In the depths of my freezer in the midst of cleaning out the last of Passover I found two utterly fantastic sorbet flavors I forgot to serve. First I made the Chocolate Sorbet from a recipe in a David Lebovitz book, The Perfect Scoop The chocolate flavor is so intense;
you won’t realize that this is non dairy sorbet and not gelato. The second flavor I found in the freezer was coconut that I just made up a recipe for. The coconut was surprisingly rich and tasty.
For Coconut sorbet you will need:
2 cups of simple syrup
1 14 ounce can of coconut milk (it might be 13.5 ounces)
1 cup of shredded coconut
Simple syrup should be made the day ahead and refrigerated overnight. To make simple syrup combine 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and then turn the syrup off. When it is cool, place it in a container and chill in the refrigerator.
To make coconut flavor, mix the chilled simple syrup, coconut milk and shredded coconut together, pour into an ice cream maker and process. Take the soft sorbet out of the container from the ice cream processor and place it in another container for freezing. Store the sorbet in the freezer. It keeps for several weeks frozen.
The following is a summary of David Lebovitz chocolate sorbet recipe, so easy yet so good.
2 and ¼ cup of water total
1 cup sugar
¾ cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
Pinch of salt
6 ounces of chopped bittersweet chocolate
½ teaspoon vanilla
Whisk the sugar with 1 and ½ cups of the water, cocoa powder and salt in a saucepan. Keep whisking as you bring it to a boil. Continue boiling and whisking for about 45 seconds.
Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped chocolate, stir until it is melted. Then stir in the vanilla extract and the remaining ¾ cup of water. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend for 15 seconds. Chill the mixture thoroughly, and then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If the mixture becomes too thick to pour, give it a few more vigorous whisks to thin it out.
Store the sorbet in an airtight container in the freezer until ready to serve.
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This recipe makes 1 quart.