Recipe: Lemon Vodka Sorbet (ice cream machine)

LEMON VODKA SORBET

" I started by making the lemon sorbet from Cook's Illustrated. They claim that it is a sorbet that can be put together, frozen, and eaten quickly because they don't make a cooked syrup that needs to cool before freezing. I made the sorbet and tasted it. It was awful so I decided to make the lemon sorbet in Julia Child's The Way to Cook. I've made her orange sorbet before and liked it very much. Julia makes a cooked syrup. I made the syrup and cooled it overnight. After work the next day, I froze the Julia Child sorbet. (Actually Jack froze it while I continued cooking.) I tasted it. It was pretty good. I pulled the Cook's Illustrated sorbet from the freezer so we could do a side by side tasting. For some reason, the Cook's Illustrated sorbet had developed a much improved flavor during its 24 hours in the freezer. This makes no sense to me, but there you have it. In the end, I served the Cook's Illustrated sorbet. Here is the recipe:"

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh-squeezed juice
1 1/2 cup cups cold water
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vodka

1. Prepare fruit juice. Combine fruit juice, sugar, and alcohol in large bowl. Stir on and off for several minutes until sugar has dissolved. (To speed the chilling process in step 3, combine ingredients in a metal bowl set over a larger bowl filled with ice water.) [I did not do the double bowl thing.] Rub finger along bottom of bowl to see if sugar has dissolved.

2. Pour mixture into small container. Seal and refrigerate until mixture is no more than 40 degrees F. (If mixture has been stirred over a bowl of ice water, it may already be cold enough, and this step may be omitted.)

4. Pour chilled mixture into container of an ice cream machine and churn until frozen. Scoop frozen sorbet into a container. Seal and transfer container to freezer for several hours to allow sorbet to firm up. (Sorbet can be kept frozen for up to 3 days.)

Source: rec.food.cooking, Jack and Kay Hartman