I am excited for the warm weather because that means that I can bring out my trusty ice cream maker more! After our recent Costco trip we had a lot of lemons and I decided to whip up some lemon sorbet with a recipe I found at the kitchn. I like this recipe because it only has three ingredients: lemons, sugar, and water. The only thing that I changed was to add a couple of pinches of salt.
I was a little impatient for it to fully freeze and my husband actually likes more “slushee” style treats so I figured I would just eat it in its yummy semi-melted state. For some reason my son really likes lemons and kept on licking the peels as I cut them off. It was so cute! He kept saying, “Mmmm… Sour lemons. Yum!”
Man, oh man, he is a funny kid. He knows they are sour but he likes it for some reason. When he realized that I was going to be making lemon juice he demanded to help. I was a little apprehensive about letting him use the grater because it is really sharp, but I stayed right there to supervise him and he did a really good job being careful.
After getting a little bit of lemon zest, it was time to peel the lemons. I just took a knife and cut off the peels until they looked like this:
There are a lot of ways to juice a lemon, but I’ve found that for me the most effective way is actually to use my Omega J8006 masticating juicer that we use to make all sorts of green juices and other yummy drinks. If you use this type of juicer, though, make sure to remove the seeds because they will make your juice pretty bitter… The Omega is so effective that it even processes the lemon seeds. Yeah. It’s intense. I love that about it, though. It’s a great juicer and surprisingly easy to clean! Jack loves juicing and totally knows what to do.
This is my trusty Cuisinart ice cream maker. I picked it up from Costco a few years ago and it is still going strong. I always keep the bowl in my garage freezer so that it is ready to go whenever I need it. If you don’t keep it frozen, it takes quite a long time (overnight or longer) to get it frozen enough to use.
I definitely recommend making some easy summer lemon sorbet. It’s tasty and very refreshing. And best of all I got to use up my overstock of lemons!
Here is the recipe for this good stuff, care of thekitchn.com:
- 1¾ cups water
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups fresh lemon juice
- 1 to 2 Tablespoons lemon zest
- a couple pinches of salt
- Combine the water and sugar into a pot over medium heat. Cook until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool.
- Add the juice and lemon zest to the sugar mixture.
- Churn in an ice cream maker using the manufacturer's instructions.
- Transfer into a freezer safe container and freeze until it solidifies. (Or enjoy it as a slushy :D)
