THE BEST VANILLA-LEMON SORBET

The Best Vanilla-Lemon Sorbet image

I guarantee you that if you love lemon sorbet, you'll love this one, and you'll keep making it! It is so easy to make. In fact, you can start it in the mid afternoon and have beautiful refreshing sorbet for dessert that night! This recipe can be made with an icecream maker, but you don't need one (I have one, but don't use it for this recipe).

Provided by Stew-It

Categories Frozen Desserts

Time 3h45m

Yield 8 serving(s)

Number Of Ingredients 6

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Ingredients

1/2 cup water
1 vanilla bean
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup lemon juice, strained
1 cup cold water
3 egg whites

Steps:

Open vanilla bean (use a sharp knife to halve it).
Place first 1/2 cup water in pot along with the vanilla bean.
Bring to the boil, then add sugar.
Stir sugar until dissolved.
Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove vanilla bean and using knife scrape seeds into sugar syrup.
Remove sugar syrup from heat and add cold water.
Pour into large bowl and place in freezer for 5 minutes.
Add juice to bowl and put back in freezer.
Every 30 minutes, remove bowl and, using a fork, stir - break up any ice that is forming. You are trying to get a "slushy" consistency.
Once thickened, take 3 egg whites, a beat in a bowl until peaks can be made.
Fold beaten egg whites through slushy mixture.
Return to freezer.
Every 20 minutes, run fork through mixture to break up ice.
When the mixture is completely frozen it is ready to eat. In my freezer, this is around 3 hours.
I serve this in a chilled bowl either by itself, or with a small amount of reduced raspberries (1/2 cup raspberries, 1 tbs sugar, 1/4 cup water boiled for 10 minutes, then refrigerated) drizzled over the top.
You can also add a small amount of dry white white if you like. I've made this with some sparkling white and it was very nice. Other variations include orange sorbet with cointreau, kiwi fruit and Midori melon liquour. The combinations are endless!
Update: I made this again and instead of folding by hand, I used a hand held electric mixer on the 'fold' setting, and used this to break the ice up, and to fold the egg whites through. Doing this a few times, I found that the appearance looked a lot closer to commercial sorbet, and it made it a lot smoother to eat. Definately recommend trying the electric mixer for better results!