At Christmastime, I got a nice card in the mail from my Auntie Alice, or A. A. as my family calls her. In it, she wrote, “Love your blog, but you don’t do it often enough!” She’s right. I’ve been a terribly infrequent blogger as of late. This one’s for Auntie Alice!
I recently became the proud owner of a new KitchenAid stand mixer attachment: an ice cream maker. I had my eye on the attachment for a while, but I pretty much talked myself out of buying it for two reasons: 1) I am outgrowing my apartment (especially my kitchen) and have very little room for anything else and 2) the self-realization that I really should not start a habit of consuming ice cream on a regular basis. But on Christmas morning, I found myself unwrapping first an ice cream scooper and immediately realized what that last unopened present had to be. It turns out that during one of my chats with my Aunt April, I mentioned that I had considered buying an ice cream maker, and because I wouldn’t give her ideas of anything I wanted for Christmas (I really didn’t “need” anything), she and my Uncle Tom decided the ice cream maker is what I was going to get, and I honestly couldn’t have been happier to receive the gift. But I made a pact with myself: I would make mostly sorbets and try to stay away from the full-fat ice creams.
Today was one of those Saturdays on which, by design, I didn’t have a thing to do or a place to be other than at home, relaxing. I wanted to use my new ice cream maker but didn’t want to have to run out to buy anything, so I did a quick survey of my refrigerator and freezer and came up with a half pint of fresh strawberries, a half pint of fresh blackberries, and a whole bag of frozen strawberries. Strawberry and blackberry sorbet? Yes, please.
I took the strawberries out of the freezer to defrost, and then I made a simple syrup (½ c. sugar and ½ c. water) on the stove top. After the syrup cooled, I threw it, along with the defrosted strawberries, fresh strawberries, and blackberries, into the food processor and pureed until completely smooth. At this point, I debated whether to push the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds, but I decided that a little texture would be welcomed in the sorbet.
This is where things get a little interesting: when everything was in the food processor, I had this epiphany that I would add goat cheese to the mixture. I had about 4 or 5 ounces of goat cheese (with honey added) from Trader Joe’s in my refrigerator and thought, why not? I love goat cheese, and I love goat cheese with berries, so it seemed like a no-brainer. I guess my only question is whether the addition of a dairy product to a sorbet technically makes it a sherbet rather than a sorbet? I’m hoping a serious foodie can clear this up for me.
So into the ice cream maker this strawberry/blackberry/honey goat cheese this mixture went, and 10 minutes later, I had a beautiful, soft, frozen concoction that I put into an air-tight plastic container and into the freezer to firm up.
The sorbet was a success – the goat cheese subtly cut through the sweetness of the berries and sugar and gave the sorbet a nice tangy aftertaste. Absolutely delicious!
I’m really excited about what my next frozen creation will be. I’m thinking of something fudgy and peanut buttery, er, I mean something light and fruity and low-fat. Sigh.
