A crisp refreshing sorbet does the job to clean the palate as part of a good meal, or can be served on a hot day to cool and refresh! Basically, it is just lemon juice, water and sugar, but there is more to it than that: there are three ways to make sorbet softer:
add alcohol, add golden syrup, or add egg white, whisked into fluff towards the end of freezing.
I have been experimenting with these, and think that the best way is to use about 30 % golden syrup – too much and the sorbet melts quite quickly. Also egg white, but only add one for every 3 lemons. Wine is best as a sweet wine, poured on from a tablespoon as you serve the sorbet… yum. It took lots of testing, which I can thoroughly recommend. Ingredients
juice of 3 lemons, I use my juicer… water – the same weight as the lemon juice used (or to taste) 120g (40g per lemon) sugar (or 90g of sugar and 30g of golden syrup for 3 lemons) ( tip, dissolve the syrup in the water before you add it to the lemon juice)
1 egg white (per 3 lemons), whisked with a bit of sugar
Method Use the juicer to obtain the lemon juice. Given that the vitamin C will be damaged if you heat it, use the water to dissolve the sugar and syrup. Then add the cooled sweet water to the lemon-juice. I use a flat tray in the freezer, and it takes about an hour to start to cystalise, so set a beeper, and leave it to freeze. You want to break up the ice crystals on the hour and about every half hour after that. Add the whisked egg-whites as you transfer it into a better shaped tub for storage. You can serve this naked, especially if it is hot enough not to wear clothes, and sometimes I like to pour cream on the top of the sorbet, too. Garnish with mint, a slice of lemon or lime, some fennel, or half a strawberry. Enjoy!