Recipe: Plum and Orange Sorbet

Recipe: Plum and Orange Sorbet

The pears went bad so I called on the plums. The plums started to go so I… reached for the ice cream maker. I could have made preserves, but I had too few plums to make jam worthwhile. The fruit would have slipped from iffy to unusable by the time I had found the jars, sterilized them, heated the water bath, located the labels…  No, I needed a quick fix. Plus, I’m still in the any-excuse-to-use-my-brand-spanking-new-food-processor stage.

The result of my plum panic is a palate cleansing sorbet — the kind you get in fancy restaurants between courses. You won’t want to sit down to a big bowl of this — unless you’ve got a lot of chocolate sauce on hand. It’s fresh, intense and if you don’t rasp away too much of the orange pith, very smooth. It’s ideal for a hot summer day. Of course, I created it just as the autumn winds whip in.

The plums I salvaged were just a bit overripe, but not ready to be composted. What do you do with your fruit that’s wobbling on the edge of edible? Do tell. I seem to have a knack for attracting overripe fruit.

[print_this]

Plum and Orange Sorbet

Makes 12 servings as a palate cleanser

Ingredient list

  • 2 cups plums, pitted and cut in half
  • juice and rind of 1 orange, be careful not to grate into the bitter pith
  • 1/2 vanilla pod
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tbsp Cointreau or other citrus / orange liqueur

In a blender or food processor puree:

  • 2 cups plums,
  • rind and juice of 1 orange, you can include the pulp if you like

Put the plum puree in a medium-sized non-reactive pot. Add:

  • 1/2 vanilla pod, sliced lengthwise, seeds scraped into the mix
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • pinch salt

Bring the fruit puree to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the puree to cool.

Remove the vanilla pod and strain the puree with a fine sieve. Chill puree until cold. Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions, adding:

  • 1 tbsp Cointreau

When churned. Put the sorbet in a plastic container and freeze until firm. Serve by single scoops as a palate cleanser.

[/print_this]

No Comments
  • NS Foster
    Posted at 10:59h, 20 October

    See, it’s stuff like this that makes me think I would, in fact, want an ice cream maker someday. Then again, I’m mildly lactose intolerant, so then I remember how sick I’d probably make myself…. The work it would take to do this by hand is a good deterrent some days 😉

    As to fruit? If it’s not too much, an apple, pear or other relatively mild fruit may go in my veggie scrap pot for stock. Alternatively, I’ll peel an orange and keep the skin to go in tea or spiced cider. The inside, I’m afraid, I have no answers for.

  • Janet Foster
    Posted at 12:56h, 20 October

    I want an ice cream maker so bad. Learning to make ice cream is on my list of projects for next year. Which one do you have? Do you love it?

  • Charmian Christie
    Posted at 19:46h, 20 October

    @NS Foster, if you are lactose intolerant, the beauty of an ice cream maker is you can make dairy-free sorbets and frozen yogurts. Not trying to sway you, but …

    Great suggestions for the fruit. I love the citrus peel idea! Thanks for taking the time to post.

  • Charmian Christie
    Posted at 19:49h, 20 October

    @Janet Foster, I bought a Cuisinart. It’s electric and has the drum you keep in the freezer. The only real complaint I have with it is I can not make back-to-back batches since the drum has to freeze for a good 24 hours between uses (even though the book says 6 hours). However, this is probably a good thing since I have no self control when it comes to this dessert.

    And yes, I love it. Since I bought it, I rarely buy store bought ice cream any more. The best part is making flavours you can’t get anywhere else. Like ginger!

  • bigFATcook
    Posted at 02:23h, 21 October

    Hey, what a good idea!! I have tons of plums and nothing to do with them. Really must try this one!:)

    Greets from BFC !!!

  • Jennifer
    Posted at 13:16h, 21 October

    Gorgeous colours! Yummy.

  • Monica
    Posted at 15:23h, 21 October

    This looks great! I’m definitely going to make it this weekend. Do you have a cookbook? If not, you should. You should also try blueberry sorbet made with tofu http://www.fourgreensteps.com/community/recipes/desserts-a-goodies-/frozen-blueberry-tofu-sorbet

  • Charmian Christie
    Posted at 11:33h, 22 October

    @bigFATcook, thanks for dropping by BFC! Hope you like the sorbet. I love recipes where I can use up those iffy plums.

  • Charmian Christie
    Posted at 11:34h, 22 October

    @Jennifer, thanks. I was surprised at the colour myself. I hadn’t expected it to be so red. But it’s a gorgeous shade so I’m not complaining.

  • Charmian Christie
    Posted at 11:39h, 22 October

    @Monica, thanks for the vote of confidence. I don’t have a cookbook. Nice to know you think I should have one.

    Hope you like the sorbet. It’s a bit different, but that’s why I like it.

  • Sophie
    Posted at 18:31h, 22 October

    Iffy fruit? Bake. You literally will not believe how beautifully even the most mangled pieces of fruit turn out when you bake them (and yes, I should know – my CSA delivery guy is a real klutz). My go to is a crisp – baked fruit under a sugar-butter-oatmeal topping since it will take all kinds of fruit (not citrus!). You can also puree your fruit and freeze in ice-cube trays – then the next time you make a batch of cookies or muffins (or pancakes, or waffles), defrost a couple of cubes and substitute for equal volumes of oil. And overripe citrus fruit makes great juice (again, I freeze mine in cubes to add to punch or cocktails as fruity ice. . .)

  • LoraJ
    Posted at 01:30h, 17 February

    I don’t usually post anything on web pages, but – having read through all the ideas for using every scrap of fresh fruit I think I’ve linked up with some kindred spirits. “Waste not, want not” was our parents motto with everything. Purchased my first ice cream maker last month; it’s a 2 ltr Cuisinart model which comes with the freezer canister. Have been making so much fruit based sorbet and ice cream we’ve started sharing the results with my sister and her family. Yesterday, my sister delivered two trays of home grown peaches to our door so we’ve promised her some peach sorbet and peach ice cream by early next week. Today I have made coconut and lime ice cream with ditto sorbet next on the list. While the ice creams are rich and delicious I find that we are leaning more towards sorbets during our hot weather, all based around fresh fruit of course! I found that a little splash of Chambord liqueur works well with cherry sorbets and some port wine works equally well with dark Satsuma/black fleshed plum sorbets. Our grandmothers might have made more jam and less ice cream than we do, but then they had to labouriously churn all their iced desserts by hand. If, like mine, they also hand churned milk for cream and butter, their arms must have been ready to drop off by lunch time. How did they find the strength to start on ice cream?! Thank you for your ideas. I love hearing about clean, fresh, home made food with simple, bright flavours. By the way, I live in Adelaide which is the capital city in the state of South Australia. Three other states border us on land and we have one ocean border, in a southerly direction. It’s been nice connecting with you.

  • Charmian Christie
    Posted at 13:47h, 17 February

    Thanks for sharing your experiences. I really appreciate it since you don’t normally comment on blogs.

    We have the same ice cream maker. It’s winter here now, so I’m not using mine much, but I am aching to try coconut and lime ice cream. And the cherry and port sorbet? Oh, that sounds amazing. In really hot, hot weather sorbets are more refreshing. I can’t imagine churning the dessert by hand, but it was such a novelty a hundred years ago they made it into a big event. I believe people took turns and made a party of things.

    I spent a year in Australia in 2000. I was living near Sydney — about an hour south. Made it to Canberra, Melbourne and Cairns, but not Adelaide. Maybe my next trip I’ll venture further west.

    Thanks again for connecting. And happy churning! Keep me posted on your new flavours. Summer’s coming — eventually!

  • LoraJ
    Posted at 01:28h, 21 February

    Been at it again! Made the Roasted Vanilla Pear and Sake Sorbet using the recipe on “Quinn’s Perfect Scoop” website. Also churned out a batch of mocha ice cream, plus wattle seed. Kept the ice cream flavours a bit lighter than the recipe ingredients stated so that the wattle seed flavour wasn’t overpowered. Having a few family members over soon, and want to offer them blueberry sorbet. Made a batch of blueberry and lemon ice cream a few weeks ago and that went down a treat. Also turned out a batch of peach ice cream yesterday and found the most flavoursome result came from gently cooking down the fruit until the peaches were nearly like jam. Also combined some of the peach ice cream with an equal quantity of coconut and lime ice cream and that was also a good result. Whew! Time to rest the canister in the freezer and attend to other things in the kitchen. Whatever did I do before having all this fun with iced summer desserts?? My husband isn’t sure of that either, but as he’s my guinea pig for all these rcipes, he isn’t complaining!!

  • Charmian Christie
    Posted at 10:11h, 21 February

    Wattle seed? I haven’t heard of that in years. I loved wattleseed cookies when I lived in Australia.

    Your sorbet flavours sound amazing. I adore peach jam and will have to try your trick of cooking down the peaches even more.

    I’ll have to check out Quinn’s site. I am always looking for new flavour combinations and it sounds like this could be a goldmine! Thanks so very much for letting me know about your frozen treats. I will definitely be making more come our summer 🙂