September 24, 2012 | Desserts
The Mirriam Webster dictionary defines sherbet (often called sherbert in the US) like this: an ice with milk, egg white, or gelatin added. Therefore, I can’t for the life of me understand why so many food bloggers have entered into a debate about whether “true” sherbet has any dairy in it. Fortunately for me, I was less concerned about the technical definition, and more concerned with trying my own version of Lisa Eremia’s mother’s recipe.
I have mentioned over the past few weeks about putting plums up. Those lovely plum trees in my front yard come ripe all at once, and within a week of harvest, the plums are starting to rot and attract fruit flies – a LOT of fruit flies. I haven’t figure out the right ratio yet of what to do with them, but in mixed percentages I do the following:
Share them with my best friends – or bring as a hostess gift instead of a bottle of wine.
Dry them – they transform into the best kind of candy for a trip.
Cook with them – both sweet and savory dishes.
And puree them – the frozen sauce can be later used in many ways.
Well as I was loading up my freezer, I actually found some jars of plum puree from last year, and knew it was time to use that up. I crave really only 4 foods on a regular basis: potato chips and dill pickles on the salty side, and cookies and ice cream on the sweet side. So the idea of a much lower calorie, not so fat heavy dessert like most of my specialty ice creams, was in the back of my mind when I went searching for sherbet ideas. Don’t get me wrong, those ice creams are fabulously good, but just not a treat my body can absorb on a daily basis!
Lisa’s mom’s recipe, as it turns out, uses buttermilk, and I just happened to have a quart of lowfat buttermilk in my refrigerator. The buttermilk gives it a distinct tang (kind of like my buttermilk ice cream with marcona almonds), but you can easily use whole milk instead of you don’t want that. If you don’t already have your fruit pureed, you’ll need to follow this step to make it. Then it’s a simple quick combination of equal parts buttermilk and fruit puree, adding a bit of sweetener of your choice at the end to round it out if you find it too tangy.
I’m sure I’ll take heat for admitting this, but I sweetened mine with a few packets of Sweet ‘N Lo – it dissolves easier in cold mixtures (I didn’t want to heat up the mixture to dissolve sugar, then have to wait for it to cool again before putting it into my ice cream maker) and it didn’t add any extra sugar (which I’m trying to avoid). But by all means, choose the natural or synthetic sweetener of your choice. Just try not to be hatin’ on me for opting for the chemical one!
- 2 cups plum puree
- 2 cups buttermilk or whole milk
- Sweetener of your choice, to taste
- Combine plum puree and milk and stir together. Add sweetener to taste if needed, then process in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s directions. Store in a covered container in the freezer.
[...] homemade plum sherbet. /* [...]
This is a very good looking ice-cream! I love plums and always look for ways to use them in cooking.