We attended a wedding last weekend and lemon sorbet was served as an intermezzo before the main course. I thought the sorbet was ridiculously good and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. I found a recipe in The Perfect Scoop and since I had a few lemons sitting around, I made 1/2 of the recipe this week. It couldn’t have been easier. First, you make a simple syrup which is infused with lemon zest and then you chill the simple syrup, combine it with freshly squeezed lemon juice and freeze it in your ice cream maker.
The final result was an incredibly light and refreshing dessert. I loved the little yellow specks of lemon zest that were visible in the sorbet. I did add the extra 1/4 cup of sugar David Lebovitz recommends if you prefer a sweeter sorbet, and I found the sweetness right on. It probably would have been a bit too tangy for me with only 1 cup of sugar. I’ll definitely be making this again throughout the summer, especially when the sweltering temperatures arrive!
Lemon Sorbet
from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar (if you prefer a sweeter sorbet, increase the sugar to 1 1/4 cups)
2 lemons
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
In a medium saucepan, combine 1/2 cup of the water and the sugar. Grate the zest of 2 lemons directly into the sauce. Heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining 2 cups of water, then chill thoroughly in the refrigerator.
Stir the lemon juice into the chilled sugar syrup, then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker.
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i too love it when you make something yourself and see little bits or flecks or seeds that you never get from store-bought stuff. food should look more like real food.
I love lemons!!! I cant wait to try this one!
this sorbet looks so good!
Let’s see, I have lemons, I have sugar so I must make this tonight!! It looks and sounds so refreshing, and we’re having our first 80 degree day in ages (it’s been unseasonably cold here) so it will be PERFECT! Thanks, Tracey!
lemon sorbet is my daughter in law’s favorite! I’ll take this recipe to make for her when i’m not holding the babies.
I’m definitely going to try this! I might not use fresh lemon juice (lemons are expensive in Japan) but I will at least buy one or two to get the zest.
This sounds like a lovely palate cleanser! It looks delicious!
Oh!! This rocks. And such a pretty photo of the sorbet!
That looks beautiful. I often forget how great sorbets are to make.
Looks beautiful and perfect for a summer day…now if it would only get sunny and warm in the northeast!
Yes – lemon sorbet is perfect, especially this time of year.
I haven’t reached that recipe yet (from the book), but I certainly am looking forward to making it!
Did you let your good Twitter buddies know that you were going in on the lemon sorbet? No, you did not…LOL. Lemon anything is my favorite, I would have joined you in a heartbeat! Next time, let’s not be keeping these kinds of secrets, okay? Looks delicious!
I make lemon granita fairly regulary, but not sorbet for whatever reason :). This looks delicious!
This looks lite and refreshing!
I love sorbet and this look wonderful!
I made this one a couple months ago, thanks for the reminder of how great it is!
Thanks for posting this recipe. I can’t wait to try it. Lemon sorbet is so refresing this time of year.
Oh, how I love lemons!! This sounds luscious and so good. I really need to spend some time with that book.
That looks and sounds fabulous! I love anything lemon. I bet this would be very refreshing with the ridiculously hot weather we’ve been having around here.
Lemon sorbet?! WOW.
I love sorbets and really need to make them more often. Your lemon sorbet looks perfect. Perfect for the summer. YUM.
The sorbet looks great 🙂 I love the little specks of lemon!
Yum! It’s already sweltering weather here. I will have to try this with my new ice cream maker. It’s gotten quite a workout over the last week!
No ice cream maker? I got a whole bag of lemons in Dubai for $2 and searched the Net for procedures and recipes, made my own based on Marc Ventri’s use of syrup to make it fluffy. It is delicious, with good colour!!:
300 ml water, 75g sugar, 75g Lyle’s Golden Syrup, zest and juice from 2 lemons (about 1/3 cup), 5 mint leaves. Boil the water, sugar, and syrup 5 mins, add the zest and crushed mint leaves, and pop in the freezer to cool. Add the juice and strain, freeze in the tall container that comes with the immersion blender. Guess what? Know how you’re supposed to stir it every 2 hours? I totally forgot it! 12 hours later, I found it was creamy like ice cream…immersion blended it, and it was smooth like gelato, not grainy like granita. WOW Next time I’ll add a knob of ginger and a slurp of Limoncello.
it’s 95 degrees F in Wisconsin and I am currently hiding from the outdoors since its so hot. So of course I’m making this lemon sorbet right this second to cool down a bit! Thanks for helping me beat the heat 😉
Do you really mean freeze in your ice cream maker? I’m thinking you mean follow the directions for making sorbet in your ice cream maker, right? Mine is a bowl that’s an attachment to my Kitchen Aid, so I would need to follow the directions to make sorbet in it right, not just stick the bowl in the freezer?