could be made with fresh or frozen berries.  That calmed my anxiety about using so many fresh berries all at once, so I marked it and soon made it with some of a costco package of frozen berries.

If you have an ice cream maker, I HIGHLY recommend you try this.  And if you don't have an ice cream maker, you need to add one to your Christmas list or start nagging your friend that does have an ice cream maker to make this for you.  (Wait! Does that mean some of you will be nagging me?  Hmm, maybe I should rethink that suggestion.)  I think this might be Shawn's 2nd favorite flavor that I make--right behind coffee ice cream.  But if it's not his 2nd favorite, I'm confident it's one of his top 5.

The original recipe calls for only raspberries to be used, but we've made it with different mixes of frozen berries and have happily devoured every variation.  Whatever berries you have on hand or you prefer would be fantastic, I'm sure.

Very Berry Sherbet
slightly adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
makes about 1 quart

4 cups of berries (raspberry or a mix of black, boysen, rasp and/or blue), fresh or frozen
2 cups of whole milk (I use 2%)
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice

Put the berries in a blender or food processor, along with the milk and sugar.  Puree until smooth, then strain the mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds.  Stir in the long juice.
Freeze the mixture according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Freeze to harden or enjoy soft serve.


And as a final photo, I thought I'd include my assistant who was just as interested in food photography as I was during our backyard shoot.  I think he actually took more shots than I did! :)