Blackcurrant Sorbet

Something of a classic during British summertime, a good blackcurrant sorbet is fresh, sharp and bursting with flavour. My version is soft, yielding and scoopable straight from the freezer. Pure frozen refreshment.

Blackcurrant sorbet. Bright and colourful, soft and voluptuous, tart and refreshing, with a creamy indulgent edge to balance that zesty fruit flavour. It's what hot summer days call for.

Contrary to how I take my ice cream (rock hard), I love a soft and yielding sorbet. One that is scoopable straight from the freezer and doesn't remotely resist a spoon falling into it.

That is exactly how my blackcurrant sorbet is. If this sounds like your idea of cool refreshment, this recipe will be right up your street.

(If you are after something firmer set, perhaps try one of my ice cream recipes instead).

What you will need

One thing I love about making a sorbet is the simplicity of the ingredients list. Less is most definitely more when it comes to achieving a clean, smooth and fresh tasting sorbet.

This blackcurrant sorbet uses just 4 ingredients:

Blackcurrants - the total star of the show. Richly flavoured, tart, tangy and altogether synonymous with British summertime. Fresh or frozen is absolutely fine

Sugar - essential to temper the sourness of the fruit and largely responsible for the soft and creamy structure of the sorbet. White granulated or caster sugar both work well

Water - not all fruit sorbets require added water, but in this instance, water serves to dilute the very potent blackcurrants

Egg White - optional, but highly recommended. Egg white helps to lighten the mixture and stabilise the sorbet. In essence, the egg white retains a lot of the air that is incorporated into the sorbet during the churning process, helping to keep it soft & scoopable rather than freezing into a solid block.

The first time I attempted this recipe the sorbet I created was tasty, but the flavour was intense. A single scoop was all that diners could manage.

The recipe presented today still has a juicy blackcurrant flavour, but the intensity of those currants has been tempered, partly by reducing the quantity used and also by including slightly more water than I initially did.

One scoop is not nearly enough of this version.

Instructions

It's not difficult to make this sorbet . It's as easy as cooking the fruit with water and sugar, straining the cooked fruit and then churning. The hardest part is waiting for it to firm up in the freezer. Here are the full instructions:

• Put the blackcurrants, sugar and water into a medium-sized heavy-based pan and heat moderately to dissolve the sugar
• Turn up the heat, bring to the boil and cook for 2 minutes, until the fruit is soft and can easily be crushed with the back of a wooden spoon

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• Allow to cool then pass through a fine-meshed metal sieve suspended over a large bowl to extract the liquid and soft flesh but leave behind the skin & pips
• Use a metal spoon to crush and push the fruit through the sieve. Keep on turning and pushing until a thick residue of pulp remains in the sieve but very little liquid

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• When finished, wipe the back of the sieve with the spoon, to dislodge the final bits of puree and give the contents of the bowl a good stir. It will look like a thick syrup (or a very thin puree)
• Discard the pulp

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• Once completely cool, cover the syrup and chill for 3-4 hours in the fridge
• When ready, churn in an ice cream maker, following the machine instructions (or read on for instructions on how to churn sorbet without a machine)
• When the sorbet is beginning to hold it's shaping whisk the egg white until nicely frothy and pour into the mix. Continue to churn until firm
• Decant into a freezer-proof container, cover with parchment and freeze for several hours

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Churning Sorbet without a Machine

There are 2 ways to make sorbet without a dedicated churning machine.

Method 1:

• Pour the syrup into a lined swiss roll tin or similar (check it fits into your freezer) and freeze until firm
• Break up the sorbet and blitz in a blender until smooth
• Return to the freezer until solid again then blitz in the blender one more time
• Mix in the whisked egg white, pour into a suitable container, cover with parchment and return to the freezer for 3-4 hours to firm up

Method 2:

• Pour the syrup into a freezerproof bowl and place directly into your freezer
• After 1 hour, take it out of the freezer and use handheld beaters to mix the sorbet until smooth. This helps break down ice crystals
• Return to the freezer for a further hour then repeat the above process
• Keep on repeating every hour until the sorbet begins to firm up (around the fourth or fifth beating), then mix in the whisked egg white and continue to repeat the process
• Repeat the freeze and beat process at hourly intervals for 1 or 2 more times or until the sorbet reaches a good, scoopable consistency

Although method 1 is less time-consuming, method 2 will yield far superior results. I would always opt for method 2 over method 1, since sorbet should always be smooth and silky in my view. It's worth the extra effort.

How to Store

Cover the top loosely with parchment to avoid freezer burn and always store this blackcurrant sorbet in the coldest part of your freezer.

The coldest part of an upright freezer is usually at the top towards the back, away from the door. In a chest freezer aim for on the compressor step or on the bottom or floor of the freezer.

This sorbet is soft scoop so does not need to soften outside of the freezer before serving.

How long does it keep for?

Since it is made with fresh ingredients and no preservatives, this blackcurrant sorbet does have a shorter shelf life than store-bought alternatives.

Ideally, it is best eaten with 2 weeks. After this, the flavour may begin to deteriorate.

Can I leave out the egg white?

You can by all means leave out the egg white. Doing so will make this a vegan blackcurrant sorbet.

The egg white is there to keep the sorbet soft and scoopable straight from the freezer, so expect the vegan version to be slightly firmer.

Of course, adding a tablespoon of gin in place of the egg white is another option, since alcohol helps keep sorbets soft too, by lowering the freezing point of the syrup base.

Just resist the urge to add more, since too much alcohol can prevent a sorbet from setting at all.

My Sorbet didn't set, what can I do?

Just occasionally I run into problems making a fruity sorbet even when I have followed the recipe measures exactly.

Why? Fruit contains natural sugar and this can vary. There is also no way for me to know the sugar content of each batch of fruit.

A sorbet will freeze too hard if there is not enough sugar present but it also will not free at all if there is too much sugar.

Luckily, there is a way to rescue sorbet that will not set - add more water to the liquid and try the churning process again.

More frozen treats to tempt you:

• Mango & Cherry Popsicles - fun on a stick, with no added sugar
• Spiced & Roasted Pineapple Ice Cream - creamy, tropical and downright delicious
• Limoncello Lemon Sorbet with Mint - another great recipe for summer
• Boozy Clove & Orange Ice Cream - great for the cooler months when an ice cream craving hits