Cherry & Lemon Sorbet

This Cherry & Lemon Sorbet recipe is easy to make without ice cream machine. The combination of cherries and zingy lemon is delicious and the addition of glucose makes this sorbet extra creamy and smooth.

Cherries for me means summer at the farmhouse – days filled with cherry-picking and eating them straight from the tree. My grandmother’s farmhouse had several old Morello cherries, some red cherries and also yellow cherries.

Back then the cherries never made it beyond the garden and only the Morello cherries would be canned or made into delicious jam. So, this time around, I’ve decided to make the cherries into a summer sorbet.

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Notes on ingredients

Cherries

You are welcome to use any type of cherries you have, but the flavour will change depending on which type you use.

• Morello Cherries – darker colour, richer flavour with more acidity
• Red Cherries – sweeter, lighter flavour
• Yellow Cherries – yellow colour, lighter flavour

Lemon

If you have a very sour cherries, then perhaps you don’t need as much lemon as I used in my recipe. The lemon is there to compliment the flavour of the cherries, especially if you are using dark morello cherries or red cherries.

Glucose

Glucose is essentially sugar, but it looks like (and behave!) a see through glue. You can buy it in large supermarkets or baking shops, but if you don’t have glucose, please don’t let that stop you from making this cherry sorbet recipe.

Glucose helps to make the sorbet smooth by preventing the water crystals to firm up too much. It’s pretty amazing ingredient, I use it all the time to make chocolate ganache.

I have a buckets of this stuff at home, but I appreciate that not everyone will, so if you don’t, just skip the glucose in this recipe.

Sugar

Granulated sugar or caster sugar is best to use – it’s cheap and dissolves perfectly. You can use a different type of sugar, but it will change flavour of your sorbet.

Depending on how sweet your cherries are you might like to adjust the amount of sugar you use in this recipe.

You can also use honey or maple syrup, which is another great way to make your ice cream a bit more healthy.

Water

You’ll need some liquid to add to your cherries as you are simmering them. This could be water or cherry juice or other suitable fruit juice.

Anything you’ll add it, apart from the water, will add in flavour, which is a great way to start layering the final sorbet flavour.

Additional flavours & spices

I’ve kept this recipe version fairly plain, but if you fancy adding some extra flavour to your sorbet, you are welcome to use various spices or herbs.

Morello cherries can be lightly spiced with mixed spice and would make a perfect winter dessert.

Can I use frozen cherries?

So, officially you shouldn’t be re-freezing already frozen food.

These guidelines should be definitely followed with food that can go easily off, like meat, cream, fish or ready made food.

With fruit, you can defrost and then freeze again, but you might loose some of the flavour and add crystallisation in the process.

Since we are going to be adding natural preservatives to our sorbet (sugar, glucose) it’s perfectly safe to use frozen cherries.

Cherries have a very short season, so if you fancy making this recipe in the middle of winter, you won’t have much choice, but to use frozen cherries.

Notes on the sorbet making

The sorbet making method is fairly simple. Bring all the ingredients (apart from the glucose) very gently to a boil and then simmer until the cherries are soft and look disintegrated.

Add the glucose and leave to cool a bit, before blending it until it’s smooth. Push the mixture through a mesh sieve to get rid of any large parts, place into a suitable container, freeze and then whisk every 30 minutes.

If you have an ice cream machine, use your manufacturer’s guide and follow their steps for churning your sorbet.

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How to make Cherry & Lemon Sorbet (without an ice-cream machine)

Prepare the cherries by removing the pits (cherry stones)

In a medium saucepan, mix the cherries with water, sugar and lemon juice.

Bring to a boil and then carry on simmering on medium heat, stirring so that the cherries won’t burn. After about 20 minutes the cherries should soften and start to disintegrate.

Add the glucose and stir in until dissolved.

Remove from the heat and let cool down a bit.

Using a hand blender or a mixer, blend the cherry mixture until it’s perfectly smooth.

Taste and add more lemon juice or sugar if needed. If adding sugar, make sure it dissolves properly before continuing to the next step.

Put the cherry mixture through a sieve and using a spoon get as much of the cherry mixture through as possible.

Pour the cherry mixture into a suitable bowl ( or a container) with a lid and place in a freezer for 30-45 min (initially).

When the sides of the cherry sorbet start to set (freeze) take it from the freezer and using a hand held whisk, whisk the mixture for few minutes. Fluff up and scrape down with a spatula and place in the freezer for the next 30 minutes.

Repeat the process 3-4 times. The intervals might get slightly shorter, depending on your freezer.

When the whole mixture is nearly set and nice and smooth from the whisking, place it in a freezer suitable container and leave in the freezer until you want to serve it.

Warm up slightly before serving and enjoy!

How to serve your Cherry & Lemon Sorbet

This sorbet is perfectly delicious as it is, but it can be served with extra helping of homemade fruit curd, sweet syrup such as my pear sugar syrup recipe or with my homemade crumble recipe.