We had bumper crops in Citrus this year as previously explained. We eat our Citrus daily and juice it for breakfast and give it away, but we still had too much.
One of our sons who is an excellent cook has a Sorbet/Ice cream maker but some of us never really liked a lot of the recipes (especially when he had a vegan girlfriend). But, we got to talking one night about the old ice cream bars which were orange Popsicles with vanilla ice cream inside. With this idea, which wasn’t new at all, we thought we could juice the Citrus use a Sorbet recipe but then add some cream to make it a sherbet and see how it turned out.
First, we did Orange, and it was exquisite.
Orange Sherbet Recipe:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
Boil both and let cool down in frig
2 cups fresh squeezed orange juice (about 6 oranges)
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 cup cream
Combine everything and chill
Add to Ice Cream Maker per manufacturer’s instructions
Then, we did Lemon, it was superior, but probably needs more cream and/or less zest as the almost brilliant taste of the fresh fruit is powerful.
Lemon Sherbet Recipe:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar (we are arguing whether we need more)
Boil both and let cool down in frig
1 cups fresh squeezed orange juice (about 4 lemons)
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup cream (there is a vote for another 1/4 cup)
Combine everything and chill
Add to Ice Cream Maker per manufacturer’s instructions
Third was the real surprise. We always have a massive excess of excellent Grapefruit. Some of us have come to prefer it for morning juice versus the Oranges which are just too sweet. In the Sherbet, it takes one by surprise and then takes over. It was just excellent. A real keeper.
Grapefruit Sherbet Recipe:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
Boil both and let cool down in frig
2 cups fresh squeezed grapefruit juice (about 4 grapefruits)
(no zest)
1/2 cup cream
Combine everything and chill
Add to Ice Cream Maker per manufacturer’s instructions
The net of all these activities is that store bought ice cream just sort of went away. Though store bought cheap ice cream is cheap, another $2 a week went away in exchange for the cream and a wonderful home grown experience to make and to enjoy.
Now, we just have to figure out how to convert the ice cream savings into renewable energy.
