Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Peach Sorbet

Emma and I stopped by our local seafood mart, Captain Crusty's, yesterday. Despite the name sounding kind of gross, the seafood is excellent. After buying the shrimp that was on my list, I bought some delicious peaches, that were not on my list. I couldn't resist the basket full of peaches knowing that peach season is almost over. Our entire family loves to eat peaches just the way they are.  Unfortunately I had already bought lots of other different fruit the day before that we also need to eat. Needless to say I needed to find something to do with the peaches.
I wasn't feeling the traditional peach recipes. No cobbler or pie for us this week. Instead I started thinking of my new love of the summer, sorbet. We received this ice cream maker from my parents for our first anniversary and too be honest we haven't used it much until this year. I found great ice cream recipes, but they were all too rich and it took us way to long to finish them. This summer I decided to try my hand at sorbet and so far it has been a hit. We've had raspberry sorbet and lemon-basil sorbet, so why not peach sorbet!?
I started searching pinterest (of course) and the internet for peach sorbet recipes. There are a ton! Most were peach and something else, like basil or lavender. I just wanted plain peach sorbet. Finally I decided to just make something up on my own. I compiled several different recipes for ideas and measurements, but then I got in the kitchen and just kind of made it up.

Here is the recipe for the best peach sorbet! (that I have ever made...)

1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
juice of one small lemon
1 tbs of dark rum*
1 1/2- 2lbs of peaches (about 4 medium sized peaches)

*The dark rum is completely optional. It won't hurt your sorbet to leave it out. I discovered that if you put just a little bit of liquor in your sorbets it doesn't freeze rock hard. That way you don't bend spoons or have to wait 15 minutes for your sorbet to thaw before you can serve it. Additionally, you won't be able to taste that small amount of liquor especially if it is something like vodka. I used dark rum because we had it and I thought it would be a good flavor combination with peaches, but you have to have a pretty sensitive palate to taste it.

First dissolve your sugar in your water in a small saucepan on low-medium heat. Making a simple syrup.
While your simple syrup is coming together, cut and pit your peaches. You can just cut the peaches into wedges and remove the pit. Don't bother removing the skin of the peaches.
Once the peaches are all cut, throw them into your food processor. Pulverize those bad boys until they are as pureed as they can possibly be. (It should look like baby food)
Take your pureed peaches and pour them into a strainer over a mixing bowl. Using a spatula force the liquid into the bowl, leaving most of the skin and chunks in the strainer. Some skin and chunks will make it into the bowl and that is ok.
Add the lemon juice to the bowl of the pureed peaches and place the mixture in the refrigerator.
Once your simple syrup has come together allow it to cool completely. (Sometimes I pour mine into a measuring cup and let it sit in the freezer for 15-20 minutes to help it cool faster)
When the syrup has cooled, pour it into your peach mixture and also add your rum at this time (if you are using liquor).
Mix everything together and pour it into your ready ice cream maker.
Our ice cream maker takes about 15 minutes for sorbet to have the right consistency. Keep in mind that your sorbet will firm up more once it is put in an air tight container in the freezer.
Next, enjoy!

This recipe made about 1 quart of sorbet.



My only regret. Not knowing to make this at the beginning of peach season..... until next year.