Refreshing Italian Ices
After we discovered the extent of dairy allergies in our family (Chris, Olivia, Ben and Leo), I basically gave up making ice cream. I mean, why bother? After our wonderful trip to Italy and sampling the dazzling array of sorbetto offerings I was inspired. This last weekend I experimented with and created two absolutely dairy free and delicious sorbetto or Italian ice (if you'd rather) recipes. The tart cherry recipe ended up tasting almost exactly like one of the sorbettos we tried in Rome.
Citrus Italian Ice
2 cups juice of any variety citrus (I used 8 lemons, 2 limes, and 2 oranges)
2 TBSP zest from either lemons or oranges *
1 cup sugar
4 cups sparkling water
In a sauce pan, heat citrus juice, zest and sugar just until sugar dissolves. Add the sparkling water and refrigerate until cold. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions. Pour ice into a shallow casserole dish and freeze until firm. Alternately, you may poor the cooled liquid into a shallow casserole dish and freeze, stirring and then scraping the ice every half hour until it is the consistency to serve.
*Lime zest can become quite bitter if cooked, so I don't use it in this recipe.
Tart Cherry Sorbetto
2 cans tart pie cherries*
32 ounces all natural tart cherry juice
1 cup sugar
In a blender, blend the whole cherries until pureed. In a sauce pan, heat the juice and sugar until the sugar has just dissolved. Add the pureed cherries and place in the refrigerator until cool. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions. Pour ice into a shallow casserole dish and freeze until firm. Alternately, you may poor the cooled liquid into a shallow casserole dish and freeze, stirring and then scraping the ice every half hour until it is the consistency to serve.
*Do not use cherry pie filling and do not drain the cherries before pureeing in the blender.
Citrus Italian Ice
2 cups juice of any variety citrus (I used 8 lemons, 2 limes, and 2 oranges)
2 TBSP zest from either lemons or oranges *
1 cup sugar
4 cups sparkling water
In a sauce pan, heat citrus juice, zest and sugar just until sugar dissolves. Add the sparkling water and refrigerate until cold. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions. Pour ice into a shallow casserole dish and freeze until firm. Alternately, you may poor the cooled liquid into a shallow casserole dish and freeze, stirring and then scraping the ice every half hour until it is the consistency to serve.
*Lime zest can become quite bitter if cooked, so I don't use it in this recipe.
This is the mixture of juice, zest, and sugar. If you don't like bits of zest in your ice, you may strain it through a fine mesh strainer before adding the sparkling water. We like the bits of zest.
We invested in a Sodastream last summer and have not regretted the purchase. It gets a daily workout. We don't even make sweet sodas. We all just like to add a little lemon and lime juice and serve it over ice. The girls even make virgin mojitos by adding several macerated mint leaves.
Finished Citrus Ice
Tart Cherry Sorbetto
2 cans tart pie cherries*
32 ounces all natural tart cherry juice
1 cup sugar
In a blender, blend the whole cherries until pureed. In a sauce pan, heat the juice and sugar until the sugar has just dissolved. Add the pureed cherries and place in the refrigerator until cool. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions. Pour ice into a shallow casserole dish and freeze until firm. Alternately, you may poor the cooled liquid into a shallow casserole dish and freeze, stirring and then scraping the ice every half hour until it is the consistency to serve.
*Do not use cherry pie filling and do not drain the cherries before pureeing in the blender.
I found this Just Tart Cherry juice in the commissary. It really gives this sorbetto that extra little tart cherry kick.
Finished Tart Cherry Sorbetto
The wonderful thing about these ices is they are so very simple and contain very few ingredients. They are incredibly refreshing and you can indulge practically guilt free.
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