Sorbet

Don’t skip the vodka. It will give the sorbet a smoother, less icy texture.

The most refreshing treat of summer is just a few ingredients away.

As any Disney Park fanatic can tell you, it’s not a visit to the Magic Kingdom without a helping of this tropical, dairy-free, soft-serve–like dessert. Now you can make magic at home.

Who needs cranberries when you can have pomegranate juice?

At Selamat Pagi, our Balinese restaurant, lime, ginger, and lemongrass are mainstay ingredients, appearing in many dishes. We were thinking about making a sorbet that reflected some of these ingredients and wondered what would happen if we threw all of them together. Our initial taste transported us back to the lush green hills of Bali, after which we were all too disappointed to find ourselves standing in our test kitchen. Along with lemon sorbet, this might be our go-to refreshment when we desperately need to cool off.

These frozen treats are also super cute made with orange rinds, and work with any flavor sorbet or sherbet you fancy.

It doesn't come out of a soft-serve machine, and you can't twist it, but our version of fro-yo wins at everything else.

Rosemary, both herbal and floral, elevates the flavor of the Concord grape, while black pepper adds spiciness.

Greetings, comrade. This quasirevolutionary sorbetto is so bone-chillingly good that there'll never need to be another cold war. It's one of the flavors we were developing for our "Dictators of Cool" collection, which included our old favorites Adolf Hitler (The Great Licktator), Colonel Gaddafi (Cone El Gaddafi), and David Cameron (Fake 99, after a British ice cream cone).

Don't worry about getting too much color on your pears—they will gain more caramel flavor the darker they go. This unusual dessert is a play on flavors—savory alongside sweet—and textures.

This refreshing dessert from Epicurious member Danita Sam Lai of Los Angeles is a crisp, delicious treat. Limoncello and Grand Marnier are optional but recommended, as the alcohol imparts a pleasing softness to the finished sorbet. Keep in mind that alcohol slows the freezing process, so freeze overnight before serving—unless you’re one of the many folks who likes a slightly slushier sorbet, in which case a few hours in the freezer will do nicely.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other dessert classics, check out the videos.

Because no two batches of fruit have the same sweetness, it’s important to adjust the mix before freezing. This will affect more than flavor because sugar lowers the freezing point of water; so the sweeter your mix, the slushier your sorbet. Too little sugar and the sorbet will be icy hard. Some chefs use a saccharometer (which gauges a liquid’s density by how much of the instrument floats above the surface), but a large uncooked egg stands in quite well (see step 4). Watermelon is one of the simplest flavors to make, since it requires no added water. Follow the amounts in the chart on page 485 to make the suggested flavor variations. When using only juice, you can skip the first step. Citrus fruit can be squeezed by hand. For the kiwi and pineapple sorbets, you will need to add fresh lime or lemon juice along with water in the first step. All liquids should be strained into a deep bowl or plastic container as directed. If desired, add up to 3 tablespoons of other flavorings such as liqueur before adding the simple syrup.