Peach Sherbet

Refreshing, yet slightly lighter than traditional ice cream, sherbet combines fresh fruits with sugar, water and some cream to yield a smooth and fruity dessert. Today’s recipe for peach sherbet comes from the book, The Everything Ice Cream, Gelato, and Frozen Desserts Cookbook, by Susan Whetzel. I chose peach sherbet because peaches seem to encapsulate the taste of summer for me. You can substitute most any fruit and adjust the sugar levels to achieve the sweetness you desire.

One thing that surprised me when making this sherbet was the number of bowls/pans/utensils I used: the kitchen sink was filled up by the end of the process! For such a simple dessert there sure was a lot of cleaning up to do: large pot in which I boiled water to help remove the skins—make an “X” in the bottom of the peach first then immerse the peaches for 30-60 seconds-- and also a glass bowl used as an ice bath when the peaches had taken a dunk in the said water; cutting board and knife for slicing peaches, food processor for pureeing the peaches, small saucepan to make the simple syrup of water and sugar; mixing bowl and whipping paddle from standing mixer to whip the cream, ice cream maker bowl, and later on the freezer-safe container that stored the sherbet. Yup, that is a lot of clean up.

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh peaches (I used 5)
Juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup heavy cream

1. Peel the peaches with the help of the bowling water method. (Click here to see similar process used on tomatoes if you need instructions.) Pit and slice the peaches then put them in the food processor with a few tablespoons of sugar and the lemon juice.

2. Making a simple syrup doesn’t take much effort but allows the sugar to dissolve much more easily than if you had mixed the sugar and water together at room temperature. To do so, heat the water and remaining sugar in a small pan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved then set the syrup aside to cool.
3. Puree the peaches and add the syrup. I didn’t strain the mixture at this point, although you could. I think next time I might leave larger chunks of peaches in the sherbet because I like that texture.
4. Keep on dirtying bowls and pans so that your kitchen sink is filled to the brim!  Whip the cream to stiff peaks then stir it gently into the peach puree.

5. At this point I refrigerated the mixture. This recipe doesn’t call for this step but nearly all of the recipes in the Cuisinart manual include it. This was my first time using an ice cream maker (Thanks Mom and Dad!) so I erred on the side of caution and cooled all of the ingredients before moving forward.
6. Pour the cooled mixture into the ice cream maker and mix for nearly 15 minutes. Keep an eye on the sherbet to see when it seems to come together to the right consistency.

7. Eat right away if you prefer a softer, creamier sherbet or freeze for 2 hours (or more) and enjoy an icier treat later on.

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