Spiced Plum Sorbet

If you're part of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), chances are you have some plums sitting on your counter or you're about to get some in your next box. My friend Jack and his family are part of a CSA and happened to get more plums then they could eat. He asked me if I'd like some and I said, "No."

Psych!

Me??

Turn down free produce???

Of course I said yes. I dreamed of making a clafoutis or a galette or a plum cake...but Jack warned me the plums were really ripe. And he was right. They were so ripe, the skins nearly burst when touched.

I figured they'd be too juicy for a baked recipe, so I decided to make sorbet. This is my little poem I say to myself to remember how to make sorbet: 4 cups of fruit, sweeten as I like, a spoonful of hard liquor to keep it soft, and I'm on my way to sorbet.

It's cheesy, I know, but I haven't needed to go to a recipe book yet!

So, I had about 2 1/2 cups of plums, so I grabbed a peach and some sweet black grapes to make four cups of fruit. If you have four cups of plums, I'm sure this sorbet would taste even better.

The sugar can be adjusted according to the sweetness of the fruit. Since these plums were super ripe and sweet, 1/4 cup of sugar was plenty for me. You may want more or less depending on your fruit. You could also use a no calorie sweetener to lower the calorie content. I'm getting freaked out about the chemicals and things in no calorie sweeteners, so I'm avoiding them and going with the real thing.

The alcohol makes the sorbet smooth and "scoopable" instead of hard and icy (each serving ends up with around 1/4 tsp alcohol). I don't typically have alcohol in my house, but I happened to have rum left over from a stolen I made at Christmas, so that's what I used. Brandy, Grand Marnier, whatever liquor you have should work. You can omit it, but just know that you'll have to scrape your sorbet instead of scoop it.

When it comes to ice cream makers, I use the Cuisinart 1-1/2-Quart Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream, Sorbet Maker. It's around $55 and a total no brainer to use: freeze the canister, put the frozen canister on the base, put the paddle inside, cover goes on top, turn it on, pour the mix into the assembled machine, and there's a frozen treat 20 minutes later. Seriously, if you can work a blender, you can do this.

This sorbet is sweet, spicy, and tastes like Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, to me. If you've never been to Colonial Williamsburg, imagine a place where the scent of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, lavender, and lemon fill the air.

Enjoy!






. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Spiced Plum Sorbet

2 1/2 cups plums, pitted
1 peach, pitted (approximately 1/2 cup)
1 cup black grapes
1 tsp real vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1 Tbls rum


Place the fruit in a blender and puree until smooth. Push the fruit puree through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl and discard the fruit skins left behind in the sieve.

Stir the vanilla extract, sugar, and spices into the puree.

Stir in the rum.

Pour into an ice cream machine and churn for 20-25 minutes.

Place sorbet in a quart container and freeze at least two hours or more to firm up before serving.



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Serves: 6 | Serving Size: 1/2 cup
Calories: 88  |  Fat: .4  |  Carbs: 23  |  Fiber: 1.7  |  Protein: 1.2

{3 Points+ counting fruit; 1 Points+ not counting fruit}