Watermelon Sorbet

I may be slightly obsessed with making ice cream right now.... I can't stop and I won't stop. The weather in LA has been hellishly brutal and the only way I have been able to deal has been in front of the kitchen AC unit, elbows deep in cream and sugar.

This summer, making ice cream has become to me what pie baking is in the winter. I don't always succeed, but it is an absolute necessity. Also, like pie, the sugary bastard has a way of sticking around a little longer than it is welcome if you know what I mean. If you don't know what I mean.... I mean on my ass. Ugh. So, today, rather than painfully putting the delicious strawberry-buttermilk ice cream that I was about to make directly into the freezer with out any guilty spoonfuls, I decided to try something a little different and lot healthier.

*please note that when I say healthy.... I am talking in relative terms here. There is still sugar in this recipe. I am not God. 

I am not the biggest fan of sorbet. To me it is the less smooth and much less creamy distant cousin to my very close friend, ice cream. But, my ass and I decided that giving sorbet another shot probably wasn't the worst idea for us. Since eating watermelon with a spoon (seriously....cut it in half, grab a spoon, and watch your life change) has recently become one of my favorite past-times, I decided to start there. If I had known sorbet is quite possibly the easiest thing on the planet to make, maybe I would have started getting to know this side of frozen treats a little bit sooner. But, I will live with no regrets and start now!


Watermelon Sorbet

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups of watermelon puree
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lime juice
Fresh mint


Method:
Puree the watermelon. Cut watermelon into chunks, put it in a blender and turn the blender on. That is all you do. If you are feeling crazy, make some extra. It's juice and it's delicious. If you're feeling like I usually do on a saturday... make a cocktail with it. Back to the sorbet......

In a small saucepan, bring ½ cup watermelon puree and the sugar to a simmer and remove it from the heat. Add the lime juice and zest and allow the mixture to cool for 20 minutes. Add the 4 cups fresh watermelon puree to the melon-lime mixture, and then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. 

You can also pour the watermelon mixture into a shallow metal pan and freeze until ice crystals form around the edges, about 30 minutes. Stir the ice crystals into the center of the pan and return to the freezer; repeat every 20 minutes until all the liquid is frozen.

**Next time I make this (which will probably be this afternoon because I am a fat kid) I will most definitely add fresh mint into the sorbet, not just on top. When you puree the watermelon in the blender, add a few springs of mint for ann extra refreshing treat!