Sorbet

Another pure product, this sorbetto consists of nothing but coconut milk and sweeteners. My favorite way to eat it is alongside Chocolate Sorbetto (facing page), or with Hot Fudge Sauce (page 316) and toasted almonds, so it’s like the frozen dessert version of an Almond Joy candy bar.

This deep, dark chocolate sorbetto is so rich and thick, it’s hard to believe there is no dairy in it. There is so much chocolate in it that, while it’s smooth and delicious straight out of the maker, if you let it sit in the freezer for more than an hour or so, it becomes so hard you’d have to use a chisel to get a bite. Cacao nibs are the dry, toasted pieces of cacao beans left after the husks have been removed. I like them for the crunch and the bitter cocoa flavor they add. Cacao nibs are available in the baking section of specialty markets and from online sources, but if you can’t find them, your sorbetto will still be good plain and smooth.

Use red-fleshed papayas, such as Sunrise Solo or Maradol. Be sure to ask your grocer which ones will have flesh with a rosy hue since a papaya’s skin and shape may not be a good indication of its interior color.

This sorbet gets its intense purple hue from Concord grapes, which have a deep blue-black skin. The longer you process it in the ice-cream maker, the lighter and fluffier your final product will be. Sugar cones are ideal containers for serving the sorbet al fresco.

When the bananas on your counter start to freckle, it’s time to make sorbet!

After a year of 80-hour workweeks cooking in France, I moved to Boston, where I worked a very civilized 40 hours a week. With so much free time on my hands, I focused my attention that summer on making ice cream sandwiches. I sandwiched lemon ice cream with gingersnaps, coconut ice cream with macadamia nut tuiles, and mint ice cream with chocolate chunk cookies. My friends and neighbors could hardly keep up with the frozen cookie–ice cream combos that filled my freezer. Many summers later at Lucques, local farmer James Birch delivered several unexpected crates of his delicious Santa Rosa plums. We were drowning in summer fruit at the time, and I couldn’t imagine what on earth we were going to do with those extra plums. I remembered that hot Boston summer and decided to purée the plums into a sorbet and sandwich them between chewy molasses cookies. If it’s a truly lazy summer day, you can skip the sandwiching step and serve the sorbet in bowls with the cookies on the side.

A little sweet with just the right amount of sour. We love this sorbet sandwiched between Chocolate Walnut Meringues (page 135).

Lighter than a custard-based ice cream, Chef Rob Wilson’s sorbet makes a refreshing accompaniment to summer berries, grilled peaches, or baked fruit desserts. Or scoop the sorbet into compote dishes and accompany with his Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies (page 185).

Napa spice merchant Shuli Madmone has introduced many fascinating seasonings to our kitchen, including the dried rose petals we use in this sorbet. His shop, Whole Spice (see page 126), is a playground for adventuresome cooks, and in recent years, he has brought a collection of exotic seasonings to the Workshop. We grind the dried rose petals fine with sugar, then use that fragrant mixture to sweeten a sparkling wine sorbet.

GOOD TO KNOW There are few good no-fat options for dessert, but sorbet is among them, and it’s definitely one of the most refreshing. It is also simple to prepare at home, and with less sugar than store-bought varieties. You can experiment with other types of fruit juices, alone or in combination, following the formula below.

Like raspberries and chocolate, pomegranate and chocolate make a very sexy couple, and they give this sorbet a little more body and interest than your basic fruit flavors. Its sweet-tart flavor is refreshing on a hot day, and the mint syrup has a real cooling effect.

If you have an ice cream machine, this is one of the fastest, easiest, most satisfying desserts you can make.

A special combination, decidedly Asian. Use fresh ginger if at all possible.

Like most sorbet recipes, this one is infinitely easier to make if you have an ice cream machine. The key is to serve it as soon as you can after making it—it does not keep well and in fact is best the day it is made—and, if necessary, “warming” it slightly in the refrigerator before serving.

The city of Oaxaca has some of the best frozen treats in Mexico, despite the fact it isn’t located right near the coast. This particular recipe is adapted from one given to me by Dinorah Allende, a beautiful woman who owns Chagüita, a delicious nevería that has been around for five generations. Be sure to buy culinary-grade rose petals from a trusted source that doesn’t use any pesticides or chemicals (the smaller petals have the most intense flavor), and get the highest-quality milk possible.

Tamarind, a tropical fruit native to Asia, looks sort of like a brown fava bean with a hard tan shell that surrounds a sticky, meaty brown flesh. The fruit is often mixed with chile, and I found more than three dozen different candies made from it. Tamarind sorbet has a seductive tartness that comes through in this smooth nieve.

If you’ve ever visited Oaxaca, my favorite state in all of Mexico, undoubtedly you have seen people walking around with cones or cups filled with fluorescent green sorbet. I try to stay away from colorings, especially when it comes to fruit preparations, but if you can get past the scary color, you’ll discover a surprisingly refreshing flavor. The color may not be subtle, but the flavor is, and lime is one of the most popular flavors in Oaxaca. Try to select very green small limes, because they tend to have the best flavor. Be sure to wash and dry them very well. Although the original recipe doesn’t call for fresh lime juice, I find that a little bit balances the sweetness of the sorbet and adds another layer of flavor.