Fresh Strawberry Sorbet Recipe

Summer strawberries are the star of this refreshing, homemade Fresh Strawberry Sorbet Recipe. Super easy to make and dairy free!

My daughter texted me in all caps. STRAWBERRY SORBET IS THE BEST THING EVER! She was with a friend up in the mountains and they had stopped by an ice cream shop. My daughter has never had real ice cream, because she is allergic to dairy. And she hasn’t been in love with the dairy alternative ice creams available. But a whole new world opened up to her on that day when she first had a strawberry sorbet.

Since then, she has been begging me to make it at home. I finally did, and she said it was even better than what she had at the ice cream shop!

What is in a Sorbet?

Sorbet is a very simple combination of fruit (or fruit flavoring) and sweetened water. (Typically, water and sugar are boiled together to make a simple syrup). Sometimes corn syrup is added to improve the texture and make it more smooth.

How to Make Strawberry Sorbet

As with most sorbets, you’ll want to boil your water and sugar together first to give it time to cool. For this recipe, you’ll need one cup of water and one cup a sugar. Simply bring the combination to a boil on the stove, and then reduce the heat and simmer (without stirring) until the sugar is completely dissolved. Then pour it into a bowl and let it cool completely.

While the simple syrup is cooling, you’re going to add about four cups of strawberries (one quart) to a blender. I highly suggest a high-powered blender, like a Blendtec or Vitamix. This will really help pulverize the strawberry seeds. If you use a regular blender, the seeds will remain, and you will need to decide whether to strain them or not.

To the blender you’ll add 4 tablespoons of fresh lemon or lime juice. Pulse the blender to chop up the strawberries, then turn up the speed and process until the strawberries are completely pureed. If you want to strain the seeds, pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve over a large bowl. At first, I tried straining the mixture, but no seeds were appearing because they had all been pulverized!

Pour the strawberry mixture into a large bowl and then add the cooled simple syrup and 1/4 cup of corn syrup.

Mix well and then chill for at least an hour. When you bring it out of the fridge just before adding to your ice cream maker, there should be no separation. It should be a consistent color, like in the picture below. (If you have opted not to use corn syrup, your mixture will probably have separated. Just stir it up again. No big deal!)

Pour it all into your ice cream maker. (I recommend the Cuisinart ICE-21 1.5 Quart Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream Maker. For comparisons with other ice cream makers, read Which Ice Cream Maker is the Best?)

Churn 20-30 minutes. When mine started to overflow, I knew it was done 🙂 But generally speaking, you want the sorbet to reach soft-serve consistency. You don’t have to wait for it to overflow 🙂

Transfer into an airtight container and freeze for several hours or overnight. If you can wait that long 🙂

 

Can You Make Strawberry Sorbet Without Sugar?

I know and you know that sugar is bad. So can you make Strawberry Sorbet without sugar? The short answer is no. You can possibly omit the corn syrup, but sugar is a must. Sugar acts as an anti-freezing agent (chemically). If you try to use any other type of artificial sweetener, you will get sorbet that is hard as a rock (with Stevia) or that never sets up (with xylitol). You can read more about this in my post Can You Make Ice Cream Without Sugar?

This recipe for Fresh Strawberry Sorbet comes from the Cuisinart Instruction and Recipe Booklet that accompanies the Cuisinart ICE-21 1.5 Quart Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream Maker.

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