Recipe 20 - Simple Cherry Sorbet

I finally bought a copy of David Lebovitz' Ready for Dessert and I could not wait for us to make something from it. I became a huge fan of Lebovitz when we made his Fresh Ginger Cake last month.

One of Lebovitz' specialties is frozen desserts, but there's no room in my tiny apartment for an ice cream machine, so I honed in on a recipe that doesn't require one. I am so hopeful that he can find fresh cherries in England. They're all over the place here, and I've been eating them a lot lately. Seasonality here versus there can be problematic.

I halved the recipe.

Simple Cherry Sorbet

Makes about 1.5 cups (375ml)

Ingredients

2 cups (.75 pounds/340 g) sweet cherries, stemmed and pitted

.25 cup (50 g) sugar

.5 cup (125 ml) water

.5 tablespoons lemon juice

a drop of almond extract

.5 tablespoons kitsch (optional)

In a large skillet or saucepan, combine the cherries, sugar, water, and lemon juice and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cherries have softened and released their juices, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the almond extract and kirsch, if using. Let cool completely.

Transfer the cherries and their syrup to a shallow container, cover, and freeze until firm, at least two hours.

Once the cherry mixture has frozen completely, remove it from the freezer, break it up, and process it in a food processor fitted with the metal blade until completely smooth.

Serve right away.

Storage: Once sorbet is processed, you can return it to the freezer until ready to serve.